Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-07-04

tonly on rich concentrated food that anima
would not thrive-there must be something
fed for bulk. So with your lands, there
must be something for bulk else the bes
of them will wear out. would no
condemn altogether the use of concentra
led manures they may, and probably do
have their place in agricultural economy
t but that place is, and in the nature O
things mnst De, entirely a supplementary
and subordinate one. They may be, ant
doubtless are, useful for purposes o.
special fertilization, but for general pur
poses your reliance must be in such ferti
lizers as can be secured on the farm, thai
is stable manure carefully and freely
applied. In the use of such you can
make no mistakes as it contains within
itself more of the elements of plant food
than any other substance used rs ferti
lizel, provided you apply it freely enough.
But in the use of concentrated and com.
mercial fertilizers it is quite possible to
get the right thing in the wrong place and
if one would use these things with econo
my, be must know the exact needs of his
land so as to buy just what he needs and
nothing else If he needs potash, let him
buy potash; If phosphoric acid, let him
| ouy lsuL you may uSh
how shall | know the exact requirements
of my land? The limits of paper like
this necessarily preclude an exhaustive
answer 10 such a question-it would
require volume for that-but doctors
diagnose the diseases of their patients by
the symptoms. and with little careful
study and practice see no good reason
why you should not determine the wants
of your land by the symptoms, and make
as few mistakes as the doctors do. You
are urged TO try experiments with "plots'
of land and note the effect of various
methods of treatment. That is all right
and it is only necessary for mo to urge
| you to be exact and careful so that the
results may be something better than
mere guess work; but if you will first
study the requirements of the various
plants and especially the grasses and
learn the effect of the different elements
of plant food on the growing plant. you
will be saved from many discouraging
failures and will more easily attain that
exact knowledge which is the object OF
your endeavors.
And now before we leave this part of
the subject | want to ask the man who
buys commercial fertilizers, if he is very
sure lie is saving all the anure about his
own premises that he might save. If not
the money so spent represents only big
leak in his management and ask him to
spend as much in the future in making
manures as he has spent in the past in
buying them and l believe he will get a
much more satisfactory return this way
than in any other A single dealer in this
country sold the past season over eighty
tons of one brand of a commercial fert.
lizer, which at forty five dollars ton
would amount to the sum of thirty-four
hundred dollars and this would indicate
that the total sales of such in the country
must have been at least $4,000. | ask
you to consider for yourselves how much
of tnis large expenditure represents
simply the biz leak and how much OF it
was used with real knowledge of the
wants of the CROP to which it was applied
| wish now to call your attention to
the composition of some of the CONNER.
cial fertilizers. Take the last report of
the Vermont board of agriculture and
turn to the analysis of Prof. Sabin of the
different ones found in the Vermont mar.
ket. and you will find they all consist Of
phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash in
varying proportions, with organic or inert
matter enough 20 bring up the bulk to the
commercial standard. Now bear in mind
the fact that bones contain nearly one
fourth their weight of phosphoric acid
besides gelatine and other carbonic acid
and ammonia forming substances: that
the excrement of fowls is rich in nitrogen,
and that the fertilizing property of ashes
is potash, and you will inevitably come to
the conclusion that with few hundred
pounds of old bones and little sulphurio
acid to reduce them-a little hen manure
and some ashes-you can at compare
lively tritling outlay make a commercial
fertilizer equal to the best in market.
1t is not many days since one of the
best farmers in a neighboring town told
me that he had prepared it for his own
use with perfectly satisfactory results
that he should continue to do so and could
do it at very considerable saving of
expense; and | am glad to note that there
seems to be an increasing disposition on
the part of the farmers of this section to
inquire into these matters and see if the
necessary fertilizers may not be prepared
at home and the heavy outlay for them
saved-and am happy TO assure you that
with little time spent in careful expert
ment in this direction you will meet with
perfect success. wish to allude to
another idea that has been prevalent
among farmers, and that is the notion that
the value of a fertilizer was in proportion
to the vileness of its smell-nothing could |
be further from the truth-it is not neces-
sary that any fertilizer should emit stencil.
es as many and as vile as ever had the |
city of Cologne; and the principal effect
of such villa.nous smells is only to make
your boys disgusted with farm life and
farm work. A perfectly prepared fertil-
zer will be comparatively inodorless-and
he various gases which cause these horri-
Die stenches will be fixed and absorbed by
he use of the proper agents 1t Is not
many years since we have heard of far
ners who mixed hen manure, plaster and
ashes and Judged from the smell that the
compound must be powerful fertilizer.
Such practice is in utter violation of the
principles of chemistry, and the smell ON
which such practitioners dote is from the
set free by the action of the lime
of the plaster and represents only so much
lead waste of the fortilzing material.
You have probably often read the phrase
rich, nitrogenous plant foods" and to the
minds of some it has, perhaps, carried as
much meaning as would an ssay in the
original Greek-and no more-and per-
laps may not make its meaning clear to
Iou. In all the varied works of nature,
has been able to discover but
Xty three different elements, and of these
he farmer has 10 deal with hardly doz-
IN, of which nitrogen is one and hydrogen
mother. Necessary as nitrogen is to the
armer it can only be taken into the struc-
ure of growing vegetation through the
Ieency OF third element and that is hy-
lrogen, with which it unites in the proper
ion of one 10 three-loslng one half its
,ulk by the union and forming ammonia
ammonia is capable Of still further con- I
entratlon- thus water will absorb six
hundred times its bulk of it: h7 contact
viii sulphuric or carbonc acid it crystal-
zes into the soluble salts, sulphate or
arbonate of ammonia. we'll known as fer
ilizers, and a free definition of the phrase
rich, nitrogenous plant food" would be |
ne which furnishes large supply of '
to growing vegetation on the $
.rowh of which it acts as quickening |