The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-12-28
CECIL FARMERS CLUB.


December Meeting at MIR. JOSEF
COudon's, PerryvilIe. An Ii
structlve Paper Read by Majt
Henry f. AlvOrd, Director q,
the Maryland Agricultural f,
pertinent Station.
The regular monthly meeting of tt
Cecil Farmers Club was held on Thur
day the 18th inst, at "Woodlands" I'll
handsome homestead of Joseph Coudol
Esq. The general regret was espresso
that the meeting was not as large q
usual, number of members being prt
vented by business and other engage
ments from being present. Promptly a
1870 a. m, the President of the Gu
called the meeting to order when the fo
lowing members responded to thei
names. VIM. w. Moore, Thos. C. Bond
Joseph Coudon. George w. Sutton, job
2. Wilson, S r. Carson, Enoch Noye
aud Henry r. Torbert. The visitor
present by invitation were, Major Henri,
E. Alvord, President of the MARYLAND
Agricultural College, and Director of the
Maryland Agricultural Station, State
Senator elect John S. Writ, William Ii
Simcoe, of North East, Member-elect Of
the Maryland House of Delegates, and
Joseph Coudon,. Esq, (of Henry OF
Perryville.
The minutes of the last meeting having
been read and approved. reports of ex-
perlnents being in order, Mr.. Noyes
stated that he had sown Hungarian grass
seed on ground that had been in corn the
precious year, and had cut a good crop
WHICH left clean ground for wheat to fol.
low. Ia could not say yet what the
"neat would be, but previous experience
had been hvorable to this manner of
sowing. lie Vas feeding the Hungarian
nay very successfully to his stock. There
being no further r>,tine business before
the Club, the Chairman informed the
members, that althoLh Major Alyord
had been informally int,duced to s,ob
of them, yet he took very reat pleasure
in presenting him more for.auv That
excepting his visit to the Elkt>, Fair last
fall he believed this was his frs .nna..
ance in the county, and he knew 1at b.
voiced the sentiment of the Club il oo.
daily welcoming him to Cecil, and m
dering him it's Inequalities. The Cha,.
man referred in very complimentary terms
to the promising future OF the Agri
culture College under Major Alvord's
able and efficient management of it's af-
fairs, and hoped that this visit to Cecil
would prove the prelude of oth,rs yet to
come.
Major Alvord with that easy antgepial
manner which distinguishes him, asured
the Chairman that he was sincere in his
expression of qualification in meeting "a
memb ers of the Club, and that he dt.
not propose to present them formally
prepared lecture, but in the converse.
tional presentation of the subject he il
tended to talk about and which he hao
prepared chart to illustrate, he hoped
to be able to evoke from the members OF
the Club perfect freedom of inquiry and
plenty of questions with view to max
ing their meeting profitable. He then
announced the subject of his familiar
talk as
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS, THEIR PUR-
CHASE AND USE.
The history of com merclai fertilizers may
be said to have begun when Alexander Won
Hum boldt, having observed the use Of
guano by he natives of Peru, called the at.
tention of Europe to this subject. Members
of this Club were then alive.
Early settlers in this country saw the In
dams put fish in their hills of corn, and an
cient writers record that when Britain was
first invaded by the Romans, phosphate
mari was found to secure better crops; but
these practices were the result of accident
and were not understood or based upon any
plants.
That class of substances now generally
known as artificial manures or Commercial
fertilizers, began to be used more or less
understandingly about seventy five year:
ago. Sir James Murray is credited will
making the first super-phosphate in Eng
land in 1917. A lit le later few ship load.
of Peruvian guano found their way to Eng
land, and this continued from time to time
| But up TO 1910 the introduction and use o
commercial fertilizers in Europe was looked
| upon with suspicion and made little pro
! gress.
| As late as 1880 Sprengel, one of the ia
| nous German botanists of his time, posi-
| lively asserted that ground bones had NJ
effect on the growth of plants.
But in 1910 Liebig published the result
| of his researches in the relations of chem
istry to agriculture, and the growth of tn,
| traffic and use of commercial fertilizers ha
been very rapid from that day. That sam
year GS40) a ship load of guano was sen
| to England for special use as fertilizer
In 1912 one firm in England, devoting itsel
to this trade. handled 1872 tons, and 30 year
| later, in 1872 the Chincha Islands alone fur
nished 1000, 900 tons of guano.
| Following guano other fertilizing mater
ials were discovered and developed, manip
ulated, compounded and tested, till tn
great business grew up, of which Biltimor
is the acknowledged American centre, AM
with which you are all familiar.
Besides the long list OF articles formerl
regarded as waste products in variou
branches of industry, we now have flu
knowledge of natural deposits of nitrate:
phosphates and potash salts, so vast i
quantity as to insure an adequate suppl
for the agricultural needs of centuries I
come.
1t is not my purpose to describe the man
forms in which plant food is found at til
present time, in the fertilizer markets, or I
review the history of their discovery an
development, or discuss at length their re
atiye merits or the methods of preparin
them for use. These are interesting subjec
but this is not the time and place to enlare
upon them. Not long ago the State
f Maryland employed an agricultural chen
list to compile just such information as tn
, and his published reports were distribute
} over the State by the thousand. Progre
! in our knowledge of the subject may mai
it desirable to repeat the effort in measur
| If so, the Maryland Agricultural Expel
ment Station, supported at the Agricu
| tural College by Congressional endowmel
, without expense to the State, will unde
< take this duty through the medium of i