The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-04-01
Some Errors in Regard to Fertilizers.
(By R. ]. Redding.l

or whether the latter be planted in rows
or broadcast.
Most practical farmers, however, have
sort of intuitive perception that it is
better, especially when the amount of
fertilizer to be applied is moderate, to
place it near to the young plants, SO
that the first rootlets that put forth
will find a supply of soluble plant food
just at hand and will not have to search
the whole width of a or 5 or 6 foot
row to get what they need. When a very
heavy application of commercial fertili
ger is to be made it is probably safer to
scatter the same over a larger portion
of the surface than that represented by
the length and width of the bedding fur
row. For instance, if the amount per
acre be more than 500 pounds and not
over 1000 pounds, it would be we'll to
divide it into two or more portions,
placing third or one-half in the
bedding furrow and the remainder in the
listing burrows. But it would have to
be 1900 or 1000 pounds per acre before
1T would be advisable to scatter it all
over the surface. OF course, l am now
toes, cotton, sorghum, etc, planted in
rows from 3 to 6 feet apart
The advocates of the broadcasting idea
seem to have no broader foundation for
their advice and contention than the
mere sound of the word broad" and its
derivatives. Broad Gauge, broad
minded" broad views" seem to Mega
tive anything that is narrow" Facts
are what we should insist upon. and
these abundantly show that fertilizers
in moderate quantity should be placed
in the drill and well mixed with the soil
of the furrow.
2. Another somewhat popular notion
is that the fertilizer should be divided
into two or more portions, one portion
to be applied before or at the time of
planting the crop and the other portion
at successive periods of the cultivation
and growth of the crop. The idea is that
if the whole amount be applied at one
time before Or at the time of planting
the plants will gorge themselves, so to
speak, or consume all the fertilizer dur
ing the early priod of growth, and will
suffer hunger before fruiting time. Ac-
cOrding to the results of many tests that
have been made this fear is rather
groundless. Some hold back portion
of the fertilizer intended for corn until
near silking time under the belief that
such late application will cause q large
development of ears. There is some
what more in this idea than in the broad
casting practice; yet the results that
have come under my observation do not,
as a rule, justify such division and sue
ceSsive application of fertilizers to
either corn or cotton, excepting that nj
trate of soda will sometimes produce
quite striking results when applied even
so late as June 10. l recall an expert
ment made in 1892 which is the basis of
the above remark. One acre was fertil-
lied in the drill quite literally before
planting. At the first blowing q
-one-half of the acre received 65 pounds
of nitrate of soda; at the third blowing
June 13-the same half acre received
an additional dose of Go pounds of nj
trate. The result was an increased
yield of only $50 bushels of corn, or
three bushels per acre, But the nitrated
half acre made a good after crop of
grass, amounting to 900 pounds of cured
hay, while the unnitrated half acre made
no grass of consequence This result
as April q and June 49, was not consumed
by the corn crop, but went mainly into
the grass that came up after June 10.
3. Another very common error is that
one kind of fertilizing ingredient can take
the place of another. For instance, some
want to know if kainit or muriate of
potash may not be substituted for nj
trate of soda as top-dressing for small
grain. If plant is hungry for phophoric
acid, or a soil is deficient in that ingre-
dent, nothing in the shape of fertili-
ger can supply that deficiency unless it
contain phosphoric acid.
4. The question is occasionally asked
us there any difference between the eff
fectiveness of acid phosphate made from
animal bones and one made from phos-
phate rock?" The answer is there is
none whatever, provided the percentage
of available phosphoric acid be the same
in each case. Phophoric acid, soluble,
and phosphoric acid, reverted, which to-
gether make up the total available" of
a fertilizer, are each definite chemical
salts ana are always and everywhere
just the same. Sugar made from beets
('beet sugar'D and sugar made from
sugar cane" each being pure, are iden-
tically the same in chemical composition
and sweetening power, although the one
may have been made from beets grown
in Canada and the other from sugar cane
grown in Louisiana. (By the way, most
of the white sugar consumed in the
United States, although "cane sugar,
chemically speaking, is made from beets.)
5. 1t is a very serious mistake to con-
clude that a soil can be steadily and
permanently improved by the constant
and liberal use of commercial fertilizers
alone, applied to a clean culture crop,
like cotton. There must be rotation of
crops, including cowpeas, or other rem
ovating crops, deep and thorough plow-
ing, and stable manureS. Thousands of
farmers who have used commercial fer
tilizers year after year on the same field
planted annually in cotton, can testify
that it usually requires even larger and
larger doses of these concentrated fer
tilizers to keep up the annual yield of
cotton.
G. Coming to barn yard manures. it is
very widely prevailing error that their
value is due to the quantity of plant food
contained in them. AS matter of fact
the quantity Of actual plant food con-