Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-08-15

hay were cut annually, he put only one.
fourth of the farm under cultivation and
at the end of seven years he was keeping
eighteen cows, five horses, three hogs and
a part of the time Il yoke of cattle. And
he effected this change in its productive
capacity by the use of artificial fertilizers
without animal manure. He employed
various fertilizng agents, one OF which
was what he styles a farm made super
phosphate, made by grinding bones and
mixing it with sulphuric acid, commonly
known as oil of vitrol; other articles he
used were fish pomice, lime, pure ground
bone, crude potash and small quantities OF
sulphate of mAgnesia, which is familiar to
us as epson salts; he used also nitrate OF
potash which we all know as salt petre
and he employed chloride of sodium
which is our common salt Among
instances which he furnishes of his treat
ment of single acres he mentions plowin q
an acre of poor upland in the fall, and the
next spring applied five hundred pounds OF
pure fine ground bone, sowing it broadcast.
and planting it with corn, putting hand
ful of bis farm made superphosphate in
the hill from which he harvested seventy
eight bushels of shelled corn. After the
corn Wdb fSuiONOt tHC iuHo "uo Pio"Su
and dressed with eight hundred pounds ol
mixture of ashes. bone dust and refuse
salt petre, and sown to rye, from which
he harvested thirty one bushels OF excellent
rye. For period of five years his corn
crop never fell short of seventy bushels OF
shelled corn per acre and in some instances
reached as high as one hundred and six
bushels per acre. And he claimed the
aggregate cost of raising it did not exceed
forty-fve cents per bushcl. He would
sometimes use mixture of bone meal.
ashes and lime, and on some Of it, phos-
phoric acid, potash and lime He plows
his land in the fall so that it will become
more completely pulverzed BY frost. Ol
wheat he raised thirty one bushels per
acre by sowing broadcast five hundred
pounds of farm made snperphosphate
mixed with one hundred pounds of crude
salt petre and fifty pounds of sulphate OF
macnesia, better known as EPSON salts.
He found by analysis thai the ash of the
wheat plant consists of one and one-eighth
part of the magnesia. Three tons of hay
and three hundred bushels of potatoes
were raised on land on which not Il pour d
of animal manure had been placed. And
after years of careful experiment he con-
cludes that all of the elements of plant
food must be present in the soll and he
believes that poor land can be renovated
and kept in good condition for any length
of time by using chemical fertilizers.
NV own experience in the use of phos-
phate bought of the dealers has not been
extensive and, with one exception, has
proved unproiitable; but am frank TO
confess that did not use it altogether as
had been instructed by the experience of
some others. My first experience was in
1877 with potatoes, applying it freely in
the hill; the season was very dry, the
crop early looked fine but soon failed and
hardly paid for digging; that season the
potato crop was generally poor on nearly
all land. used the same method the next
year, putting in the hill for corn at least
eight hundred pounds per acre and got
large stalks but little grain. The season
lust passed varied my method by mixing
with the phosphate an equal amount OF
plaster, furl owing the ground. putting the
phosphate and plaster in the hill and
dragging a heavy bush through the
furrows SO as to distribute and intermix ii
with the soil, but like my former attempts
the crops did not pay expenses. Oh a
part of he piece where ashes and plaster
were used my crop was better, which fact
revealed that potash was needed on that
part of the farm. The land selected for
the above test was the poorest could find
and naturally dry, being gravelly, loan
upland. The phosphates used were the
Stockbridge and the honest fertilizer made
in Buffalo, N. Y. On a piece of hard pan,
naturally moist, I last season planted corn
fertiizing in the hill with the Qunlpiac
phosphate, mixing it with the soil with
the hoe when planting. On that piece my
crop was easily doubled if not more, the
fertilizer proving highly remuneratiye'
which | attribute in part at least to the
moist condition of the land, for it is we'll
known that it is necessary to bring all
plant food in the soil into state Of con-
slant and gradual solution to allow 1t to
be absorbed by the rootlets and conveyed
through the plant and become incorporated
into its substance.
entered upon the employment of phos-
pilates with high confidence and was quite
disappointed in the results and l appre-
bend there was large mistake in my
method of using it. Though the testi-
monv of some is to the using of phoSphaIes
with no profit the testimony OF many
intelligent men is that chemical fertilizers
are highly beneficial. And knowing the
accuracy of chemical science and having
the assurance from many trustworthy
sources of the practical success OF cheml,
cal plant food. | am not at all discouraged
and am confident that when better gen.
eral understanding of methods OF appll-
cation and of the varieties OF chemical
plant food required for the different soils
Astounding on nearly all farms. is brought
to bear upon the art Of agriculture, that
results will be achieved fraught with
GREAT GOOD. Already in some OF the most
populous centers of Europe the question
of food supply is attracting the attention
of thouobtful men, and the time is ulti-
mately coming when the numerical growth
of incubation in the enlightened nations
will give the question of carried and
generous food supply serious Importance
unless science and art cooperate in agrl-
culture to prevent such a misfortune, and
the suggestion arises that present pecunia-
ry interests as we'll as the pleasure OF
taxing steps forward in practical knowl'
edge. which may be of use in the distant
futnre. may reasonably impel us all to try
nv careful and persistent experiment to
discover the resources when chemlstry
affords for elevating the science and art ol
plant cultivation to its highest possibilities
and we are apt to think that the time will
come when the use of chemical plant food
will be as we'll understood and as common
ly applied as the present familiar habit oi
crop culture.
THE DEsPIsED ONIoN.-I know this