The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1897-02-13
FARMER AND PLANTER.
HoME-MIxED FERTILIZERS

More Economical and Satisfactory Than
Those Bought Ready Mixed.
As many farmers find it necessary to
use fertilizers in grain and tobacco
growing l desire to suggest that it will
be great saving il they will mix their
own fertilizers instead Of bpyjng those
already prepared, as Is the nsusl GUS
tom. l have done my own mixing for
the last two years, and know 1t pays
me, and for this reason recommend
1t to others. l use from Is to 20 tons
OF fertilizer every year, and have saved
by home mixing from five to seven
collars per ton on what use.
There is no great amount of scien-
title knowledge necessary to mix fer
tilizers successfully, as most agents
and manu- features would make you be-
lieve, nor is it necessary to have an
expensive mixing machine to do the
work. You want to know in the first
place that some sort of soluble or
available fertilizer is best for produc-
Ing paying crops. Raw bone and tank
age unacidulated act. toepslowly to
give best results. T'wart Something
more prompt Even for the orchard l
use and would recommend quick act
Ing fertilizer.
To supply the phosphoric acid neces-
sary to make any good fertilizer /
would always use calculated phos.
phate rock. 1t Is to be hoped that the
recent find in Tennessee of very rich
deposits of this rock may cheaper this
product. as believe it will. There is
no doubt but what fertilizers are too
dear In comparison with present prices
Tor which most grains are selling.
Acid phosphate is the name applied to
this rock goods. l got it at SIS per
ton last season, an article that was
guaranteed to contain from Is to II
per cent of available phosphate acid.
Ii the farmer can procure wood
ashes from mills or lime kilns, it is
the cheapest form in which to buy
potash. Ashes can always be bought
for much less than they are worth as
a fertilizer in most parts of the coun-
try. If the ashes are not to be had,
use murate of potash for grains, sui
phate of potash for potatoes and to-
bacco. For ammonia buy cotton seed
meal or calculated tankage. / have
used the meal, as l could get what
wanted in it cheaper than it could be
had in the tankage. The above are
the cheapest and best sources from
which to procure the necessary
materials to make any fertilizer con.
tanning the three necessary ingredi-
ents, phosphoric acid, potash and am
monia. These are the materials most
used by regular fertilizer manufac-
turers.
Now for the mixing. For corn. wheat
or oats use 1900 pounds of the acid
phosphate, 400 pounds of tankage or
cotton seed meal and 100 pounds of
potash to make up ton of fertilizer
For potatoes or tobacco use more pot
ash and less phosphate. Some lands
may need more potash or ammonia
than prescribed above for growing
grain, but every farmer should know
enough about fertilizers, if he has
been using them for any length of
time, to know about what per cent. OF
the above ingredients he needs, and
mix accordingly.
The mixing is very quickly and east
ly done by cleaning off the barn floor
and dumping our acid phosphate, pot
ash and tankage or cotton-seed meal
in heap, and then mix with shovel.
One man will mix ton and resack it
easily in an hour. Do your mixing as
You need to use the fertilizer.
l carefully calculated the cost of
what fertilizer used the past season
and found that upon my own mixture
l saved six dollars per ton by home
mixing. and eight dollars per ton on
potato grower Every farmer who
uses any amount of fertilizer will find
that 1t will pay him big to do his own
mixing.-W. w. Stevens, in Farmers
Uome journal.