The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1888-01-14
CHEMICAL MANURES.

move again. --Alsr. S,Deet, in ArkansasO
Traveller.
CHEMICAL MANURES.
why wsstern Farmers Had Hetter Not
Use Them for Some Time TO Come.
Prof. j. w. Sanborn, OF the Missouri
Experiment Station, has for the past
Eve 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
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-defned
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 as 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 (that is, cheap
est under our conditions in Missouri),
be first exhausted before we look for
costly outside sources.
Chemical manures are the
products, in part, of the manufacture
er's art, and their market value is de-
termined 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
i
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
if ton (2,000 pounds) of superphos-
phate has a stated composition as fol-
lows: Phosphoric acid, 10 per cent.
potash, 24 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 fol
phosphoric acid, 81 cts. per lb., potash,
4 Ito cts. per h., and nitrogen 16 cts,
per h.:
10 per cent phos. acid. at SS.25. .S1e Il
2X per cent. potash. at Al cts. .......... Q %.
81 per cent. nitrogen, ut IL cts........... II X
% Il
This principle, using the rates pre-
vniling for these elements of plant food
for each year rs they fuctuate (the
phosphoric acid and nitrogen should
be cheaper in the West than in the
East), will enable any one who car
reckon to tell the value of the brand he
is buying. If it is offered at $35 with
the above composition, it is dear; if al
$25 it is cheap. This is. of course
based on the honesty of the seller, ol
the care taken to verify the compost.
tion by the State chemists analysis.
The economic value of fer.
tilizers is independent of the markets
, , and dependent upon local prices TO,
! crops and the farm upon which they are
used. To make this clear will state 6
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 sol
will result in the total failure of the
crop to grow. But of these ten needed
materials all arabic soils are held tt
: have them all in abundance for crop:
save three. These three are nitrogen
phosphoric acid and potash, in theil
forms known to the fertilizer trade.
But of these three materials only on,
on some farms, two on others, and al
three on most farms are needed. 4
farm formerly under my charge needes
potash only for good crops, anothe
y needed phosphoric acid mainly, but fo1
large crops some potash. w..ile this col
lege farm seems to need them all TO
2 corn and only nitrogen for wheat. Blu
: again the demanded chemicals do no
depend upon the farm wholly, but var.
=. with the crop. Wheat and the grasse
. call heavily for nitrogen. Glover
:. beans. etc., call for potash, while corn
turnips, etc., ask for phosphoric acid il
!. artificial supply.
~ The economic value of chemicals viii
. then be measured much also by the in
telligence with which we adjust tn
fertilizer bought to the soil and cro]
- grown, as wall as upon buying il
:. cheapest form. These fundamental
, truths regarded, places will be foun'
: in Missouri for chemicals; otherwise
= believe that they had better not b
= touched for some years to come.-Ohi
Farmer.
Negotiating for Dog.
q Dol;upou That 10 a Hno Jor yO