The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-06-06
Phosphates as Appetizers.

A little Knot .of fsr,ners were ais
cussing the other day the Benefits OF
phosphates. One said he sowed a hun
dred pounds to the acre, and he had
good wheat " Another had put phos@.
piiate in the hin with his s1corn, and he
had 90 first-rate corn. It grew night
along" Another said: " like phos-
phate; it is such an easy way to manure
the lands''s Fhe last man putt ina the
clincher; 81 do not know, that il is so
much Of manure, but it is a good ap-
petizer." So is whisky. / do not believe
in paying forty or fifty dollars per ton
for "appetizers" for land any more than
1 do in attempting to live on stimu-
lants. There is enough virtue in most
phosphates to stimulate a crop at first,
and cause it to start with . more rapid
| growth. In the same way good drink
of stimulant will give a person. brave
| start, but the trouble is the effect is not
sufficiently lasting-it does not hold
out. In many cases this stimulated
| growth is q damage, for, when the cause
/ is exhausted the plant Is weakened and
checked in its growth, or else it has
formed an unnatural stem or stalk which
the soil is not able to supply while if
1 there had not been this excess of stalk
or stem there would have been no check,
| but an ability on the part Of the soil to
have met all the requirements of the
plant. .,. .t. ,aa-, Il. n.
| Before commercial manures were
pulled up to the extent they are now, /
had notion could make corn grow on
the same principle Stimulation -and
prepared acompound, not wisely mixed.
perhaps, but about as sensible as many
of the modern doses which farmers
swallow so easily, and put this mixture
into the hill. put earth over it and then
fplanted my corn. 1t came up so green
and rank as to attract the notice of
persons passing on the road, and the
stalks were grand, but never had so
few ears in proportion, My compound
consisted of air-slaked lime. plaster
(sulphate of ime) and, wood, ashes
Now, a chemist can tell me just what
was lacking, I suppose, and if i had put
4 that in, there Would have been q pro-
portionate crop of ears. should like
to have him. Now Twill tell him some
thing. If had kept my compound out
of the hill, and had a natural growth Of
stalks such as the land would have pro-
duced, the crop would not have had the
setback it did, and there would have
been proportionate crop of ears. My
point is that stimulating q crop is an
injury, unless it can be Kept up until it
natures. As farmers usually use COM
mercial manures, they do little il any
thing more than push the crop at the
start, and often this extra growth is an
injury. Iwatched q field of buckwheat
last summer with q great deal of inter-
est, where the seed had been drilled in
with some kind Of phosphate, and .
strip left across the lot without any of
it. The phosphated part came up first,
| and at blossoming time was several
inches taller than the portion where no
phosphate was used The straw-mark
this-was a great deal coarser, and the
leaves broader, and the cluster of bios
SONS more scattered or wider apart.
The owner said he did not think there
was any better yield, and Idonot think
there was as good. The phosphated
part grew faster, blossomed first, and
was few days ripper, although it was
| all cut at the same time.
On soil SO poor in organic matter
(the basis of vegetable growth) that il
would not produce crop, chemical
fertilizers no doubt could be added to
cause a crop to grow. They would
also help to extract plant food from the
soil; but would crop grown at such an
expense payP 1 do not like such q
foundation to build upon As a last
resort it might do. / know there is a
BY professors and manufacturers OF
chemical compounds. To most of US
it is dust in our eyes, so far as compre-
hending their talk; but they do succeed
!! in selling world of stuff, which in my
| humble opinion does very little good.
Not one of the farmers whose remarks
quoted at the beginning of this article
knows that he was benefited in the
least by. his expenditure for phosphates
The probabilities are that they threw
away their money, and thousands Of
others are doing the same thing every
year. Does it never occur to oul
farmers that possibly they may be hum
, bugged little? Only a few years age
, there were few makers of commercial
stimulants, or, as the farmers cal
| them, s.phosphates.n Now their name
is legion, and every third farmer is ar
t | agent. Have farmers and philosopher
, always been fools, or have there beer
, new discoveries in the science of growth
which can only be developed in ths
/ laboratory of some phosphate-com
8 pounding establishment 3ou IL f
E 1t would be more profitable fo
2 farmers when they meet to discuss how
E they can increase the bulk and qualit,
: of barnyard manure, and turn thei
: grain, straw and hay TO the best &C
count to increase growth on the farm
3 to exhort each other to better culture
r which will pay more in the end thanh,
Y buying fertilizers. L do not like TO Sc
/ this drifting away from the old com
s nonsense and substantial landmark
v and practices, which have brough
3 prosperity to so many homes, to tn
r uncertain, shiftless, and costly way
: where so much is paid out and so littl
: returned. Would il not be a wise
i policy for farmers to expend the none,
they pay for chemical fertilizers in tn
$ purchase of oil meal and bran to fee
J, TO their COWS, and to make more beet
a mutton and manure? / oensider. oi
q meal at $2S per ton and buckwhea
d bran at S18 per ton to be q better in
n vestment than paying $40 or $45 pc
: tom for small per cent, of nitrogen o
o phosphoric acid.-F. d. Curtis q
II Country Gentleman.