The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-04-30
.IgrirnHnraI.
More Light on Fertilizers.

now, and we do not grudge our work, for
indeed there is nothing like excepting it
before the people," By our doing so,
many are led to study and enquire, and
to get clearer ideas of the composition,
power and use, not only of artificial fer.
tilizers, but of homemade manures. Our
old friend and correspondent, q. E.
Jameson of Irasburgh, Vermont, writes ::
al think you have done some excellent
work in the columns of THE WATcpMAN
in putting your own views, and those of
A. II. Ward, in 80 many ways before the
farmers. It is this repetition of the
terms Ammonia or Nitrogen, 'Phos-
phoric Acid or Phosphate of Lime al
kali or Potash the three elements of
plant food hidden, the first in chemicals
that look like salt, or in cotton-seed; the
second in bones or phosphate rock the
third in ashes or German potash salts
that fixes it in the mind, for it is difficult
for farmers to become perfectly familiar
with them" Mr.. Jameson adds: cit is
much easier to buy barrel of mixed-up
stuff called 'superphosphate,' than it is
to follow the doctrines of Mr.. Ward and
yourself and buy heterogeneous, phosphate
and potassic materials called by other
names, and mix them ourselves. If fer
tilization is founded upon nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash let the repetition
and instruction continue until every
farmer will easily in common conversation
speak untrippingly of these elements, as
they are in combination in all msnures."
The difficulty of which Mr.. Jameson
speaks has been constantly before us in
writing upon these subjects. 1t is true,
unfortunately, that our common schools
do not teach even the simple elements of
chemistry, and that though we are all the
time using chemical substances, they are
not used understandingly. The women
do not understand the chemistry of cook
ing or washing, of dyeing, of house.
cleaning, warming and ventilation, of
diet, or of health, but have to get along
as we'll as they can without the light of
scientific discovery by which the best,
easiest and cheapest ways of doing COM
mon things is made known. And it is
just 80 with men on the farm. The
chemistry of manure and of plant-feeding
Gas we'll as of cattle-feeding), is a sealed
book to them, and although it is really a
very simple and easy thing to learn, yet
the hard words" (hard only because un.
familiaT look discoursging. And yet
every woman who makes bread, washes
clothes, makes soap, or cleans house, is
doing chemical work which they could do
better, cheaper and more easily if they
understood the science of it; and every
man who handles manure, or uses mixed
feed for his stock, or grows crops, is doing
the same thing, with the same costly
unfamiliarity with the reason of it, which
is all there is to science-for "science :"
is only another word for knowledge"
1t is fact that on worn-out or partially
worn-out soils something is gone that was
once there, and which made the crops
grow and yield well. What these things
are (for there are more than one), has
been found out by the study and expert
ments of agricultural chemists. This
knowledge is in the hands of the fertilizer
makers, but not yet to any great extent in
the hands of the farmers. We have set
ourself the task Cor rather it has been set
for u) to bring this knowledge to our
readers. To those who in school got a
little insight into chemistry it is very
easy to understand all the facts in the
case. The chemists have found out and
proved that in all ordinary soils the only
kinds of plant-food likely to be used up
by over-cropping can easily be replaced,
and the land be made as productive as
before. The farmers long ago learned
that this could be done by applying the
dung of animals, decayed vegetable and
animal matter, ashes, soap-suds, muck,
and various other things, to the soil.
Later it was found out that vast piles of
bird dung, called "guano" (Which is the
Spanish for dung y, was very strong
manure. Still later it was found that
bones, when finely ground, were also pow.
erful as fertilizer. Later still, rocks
were found which are in composition the
same as bones Except the animal matter),
and these, when ground, have proved good
for plant-food. And still later, potash
has been found in Germany in inexhausti
BILE quantities, buried in the earth. Two
kinds of saltpeter (potash saltpeter aud
soda saltpeter) have been found to exist
in abundance in the soil of some countries
When the chemists began to study this
subject of plant-food-that is, of the
things found to be useful in promoting
the growth of vegetation-they went tc
work and took all these substances apart
Chat is, they analysed them), to find
what they were made of, for they were al
compounds. They found that ANNA
dung, which is complete restorative Of
worn soils, contains chiefly three things
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