Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1880-06-16
Cheaper Fertilizers.


land, who have heavy freight bill added
to the cost, must have frst-rate article and
have it cheap The margin of profit on the
crops made by us is very small at the best.
However desirable it may be to have some
artificial addition to our manurial resources,
there is no satisfaction in its use If the cost
is as much as the return. The question may
be considered as settled that with any of the
standard commercial fertilizers in the mar
ket good crops can be made, provided they
are intelligently used. But this only settles
half the matter The other half is just as
important. Granted that these fertilizers
will do all that their makers claim for them,
and then the problem remains" Will they
pay?"
They will not pay on any farm so long as
the natural resources in fertilizing material
which the farm and good management will
give the farmer are not fully made available.
Nobody can afford to use an ounce of any
purchased fertilizer so long as he does not
save all his manure, liquid as well as solid.
Accepting this rule, three quarters OF our
farmers are ruled out of the fertilizer market.
Yet, so far as we have observed, this is the
class that cart most of the phosphates out of
the railroad villages of Vermont.
When all the barn manure is saved, and
all the other resources of ashes, bones, muck
and what can be bought in the villages
are exhausted, we are still not entirely shut
up to the manufactured phosphates and
special fertilizers if we want larger crops
We may and ought to figure out whether
we cannot better invest in rich feeding-stuffs
than in fertilizers. 1t is no use to buy these
if we are not saving all our manure; but if
we are faithfully doing that it is legiti-
mate question to ask ourselves, and we
ought to find the true answer, as to whether
we cannot get as good Tor better) manu-
rial value out OF say $50 worth of bran or
cotton seed as out of the same money in
fertilizer. If we can, then, we shall have
the feeding value for profit. This is so
great that we may afford to halve it, setting
off one-half against au equal loss on the fer
tilizing value, and yet find it pays. That is
to say, if we buy $50 worth Of bran and get
$50 worth of manure and $50 worth of feed
out of it, that $50 is better spent so than in
a fertilizer. We may buy $50 worth of fer
tilizer to make up the $50 and still have a
profit of so. A profit of $40 is not wisely
lost for lack of careful figuring Besides
this there is choice of fertilizers, when we
come to buy them. Perhaps we may be
able to grow good clover with plaster, or
with plaster and ashes. If 50, we do not
want to buy any ammonia, nor perhaps even
an unammoniated phosphate. We have only
to grow the clover, feed it, and get manure
worth double that from ordinary grass or
hay. Or we may pillow it in and get bet
ter grain crop than can be got from liberal
application of fertilizer, costing from Sl2 to
SIS per acre. Even a good clover stubble
makes land rich enough, with few bushels
of ashes, to give good grain and potatoes
These things ought not to be forgotten
They are true, though good many farmers
do not yet believe them because they have
not tried them. They stick in the old ways
and buy fertilizers when there is no need
of it.
But suppose we have done all these things
and have got some money to spend for fer
tilizers. What shall we buy? Professor
Atwater hatters us that perhaps we can ge
along without ammonia, and thus greatly
cheaper the cost of growing corn and pc
tatoes with fertilizers, using only potast
and phosphoric acid. 1t can be done anC
has been done long time on many of GU
light soils. 1t is practically the ashes treat
ment, which does excellently for a while
and if conjoined with clover-growing on 1
large scale, may be carried on successful.
many years. Good hardwood ashes, un
leached, furnish potash, phosphoric acid, linn
and magnesia more cheaply than we cal
buy them in the cities and freight then
TO Vermont But follow it five or six year
and what do we see ? The grain rusts, ant
the potatoes rot. We get no catch Of grass
and the ground becomes messy. The Ian
cries aloud for heterogeneous food, if W
rightly understand her voice. BY the use @
clover we put this off ten or twelve year
longer, for that deep rooted plant pulls II
heterogeneous material from the sub-soil. Blu
when that source of supply gives out, wher
are we? If we buy bran or oil meal
feed, and save all our liquid as well as OF
solid manure, we fill the gap but if not "
must buy nitrogen in fertilizers. We ca
get it in Peruvian guano, in fish, in nitrat
of soda, or in sulphate OF ammonia "
have got to have it from somewhere if v
mean to raise good corn, good wheat an
oats, or good grass. We also need, and mu
have, some more abundant source of pho
phoric acid than ashes supplies us with,
order to keep the balance even. We can i
crease the percentage of this in our ash
by burning all the bones we can lay o.
hands on. We increase it in our manu-
by feeding bran. But on grass farm, {
pecially when milk, cheese or cattle are SO
off, there will be a steady if slow drain
phosphates, and they must be replaced V
want cheap source of mineral phosphoi
acid. Such we ought to have in nc
heterogeneous phosphate sold not higher tn
S25 ton. We think the makers can 81
it to us, of high grade, too, if we will ia
it and learn how to use it, The chemi
have been misleading us on this matter
the past fifteen years. They have been
sisting on too highly manufactured, that
a too highly soluble phosphate, and by tn
way of estimating values, assigning to A" &
uble phosphates double the value of
called "insoluble "or reverted" phosphat
they have compelled the manufacturers
over-manufacture their goods, thus incre
ng their cost while actually decrease
their value. This matter is getting to
well understood by both the farmers and
agricultural chemists of Europe, and II
the most acceptable phosphate fertilizers
England are those in which only about O
half as much sulphuric acid is used as fol
erly. The result is manure richer in pf
phoric acid than before, at two-thirds
cost. We can easily have this class
phosphates in New England. We have o
TO ask for them, and the makers will gla
gnpplv them,