The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1889-01-31
Fertilizers.

fertiIlZerS.
The science of fertilizers is now
well understood. Few farmers under
take to farm without them for they know
their use to be profitable, directly and
Indirectly. Not only is the present crop
benefited by them, but succeeding crops
also for it seldom happens that all of
fertilizer is used up the first year.
Numerous instances might be named
70 demonstrate the value of this or that
fertilizer. A notable one occurred the
present year. A neighbor fertilized a
part only of his peanut crop, leaving
the rest to the natural resources of the
field. The part not fertilized pro-
duced an average of fifty-six shocks of
peanuts per acre, while the fertilized
portion produced ninety shocks.
and the peas of the latter were
not only better, but more to the
vine. This shows gain of over II
per cent in favor of fertilizers. Many
such instances will occur to the mind
Of every reader.
But fertilizers are not always protita-
bic. Sometimes they fail to show any
gain whatever. How is this accounted
for? Observation has shown that in
the latter case the soil itself to which
the fertilizer was applied was deficient.
1t lacked organic matter. Here, then,
is the key to the matter. Fertilizers
are profitable, but they do not con-
stitute the whole science of manuring.
They are good is a helper, tinisher
off, complement, to 60 along with
organic matter, but they are never
profitable on a soil exhausted of humus.
1t is only when the manurial condition
of the soil is kept up by home resources
that it pays to employ fertilizers of any
grade or name.
We say this much in behalf of fertil-
izers in general. We are far from
saving that there is not, after all, a
great deal of humbuggery about fertil-
izers. Farmers have been most
shamefully swindled before now, no
doubt, in some of them. We are just
as far from saying that farmers could
not themselves manufacture as good
fertilizers-concentr fertilizers-at
home.
When fertllizing company grinds
up simple mari to mix with prepared
bone and little bit of dried blood, and
sells it as a first-class fertilizer, there
is nothing in the process that a farmer
could not do for himself. We believe
farmers have often paid too dear for
this fertilizer whistle the shops have
been SO eager to sell them. They
could have made better and a cheaper
article at home.
But this does not alter the case as to
the Importance of fertilizers in con-
centrated form. 1t only shows where
in farmers have been remiss. The
farmer should make his own dry fertil-
izers and know what he is using, and
not allow other men to mix articles
the character of which he is ignorant
of.
We are told that he can not do it,,
that he lacks the machinery. Not 80.
1t is not necessary that he should have
the machinery of the shops in order to
manipulate fertilizer. A common
apple mill is all the machinery the
farmer needs to enable him to make a
trst-cla8s concentrated plant food.
With this he can crush old mortar,
mari. bones, and shells; with this he
can grind dried animal manures to
mix with the plaster, both to be ground
together; with this he can mix a
variety of things. putting them in easy
shape for sowing in drill. The apple
mill has other uses than to crush fruit.
The farmer can make his fertilizer in
winter when outdoor work is stopped.
--Rardt Messenger.