The Savannah morning news., 1901-12-23

writer in the Indiana Farmer. It would
be rating the average intelligence of
the American farmer very low, indeed,
to suppose that he will buy all this
material, paying something like $780,
600, 600 for it, and always at a loss. At
the same time. the average farmer does
not take fertilizers seriously. He re-
CARDS them as a sort of makeshift, IN
the absence of what he thinks is all
the farmyard manure he needs. From
manurial standpoint, farmyard ma
nure makes crops grow through the &C
ton of certain substances it contains,
and all kinds of scientists have long
since determined (there is no guessing
about it now that these substances are
three in number, namely. potash, nitro
gen and phosphoric acid. Not only are
these plant food in manure, but they
are also plant food in whatever form
found. Farmers must learn to look
upon plant food, not as a manure from
the sta bles, but as just so much nitro
gen, potash and phosphoric acid, con-
tanned in that manure heap from the
stable.
When this point is once fully under
stood we should next take up the fact
that phosphoric acid, for example, in
bones is just the same SO far as max
ing crops grow, as the phosphoric acid
in manure, the same precisely may be
said of the phosphoric acid in phos-
pilates rock The potash in German
potash salts is just the same, pound
for pound, as the potash in farmyard
manure, will make plants grow just
the same There is a difference in
quality, but that is rather against the
farmyard manure. Plant food must be
soluble in water before plants can take
it up, digest it, so to speak. Now, we
all know that most of the potash and
phosphoric acid in farmyard manure is
not thus soluble, though it slowly be-
comes soluble in the soil. On the other
hand, the potash in German potash
salts is always freely soluble. and the
same is true of the phosphoric acid in
acid phosphate. In fact this difference
is so marked that in scientific fertilizer
experiments with farmyard manure,
the potash and phosphoric acid in them
are generally valued at just nothing at
all, and mineral fertilizers are used to
replace them.
There is one thing about farmyard
manure that recommends its use, and
that is the fact that it is a complete
manure. That is, it contains all three
of the elements of plant food, for crops
must have all three and in more or less
definite proportions. Commercial fer
tiliZerS are made by mixing together
certain raw products, the mixture tax
en- as a whole is supposed to contain
nitrogen, and potash, and phosphoric
acid. all three, take notice, according
to the needs of the crop for which it
is intended. There seems to be much
difference of opinion as to what vari-
Gus crop needs are, as the fertilizer
formulas vary widely. Farmers must
examine the chemical analysis of their
crops, and form an idea as to what
their crops want. While opinions are
free to all, the man who pays the bill
has very good right to an opinion on
what he buys. or is asked to buy. In
complete fertilizers are always uncer-
TAIN but it is no doubt true that the
nitrogen of commercial fertilizers may
be greatly reduced, when used on soils
where clovers are grown in rotation.
r. Garwood.