St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1905-04-08
FARMER AND PLANTER.
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.
Many Farmers Use Them Wastfully
Because, In Many Cases, Ua-
suited to the Soil.

Many Farmers Use Them wastfully
Because, In Many Cases, Ua-
suited to the Soil.
There is nothing connected with
farming which is less understood, or
rather more misunderstood, than is the
use of commercial fertilizers. Many
farmers use them extravagantly and
wastefully; this extravaganza consist
ing not as a rule in use of too large
quantities-very few of them err that
way-but in the use of fertilizer I'M
suited to their lands or crops and in a
dependence upon them as the sole
means of maintaining the fertility of
the soil. Other farmers regard them
with something like suspicion and
seem to think that fertilizing land is
something similar to giving It a dose
of medicine. Now the simple ruth OF
the whole matter is that when one
uses fertilizer of any kind on his land
he is merely feeding it-restOring the
plant food that the crops remove from
it; and stable manure, nitrate of soda,
or crop of clover plOwed under, are
all fertilizers. This is not saying that
all of them will answer the same pur-
pose. Corn fodder and bran are both
food for COW, but they answer en-
tirely different purposes in the animal
economy. Yet as far as any certain
amount of any plant food is con-
cerned it is all the same whether it 10
obtained from bog, cow stall. or
clover plant. The only questions are
as to it's relative cost and availability.
Stable manures and green crops, how
ever answer one purpose-perhaps two
which commercial fertilizers do not.
They improve the physical con3 etion
of the soil by the addition of humus
and probably make the plant food pres
ent more available by promoting not
only chemical but bacterial activity in
the soil. For 1t must be remembered
that the productivity of any soil de-
ponds, first upon the plant food pres
ent; secondly upon the physical cordi-
ton of the soil as respects drainage,
filth, moisture content, etc; and third
ly upon the bacterial processes which
are taking place. Without the neces-
sary plant food it is of course impcs-
sible for crops to grow; if the physical
condition of the soil is bad their growth
will necessarily be retarded; and while
bacterioiogy is as yet imperfectly un-
derstood even by scientists, we do
know that these unseen organisms play
an important part in preparing the
plant food for use by the plants and
that some plants require the presence
of certain bacteria for their best de-
velopment A man who wastes his sta
BILE manure and buys fertilizers is GER
tainly foolish; yet it has been demon
strated in thousands ct cases that the
use of commercial fertilizers pays and
pays well. While we can draw upon
the exhaustless stores Of atmospheric
nitrogen, there is no way of keeping
up the supply of potassium and phos-
phorus except by purchasing them in
fertilizers of some kind. Under any
system of cropping there is bound to
be a gradual decrease in the total
amount in the soil, although proper
method of cultivation may keep up or
even increase the available supply for
many years. The cheapest way to get
these is in some of the forms in which
they are offered as commercial fertiliz-
ers; and it has been think, fully dem
onstrated that the cheapest and most
practical method of fertilization is not
the dependence upon either CONNER
cial fertilizers or stable and green
manures alone but in judicious COM
bination of all When used this way
there is no foundation for fear that
they may act upon the soil like NOR
phine upon the human system. 1t is
certainly extravaganza to fail to care
for the stable manure; it is extrava-
gance to neglect the growing OF legum-
nous crops to maintain the nitrogen
supply of the soil; it is extravaganza
to use commercial fertilizers on your
land without keeping it in good physic-
al condition, it is extravaganza to use
fertilizers of any kind that are not pro-
portioned to the special needs of your
soil and crop and for most crops on
most soils, stable and green manures
alone are not properly balanced ra-
ton. The greatest extravaganza OF all,
however, is in the cropping of land
year after year without making any ef-
fort to keep up it's fertility. To put it
all briefly: It is necessary If we would
improve or keep up The soil to keep
1t in good physical condition and to re-
plenish the supply of plant food. Com
fertilizers will do the latter but
not the first. Stable manures and the
blowing under Of green crops will do
the first and will partially do the Sec
ond. The ideal method is a combina-
ton Of all these sources of fertility ac-
cording to the special needs of the soil
and the crop that is being grown; and
such combination can be made only
by the farmer who has an acquaint-
ance with the elementary principles of
fertilization and with the particular
So: "nd crnn to be fertilized.-E. E.
Miller, in Epitomist.