The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1898-10-08
FARMER AND PLANTER.
FERTILIzING WHEAT.
Address Before the Shelby County (Ky.)
Farmers' Institute by w. w.
Stevens, of Salem, Ind.

Farmers' Institute by w. w.
Stevens, of Salem, Ind.
Most farmers in the Ohio valley find
1t necessary to use some sort of fertiliz-
er in growing wheat. Some do moth
ing more than to pillow under clover
and other green crops; some depend on
barn-yard manures, but the great ma
jority resort to commercial fertilizers.
When we are not producing on our
lands something more than an average
crop one year with another, there is
something the matter with our soil,
that is, ii we give it fairly good cul-
tivation. If we are doing our best
to grow q good crop and get
only IL or Is bushels per acre
then we may know that our
crop needs to be fertilized. The main
stay on the farm to maintain the ter
tility of the soil should be clover. We
can't grow grain crops on our lands
and keep them productive without
clover. 1t is the cheapest as well as
the best source from which we can de-
rive richness for our soil. In every
crop rotation, be it a two-year or ten
year system, clover should come in
somewhere, or our system will fail to
give us the remunerative results we
hope for. But we can't always have
clover when we want it, on account of
dry season and failures to get good
stands, SO we fall back on barn-yard ma
nures. These we do not have in unlimit-
ed supply, and most frequently they
run short before we get over much
OF our ground, perhaps just the poor
points. Then the only resort is COM
mercial fertilizers, and these do pay as
In most of our wheat lands, and are
being used more and more each year.
The question most frequently pro-
pounded to us is what to use.. The
farmer who has not had considerable
experience in the use of fertilizer, and
has not been close observer as we'll,
invariably wants to know when this
subject is brought up what is best
adapted to his land. No gen.
eral reply can be framed to
this question. So many different
kinds of soil are found over the
country, and these are managed in so
many different ways that no one can
tell just what is needed by looking
over the same or even by analysing the
soil. The farmer himself must solve
the problem, by experimenting, by ask
ing the soil what it is deficient in, when
any sort of grain or money crop is pro-
duced. If there isn't sufficient stalk or
stem to produce large crop then you
may know that the soil needs more nj
trogen; If the grain is deficient in
quantity or quality than phosphoric
acid is wanting. Most lands that are
naturally good for wheat do not
need much potash such as our
limestone soil, with red clay
subsoiL Potash applied on these soils
will show some good results, probably,
or slight increase of crop, but not
sufficient to justify the expenditure OF
money for the same. In Our experi-
ments with potash we have never
found that it paid us, except on the
potash crop. 1t might pay on tobacco
also. but we have never grown to-
bacco.
The farmer should also experiment
and find out where the profitable limit
is in the use of fertilizer. On my
land about 200 pounds per acre is the
profitable limit on wheat. A heavier
application will give an increased crop,
but not sufficient increase to
justify the outlay. want
for my use q fertilizer containing
from 10 to IL per cent. of available
phosphoric acid, three per cent am
monia and one per cent of potash.
practice home-mixing; have been do
ing SO for the past five years. / use
acid phosphate or phosphate rock un-
adulterated and ground to get what
phosphoric acid l need. A first-clasa
brand of this phosphate will contain
about II per cent. of available phos-
phoric acid. The ammonia get from
tankage, cotton seed meal or castor
pomace-whichever is cheapest, that
is, whichever will give me the most
ammonia for the least money. For
wheat use about 200 pounds of the
acid phosphate, 700 pounds of the tank
age or cottonseed meal. and 100 pounds
of muriate of polish. These amounts
can be raised, as a matter of course, to
suit the farmers notion as to what he
thinks his land requires. Fertilizers
bought from the retail dealer contain
ing the above per cent. of available
plant food will cost from sea to S2s per
ton. The farmer can mix it himself
for SIG to SIS per ton. There is no Sc
cret about the mixing; just pile it all
up on the barn floor, and with shovel
a good hand will mix and bag a ton
in an hours time. Some may ask
where does this difference in
price come in. The eight or ten
dollars difference in price of ready
mixed goods and those the farmer can
make himself goes to pay local agents