The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-01-06
MANURE.
what 1t Is and How To Use 1t.

what 1t Is ana HOW 10 use At'
II has been aptIy stated that manure is
the raw material out of which all the
,arious products of the farm and garden
are made There is no need for making
= distinction in the terms manure" ana
fertilizer" though it is the fashion to
applv the latter term to commercial ma
,ures Manure and fertilizer signify, or
should. the same thing. Anything used
for fertilizing the soil or supplying nu-
trmeut to plants, as dung, compost, muck
etc. Some soils are naturally very fer
sile and seem to need little or nothing
in the way of manure. We have no
doubt it may be safely claimed that OF
an arabic land in cultivation three years
there is not one acre in the hundred that
would not be benefited by some one or
the other of the several elements that
enter into plants. Land that is naturally
fertile implies the possession of humus
in full supply, and it has been shown to
be almost invariably the case that the
production of such soil is decidedly in
creased by the application of the mineral
clements. 1t may be that the mere addi-
lion of potash will effect the increase.
il may be that phosphoric acid will do it.
Even common lime added TO such soil
containing abundant humus invariably
Increases the product the first year or two
of its application. A top dressing of COM
mon salt has been known to produce TINS
result and the same is true of land plas-
Ter. And yet neither of these three latter
mentioned substances are regarded as
supplying those elements of food that
plants chiefly require and that are usually
lacking in arabic soils. For many years
now ii has been an accepted conclusion
that the only elements out of dozen that
ii was necessary to apply to worn soils
are nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid,
this on the assumption, however, that
the soil is fairly supplied with humus.
soil very rich in humus is not apt to
need the anDlie3tlOn of nitrogen for that
atmospheric element is afforded in more
or less quantity by the humus. 1t is true
IL may not always be furnished to the
full extent that certain plants, charac-
teriZed as heterogeneous plants, may make
use Of Owing to the conditions of weather
It may be that the nitrogen, existing album
dantly as it does in the humus, vege-
table matter has not been permitted to
assume the shape that plants require il
to have before it can be absorbed by them.
1t must be borne i'm mind that as carbon
cannot be utilized by the growing plant,
except in the shape of carbonic acid. So
nitrogen is not available, until IL Is pre-
sented in the shape of ammonia or nitric
acid. whole bushel of cotton seed may
be piled up about a growing cabbage and
yet It would starve to death, so far as
II depends for sustenance upon the nitro
gen with which the seeds are so abund-
antly supplied. With the aid of moisture
The seeds have to rot and this changes
The nitrogen within the hulls into am
monia, which the roots Immediately take
up This is the case with all organic
manurial substances, the chief of which
on the southern farm is cotton seed. AL
together different in quality and action
are the two ammonia salts nitrate of
soda and sulphate of ammonia, the nitro-
gen of which is instantly available to the
growing plant from the fact of it's exist
ing in the substance in the form of nitric
acid. These two subs tanceS we have only
10 spread on the surface about the plant
and the first shower dissolves out and
presents it to the rootlets in the only
form that renders it available to the
plant, to wit, in solution.