The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-01-23
The Waitsfleld Fertilizer Experiment.

The Waitsfleld Fertilizer Experiment.
Mr.. Editor Your remarks on my fer
tilizer experiment impel me to short ex-
PLANTATION. The superphosphate was used
at the rate of two hundred and fifty
pounds per acre, at cost of $3.50 per
acre, and the bone and ashes compost was
applied at the same rate of cost per acre
on part of each plat, which of course
would be in much larger quantity, and on
the other part of the plat was used bulk
for bulk as against the superphosphate,
with no difference in crop on the two parts
of each compost plat. The bone and ashes
were applied to about one and one-fourth
acres in all. The experiment was made
solely to compare the two fertilizers, and
care was taken to have the conditions
alike in each case, and also to make the
application 80 as not to injure the seed. In
TACT, this experiment is but one of several
which have invariably resulted in the
same way, and which seem to me to indi-
cate that upon certain soils the applica-
ton of potash is at Leaf unnecessary. In
proof Of this, several of my neighbors have
told me that they have never seen any
benefit from the application of ashes upon
corn or potatoes, while others who, last
spring, prepared fertilizer after DR.. Cut
ting's formula, at a cost of $15 per ton,
and used it in equal quantities against
Bradley's XII, report that it produced
quite as good results as the latter. These
trials were all made upon our river soil.
And now, Mr.. Editor-I don't wish to tres.
pass farther upon your time or patience,
and don't want you to waste your space in
printing this-l would like to know why
you still continue to use the XII if the
other ais just as good and thirty-three
per cent cheaper ?" In this connection l
will say that the experiment of a vat
under stable of eighteen COWS, in which
to collect the liquid manure, has been
highly successful. During the past year
we have pumped from this vat and dis
trbuted directly upon the land fifty-fve
loads of about one hundred and twenty
gallons each, at small cost of time or
strength. That this is most valuable
fertilizer, there can be no doubt. That it
is now, in most cases, suffered to go to
waste, is equally certain-and this not
withstanding that green sawd.st may be
literally used as an absorbent. That no
farmer can afford to allow this waste, and
then buy commercial fertilizers to make
it up, must be plain to the dullest appre-
hension. The cost of my vat did not ex.
coed $40, and judging from the crops to
which its contents were applied, belisve
them to have been of more value to me
than ton of even Bradley's XII. In
truth, Mr.. Editor, does not the true solu-
ton of the fertilizer problem, for the
dairy farmer at least, lie in the intelligent
use of concentrated food for his stock and
the careful saving of the manure, both
liquid and solid ? Verify believe it does.
c. E. j.
REMARKS BY AGRICULTURAL EDITOR.
This second letter from C. f. j. puts a
quite different face upon the experiment
as at first reported. OF course, in trial of
a strong potash fertilizer against another
with but little potash, upon land where
potash does no good, favorable results for
the former could not be reasonably looked
for. This was just the place for DIR. Cut.
ting's fertilizer, and it is certainly great
boon to such of our readers as are fortu.
nate enough to be farming land that is not
in need of potash, to be told that Bradlsy's
XII can be replaced fully by fertilizer
costing only about one-third as much
We wish more of Vermont territory was
of this character, but even where ashes
are needed they can be applied separately
c. E. j. wants to know why we still use
the XII if our bone and ashes compost il
just as good and onethird cheaper. The
reasons are that often we find ourselves
short, near the close of the planting sea
son, and can always get one, two or three
barrels of XII at the village to finish out
with. Last year we used barrel on oul
onions just to spur them up little, as Q
very few days in that crop is often the
difference between success and failure
We also used it on our earliest sweet-corn
} and at the rate of pint to the hill fol
squashes, melons and cucumbers.