The state capital., 1891-12-26

could be spared, with a pleasant smile he
would say, There, that will do," and with
parting or good night kiss he turned to
his desk, and all understood that "play
time was over. Mrs. Henry Ward
Beecher in Ladies' Home Journal.
EXPERIMENT rs WITH FERTILIZERS.
What Government Stations Are Doing for
the Farmers of the Country.
Farmers in the older states are spending
millions of dollars annually for CONNER
cial fertilizers. In this country, as in
Europe, they have become an absolute
necessity on worn out Soils but to make
them profitable it is necessary that they
should fit the wants of the soil and crops
for which they are used. If farmer buys
potash for land which abounds in potash,
but needs phosphoric acid, he of course
loses. The fundamental principle in the
use of commercial feltilizers is to select
those materials which supply in the best
forms and at the lowest cost the plant food
which the crop needs and the soil fails to
furnish.
In order to enable farmers to find out
the wants of their own soils and the best
way Of supplying them, and at the same
time to get light upon the properties of
soils in different sections of the country, a
number of experiment stations are intro
ducing soil tests with fertilizers which are
largely conducted both by the stations and
also by individual farmers on their own
farms. Of course many of the expert
ments are failures, but many practical men
who have engaged in this work have de-
clared that they have thus learned great
deal which is practically useful and highly
instructive.
The results of these tests in general
show that ''soils vary greatly in their capa-
bilities of supplying food to crops. Differ
ent ingredients are deficient in different
soils. The best way to learn what mate
rials are proper in any given case is by OBJ
servation and experiment. The rational
method for determining what ingredients
of plant food soil fails to furnish in
abundance, and how these unfurnished
materials can be most econ omically sup
piled, is to put the question to the soil with
different fertilizing materials, and get the
reply in the crops produced. The chief use
of fertilizers is to supply plant food. 1t is
good farming to make the most of the
natural resources of the soil and of the
manures produced on the farm, and to de-
pend upon artificial fertilizers only to fur
nish what more is needed. 1t is not good
economy to pay high prices for materials
which the soil itself may yield, but it is
good economy to supply the lacking ones
in the cheapest way
Probably the most valuable practical
work that these experiment stations have
done has been to analyze these various
commercial fertilizers which are offered
for sale by manufacturers. In some of the
states, in New Jersey, for instance, the
| fertilizers are analyzed, and the qualities
| of chemicals found in each sample com
pared with what the manufacturer claimed
| that the composition contained. So as to
make this perfectly plain, the money value
| of the chemicals found in each sample is
| noted and compared with the price charged
| by the manufacturer. Some startling re-
| suits have been shown. One fertilizer sell.
| ing, say, at twenty-five dollars per ton,
| would be found to have value of twenty
eight another, selling at forty dollars a
| ton would be found to be worth only fif
| teen dollars; and in one instance / recall
| the manufacturer charged forty-three dol
| lars ton for his complete fertilizer, and
| the chemist found that its actual value
was only $3.50.
| Bulletins like these have certainly done
| great good for they have warned farmers
from buying inferior chemicals, and theJ
have compelled manufacturers to keep
their compositions up to the advertised
| standard When there is more universal
| education among the farmers it will only
be necessary to express the values of fer
tilizers in chemical terms. We have tn.
authority Of the United States agriculture
department for the statement that in tht
states where experiment stations have Ions
been established the greater number of tn
farmers now need nothing more than thes,
chemical terms to guide them in selecting
the special fertilizers needed in give1
cases.-John Gilmer Speed in Harper.
| Weekly.