The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-07-23
Experience With Commercial Fertiliz-

In order to make commercial fertilizers
profitable they have to be intelligently APP
piled, says the Indiana Farmer. The
ground should be thoroughly puverized-
in the spring to shut out the cold and in
the fall to modify the heat also to assist
in retaining the moisture, all of which is
so necessary to the manufacture and re-
tention of plant food. The animal takes
the food masticates and digests it, and
then applies it to its requirements and
growth. Not so with the inanimate. it
has no power Of mastication or digestion.
Nature prepares the food, and all the
plant has to do is to take it up and apply
it to its development and growth. Com
mercial fertilizers are not in this condi-
ton when applied to the soil, conse-
quently warmth and moisture are neces-
sary to get the plant food that is stored
in the proper condition for the plant to
| feed upon, hence the great necessity of a
thorough preparation of the soil.
WIEN MOST PROFITABLE.
Then again, to be profitable it must be
used in connection with a rotation of
crops. A rotation like the following l
have found to be profitable in growing
crops, and also in retaining the fertility
of the soil, which is the all important
thing after all: Commencing with clover,
corn, cultivate thoroughly, cut the corn
on as soon as the grain is glazed. From
Oct. l to 10 harrow thoroughly and seed
TO wheat, sowing with it about 200 pounds
of fertilizer to the acre; then again to
clover, pasture or to NOW the first
year; the second year to plow down as
before, and so on, thus getting three
crops in the three years and the soil in
better condition than when you began.
and you have the expense of breaking
your land only the one time. / have with
my experience very grave doubts about
the propriety or profit in Using it on corn.
The expense is too great, and without the
rotation of clover know it does not pay.
4 continuous use of fertilizers on corn
without a rotation of grass is a had policy
from the fact that the acids in the ferti-
lizers have tendency TO harden and COM
pact the soil. which is so detrimental to
the production of crops of any kind.
Therefore the necessity of the grass, es-
pecially the clover, to neutralize the eff
fects of the acids, and also for the forma-
ton of humus, which is so necessary for
the formation of plant food.
WHAT FERTILIZERS TO USE.
The question is often asked, what kind
of fertilizers shall l use? That depends
upon what you are going to grow. There
is no question but that it takes a differ
ent composition to grow vegetables to
what it does TO grow cereals. Our Scien-
fists are investigation in this direction,
and through the information derived from
them our manufacturers are making ferti-
lizers adapted to growing of the various
farm crops. For some time we have had
the Potato Grower" which is no myth
but still in the future it may be improved
on, which if applied at the rate of 100
pounds to the acre will almost double the
crop and will double the amount of sala-
BILE potatoes. And now we have the
Corn Grower" and the Wheat Grower"
which l think will be improved from time
to time until they will meet all the re-
quirements for the successful growing of
these crops.
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS EXPERIENCE.
Having used commercial fertilizers for
twenty-five years, would not advise any
one TO depend on them alone, but would
say TO every farmer to make all the barn
yard and stable manure you possibly can
utilize all the straw and rubbish, keep all
the good stock thac your farm will posi-
bly, carry, pillow down all the clover you
can possibly spare, for by doing this your
nitrogen will not cost over l per cent.
what IL costs in the commercial fertilizer
After these years OF experience aud OBJ
servation. l am satisfied although we
have succeeded reasonably well in i'm
proving our worn-out land, had we ex-
pended the money that we spent for fer
filters for good sheep and dairy cattle
and adopted the plan as laid down above,
Of making and saving our fertilizer from
the refuse of the farm, using commercial
fertilizer only when there was not enough
OF the other 10 90 round, we would have
made more money and our lands would be
In better condition than what they are
to-day.