The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1903-02-26
AGRICULTURAL.
MANUKE AND SOILS.
Use of Absorbents.

Within the last year there has come
more forcibly than ever to my atten-
tion one point about saving farm
manures that | think should be well
understood by every farmer. have
long known that there is waste of
nitrogen about almost every stable
The bad odors are teltale evidence
of this fact. 1t is nitrogen escaping
into the air that causes the most of
tho foul smells that pollute the air
about our premises, and this is one of
the very ingredients that we ought to
preserve. When it gets into the air
it is gone beyond our reach. How to
prevent these unwholesome and often
sive and at the same time valuable
gases from escaping is the point which
l wish to make plain. 1t is easy
enough and should not be omitted by
any progressive farmer.
1t is done by using absorbents. We
know that there are various things
that have chemical affinity for each
other, and it is by properly using this
idea and that of the mechanical affin-
ity of substances as well, that we
should accomplish this end. There
are two principal materials that we
should use, and both are easily OBJ
tanned and worth all that they cost
aside from the absorbent qualities.
The first is kainit. 1t contains
about twelve and one-half per cent of
potash in an available form for plant
food. In addition it contains chlorine
and other substances, that, when
brought in contact with heterogeneous
matter in the stalls and cutters where
farm animals are kept, unite and form
compounds that are at once practical
ly scentless and in the best possible
forms to be retained and become an
important part Of the farm supply of
manure. About one quart per day for
each animal is about what should be
used.
The other is commonly known as
acid phosphate. This is the product
that is made by grinding an then
treating with sulphuric acid the
. phosphate rock that is mixed in GER
tain places in South Carolina, Flor.
ida, Tennessee and Canada. 1t con-
tains not far from fourteen per cent of
phosphoric acid, and the rest is large
ly sulphate Of lime, which is also
called gypsum, and when ground is
known as land plaster and is bought
and applied to land because of the
chemical effect it has upon other ele-
ments, causing them to become avail
able plant foods. Now when this dis
solved phosphate rock is sprinkled
about the animals, il too absorbs the
nitrogen, somewhat the same as does
the kainit purifying the stables and
making most excellent manure out
of what would otherwise. have been
largely a waste and also nuisance.
If one quart is used for each horse OF
COW each day it will be found about
right.
If these simple things are done on
any farm, they will prove about the
most profitable ways to get the highly
useful plant foods, potash and phos-
phoric acid, into the soil They will
be mixed with the farm manures and
balance them up materially; for they
are both needed to reinforce materials
that are often quite wanting in both
potash and phosphoric acid. The alb
sorbents are badly needed and the ben
efits from this point alone are Otter
worth all they cost. There is double
gain, and those who do not use one OIL
both of them are making mistake
Of the two, there is better effer
from the use of kainit. H. E. Vai
Deman, in Indiana Farmer.
TTIKTN(.