Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-02-05
Ashes as a Fertilizer.
Bazaar

More than most other materials used as
u fertilizer. ashes may be considered a
stimulant. They are true manure to
the extent that they supply the elements
of plant growth in the potash which they
furnish. Plants have no nerves, and so
cannot be helped, except by the supply of
food available for their growth. But the
potash of ashes acts as a solvent for other
and more important plant food than
potash. If it be placed in contact
with carbonaceous and heterogeneous sub
stance, it iberates carbonic acid gas and
ammonia. If it is in contact with clay
soil it generally iberates phosphate of
lime. If it be In contact with any kind of
manure it hastens decomposition, and
makes it more quickly assailable. The
popular idea that potash retards decompo-
sitlon is only true when it is used in ex-
cess. 1t cannot be so used as fertilizer,
as the amount of soil it comes in contact
with is always much larger than the
potash, Hence it helps to decompose it
instead of merely putting it in pickle as a
larger dose might possibly do.
1t follows from these facts that asLes
are more generally profitable than any
other fertilizer. They are available for
the man who owns the land and wishes to
get the greatest returns from it, as we'll as
for him who merely rents and desires
larger immediate returns for what he
expends. For the latter potash IN some
form, so as to make what he puts OH the
land Immediately available, is necessity.
1t is equally so for those who are for any
reason DESTROYS of concentrating the
productive capacity of the LARD on the
crop now growing. This, as we take it,
includes all farmers. Gi"en each time
the largest possible crop, it is certain that
if rightly used it will enable the farmer
to replace it with still larger crops in the
future. If this be not so, then farming is
a confessed failure. 1t is a constant
not also provide for its restoration as well -,
fail, and the land be no longer worth
cultivation.
1t is only when there is profit from
crops to restore soil fertility that this
failure can be averted. To this end a
potash fertilizer that will make ali others
more available is equally necessary TO the
farmer owning his land as to the one who
rents. Each is equally anxious for pres
ent profit, because it means to each a
present capital to be used for paying rent
the two, rent paying may seem most i'm
mediatey necessary; but we : doubt
whether it can be made to seem SO to
| average land owners. If fertility is lock-
ed up their ability to improve the farm is
| thereby diminished, and this results in
actual loss.
The truth is susceptible of proof that
the money secured by the largest crop the
land is capable of producing is worth
more than It's legal interest rate. In other
words, it does rot pay any farmer to allow
his land t. produce less than it is capable
of growing any Zear. Possibly a large
crop exhausts fertility more than a small
Ole. But this is just what large crop
is for. With modern improvements for
harvesting it costs little more to harvest
large crop than a small one. The large
crop gives surplus above cost to be used
in maintaining fertility. The small crop
does not. So, though 1t does not take so
much from the soil, growing poor crops Is
the surest road to sterility. Only by max
ing the most Of his land can the farmer
reap the profit he is entitled to and still
keep the farm in good condition.-Amer
| lean CultivatOr.