The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1881-08-03
CT a Cheap and COnYe-
nieni Fertilizer.

1t may be that the Great Oie"'oi
# al worlds has provided the MEANS
througb the labor OF the agrlculturis''
~ furnish sustentation to the peoples
and domestic animals of this world
Cor thousands OF years to come. boC
these means Tor this purpose, II they
have been provided, are at this day
hidden mystery. tamines are OF
frequent occurrence in the over-pop-
Mated countries of Asia, and some
times occur in Ireland. The people
of the United States, through their
new lands and great enterprise and
industry, have been enabled:to export
provisions to Europe in such quanti~
ties as to save many Of her people
from great suffering, if not from act
nal starvation. But how long will
this great surplus of provisions to
feed the peoples Of our own and Of
foreign. countries continue? If the
nonulation of the United States
should continue to increase hereafter
as it has heretofore, doubling itself
every twenty-five or thirty years, in
a century, which is no long time in
the history OF a nation or the world'
our inhabitants will be numbered by
hundreds of millions, and all our
means of subsistence be exhausted in
feeding our own people. Indeed,
some of the grandchildren and great
grandchildren of some now an exH.
tence will undoubtedly suffer for pro-
visions to sustain lite,
Lands will continue TO be ezhaus-
ted and diminish in fertility 10 this
country, as has been the case in Eu-
rope and. Asia. Guano and super
phosphates are too high in price to be
generally used, and only afford tenn
porary or yearly relief for exhausted
soils. Lands that have become i'm
impoverished may be reclaimed by
returning to them all that can be
raised on them, but this involves the
loss of time and crops which the coun'
try could not endure, when our pops
ulation becomes as deuse as some of
the countries of Europe and Asia.
The first economy that has been adop'
ted in all countries over populated,
is to diminish the number of working
animals, horses and mules. AS a
horse or mule will eat as much in
value as a man, TO diminish their Dum-
Der is a very sensible relief and very
necessary, unless we adopt the plan
of the French-when they get too
old to work, turn them into beef for
the sustenance OF man. The French,
it is said, can at any time swallow
horse or mule beet with an appetite,
but we doubt whether an American
could gulp it down except in a case
of extreme want.
What we need, and we need it now
tor many OF our exhausted lands in
the older States, is cheap and con
venlent fertilizer. AS we have be-
fore said, guano and superphosphates
are too high priced TO be generally
used, and then the guano of the
world will soon be exhausted. Lime
is probably the cheapest fertilizer
that has ever been used But al
though many have spoken very high
ly of lime as good fertilizer to in
crease crops, more have pronounced
it failure as permanent fertilizer
or even producing temporary benefit;
and therefore, though cheap, it has
not been generally adopted.
In common with others, | have
entertained the opinion that the nat
ural limestone, reduced to powder
will prove a better and cheaper fer
ilizer tnan any we have used heretc>
fore. . If this should prove true, on
experiments being made, we have no
doubt machines will be invented Tor
reducing the rock TO a powder so that
it can be sold at a low price.
Some wears 400 | owned farm