The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-04-06
AGRICULTURAL.
The Home Mixing OF Fertilizers.

There is no great secret about 1t.
All you need in order to do it is TO have
the chemicals, good floor and shovel.
If in addition to this, you can get a
large coarse sieve like gravel screen
such as mason's use, it will be help to
you. Acid phosphate is always fine and
without Jumps unless it has laid in q
damp place when it is apt to become
lumpy. Muriate of potash is nearly
always more or less lumpy, and the
Jumps need to be crushed. The same
is true of nitrate of soda. The seive
enables one to separate the Jumps for
crushing, but where there is no such
thing, the following plan works well;
suppose you decide to use on an acre
200 pounds acid phosphate, 100 pounds
muriate potash, and 30 pounds nitrate
soda, you would weigh out so pounds
of the first and spread it on the floor,
then % pounds of the second spread
over that, then IL or ID pounds of the
third spread over the pile. Then be-
gin again and put another 80 pounds of
the acid phosphate on the pile, then 60
on with the others until you had
weighed out enough for an acre. The
best way to measure is to have pail
or similar vessel into which you can
put a weighed quantity as say 25
pounds, then it is far easier to measure
than to weigh. After the pile is
weighed, take shovel (not a round
pointed one) and shovel the pile over
several times, throwing the fertilizer
up into pile high in the center. Then
the Jumps will fall to the outside and
can.be crushed with block of wood
with handle set in it, The Jumps are
not hard to crush, and if few go in, it
is no great matter. The only real
trouble is with the proportion of the
chemicals to mix. But this need not
be greatly in the way. Every New
England experiment station has bulle-
tins containing printed formulas for
various crops, and these are sent free
to those who wish to use them.
But it is far better for each farmer to
try to find out just what his soils need
than to trust to any one else to tell him
what to use. Some soils need potash,
but do not need prssccssp,horic acid. 9th
ers are the Opposite. Some soils need
nitrogen, others do not. So each farm
er should experiment to find out what
his soil needs. Many of the ordinary
fertilizers contain very little potash,
while most soils in New England are
deficient in this. A reason for the
poor success many have with fertilizers
may be found in this. The remedy is
not to give up using fertilizers, for it is
not possible to get along without them
on most soils, but they should be adapt
ed to the needs of the soil and crops.
1t is disputed question whether we
should place the needs of the soil or of
tiO SlOpo hiot1 put LlOob
say, suit your fertilizers to the needs of
the soil. Still it is we'll to consider the
needs of the crops you are going to
grow, and to study the analyses of
these. There is no lack of printed in
formation on these subjects, the only
lack is in the farmers themselves find
ing or taking time to read aud study
the information that is theirs for the
asking. 1t cannot be too much insist
ed upon that the modern farmer must
be reading man in order to be a sue
cessful farmer. This subject of fer
tilizers well illustrates the need of study
on the part of the farmer. 1t is estab-
lished that saving of from S. to $40
can be made on each ton of fertilizer
used, and the mechanical part of mix
ing really amounts to nothing. 1t is
the headwork that tells, it is the knowl-
edge that is lacking on the part of the
farmers.