Smyrna times., 1885-09-23

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phosphOric acid, ammonia or potash
depend, for their success, entirely
upon soda and lime, in the forms oi
salt cake, common salt, and land plas-
ter-a fact which the analysis, if ex-
tended to them, would render evident,
and the farmer would see that he is
buying, as phosphate, what he could
readily obtain more cheaply in other
forms. He might find, as many have,
that common salt and land plaster are
very beneficial, but he need not pay
phosphate prices for them The OBJ
Ject OF the State Chemist is only to in
form US how many pounds of the en-
penSiUe ingredients are offered in a
ton, so that if we do wish to buy phos-
phoric acid, ammonia and potash, we
need not be deceived by ignorant or
fraudulent representations as to the
quantity of each we receive. Isnot this
information of the same value to the
purchaser as is the number of bushels
OF grain, or the number of cattle in a
herd? The State Chemist does not
choose for us. He does not dictate
that this should or that should not be
purchased, nor predict that one article
Will succeed and another fail. He
simply informs the public Just eUhat
they are 6uytng-leaving each to Judge
forhimself afterward but stripping the
articles of all false pretense to contain
more of those expensive ingredients
than they really do. Such exposure
naturally warns the blood of the nm
fair dealer who is selling common salt
and land plaster for phosphate, but it
Will be welcomed by the farmers more
and more as they are educated to COM
prehend its lessons, and it has already
compelled more than one manufac-
turer to improve the real value of his
productions. These explanations will
aid in exhibiting the advantage which
chemical analysis has over trial in the
Fetd. Not only is a year saved. n, time.
but, in the field trial, salt and plaster
may and often will, as stated, produce
very perceptible benefit. while the far
mer will not be informed-as he would
nave been by chemical analysis-to
a0hdt ne Olces has success, and so will fail
to detect the exorbitant price he has
been paying-in the phosphate which
has so pleased hin-fur articles which
need not have cost more than $500 Der
ton.
" Trial in the field" while it has its
use and a very important use, is. as
commonly practiced, open to other
very serious objections, if it is to ex-
clude the chemical test. In the first
place the wheat plant will, very fire.
quently, not appropriate all the mater
lal placed at its command by the fertil-
lzer sown with it. This is shown bv
frequent, but exceptional cases. in
which 3OOibs. or 4OOfbs. per acre. have
failed to produce more wheat than
2OOlos of exactly the same material. on
Inc same crop, side by side. Here low
grade articles have one of their main
fields for glOry-but it is short-lived
when 1t is remembered that what is
not consumed by the immediate cron
remains, for the most part, for the sue
ceedlng crops; and the difference in
that remainder is the thing made
known by the analysis. Next is the
mechanical effect of the fertilizer upon
the soil, by which the texture of
the earth near the roots is affected
and IN which the low grade is as eff.
cient as the higher grades. An illus-
tration of this once came within the
writer's ObserVation-a farmer having
simply placed road sand upon his corn
nils in stiff land, with much benefit to
his crop. Again, the weak fertilizers
frequently reap the benefit of former
applications which have been made to
the same soil, and, themselves afford
ing stimulus for time, are supported.
IN the progress of the crop, by the
OF those previous applications.
And last, but not least, comes the
imperfect mode of examination as to
the actual result of experiments. The
eye is utterly unreliable except when
the difference is extremely marked
no one being able, when straw is of
equal height, to distinguish a differ
ence in yield of two or three bushels
per acre-enOugh to pay for all the
fertilizer used. Not long since two
nelgh0Ors visited together their wheat
nelds. time and time again, to INSPECT
their respective crops and, after finally
agreeing, just before the harvest
that one must excel the other several
bushels per acre, were thoroughly as
-onlshed when the threshing exactly
reversed their predictions. Thus trial
n the tieldprOves lacking-especiallya as
usually cOnducted-in those elements
lf definiteness and certainty which are
supplied by chemical analysis, which
ioes, at least, inform us just what fer
.ilizing strength goes into the ground in
fertilizer, whether it is all appropri-
tied by the immediate crop or remains !,
or future use.
If, unfortunately, we are compelled ,
o buy ammonia, phosphoric acid and )
potash for our land, it certainly is i'm /;
1ortant to know how much of each we
IRE obtaining in a ton, and this we E,
earn most reliably, conveniently and
nexpensively, through the State .
chemist, who has interest with none.
md before whom all manufacturers
If phosphate are made equal by the :
leaving each manufac- :
urer to select his own Judge, or COM
'elllng each farmer either to bear the
expense ofa costly analysis himself. or a
ubmit to the delay and uncertainty of e
rial upon his crop. An end then. let i
Is have, of the idle TRADE against an !
'iicer whose skill and integrity none a
an impeach, and against a law de- v
igned solely to prevent imposition o