Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1881-04-06
Cheaper Fertilizers.

Cheaper Fertilizers.
Besides the large pile of bones for which
we traded apples to the boys last fall, and
which will in few days be burned, pow
dered and sifted for application to the land,
we are just in receipt Of ton of "Bradleys
Powdered Raw Bone" which we shall COM
post with unleached hardwood ashes in the
proportion of one bushel Of powdered bone
to three bushels of ashes-and, by the way,
we noticed that through blunder of the re-
porter or the printer we were made to say,
at the Barton Landing meeting of the
Board of Agriculture, that we mixed three
pounds of ashes with each bushel of bone.
1t was three bushels, of course. After thor
ough mixing of bone and ashes we wet the
pile with all the water it will hold without
teaching. This cuts the grease all out Of
the bone, and softens it so that it is dis
solved in the soil water about as quickly as
a superphosphate. We regard this mixture
as equal, pound for pound, on light soils, to
the best superphosphate we can get, and the
cost is much less as will be seen by these
figures:
One ton powdered bone birty bushels $4,000
Two OF nnleached hard wood ashes ...........
NINETY bushels at twenty cents .......... 1900
Work In mixing and wettlng.. zoe
Total. $4,000
This mixture costs $40 ton, and one
thousand pounds per acre will give us as
much 1--WE think nore) corn or potatoes As
three barrels of superphosphate. 1t is by
no means all exhausted in the first crop
grown, but the effects of it are seen in the
following hoed crops and grass. We have
raised nursery of apple trees (Which takes
three years. on single dressing like this
(no other manure), and grown yellow-eye
beans between the rows for the entire three
years, the crop of the last year being as
good as any.
This powdered raw bone has considerable
animal matter in it, which furnishes enough
nitrogen for the first crop grown on it. For
the second and third years one to two hun
dred pounds OF sulphate Of ammonia will be
all that is needed for corn, potatoes, oats or
wheat, using the larger quantity for the last
two. But'if you have (as many of our Or
leans county farmers are getting) liquid
manure tank under your COW stable, five
hundred gallons OF this to the acre will be
found fully equal in effect to one hundred
pounds of sulphate of ammonia, costing
five dollars. There are good many farmers
now who have tried this, and who are quite
willing to contract to dig out and cement a
good tank of this description under any tie
up which has been in use five or six years,
and take the dirt dug out of the hole for
their pay.
In using the burnt bone we have much
stronger phosphate than the raw bone, but
the nitrogenous matter is lost, along with
the grease, in burning. If we could get il
ground as fine as flour we feel sure it would
be as quick a manure as a superphosphate
But in our rough way Of pounding it we do
not get it very fine, so we put it on at the
rate of half ton to ton to the acre. This
will give full supply Of phosphoric acid te
all the crops you can grow on the land fol
from six to twelve years, at cost of from
$l2 to S25. Of course crops cannot be growr
on this alone. There must be a supply O.
nitrogen and potash. The latter can be hat
from ashes, or from the German potash salts
at a cost OF from 81 TO % u year, willie Ill,
nitrogen may be added to the land by plow
ing in clover, by watering with liquid ma
nure, or by the use of sulphate of ammonii
or nitrate of soda If you feed clover hay
shorts, cotton or linseed meal, pea or beal
straw, or grain, freely to your cattle, tn
liquid from your tank will be much richie
in ammonia than where timothy and othe
grass hay, corn fodder, or ensilage, are fe'
without the richer foods. We believe tha
Underground South Carolina phosphate rocl
will furnish as good supply of phosphori
acid as our burnt bones. II we had not
supply of the latter we should buy the groun'
rock, which can be had for about $50 pc
ton. Five hundred pounds of this per acr
applied for four years in succession to hoe
and sowed crops, with dressing of liqui
manure, and on light soils, ashes at the rat
OF ten bushels year, will give good crops
and, when seeded down with the last croI
ought to give strong growth of grass for
good many years, without more than an OF
casional top-dressing of fine dung compost
Let us calculate the cost per acre:
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