The Opelousas courier., 1892-02-06

1h0hp HtSshou Oh converting In
soluble nitrogen into soluble nitrogen.
h must be done on the farm. And
the same process that will decompose the
organic nitrogen and render it soluble
will also render the phosphoric acid
much more available, and consequently
enhance its value.
To truckers, gardeners and fruit
growers this subject should be of special
interest, because a supply of soluble and
readily available manure is of great I'M.
portance. OF the large quantities of
manure they annually use it is quite
clear that they do not get half or a quar-
ter the effect that the plant-food + con
tains is capable of producing, simply be-
cause 1t is not in an available condition.
We want to convert nitrogen, which we
car buy or make for seven cents per
pound, into nitrogen which we cannot
buy for less than eighteen cents per
pound, and for which, as a matter Of
fact, we often have to pay-or at any
rate do pay-twenty- five or thirty cents
a pound. And SO with the phosphcric
acid. We can buy it in tankage and
coarse bones for three cents a pound,
while we pay not less than eight certs
per pound for it in ordinary fertilizers;
and it is practically better worth the
eight cents when soluble than three
cents when insoluble. 1t this were not
the case we should not keep on paying
over twenty million dollars every year
for soluble phosphoric acid. That far
mers and gardeners can convert insoluble
nitrogen into soluble nitrogen, and thus
double or treble its value, there is no sort
of doubt.
Several of our experiment stations have
shown that when manure is fermente6
and afterward exposed to drenching
rains a very large pei centage of nitrogen
is washed away. And they earnestly
condemn the practice of fermenting
manure. They seem to overlook the
fact that, according to their W expert
ment, the insoiuble nitrogen has been
converted into soluble nitrogen by fer
mentation, or it would not be dissolved
and carried off by the rain. It is the
abuse and not the use of fer
mentation that they should con-
denim. When We have succeeded
in making the nitrogen soluble we should
put the manure on the land, or keep un-
der cover, or in heaps so deep that there
is never rain enough falling IN the sur
face to more than saturate the heap. In
other words, we should do as a great
many good farmers have oone for the
last hundred years or more. But during
the last dozen years a great flood of light
has been thrown on this subject. We
know now, at leasti part, what causes
the decomposition or fermentation. We
have not space here to go into details.
Suffice it to say that the time will soor
come when we shall no more think OF
f~ermenting manure without ''yeast" thar
Of fermenting beer or bread without
yeast. We should make the yeast or
our own farm. In fact it will make it.
self; but we should encourage its growth
and preservation, and use it freely and
effectively. We should make amnonis
and nitrate at home precisely in the SAINT
way as it is made in the rainless region;
of Chill. We should have nitrate bed;
on our own farms and in our own gar,
dens. It may be said that there is no
nitrogen enough in a ton of manure tt
pay for the labor Of piling and fernent
ing it. In that case we can buy SOM
FISH scrap CT tankage that furnishes inso
luble nitrogen at a cheap rate, and spreat
it, with the nitrate yeast, on the layer
of manure as we make the pile. But wi
must not forget the yeast, and it ma.
also be necessary to add some plain acid
phosphate to increase the growth OF the
yeast plant and to prevent the escape OF
ammonia till it is converted into nitrate.
-American Agricuharast.