Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1884-03-14
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rIo,phntc. snperphosphntcr.
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The belief is gaining ground in the
minds OF many, that farmers have made a
mistake in insisting that the phosphates
they buy shall he wholly soluble, or, as
it is often expressed, shall be IL the form
of superphusphates. Farmers have been
taught that fertilizers, to be of any i'm
mediate use, must be presented to the
plant in soluble form, which is, un-
doubtedly. true But it does not necessa-
rilv follow that mNnuros or fertilizers ap
piled in a comparatively raw state, may
not sometimes be quite as economical to
apply as If they were first reduced to
perfectly soluble condition. The plants
have some power in the matter. If all
the plant food in Il soil were to be render
ed immeliately available, by making it
soluble in water at ordinary temperatures,
that the fertility of such soil would be
washed ont of 1t by the rains IN com
paratively short time.
But Nature, in her wise economy, al
lows nothing of this kind to happen,
Nature feeds the birds, but the birds have
to hunt for their food and pick it up.
Nature places plant food within reach of
plants, but the plants must send out their
roots in search of the food, and the little
mouths of those roots may be said to
have some picking, and some work to do
in preparing that food for digestion.
Chemists teach us that plant roots have
power to wrench, as 1t were, proper food
from very uupromising sources, as the
gravel stones of our soils. Plants are
the intermediate workers that stand be-
tween the crude limestone OF the quarry,
and the bones of the animal and human
frame. Natures processes for convert
ing raw material into highly organized
matter may be slow in their operation,
for Nature has an abundance Of time,
and it is perfectly proper that we should
discover some of the shorter cuts, espec-
Iially when we undertake to gain living
from poor, hard, forbidding soils.
The theory Of giving our plants solu-
BILE plant food is sound theory, but the
question is, whether we have not carried
it n little too far fn some cases, for profit.
Phosphoric acid is one Of the most valua-
BILE ingredients that are purchased in our
commercial fertilizers, and it is largely
furnished in the form of bone, also in the
South Carolina rock.
Now fresh, raw bone, with it's grease
and gelatne all in, is very far from being
readily soluble, and when the agricultu-
raj chemists tells us that phosphoric acid,
locked up in raw bone, might about ms
well, SO far as feeding the plant is con-
cerned, be locked up in the dealers store
houses, they tell us what is practically
true. We cannot wait for raw, whole
bones to rot in the soil, after we put in
our seeds We must have themin q more
readily available form. The question
then arose, "What is the best form ii
which to apply them? p The answer very
naturally came, in ''soluble form, and
so our fertilizer manufacturers immedi
. ately undertook to give it to us i'll that
form that ia, in the form of superphos
pilates. And the farmers soon discovered
by trial that superphosphates acted very
much quicker upon their crops than thu
ordinary ground bone which had no
been treated with sulphuric acid. Th'
= manufacturers also were not slow in find
ing out that, at the same price per ton
there was a chance to make quite as larg,
a profit from their business if they SOLD
a all their phosphoric acid in the solubl
b form that is, by dissolying the bone Il