The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-26
EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS
What the Government Stations Are Do
ing for the Farmer.
J. G. Speed. in Harper,s Weekly.

ing for the Farmer.
]. G. Speed, in Harper's Weekly.
Farmers in the older states are spending
millions of dollars annually for CONNER
clal fertilizers. In this country, as in Eu-
rope, they have become an absolute neces-
sity on WORKOUT soils; but to make them
profitable it is necessary that they should
hit the wants of the soil and crops for
which they are used. If a 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 fertilizers is to select
those materials which supply in the best
forms and at the least 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
declared 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
capabilities of supplying food to crops
Different ingredients are deficient in diff
ferent soils. The best way to learn what
materials are proper in any given case is
by observation and experiment. The
rational method for determining what in
gradients of plant food soil fails to fur
nish in abundance, and how these unfur-
nlshed materials can be most economically
supplied is to put the question to the soil
with different fertilzing 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 depend upon artificial fertilizers
only to furnish 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 analysed, and the qualities
Ol CiiSiAIlOdAS iOuul III edCu COLl-
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. One
fertilizer selling, say, at $25 per ton
would be found TO have a value
of SIS; another, selling at $40
ton. would be found to be worth
only Sl5; and in one instance l
recall the manufacturer charged $43 ton
for his complete fertilizer. and the chemist
found that its actual value was only $3.50.
Bulletins ike these have certainly done
great good, for they have warned farmers
from buying inferior chemicals, and they
have compelled manufacturers to keep
their compositions up TO the advertised
standard. When there is more universal
education among the farmers it will only
he necessary 10 express the values of fer
tilizers in chemical terms. We have the
authority of the United States agricultural
department for the statement that in the
states where experiment stations have
long been established the greater number
of the farmers now need nothing more
than these chemical terms to guide them
in selecting the special fertilizers needed
in given cases.