Connecticut western news., 1889-12-04

pleting entire destruction of the potato. The fungus cannot grow in an atmos- phere unfavorable to it. A hint on this subject is given in the experience of an old potato grower, who as soon as rot is discovered in his potatoes places them in some tight compartment where they are kept in an atmosphere charged with the fumes of burning charcoal. It will not do to try this in house cellar, for the carbonic acid gas thus developed is a deadly poison. He finds that not only are potatoes pre- served sound when thus treated, but Ewhen it has begun the rot is arrested, and remains only form of dry rot that progresses no further. But it is important that potatoes thus affected be not used for seed, as in moist ground the dormant spores come to life again and propagate rapidly.
 There is great difference in value of stable manure, as every farmer knows. Dr. G. c. Caldwell has analysed some that is probably an average specimen, and calculates that fourteen two-horse loads of 1900 pounds are worth as much as can be procured in commercial fertilizers for $25. It is quite common for good farmers to put fourteen two-horse loads of barn-yard manure per acre on corn or potato ground. How many would think of applying the same value in concentrated fertilizers? We read of such heavy expenditures by market gardeners, but $3 or $4 per acre are all that the farmer can afford in boughten fertilizers for any grain crop. The bulky stable manure, while fermenting ill the soil or used as a mulch, improves its mechanical condi- ton as the mineral manure cannot do. But if applied in as small proportions as commercial fertilizers, even stable manure cannot be expected to do much good. What could farmer look for who distributed evenly two loads of stable manure per acre? He could not do this with coarse manure so cheaply as he can distribute the finely pulverized commercial fertilizer through the drill with the seed.
 The farm is, to a certain extent, a manufactory. The farmer can easily prepare fertilizers on the farm at re- duced cost that will be of better quail ity than can be bought, considering the expense of transportation, bagging, etc. Many substances that are pro- cured on the market as fertilizers can be made more serviceable on the farm by changing them in composition. The reduction of bones and other sub- stances, that must be purchased, per mits of the utilization of materials as fertilizers that can be only procured on the farm.
 If equal weights of bone and super phospate be procured, the latter will contain a larger proportion of free phosphoric acid, readily soluble, while the former will contain larger pro- portion of combined phosphoric acid. The farmer who desires immediate re- suits from the use of bone cannot af- ford to wait until the bones slowly give off their particles, and he is, as a rule, opposed to the manufacture of superphosphate on the farm, owing to the danger of using sulphuric acid, which is necessary in changing the in soluble bone into soluble phosphoric acid, but as the compounds of potash are soluble (known as 'ssalts'') the bones may be reduced by changing them into something else.
 Bone being phosphate of lime, it is insoluble, but by converting it into phosphate of potash it becomes availa- ble for plant food as the free phos- phoric acid of superphosphate. To do this the bones are broken and packed in hogshead, barrel or cask, with all equal weight of unbleached hard wood ashes. To every 200 pounds of the mixture, 12 pounds of dry lime and l5 pounds of carbonate of soda (wash- ing soda) should be added, the whole intimately mixed, when it should be saturated with water (urine and water is better) and kept moist. The re. suit will be that in two weeks the bones will be soft and pasty, and there will have occurred several chemical changes and the formation of salts that completely break up the origina combination, the principal salt being phosphate of potash, due to the phos phoric acid leaving the lime of the bone and uniting with the potash.
 There will also exist in the mass carbonate of lime and a'veral salts o1 ammonia, the only labor required after filling the hogshead being to keep tho ingredients moist.
 If urine or fresh manure be added E '.
 to the bones and ashes, and the mas: kept moist, heat will quickly be gene rated, and not only will there Ie nc loss of ammonia, but nitrn.es will bt