The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-02-02
FARMERS. INSTITUTES.
Their Educational Value - Explsissd By
Well Known Southern Authority.


Their Educational Value - ExpIsassd By
Well Knowa Southern Authority. o
Professor Massey Of the North Caro-
lima state experiment station writes on
slow Institutes Have Educated Farm
ers" In The Farmers Institute Bulletin.
Following are extracts from his paper:
Among all the educational agencies
Of modern times in the line of what is
known as university extension the farm
ers' institutes have been most intiuen.
tial, The progress that has been made
in the study of commercial fertilizers
and their proper use during the last 10
years is a surprise to those who have
not watched the course of events. Years
ago farmers, as soon as they began to
think at all about the man urial needs Of
the soil, jumped at once to the conclu-
sion that the one thing necessary to be
done was to get chemist to analyzs
their soil for them and tell them what
it needed. They had an indistinct sort
Of notion that there were certain things
needed to make plants grow, but just
what these things were they imagined
that only chemist could tell But the
chemists at the institutes explained to
them just what things were needed for
the growth Of plants and taught them
that these things were not always in q
state in the soil in which plants could
use them, and that, while chemical
analysis might show them that the
needed elements were in soil, they
might be there in such shape that
plants could not get them and that fire..
quently it might be better to apply these
things in fertilizer than to wait for
the slow purposes Of nature to give them
from the soil.
When manufacturers Of artificial fer
tilizers first began to prepare special
fertilizers for different crops, they were
looked upon as quacks, and Intelligent
men called the practice humbuggery
and said that fertilizer that was good
for one crop was just us good for all.
But the chemists have learned that |
these makers Of special fertilizers were
right and now we all pay more attsn.
ton to the needs Of the plants we are
growing than to the soil In which they |
grow. Farmers have learned. too, that |
while the three things essential to plant
life-nitrogen, potash and phosphorio
acid-which are generally deficient in
Did soils, make complete fertilizer
they must be in varying percentages to
meet the demands of different crops,
and the recent discoveries concerning
he way in which certain plants Of the
pea family get nitrogen for themselves
md the succeeding crop, too, if well
Implied with potash and phosphorio
lcid, have shown them that they need
lot in all cases use the complete ferti-
izer at all, but that for the ordinary
arm crops they can get the nitrogen
Without money and without price if
hey use the mineral plant food to grow
he legumes.
The farmers are rapidly learning
hat they have been often defrauded in
be purchase Of ready made fertilizers
y paying for nitrogen that is of no use
0 the plants because Of its insoluble
ondition, and that for special crops
hey have got to have higher per- 'ntage
some Of the elements than any OF the
eady made fertilizers supply. Hence
10 find farmers all over the country.
articularly in sections devoted to tho
ulture Of market vegetables and tobac-
}, mixing their own fertilizers, and
nus making sure that they have what
ley need. They have learned, too, that
lille a crop may need potash partio-
larly they cannot expect the potash to
ave the desired effect if there is de-
cheney Of nitrogen and prosphorio acid
thsr in the soil or in the fertilizer
red, and that to get the best results
ON the use of any one of the forms of
ant food there must be either In the .
il or supplied to it artificially due
of the other elements They
ave learned that while plant like to-
lcco needs large percentage of potash
fertilizer 1t wants it in the form of .
sulphate, and they look particularly {
to the form Of the potash in mixed !
rtilizer. And this general diffusion Of +
telligence in regard to fertilizers and !
cir action in plant life is due to the in !.
flutes more than to any other agency.