The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-06-09

plants; likewise does the available ni- trogen in our soil suffer gradual but continual loss through surface washing or underdarinage, by which this most desirable and eostIiest of all plant foods demands more careful and more intelligent attention than the rest. We know thers are virtually but two classes of nitrogenous compounds which, on account of their solubility and experimental proof furnished therefor, can be taken up and assimila- ted by the plants; these are ammonia salts and salts of nitric acid We also know by practical trials with our cul- tiyated crops that the latter is more ef- feetive than the former. There is no doubt that the nitrates are preferable and cheaper than other nitrogen salts and are in reality the rational source of nitrogen for farm crops, unless, indeed, we supply, as we ought to do, the ne-
 cessary nitrogen by rotation, in which ! a leguminous plant, like clover or alfal- ia, takes a prominent part.
 | Besides those mentioned, the markets
 supply two other nitrogenous manures l-animal, like ground fish, bone. blood,
 scraps and various refuse of our
 slaughter and packing houses, and | vegetables, like cotton-seed meal and others-whose nitrogen is always speed | fly available to plants, but must first pass through a series of changes.
 These changes precede in every in- Estance the assimilation of nitrogen, and, since animal substances contain ing it decompose more readily than Evegetable ones, the former are more valuable to the farmer for manurial purposes, especially where quick re-
 sponses are expected and demanded.
 From this statement, however, horn
 shavings and hide and leather scraps
 are excluded, as they have scarcely any
 effect whatever unless previously sub Imitted to a chemical treatment.
 The accessible potash supply for this Estate consists of wood ashes and the lproducts of the potash industry at
 Stassfurth, Germany.
 The former are limited in amount and lavailable only in certain places. and it is difficult to assign to them on account lof the differences in their composition tany certain value Where used, as in Ethc southern part of the state. ten per Ieent. of potash in unleached ashes is Iprobably the average. Unlimited sup ply reaches us, however, from Germany
 under the names of kanit, sulphate and Imuriate. The first of these contains twelve and one-half per cent. of potash
 and, the others about fifty per cent, a
 guarantee being given in every case by the original seller which can be accepa- led as reliable.
 The sources of this acid are four in number-first, bones, either fresh or steamed or in some form resulting by [the operations of the packing house in dustry; second. phosphatic deposits, like those of South Carolina or the keys lof the Caribbean sea; third, accumula-
 tions at certain places of fossil, chiefly excrementitfons in character; fourth, Thomas slag or slag, by-produet of the snrsIting of iron ores, of late years brought into the markets of this coun- ltry. In neither of these substances is lphosphoric acid readily available; each
 has to be ground more or less finely, or, better yet, treated with acid in manu- featuring plants to make the phosphor- lie acid soluble. The percentage of this Eacid in the numerous brands of phos- lphatic fertilizers varies between wide limits and cannot even be approximate Fly given.
 The claim or guarantee on every sack or package required to be put on it by flaw, with steady supervision on the part. of the experiment station, offers means of protecting the farmer against Imposition; yet the decision in regard to the necessity of buying fertilizer at lall, as also the intelligent selection of kind and amount, rests with the farmer, and TO fixed rules can be given for either crop or soil here or elsewhere. Actual tests of the value of fertilizr on the farmers own soil is the surest land safest guide.