The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-21
Artificial Fertilizers.

w. d. Boyntop, in Prairie Farmer.
There is no reasonable question but what our
commercial fertilizers are good and necessary in
their places, If properly and intelhgently ap
piled Their increased use would certainly in
dictate that they have come to stay In spite of
their extraordinary popularity, think that the
majority of our farmers would be better off
without them; for in the hands of those who do
not understand their properties they are not
only expensive, but dangerous well. Very
few of the commercial fertilizers now sold are
complete fertilizers. They do not contain all the
constituents needed fol- feeding and supporting
plant life. Therefore, the lacking constituents
must be drawn from the soil, without returning
the same in the way ~ fertilizer BY this
means the soil becomes denuded of those par
ticular properties which the fertilizers have not
supplied, and which must be supplied if plant
life fiourishes. In this way thousands of farms
have become run down, and they can never be
made profitable again until these properties are
returned either naturally or artiicially Nature
will, in course of time, if not meddled with,
make good the loss; but it will take years to
undo the mischief DONE
A man should know Just what his land needs
and just what he is putting upon his land in the
way of fertilizers If he does not know this he
had much better leave the commercial fertilizers
alone, and expend all his energies and spare
money in swelling the manure pile at the stables,
for this, at least is a complete manure with
which he can never run his land out by iberality
of application.
Unless properly used these so-called fertilizers
effect, and when the effects are such as above
enumerated the stimulating process is most
unhealthy one
Even guano, though of animal origin, is any
thing but complete manure; the food of the
birds which deposit this manure in the beds from
where it is taken is chiefly composed of fish and
flesh of other kinds. Such a deposit must lack
some of the essential clements of complete
fertilizer In these fish manures whether called
guano or some other NAME potash is always
lacking, and some of the other constituents are
nsOluble, and, Of course cannot be made availa-
BILE without putting it through chemical pro-
cess by mixing in some other ingredients, and
this mixing process usually results in an enOr-
nous expansion of bulk and increase of weight,
more advantageous to the seller than to the
user.
There is, in other words an immense field for
swindling here, and bitter experience has taught
me that it is often worked up to its fullest ca
pacity. Not that it is the general practice, for
there are many good reliable firms engaged IN
this industry, and among them-for they will
work and worm in among good men-are some
most unmitgated swindlers who initiate brands
and concoct vilainous compounds to palm OFF ON
an ignorant and transporting public.
The different kinds and combination of kinds
of commercial fertilizers are always innumera
BILE, certainly much too numerous to be mem
toned separately here but it is safe to say that
not one of them is d complete fertilizer and very
few of them are entirely free from adulteration
in some degree
While discreet use of them may be advisable
at times, it seems to me that a rule, it should
be much better for the farmer to put the money
that he is in the habit of investing in these fer
tilizers into the nearest muck-bed. or in the
erection of sheds to shelter his stable manure,
and little increased labor in the care of the
same Perhaps in all of these ways mentioned
he might make a little improvement.
From actual tests made, | am satisfied that
one-half of the real value of our stable manure
goes to waste for want of suitable protection.
Nine farmers out of every ten pile the manure
from the stable directly under the caves, where
it is subject to the wash and drip of all the rains
and no doubt the surplus water thus accumulat-
ing about the piles and yard is carefully drained
away by the thoughtful (ll farmers, who delight
in neat, dry yards,
Let us try the experiment for year of
housing the manure and providing absorbments
that of themselves will add immensely to the
value of the pile, while serving to retain the
valuable gases and liquids that would otherwise
escape Don't reckon the result by the number
of loads of manure that you haul out but by the
number of loads of produce that you take from
the land