Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-03-19
University Of Vermont and State Agricultural
College.

University Of Vermont and State Agricultural
College.
FIELD EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS.
In this article and other. to follow Prof Atwater
aims to draw from the field experiments superin- !
tended by the University, lessons the value
and of commercial fertilizers in Vermont. 1t is !
hoped that many farmers will find herein answers
to questions which they are asking. Questions on
which further information is desired may be adj
dressed To me, and answer will be made either in
future articles or by private communication.
NJ II. BUcKHAM, President.
During the past two years the State
Agricultural College, i'll cooperation with
a large number of prominent farmers in
the State. has been endeavoring to get
some definite information as to the best
means for restoring the fertility of our
worn-out lands.
The chief reliance of the farmer for
bringing up his land and maintaining and
increasing its fertility must be proper
tillage and economical outstanding and
Use Of the manures of the farm. But
most farms do not and many, for some
time to come, mt least, can not, supply
enough Of these In consequence, our
farmers are using every year hundreds
of thousands of dollars worth of artifi-
cial fertilizers. phosphates, bone, guano,
potash salts and the like, and with vary
ing, though, on the whole, favorable re-
suits. 1t is certain that these, rightly
employed, are very profitable and often
Indispensable aids to successful farming.
HOW CAN VERMONT FARMERS USE CONNER
GAL 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 expert
ments with fertilizers in all parts of the
State, furnishing materials and directions
to intelligent and philosophical gentle
men who haze 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 re-
port 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 sea-
son. Before describing the experiments,
however, let us briefly recapitulate some
of the
| FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF PLANT
GROWTH AND FERTILIZATION
l. Plants, like animals, require food
for life and growth A part of the food
of plants is supplied from the atmos-
phere, the remainder is derived from the
soil. No ordinary cultivated plant can
thrive without a sufficient supply of each
of a 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 favorable,
the crop will flourish. But if the availa-
BILE supply of any one of them be too
small, light yield is inevitable. For in
stance, potash 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 deficient,
the crop will inevitably fail. But if the
potash be supplied, the yield will be
abundant.
2. The mast important soil-ingredientso of
plant food, the ones that the atmosphere
can not supply and the soil must, so that
the plant can absorb them through its
roots, are POTASH, lime, mdgnesia, iron,
phosphsric acid, sulphuric acid, chic
rine, and some compound of nitrogen.
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 crops from the soil we
take away plant food. This is the chief
cause of soil exhaustion. Lack of fer
tility is commonly due, in large part OF
entirely, to lack of plant food.
4. Soils vary greatly in their capabili-
ties of supplying food to crops. Differ
ent ingredients are deficient in .ifferant
soils. The chief lack of one may be
potash, of another phosphoric acid, of an
other several ingredients, and so on.
5. Soils fail to furnish enough food to
crops, not so much because they have
not abundant stores us because the ma
terials are not i'll available forms. A soil
may have thousands of pounds of phos-
phoric acid within reach of the plant, but
locked up in fragments Of rock so that
the roots can not absorb it and thus the
crop will fail for lack Of phosphoric
acid
6. The infertility of many coils is due
more to their mechanical condition, their
texture, and relations to heat and moist
ure. than to lack of plant food. Such
soils want amendment first and manures
afterward. Some soils will give good re-
turns for manuring others, without irri-
CATION, or amendment by draining, till
age, use of lime, mari, or muck, or other
wise, willnot
FERTILIZERS AND PLANT FOOD.
:. The chief use of fertilizers is to
supply plant food which crops noed 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 plas-
ter are frequently more profitable than
manure or artificial fertilizers.
o. 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 fertili-
zers upon their growth. Hence the pro
per fertilizer in II given case depends
upon the crop as well MS upon the soil.
TO- The only ingredients of plant
which We need to consider i'll commercial
fertilizers, are Potash, Lime. Magaesia,
Phosphoric acid, SHiph,uic acid, and
| \jfj.oJ,U OF this list ma1ueSla Is gen.