The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-04-06
Fnrmers nuyinr FertiIIzers.

The question how largely farmers should
depend on purchased fertilizers is one
whose answer must depend on location,
on the kinds of crop grown, and the near
ness of sure market for them, and to no
small degree on the executive ability of
the farmer himself says the American
Curtivator. Manure is wealth, and like
all other wealth il increases in some
hands while in others it diminishes and
finally disappears. 1t is certain that I'M
less the farm is well cared for in other re-
spects the buying of fertilizers will not
make it pay profit. The farmer who
suffers the manure made by his own stock
to be wasted need not expect that he can
afford to buy fertilizers to replace it. That
could not be the fact in any event. Most
of the commercial fertilizers largely de-
pend for their efficiency on the mineral
plant food that they contain. Stable ma
nure is, on the contrary, generally def
eient in phospha-S>and potash, and on
most lands needs to have this deficiency
supplemented by purchases of CONNER
cial mineral fertilizers.
1t is the practice of some conservative
farmers never to pay out money that does
not seem absolutely necessary. The pur-
chase of fertilizers in their view comes
within this restriction. Yet their crop
ping year after year, with no more fertil-
izerS than those made on the farms, tends
to make the soil constantly poorer. The
result is that the abandoned farm is most
common in New England in the places
where this so-called conservative policy
has been pursued. 1t is really an unbus-
tneSS-like policy. 1t is the business of
the farmer to produce crops to sell, as il is
of the merchant to buy goods to sell The
merchant studies his markets and buys
Whatever he can sell at a profit. If he
makes mistake, he gets out with as lit
tie loss as possible and tries something
else.
1t requires good judgment to know how
much fertilizers to apply, and to decide
what crops will pay best for them. No
farmer can AFFORD TO buy expensive COM
mFereial manures for his grass crops either
for pasture or hay. These usually sell
very nearly at the price that their phos-
phate nitrogen and potash are worth when
fed and made into manure. 1t will not nav
10 purchase heterogeneous manures for any
OF the grain crops. These are sown early,
and It is usually. best that their early
growth should be slow. If the soil is rea-
sonably fertile there will be SUFFICIENT de-
velopment of heterogeneous plant food TO
supply all that grain needs. Applying nj
trogenous manures to grain would onlv
make an extra rank growth OF straw VIII
poorly filed heads.
Most kinds of vegetables require but lit
soils will be furnished by the soil provi-
ded it is rich enough in heterogeneous plant
food TO make rapid growth. Yet a contin-
uous use of stable manure may in time
produce an excess of the kind Of fertilitv
that 1t supplies. while the soil may be lack
ing its due proportion of phosphate and po-
fash. 1t is the practice of good gardeners
to alternate with the mineral manures ev-
cry few years, applying large amounts per
acre. These, if some available nitrogen is
added, give quite as good an effect as do
the large amounts of stable manure that
they usually apply. One thousand pounds
of phosphate, with 200 pounds of nitrate of
soda, are equal for immediate use to the
30 or 40 loads per acre of stable manure
which gardeners apply every year to land
that is constantly cropped. The combined
phosphate and nitrogen are much cheaper
than the cost of the stable manure, even
when it has to be hauled only short dis
lance.
OF course farmers cannot afford to buy
either stable manure or mineral fertilizer
N any such amounts as these. Their crops
are not worth the outlay, and even should
they try to compete with the market gar
dener, only the farms close to a good mar
ket could make a success of IL.