St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-02-03
FARMER AND PLANTER,
rHE Buying OF PLANT FOOD.
S"dment Must be Used In Order to
Obtain the Ingredients Re-
QufreL by Your Soil.

There are only three kinds of plant
icod which the farmer buys in the null
ttude of different brands OF CONNER
ciai fertilizers which are on the mar
ket-n;trogen, phosrhoric acid and
potash He can judge little what his
soii needs: what is required in one sec
ton may be already sufficient in the
soil 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 barn
yard manure he will not use the same
ingredients which he could otherwise
10. Clay soils are apt to contain
enough potash, especially if there IS
thorough tiilage 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 sulphatc
OF potash. Nitrogen in the form OF
nitrate Of SODA is qnick-acting and is
useful in quick-growing crops or crops
planted early in the spri,g.while nitro
gen from fish-scrap and tankage is pre-
feTred for orchards and wheat. Phcs-
pLoric acid from ground bone may
show no effects on oats crop, while II
it be derived from acid phosphate It
will quickly show itself.
This subject of the action of the diff
feTent kinds of plant-foods upon crops
is an important one 10 farmers. and
can be merely touched upon in this
place, but it should be Investigated by
him if he would use fertilizers With
the greatest profit.
There are several hundred brands of
mixed fertilizers on the market prac
t,cally all of the same general compo-
sition; that is, they are mixed from a
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 it must be very
profitable, and leads the inquiring
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
t;ins sixteen per cent of nitrogen;
dried blood contains about ten per
cent. of nitrogen; tish-scrap, five 10
seven per cent; tankage is very yaria-
L. IA.
per 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
terial must decompose before the nj
tlogen is available. In most analyses
by the manufacturers the nitrogen is
given under the name of ammonia.
which is a 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 as well as nitrogen; 1t
is slow-acting and useful for wheat
and seeding down. Muriate of pot
ash, salt dug from the ground ia
Germany, is mostly used to supply the
potash. 1t contains 50 per cent. actual
potash.
Now these raw materials, or others
which may be at hand, are mixed in
various proportions, making whatever
percentages that are required of nitro
gen, phosphoric acid and potash. 1t
al! are present it is called a complete
fertilizer. If mixed for some particu-
lar 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:
Ammonia ........-..-.-. 2.3 per cent
Soluble phosphoric acid. Oil per cent
Reverted phosphoric acid l.2 per cent |
Insolublc phosphoric acid IL per cen.
Total phosphoric acid. .12.14 per cent |
Bone phosphate ........ 1926 per cent |
Potash (k2O) .......... 3.4 per cent /
Potash lmuriate) ..... AS per cent |
This analysis is put in the shape it |
make it appear that there is more in
it than there really is. There should
be law in every state compelling the
manufacturers to state in definite fig
ures the percentages of plantfccd.
When two figures are given, the low
es; is the one to be taken, for they are
not apt to make the goods better than
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,
fetal and available. and potash and
these only, as it is for these that the
farmer is paying his money. Revise
the above analysis SO as to conform to
the above requirements and it will
read:
Nitrogen -..-..-.-.....-.. IL per cent
Pbosphoric acid (availanle)10 per cent
Phosphoric acid ltotaD. Up per cent
fctaSh ...-..-............ per cent
After reading the analysis an dtrans-
lating it to plain terms in this man.
ner, the farmer should be able to tell
quickly just about what he ought to
pay for the goods. No simpler plan
has been devised for this than the uni.
system. and it will before long become
the basis on which fertilizers are pnr-
chased. Prof. Voorhees,, of New Jer-
ses experiment station. says that for
1898 the unit values based on market
prices We're as fellows: Nitrogen from