Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-10-16
The "StOckbridse" Manures.

The StOckbridse" Manures.
Some of our readers will perhaps recall
an article upon these fertilizers, which ap'
peared in these columns some two years
since, in which we spoke of them as com
pounded upon principle which no intelh-
gent farmer could approve. The principle
upon which they are made is to supply a com
plete fertilizer for every op,disregarding the
natural productive power OF the soil alto
Cether This would be wise aud scientific
only on the presumption that the soil upon
which they were to be used was practically
barren. Some oil the light and run-out
soils of the older states are really III this
condi ion, aud for such soils the Stock.
bridge manures would be suitable APP
plication, provided they were supplied at a
price that would leave the farmer fair
margin of profit. This every farmer must
decide for himself.
But upon most of the soils of Vermont
these fertilizers would be unnecessarily
costly, because our soils are usually far
from barren-that is, far from being desti
tute of plant-food of some, if not of all, the
varieties necessary for the growth of crops.
Thus, light soil may have been so cropped
as to exhaust its available potash, but it
may still be able to supply phosphoric acid
and ammonia for number of crops. Our
heavier soils may have an inexhaustible
supply of potash, sufficient, as is that of Mr..
Lawes, of Rothamstead, to grow crop OF
thirty bushels of wheat a year for an in
definite period. We are satisfied that We
have many thousand acres Of such soils III
Vermont And as regards ammonia, expe-
rience has shown that we may keep up full
supply OF that at cheap rate by blowing
down clover, or by feeding bran, shorts, or
oil-cake to our cattle.
Now it is plain that Vermont farmer
would generally be wasting his money to
buy complete fertilizer for any crop.
What he usually wants is not complete,
but a supplementary manure. If his soil
lacks phosphoric acid, he should buy bone,
or some other phosphoric fertilizer. If it
lacks potash, he can generally get it much
more cheaply, and in a more reliable aud eff
fective form, from the wood ashes that eau
be collected in his own vicinity, without the
first cost and additional transportation and
commission charges which he must pay
when he buys potash in the German salts
used for compromising under Professor
Stockbrdge's formulas.
As rule there is hardly farm in our
state that cannot be brought to very high
state of cultivation, simply by the intelli-
gent use of fertilizers that can be made or
collected at home, aud much more cheaply
than by the use of the Stockbridge or any
other formula fertilizers. 1t is truly great
waste of money, in these hard times, for
Vermont farmers to be sending to Germany
for their potash, to South Carolina for their
phosphorus, and to Peru or Chill for theil
nitrogen, when they have abundant available
resources at much cheaper rate, right al
home. Our heavy lands can grow wheat
after clover Tor the next hundred year,
WlthOuV any iOibiilHSi
Our light lands can aud will produce abun
dant crops of corn after clover, by using
ashes, and often by the use of plaster alone
to secure strong growth of clover. We
know this, because we have tried it repeat
eddy with perfect success And if there arr
objections to preceding corn with clover t.
get sufficient nitrogen, we can make GU
stable dung as strongly heterogeneous as w
wish by feeding heterogeneous food to GU
stock; or we can buy unmixed nitrate o
soda or sulphate of ammonia, two hundred
pounds of either of which, in addition t.
twenty bushels of good ashes, will give
sixty-bushel crop OF corn under any ordinar
conditions
We have the past season been experiment
ing in this direction, having an acre OF corr
three-fourths OF which was MANFRED wit
ashes and sulphate of ammonia at a cost @
$l4.00 per acre, and the other one-fourt
with the Stockbridge corn fertilizer at
cost of S24,00 per acre. 1t was all gooc
but that upon the ammonia and ashes wa
the best, at but little over half the cos
The truth was that we paid for plant foo
in the Stockbridge at too high rate, col
sidering that the potash and phosphoric aci
in the ashes, at cost of fifteen cents
bushel, was more than half cheaper tina
the same ingredients bought in German
and South Carolina, compounded in Bosto
freighted to Vermont, and thus brought
our farm loaded with half a dozen cor
missions and almost an equal number
freightages.
1t is great satisfaction to know that v
have in the Stockbridge fertilizers an hone
compound, which is and will do just VIII
it claims. There are cases in which it ms
be profitable to use them, but we are certa
that they are very rare, and glad that it
so, for If any large part of New Englar
must rely upon plant food brought to o.
shores from such long distances 10 gro
corn and other grain in competition wi
the Western prairies, we might better
once let our lands go back to the fore
again. If we cannot build up and mainta
the productive iorce OIL our land 10 we
corn and grass with which to make butt
and cheese without sending abroad, or ev
as far away as Boston, for the material wi
which to do it, then the day of Vermont
dairy state is verging close upon lo
and gloomy night.
But we can. 1t only requires an intel
gent study of our business and wise use
our resources to maintain the producti'
ness every acre at the highest pitch
which ii is or ever was capable. To do Il
we must be wide awake, " up and a-cominl
full of the resource of modern agricultr
in its best development We must 50
every drop of the liquid excrement of Q
beasts, keep our solid dung from leachi
and from fermentation, utilize our ashes a