Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1888-06-01
CHEMICAL. MaNuREa.
why Western Farmers Had Hotter No
Use Them for Some Time to Come.


why Western Farmers Had Better NO,
Use Them for Some Time to Come.
Prof. J. W. Sanborn. OF the Missouri
Experiment Station, has for the past
five years been making experiments in
the use of commercial fertilizers. The
object was TO ascertain the economy Of
using such manures in Missouri under
present conditions OF farming and
prices of farm products. The following
extracts from Bulletin No, 80, just is
sued, gives the deductions Prof. San
born makes from the results Of these
experiments:
At the outset wish to state that,
while / used chemicals by the car load
for years, and am an emphatic believer
In their economy for the older sections
of the country, | do not believe that the
prices of staple crops in Missouri justify
their use, except under well-defined
limitations, which admit OF their use
only under exceptional conditions.
Aside from the restraining influence OF
market rates of chemicals and crops on
the use of chemicals, the more import
ant fact is that the salvage of the vast
age, as now conducted, of our stock
excrements, will cost but fraction as
much rs the plant food secured in pur-
chased chemicals. Events have en-
forced the profound need of the utmost
economy of stock manures, and their
intelligent use. Let this cheapest OF
all sources of plant food Chat is, cheap
est under our conditions in Missouri,
be first exhausted before we look for
costly outside sources.
Chemical manures are tho
products, in part, of the manufacture
er's art, and their market value is de-
termned by their composition, while
their economic value is determined by
the character of the farm of the pur-
chaser and the crop he proposes to
raise. The former or market value,
can be ascertained by multiplying the
number Of pounds of phosphoric acid,
potash and nitrogen found In ton (the
law Vi must cthtos NucIc ClclnlCdis ulo
sold requires the manufacturer to state
the composition of his fertilizers, and
enforces said composition) by the
market rates Of the elements of plant
food contained in the fertilizer. Thus
II ton (2.000 pounds of superphos-
phate has a stated composition rs fol-
lows: Phosphoric acid, 10 per cent.
potash, p per cent. and nitrogen 81
per cent, the following results will be
got, at the present rates of these ma
terials in New York, which are foi
phosphoric acid, St cts. per lb,. potash,
4 Ito cts. per h., and nitrogen is OTIS.
per h.:
10 per cent. phos. acid at ss.Po. 50
2lS per cent potash. at 81 cts............. %
By per cent. nitrogen, at 10 ots aluminium. ii ~
go Is
This principle, using the rates pre-
Tailing for these elements Of plant food
for each year rs they fluctuate (the
acid and nitrogen should
be cheaper in the West than in the
East, will enable any one who can
reckon to tell the value of the brand he
Is buying II 1t Is offered at $35 with
the above composition, it Is dear; If at
s25 1t is cheap. This Is. of course,
based on tho honesty of the seller. or
the care taken to verify the compost
ton by the State chemists analysis.
The economic value of fer
filters is Independent of the markets,
and dependent upon local prices for
crops and the farm upon which they are
used. To make this clear / will state
few well-recognized truths In chemical
farming. Fourteen elementary materi-
ais enter into all crops of which any
one of ten of them not being in the soil
will result in the total failure of the
crop to grow. But of these ten needed
materials all arabic soils are held to
have them all in abundance for crops
save three. These three are nitrogen,
phosphoric acid and potash, in their
forms known TO the fertilizer trade.
But of these three materials only one
on some farms. two on others, and all
three on most farms are needed. A
farm formerly under my charge needed
potash only for good crops, another
needed phosphoric acid mainly, but for
large crops some potash, weile this col
lege farm seems to need them all for
corn and only nitrogen for wheat But
again the demanded chemicals do not
depend upon the farm wholly, but vary
with the crop. Wheat and the grasses
call heavily for nitrogen. Clover,
beans, ETC., call for potash, while corn,
turnips. etc, ask for phosphoric acid in
artificial supply.
The economic value Of chemicals will
then be measured much also by the in
telligence with which we adjust the
fertilizer bought to the soil and crop
grown, as well as upon buying in
cheapest form. These fundamental
truths regarded, places will be found
In Missouri for chemicals; otherwise !
believe that they had better not be
touched for some years to come.-Ohio
Farmer.
-sAD-.-