Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1880-03-26

hoped tnat many farmers VIII md herein answe rs
to questions which they are asking Questions on
which further information is desired may be adj
dressed 10 me, aud answer will be made either in
future articles or by private communication.
NJ. H. BUcKHAM, President.
No. l.
During the past two years the State Agri-
cultural college, in cooperation with large
number of prominent farmers in the State,
has been endeavoring to get some definite
information as TO the best means for restor-
ing the fertility of our worn-out lands.
The chief reliance of the farmer for bring
ing up his land and maintaining and increas-
ing its fertility must be proper tillage aud
economical outstanding and use Of the ma
nures of the farm. But most farms do not
and many for some time to come, at least,
can not, supply enough of these. In conse-
quence our farmers are using every year
hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of
artificial fertilizers, phosphates, bone, guano,
potash salts and the like, and with varying,
Though on the whole, favorable results. 1t
is certain that these, rightly employed, are
very profitable and often indispensable aids
to successful farming
HOW CAN VERMONT FARMERS USE COMMERCIAL
FERTILIZERS PRoFITABLY:
To get some light upon this question, and
at the same time to learn more of how some
of our crops may best be grown, the college
has instituted experiments with fertilizers in
all parts of the State, furnishing materials
and directions to intelligent and public-spir-
tied gentlemen who have been making the
trials upon their farms. A full account OF
these and the conclusions to which they lead
will appear in the next biennial report of the
college. Meanwhile it is proposed to give
herewith some of the main results and ways
in which Vermont farmers may use them this
coming season. Before describing the ex-
periments, however, let us briefly rocapitu-
late some of the
FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF PLANT GROWTH
AND FERTILIZATION.
1. Plants, like animals require food for
life and growth A part of the food of plants
is supplied from the atmosphere, the remain
der is derived from the soil. No ordinary
cultivated plant can thrive without a sufficient
supply of each of number of substances
needed for its food With an abundance of
all these, in forms in which the plant can use
them, and with other circumstances favora-
BILE, the crop will flourish. But if the avail
able supply of any one of them be too small,
a light yield is inevitable For instance, pat
aM is an essential ingredient of the food of
plants. If all the other conditions for good
growth of corn, potatoes, or other plants are
fulfilled in the soil, except that potash is de-
fcient, the crop will inevitably fail But if
the potash be supplied, the yield will be
abundant.
>. The most important soil-ingredients of
plant food. the ones that the atmosphere
cannot supply and the soil must, so that the
plant can absorb them through its roots, are
potash, lime nagnesia, iron, phosphOjTc arid,
sulphu1ic acid, chlorine, and some compound
of RitrOgen Plants also take silica, soda and
some other materials from the soil, but these
are needed only in minute quantities or not
at ALL
3, In removing plants from the soil we
take away plant food This is the chief cause
of soil exhaustion. Lack of fertility is COM
monty due, in large part or entirely to lack
of plant food.
1. Soils vary greatly in their capabilities
of supplying food to crops. Different ingre-
dients are deficient in different soils. The
chief lack of one may be potash, of another
phosphoric acid, of another several ingredi-
ents, and SO on.
.. Soils fail to furnish enough food to
crops, not so much because they have not
abundant stores as because the materials are
not in available forms. soil may have
thousands of pounds of phosphoric acid with
in reach of the plant, but locked up in frag-
ments of rock SO that the roots cannot absorb
it, and thus the crop will fail for lack of phos-
phoric acid.
6. The infertility of many soils is due
more to their mechanical condition, their tex
ture, and relations to heat and moisture, than
to lack of plant food. Such soils want amend
ment first and manures afterward Some
soils will give good returns for manuring ;
others, without irrigation, or amendment by
draining, tillage, use of lime mari, or muck
or otherwise, will not.
FERTILIZERS AND PLANT FOOD.
Z. The chief use of fertilizers is to supply
plant food which crops need and soils fail to
furnish
s. But the indirect action of fertilizers in
improving the mechanical condition of the
soil and rendering its stores of plant food
available is often very important. Hence
cheap materials like lime and plaster are fire.
quently more profitable than manure or arti-
fetal fertilizers.
.. Plants vary greatly with respect to
their demands for food their capabilities
of gathering the ingredients from soil and
air, and the effects of different fertilizers up
on their growth Hence the proper fertilizer
in given case depends upon the crop as well
as upon the soil.
10. The only ingredients of plant-food
which we need to consider in commercial fer
tilizers, are potash, lime, mdgReSiG, phOSphOr-
&c dcid sHlphuric acid and nitrogen. Of this
list, magnesia is generally abundant in even
"worn-out" soils. Sulphuric acid and lime
are more often deficient, and hence one rea-
son of the good effect so often observed from
the application of lime and plaster. The re.
naming substances, the phOsph0ric acid nj
trCgeH and potash, are the most important in
gradients of our common commercial fertili
zers, because of their scarcity in the soil and
their high cost.
II. The chief use of commercial fertili
GERS, guano, phosphates bone, potash SALT
and special fertilizers prepared by formula
for different crops, is to supply nitrogen
phosphoric acid and potash.
~. These materials are expensive, bu
the right ones in the right places are never
theless very profitable. Some Of the materi
ais used in the experiments we have to repor
have in some cases given net profit of near
ly one hundred dollars per acre. But tn,
same fertilizers in other trials have brough
little or no return.
IL. 1t is not good economy to pay higl
prices for materials which our soils them
selvag NAV furnish Int II IL oood aconomy 4,