The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-11-02

In our general digest of fertilizer
bulletins last week we emitted No. 129
Of the Ithaca IN. " Station, one of
the most important Of the lot. It gives
directions for experiments to be con
Quoted by each farmer to determine
what fertilizing elements his particular
soil most needs. This test may prevent
his wasting money for elements which
his soil does not need.
Every crop is mostly made up OF
water, carbon, lime, nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash. II the crop
cannot get enough OF any one of these
foods it will not thrive, no matter how
much Of the others it may have. All
know that if crop spff srs for want Of
water i5 is cut short. A deficiency In
supply of any one of the other elements
named will also cut tehort. On the
other hand, if there is an excess OF any
one of them it is just as useless to sup
ply more of it as it would be to water
crop during wet spell, though not
as harmful, of course.
Except in irrigating countries, the
supply Of water to crops is beyond
mans control, and they get their car
bon in abundance from the air. Most
soils contain enough lime. Therefore,
of all the food required by growing
crops the farmer needs to supply only
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash,
and when he buys fertilizers these are
the things he pays for IL his soil al
ready contained enough of either, it is
a waste Of money to buy more. It may
here be remarked that, except in few
special cases, he should never buy nj
trogen as fertilizer. It costs two or
three times as much per pound as
either ,phosphoric acid or potash, and
by feeding cotton seed meal, bran, lin
seed meal or gluten meal to stock he
will get their full worth in meat, milk,
wool, butter, etc and will also recover
their rich stores Of nitrogen in the ma
nure. Or, by growing peas, clover,
vetch or other pod6ed plants tEaG
gather nitrogen from the air, he may
get his nitrogen free of cost. If his
soil needs phosphoric acid or potash,
let him buy these in the form of acid
phosphate and muriate Of potash-their
cheapest form.
T>How shall he find this outs One man
saysSN Have his soil analyz9d by a
chemist" But this is of little use. 1t
is we'll known that chemical analysis
shows that the first foot in depth of
almost any soil contains from so to 500
times as much phosphoric acid and
potash az any crop needs. And yet
many sue eh soils do not yield good crops
unless Supplied with phosphoric acid
and potash. Why's Simply because
whatsthey contain is so combined with
other chemical elements in the soil as
to be insoiuble in water, and the roots
of plants can use only such food as is
dissolved in water. Such things as
salt, lime, acid, etc., sometimes benefit
soils by rendering their natural stores
of plant food soluble. Humus or de-
caying vegetable matter helps in the
same way, besides rendering a soil
warmer, more moist and porous.
The only way for the farmer TO find
out what fertilizing elements his soil
needs is by actual test-the way in
which we have learned pretty much all
We know about agriculture. It is not
an easy road to learning, but to a
thinking man it is an interesting and
pleasant one.
Let the plats be wide enough to con-
tain five or six rows of the crop and
long enough to extend across the field;
each one will then take in part of the
strips of all kinds of soil, if the soil is
not uniform. Let all plats be of the
same size, broken alike and on the
same day, planted alike and on the
same day and with the same crop, and
always cultivated alike and on the
same day. Then, whatever difference
may appear at harvest time may be
fairly attributed to difference of fertili-
zsr used. AS plants often send their
roots across middles to feed on the fer
tilizers in the next row, it is well to
have each plat wide enough to contain
five rows, and ignore the two outside
rows, gathering and measuring the
three middle rows of each plat for com
parison of results.
Have nine plats, numbered to 9.
On No. apply stable manure; on No.
2 muriRte of potash at the rate of 200
pounds per acre; on No. nitrate Of
soda at the rate of 300 pounds per acre;
on No. 4 both muriate of potash and
nitrate of soda at the same rate, 300