The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1886-04-21
A Sitting with Correspondents.
LITTLE PROFIT ON FER
TILIZERS,

Mr.. Edtt0r'-Ine DOne-1meal BrauleyS
agents offer for sale is of brown color, de-
cidedly different from any other l ever saw.
Why is it? And why is there such differ
ence in price-Bradley's $500 per hundred;
Darling and some other kinds, 1925? What
is the chemical name of the potash used to
cut bone-meal? 1t is true, / am not edu-
Gated up to phosphate farming. / know of
some who use the article and depend on
selling the crop to pay for the fertilizer, and
the crop is never large enough, while others
Just manage to do it. Some like to make a
"racket" and will buy tons and hire help,
and will slave their wifes life out in wait
ing on, and being a servant of, hired help;
and will then get but little beside the old
dollar in return. / had a great deal rather
be called lazy, and buy feed and save my
wifes health. The wages of help and their
board, the wear and tear, with the loss
caused by poor seasons crop, sometimes
cost more than is guessed for High-priced
fertilizers-of quality now made-are not
the thing for our common crops.
ORANGE COUNTY.
REMARKS Bradley bone-meal
is made from steamed bones, mostly
ribs, heads, shoulder-blades, and such
other bones as are too soft to make
bone charcoal of for the sugar refiners.
The Bradley Company prepare bone
black for the refiners, and take it back
when it is no longer serviceable. 1t is
from this waste bone-black that the
HI phosphate is made. From the
bones not used for comeback the
bone-meal is made, and other fertil-
izers made by this company are sup
piled with phosphoric acid in the form
of South Carolina rock. Steaming the
bones extracts the grease and much of
the gelatine, and leaves the bones of the
peculiar dull brown color referred to.
This bone is very valuable and avail
able source of phosphoric acid, but
must be mixed with substances which
furnish the requisite potash and nitro
gen in order to make complete fertil-
izer. Raw bone wet with ashes, as we
have so often advised, makes a COM
plete fertilizer. The nitrogenous ami
NAL matter is still in the raw bone, and
the ashes supplies the needed potash.
The Bradley ground bone needs COM
posting with (say for one barrel of the
bone) seventy-fve pounds of sulphate
of ammonia and two barrels of dry I'M
leached hardwood ashes. When thor
oughly mixed by shoveling and sitting,
this mixture Chree and one-fourth bar
rels) is about equal in fertilizing power
for most farm or garden crops to three
barrels of the XII superphosphate, and
costs about the same as two barrels.
The ashes should be sifted to free it
from coal, etc., and pains should be
taken to make the mixture uniform.
Three hundred pounds of cotton-seed
meal will give as much nitrogen as
seventy-five pounds of sulphate of am
monia, and as it has also considerable
phosphoric acid and potash, the mix
ture would then be equal in value to
four barrels of XII.
In regard to the values of Darling's
and Bradley's bone, the former is a
high-grade raw bone, and contains so
much nitrogen that the valuation by
the ton runs from So to IS above Brad
ley's. But the price named for OAR
ling's by our correspondent is extor-
tionate. 1t costs delivered in Vermont
about 81 ton more than Bradley's,
and if the latter is retailed at $500 per
hundred, Darling's should not be more
than $2.40. Caustic potash (such as is
used for soap-making) is what is used
for cutting bone in place of ashes.