Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1883-09-20

y, ! know they ought 10 be. aban.
doned BY the general farmer, No
crop grown either does Of ean, la ny
belief, pay ZOE their nso. ] have e.,
siasned into the matter from evary
possible point of view, On familiar
With the chemistry of the subject, and
] ara perfectly convinced that the
long continued and extensive uss Of
either supeF.phosphates o. the so.call.
ed ammoniated supeF.p phosphales alone
viii ruin any farmer. Kaw ground
bones ! believe % be the only faFlsll.
ger which used BY itaelf has produced
paying crops and improved tho land.
Those who have used raw bone and
fed much stock have made money
aud rapidly increased iisa yalaa of
their lands. Those who have uaed
snper-phosphates and anmoniated
super-phosphatea and tried 10 make
money by selling corn and wheat and
tobacco, are mostly insolvent, and
their impoverished lands have been
hawked of at auction by the sharilf
for a song. Sir John Bennett Lawes
compares the treatment Of phoaphates
With sulphurie acid for turnips 10
cooking soup for a hurried and hun-
cry traveller. Now. say taking that
view Of the case, the cooks hire is
too high. 1t will break Us ell up 10
feed any crop We can grow here on
that sort Of soup. IL will cost us
500 TO cook $50 worth Of Lawes'
phosphate soup. The soup may be
good, but who Is able TO pay the price
take my stand upon this proposi.
tion We must dispense here with sui
phnric acid in the preparation Of
phosphates for our crops aud our
lands, or we shall go 10 the wall.
How the case may stand in Eng
land or elsewhere | know not, but
do know that no system of farming
here will justify the expense OF super
phosphates, ammoniated or not, az
main reliance for the production of
paying crops and the improvement
Of the land. For phosphates, we
must rely upon bones and floats; for
nitrogen, upon green crops and ami
NAL manures as the basis Of any sys-
TEN Of farming by which we hope 10
make living and improve our lands,
aud If we cannot hope 10 do that, why
farm at all, seeing that ultimate bank
ruptcy stares Us in the face? Must
We toll on forever to no purpose, and
dying, leave our children In want,
while that which was ours by inheri-
tance passes to the children of the
manufacturer Of sulphuric acid p
Things have been going that way =
great rate hitherto. II is high time
to turn back. Let us compare the
floats and other insoluble phosphates
Orchilla guano contains the phos-
phate in the same form az the floats
It contains 43 per cent of it, the floats
contain 60 per cent OF it. Orchilla
costs $50 per ton, floats cost $lS. A
ton Of 0rchilla super-phosphate costs
$40 or near it. The phosphate in the
Orchilla and the floats is in the same
form as in raw bone, and in the old
Peruvian guano, in dried blood, in
fish scrap, in wood ashes, in green
crops and farm-yard manure. Do /
say too much to you farmers when /
say that is q good FORM About
potash, | have only TO say that on
stiff feldspsthic clays it can be but car
rying Goals to New Castle to put pot
ash. On all light, sandy, magnetism
and chafy land it will pay to put
potash. | recommend you 70 try a
mixture Of two-thirds floats and one
third kainit, apply et the rate Of four
hundred pounds per acre broadcast on
the rough and harrow in "a a prepar-
alton for wheat. If practicable, ap-
ply that mixture in April or May TO
fallow crop. clover or peas, to be
turned under in September for wheat
70 be seeded by from the 10th 10 the
Goth Of October. If the wheat does
not show we'll by the last OF March,
top dress with 100 lbs. per acre Of NJ
trate Of soda. On your corn, apply
400 to 500 lbs. per acre OF phosphate es
and kainit mixture broadcast on the
rough and harrow in. Fallow the
corn with wheat or oats and top dress
during the winter with stable manure.
In spring. seed 10 grass and dress with
100 lbs. per acre Of nitrate Of soda.
On fallow wheat land il will be a
good plan 70 apply at least every 9TH
er time in rotation, besides the phos-
phate-kainit mixture, 25 bushels per
acre air-slacked lime, scattered on the
rough and narrowed in. | put some
lime on new land, near Fairfax Court
House, and doubled the yield Of corn.
Your lands in this county are def
cient in lime.
AS TO nitrogTen, must oondense
all / have TO offer into few pages.
| have said that crops get their nitro
gen mostly from nitric acid; that fact
is certain. Ammoniated salts cannot
long exist in the soil as such: they
undergo rapid conversion into nitric
acid and other products. So does the
nitrogen of organic matter move slow
ly. This is accomplished by the agen-
cy Of the nitric ferment The nitric
ferment is . microscopic vegetation,
subterranean in its habitat, classed
with the yeast plant, and producing
as the result Of its assimi latiye activ-
ity nitric acid. Il converts all forms
OF combined nitrogen into nitric acid,
but more speedily converts the am
monia salts than organic compounds
or nitrogen combined with carbon
Neither the ammonia salts nor the nj.
trogen of organic matter suffers any