Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1890-03-22
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Evils OF Ferterlizers.

horse farmer who imagines that
commercial fertilizers injure soils
are an evil that ought to be abated-
and that farmers who use them are
growing poorer by the use every
year. We clip the following from an
exchange, showing the drift of this
fogy argument.
81 am convinced that fertilizers are
an injury to the soil. They feed the
plant for a while, giving it a greater
feeding power.to draw on the plant
food existing in the soil without inn
parting any body to it. l have OBJ
served the soil after two or three sea
sons application of fertilizers to seem
hard and l~ifeless, and would not
respond to the labor put on it as it
did before. In using artificial ma
nures furnishing nitrogen, phosphor.
ic acid and potash, we have substan-
ces which act upon the soil in differ
ent ways and which require different
seasons to make them most effective.
They may be too dry for some of
these component parts, or it may be
too wet for some others, consequently
the ferterlizer is uncertain in its eff
feet. Where the farmer uses stable
MANURE he does not have to exercise
so much judgment, because the ma
nure contains the different elements
Of plant food in fair proportion, and
while some of ii is Immediately
available for plant food, much of it is
not but it advances and furnishes
plant food through the growing sea-
son as the crop may need it.
"The use of fertilizers is causing the
farmers to SOW less grass and clover.
They prefer to buy fertilizers and
raise tobacco and other cultivated
crops rather than be troubled with
extra stock, consequently we see
many. farms growing up with bushes
and briars, fence corners in the same
condition, fences rotting down, caus-
ing the crops to be unsafe, also very
unsightly, all in great part for the
want of more stock on the farm. If
the farmer has not a supply of manure
let him buy good fertilizers and apply
to his corn or other fodder. Feed
this to stock and they will turn it, or
a good portion of it, into good ma
nure, which can be put back on the
land. In this way farmers may
make commercial manures profita.
BILE for one or two applications, and
not injure the land but. to buy fer.
tilizers from year to year to raise
crops and to then sell them off is
death to the soil. Some brands of
commercial fertilizers are worthless
consequently an evil to the defrauded
buyer, not only a loss Of money,
but loss OflabOr and time and the
loss of the effects of good manure
Another point is, even the best O
them cause the farmer to neglect thu
rich sources of homemade manureS
Farmers will go in the stable yard:
shoe-mouth deep in COW dropping
and other valuable manures to gea.
up their teams and wagons to go t.
town to buy commercial fertilizers
1t is not so bulky and requires les
labor. to apply it, which pleases tn,
farmer more than the effect, ant
thus induced they waste better plan
food right at hand, to say nothing O
the direct money outgo."
When we find one man who think
and talks this way about CONNER
cial manures, there are at least nine
jy-nine who are convinced that the,
pay, and in many sections of tn
country they cannot farm proftabl.
without them. We know and ever,
intelligent farmer knows that
commercial manures are used to in
crease the crop yield, and %successiv
crops are taken from the soil an
nothing returned-always taking O.
and never putting anything back
thai the soil is bound to lose its fel
tility. The proper way to use com
mercial fertilizers is in connectio
with stable manure, or green crop
plowed under. The manure of vegt
table matter plowed under gives pc
rOsity and life to the soil, while tn
necessary mineral matter is furnishe
by the fertilizer in concentrate,
form.
The above writer, like all others {
his class, incorrectly asserts that sta
bic manure contains the different elC
ments of plant food in proper pre-
portions for perfecting plant growt
and giving the farmer maximum