The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1889-06-01


farming, and not by the slip-shod, miser
able methods which are too common among
farmers. The first week in February /
travelled several hundred miles, and saw
that half the farmers fed their cattle corn
fodder in the fields on the ground. Thi;
is not the kind of farming which pays.
Fertilizer Manufacturing.
The Ne,C England Farmer strongly
favors commercial fertilizers. One of its
correspondents lately furnished the follow
ing:
Commercial manures have been a great
boon to the farmer, and the manufacturer
with his capital and enterprise, and the
chemist with his scientific knowledge, have
been the means of greatly aiding the hus-
bandman in gaining livelihood
Notice what the manufacturer has as
eomplished He has imported the potash
from Germany, the nitrate of soda from
Chill, and has made the sui lphate of ammo
MIA from bone and gas liquor; the quanti-
ties of fish waste and slaugLter-house re-
fuse, which used to be thrown into the
sea, have been saved, the waste products
from various industries have been utilized,
and thousands of tons of bones from this
and other countries have been gathered.
and appropriated. For fair return for
money expended, the manufacturer has
taken this variety of material-some of it
in a state that it would be impossible for
the farmer to use-manufactured it into a
concentrated and easily handled manure
and placed it in every town and village
The farmer is thus enabled to cultivate
more land at less cost, to utilize land ex-
hausted by continuous cropping, and in a
measure to compete with the rich and pro-
ductive soils of the great west.
Acid phosphate, potash, lime and ammo
MIA are the four missing links to the agri-
cultural chain on most farms, and these are
supplied by the great fertilizer factories.
Without these the chain is weak and
worthless. Some lands contain lime enough
TO make hundred successive crops, but
other lands have not lime enough for one
good crop. Some lands have plenty of
potash, some have but little. Few soils
contain sufficient acid phosphate or nitro
gen, or nitrogen-produeing qualities.
Fifty years ago there was a great clamor
for chemists to analyze soils and make
note of the missing links, that farmers
might supply them intelligently. II APP
pears TO us that there is much fertilizing
at random by farmers, without knowing
what links are missing or what links are
weak. What key has farmer TO the
qualities Of his soil by which he may know
in what respect his soil is defective? He
may give his soil potash when he does not
need potash, aud omit phosphate or lime
when his land almost cries aloud for the
one or the other. He may give lime with
out humus 20 his hmeless aud worn out
lands, aud BY this mistake throw his lime
away, when, if he had added humus to the
lime, he might have made good crop.
Prof. Vile thinks experiments with
soils and crops better than an analysis.
He SAYS ask the plants what food it wants.
Pat different kinds Of food in its reach and
SEE which it feeds upon eagerly. That
viii show what materials were deficient in
the soil and points to the remedy.
Oue thing is certain that, farmers should
study soils, fertilizers and crops, and nature
also. intensely. Farmers should be as
learned in their line of business as lawyers
and physicians and other professional men.
They need great deal more learning than
a mcrchau, needs in buying and selling
merchandise. Farmers ought to be among
the most enlightened classes Of society.
College farming, agricultural chemists and
experiment stations are now leading the
modern agricultural reform.