The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-03-23
Soil Improvement by the Aid Oi
Fertilizers.


The judicious use of commercial fer
tilizers is one of the most important
questions with which the farmer has
to deal, yet no practice connected with
the cultivation of the soil has been the
ground for so much contention as their
use and abuse says a writer in the
Farmers Review. Concentrated fer
tilizers are one of the necessities of
modern agriculture, in all the older
cultivated land at least. That, they
have been in some sections productive
of bad farming and that through this
bad farming the productiveness of
large areas has been decreased instead
of benefited as 1t should have been is
true. Seeing these results, many who
know little of the matter have jumped
to the conclusion, that concentrated
fertilizers are only stimulants, the aft
er effect is exhaustion.
There appears to exist among the
farmers of the Central and Western
states a prejudgment against the intro
duction of fertilizer. The farmers of
| these sections have been wonderfully
| blessed with fertile soil. But contin-
| uous and in some instances careless
| cultivation has done much to diminish
| this natural supply of plant food and
| the maximum producing capacity of
| the farm is maintained. 1t is we'll
| known that a light touch is required
| to keep a hoop rolling while a sharp
| blow is needed to start it. 1t is also
| easier and more economical to main
| tain the fertility of the soil than to re-
| build 1t, once is has gone. This is a
| thought well worth the consideration of
| all farmers regardless of the character
| of their soil.
| Fertilizers should be considered as
| simply readily available plant food
and not properly stimulants at all.
! Such things as lime and land plaster
| may we'll be denominated stimulants,
| since they have the effect of bringing
| into use matters ALREADY in the soil
! and enable the cultivator to exhaust
| more rapidly the plant food that
| in the ordinary course of events would
| come into the use more slowly. But in
| all of our soils the elements that are
| essential become deficient through the
| taking off of crops. Long experiments
| in the study of plant life have demon
| strated that the elements of plant food
| that are most rapidly exhausted are
nitrogen, phosporic acid and potash.
| A complete fertilizer is a combination
| of materials furnishing these ingredi-
| ents in a concentrated and CONNER
cial form. Therefore, while in some
! ers has led to ruinous results, they
| are nevertheless the readiest and
| cheapest means that can be used in
the upbuilding of our old lands.
Investigations of reports that land
has been ruined by the use of this
| commercial plant food, result in find
| ing that the injury has been done by
using a one-sided fertilizer, that is, a
| fertilizer supplying only one of the
| three essential elements. For instance,
| If the farmer uses only a bone meal
or a phosphate. he Sis supplying only
| phosphoric acid, in some cases a small
| percentage of nitrogen. By the grow
| ing of leguminouS crops he can secure
| the required nitrogen, but is continu-
| ally drawing on the available natural
| supply of potash. This will become
| exhausted in time and then, since all
three of these ingredients must be
| present to insure profitable crop, he
! does not get returns from the applied
| ingredients, and this gives rise to the
report that the soil has been ruined
| by the use of commercial fertilizers.
| This is a common mistake in a sec
! ton where fertilizers are being intro
| duced. Sulphosphates were the first
| fertilizers to come into general use
| and now the inexperienced purchaser
will nine times out of ten call for a
| phosphate or bone meal. While good
returns may follow their use for
| time. the ultimate result will be a
falling off in crop yields unless the
required potash is added. Another
mistake made by many is they expect
too much of the applied fertilizers,
they can't do it all. A rotation of
crops, careful preparation of the soil,
we'll selected seed, thorough tillage
and a favorable season are also essen
! tial to successful crop growing. Ex-
perimenting to determine soil needs
| and broadcasting of fertilizers are
| practices to be recommended.