Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1900-02-09
FARMER AND PLANTER
THE BUYING OF PLANT FOOD.
Judmcnt Must be uHcd In Order to
Obtain the Ingr edients tie
CURED by Your Soil.


cial fertilizers which are on the mar
ket-nitrogen, phosphoric acid and
potash, He can judge little what his
soil needs; what is required in one see
ton may be already sufficient III the
soi in another section. If he raises
clover or other nitrogen-gathering
crops he will not need to buy nitrogen
in the bag. If he has plenty of bari-
yard manure he will not use the same
ingredients which he could otherwise
do. Clay soils are apt to contain
enough potash, especially If there is
thorough tillage to make it available.
Some crops do best on food from some
particular source; for instance, pota'
Toes and tobacco are found to do best
with potash derived from the sulphat9
of potash. Nitrogen in the form OF
nitrate of soda is quick-acting and IS
useful in quick-growing crops or crops
planted early in the spriag,while nitro
gen from fish-scrap and taukage is pre-
erred for orchards and wheat. Phos-
pLoric acid from ground bone may
show no effects on oats crop, while if
it be derived from acid phosphate it
will quickly show itself.
This subject of the action of the dill
ferent KINDS of plantfoods upon crops
is an important one to farmers, and
'an be merely touched upon in thus
place, but it should be investigated by
him If he would use fertilizers vlth
the greatest profit.
There are several hundred brands of
mixed fertilizers on the market prac-
tically all of the same general compo-
sition; that is, they are mixed from
few forms OF raw material. So many
men or companies engaged in tins
mixing business, with their buildings,
agents, state and local, advertising.
ETC., seem to show that il must be very
profitable, and leads the inquirng
farmer to ask why he can not buy
these raw materials himself and apply
them to his crops singly or mix them
according to his needs.
AS was said, the elements of the soil
which are subject to loss, and which
the farmer may find need to replenish,
are only three-nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and potash. Nitrogen can be pur-.
chased in nitrate of soda, which con
tains sixteen per cent of nitrogen;
diied blood contains about ten per
cent of nitrogen; tish-scrap, five TO
seven per cent; tGnkage is very varia-
BILE, and may contain as high as nine
pei cent. Nitrogen in these raw ma.
terials is available in the order named
Nitrate of soda unless quickly taken
UP will leach out of the soil by rains
In the other forms of nitrogen the ma
teriai must decompose before the nj
tiogen is available. In most analyses
by the manufacturers the nitrogen is
given under the name of ammonia,
which is compound of nitrogen. This
is done in order to make the figures ar
pear larger, four per cent of ammonia
being equal to about three per cent. vi
nitrogen.
The basis of phosphoric acid is bone,
which contains an average of twenty
two per cent. of the phosphoric acid.
being in most part slowly available.
| Acid phosphate is rock treated with
sulphuric acid TO make its phosphoric
acid available, of which it contains
from twelve to fourteen per cent.
Acid phosphate is the cheapest form
Of phosphoric acid, and is all right
when properly used. Tankage contains
| phosphoric acid ms well as NITROGEN: it
is slow-acting and useful for whea,
and seeding down. Muriate of pot
ash, a salt dug from the ground in
Germany, is mostly used to supply the
potash. 1t contains 80 per cent. actual
potash.
Now these raw materials. or other.
which may be at hand, are mixed in
various proportions, making whatevei
percentages that are required of nitro.
gen, phosphoric acid and potash. II
al! are present it is called complete
fertilizer If mixed for some portict-
La crop it is special fertilizer. If the
better class of ingredients are used and
no filler is added it is styled high.
grade filler or make weight" in TIE
form of land plaster or some cheap
inert substance is added to bring down
the cost.
have before me fertilizer-sack on
which is the following analysis:
| A
ammonia ........,...... 2.3 per GEN.
Soluble phosphoric acid. Oh per cent
Reverted phosphoric acid 1.2 per cent
lrsoluble phosphoric acid LIZ per cen.
Total phosphoric acid. .12.14 per cen
Bone phosphate ........ 1926 per cen,
Potash (K2O) .......... "a per cent
Potash (muriate) ...... 4.S per cen
This analysis is put in the shape il
is in order to puzzle the farmer an(
make it appear that there is more il
it than there really is. There SHOULD
be law in every state compelling tn,
manufacturers to state in definite fig
ures the percentages of plantfood
When two figures are given, the low
est is the one to be taken, for they ar,
not apt to make the goods better thai
the guarantee. The law should also di
rect them to give the analysis in Sim
pier shape. They should give the per
centages of nitrogen, phosphoric acid
total and available, and potash ant
these only, as it is for these that thu
farmer is paying his money. Revs
the above analysis so as to conform Il
the above requirements and it wi!
read:
Nitrogen ................. 1R per cen
Phpsphoric acid (availaole)10 per cen
Phosphoric acid (totuD ..12 per cen
Potash .............. per cen
After reading the ANALYSIS an dtrens
lating it to plain terms in this man
ner, the farmer should be able to tel
quickly just about what he ought t
nay for the goods. No simpler pla