Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1902-08-23
FERTILIZERS.
icy C. z. JOHNSON. I

q fact that when the farmers get good
crops it is benefit to the whole commu-
nifty. as the following would suggest:
"'The farmers trade is one of worth
He's partner with the sky and earth;
He's partner with the sun and rain.
And no man loses for his gain:
And men may rise and men may fall.
But the farmer. he must feed them ALL"
You will often hear it said that fertilizer
will ruin the soil. but at the same time. if
you will talk with the party who makes
that statement you will learn that he has
never read anything about soil fertility or
agricultural chemistry. If we will 60 into
the subject little deeper we will learn
that there are some things that can be ap-
piled to soil: that their chemical action in
the soil will liberate plant food and there
by grow large crop, and if that crop is
removed the soil has certainly been impov
erished bedause there has been taken off
more plant food than was supplied. For
instance. if we apply lime or sulphuric
acid we are not applying the least bit of
plant food. but something that will liber-
ate plant food from the soil and produce a
larger crop. On the other hand. if these
same chemicals are applied to soil where
clover or COW peas are grown and these
crops are plowed under, that soil has been
enriched. as these crops draw the most of
their nitrogen from the air, where there is
an unlimited supply; but at the same time
that kind of treatment would not enrich
that soil in potash, which is very impor-
tant element If we are producing grain or
seed of any kind. We cannot get potash
from the air. for the simple reason that we
cannot burn it and expel it in the air.
When anything is burned the nitrogen
escapes in the air in thr form of gas and
smoke, but the potash is left in the ashes.
The potash is the element that produces
the pollen and makes the seed plump. II
the soil is rich in nitrogen and poor in pot
ash it will grow an excess of straw or stalk
On such soil light application OF fertil-
izer containing large per cent OF potash
will do wonders. and at the same time if a
fertilizer rich in nitrogen was applied it
would be damage to the crop. it it was
seed you were growing. If it was hay or
stalk growth you we're looking for, nitro
gen would be the element to apply. 1t is
a very easy matter to get the soil too rich
in nitrogen, but almost impossible to get it
too rich in potash. for the plant will take
only what potash is needed for the perfect
development of the seeds; and potash only
leaves the soil through the channels OF the
crop, and after the potash has been crop
ped out of the soil il must be put back by
man, There is one great mistake the
farmers make in thinking the pure bone
meal is perfectly balanced fertilizer. II
they will stop to look at the analyses OF
pure bone they will see that there is not
particle of potash in bone. but large per
cent of nitrogen and phosphoric acid.
Phosphoric acid is very important ele-
ment, as it enters into the composition OF
both stalk and seed about equal; therefore
it is impossible to apply pure bone to soil
without making more grain and straw
both, but if there had been liberal
amount of organic potash mixed with the
bone the cost of the fertilizer would have
been less and it would grow more seed and
less straw. We say organic potash; that is
potash from tobacco dust. not chemical
potash. Sulphate of potash is chemical.
and great many manufacturers use only
this. It takes about two pounds OF sui
phate of potash to grow the same amount
Of seed that one pound of organic will,
vet when analysed they show the same. II
the farmer wishes to get the best results
from potash he should use tobacco dust.
as there is about enough potash in 100 lbs.
of good tobacco dust to grow ten bushels
of wheat If it is mixed with bone. Good
tobacco dust ought to analyze to per
cent of organic potash. This is equal in
crop growing power to about I6 to I8 per
cent Of tho chemical: and in tobacco dust
Won have one Of the best insect destroyers
known. q we'll as the best and most eco
nomical potash fertilizer.
II the farmer wishes to make a home
mixture he should use 80 to 20 lbs. OF to-
bacco dust and 90 to 30 lbs. OF raw bone
meal to the acre. and the raw bone meal
should analyze 2 to 9 per cent available
and the balance OF III to 23 per cent insol-
uble phosphoric acid: as the available part
Is taken up by the wheat plant in the fall.
and that leaves the balance to carry the
wheat crop through the following season.
or. al the bone decomposes: If there Is too
much available phosphoric acid when the
hone is applied il is very apt to make too
much Growth in the fall and not enough
the following season.
We find where bone and tobacco dust
ara mixed and used to wheat the fly is
driven ont and the wheat tests from 60 to
az lbs. to the bushel; and 1t should be
remembered that pure bone and tobacco
dust are soil builders.
When you find man who thoroughly
understands agricultural chemistry and
soil fertility, be is using fertilizer II he is
4 farmer, and il he is not farmer be is
advocating fertilizer:
The man who condemns fertilizers or Is
afraid of them Is the man who knows
nothing about soil fertility.