The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-13
Crimson Glover as Fertilizer.


 The growth of crimson clover. es- pecially in It's use as fertilizer. was the subject of Bulleton No. 67 of the Delaware station. issued in Jan- results of numerous experiments show ing that the value of nitrogen gather Ing crops as means of recouping poor or exhausted soils, Is not fully tual value of such crops, the bulletin says: .
 1t is aD,orcible but sometimes mis- leading presentation of the utility of green manures to put money valua- tion on them. Properly understood, however. such view should be en- Tightening. A money valuation of 8 clover crop is no more difficult than that of commercial fertilizers, but both are exceeddingly difficult it the valua- tion is intended to show just what profit the fertilizer, whether a clover crop or a phosphate. will bring to the farmer. This the valuation placed on the commercial fertilizer does not purport to do and 1t should not be so understood. When a potash mixture for example, is valued at ten dollars a ton 1t is not meant that 1t will repay the use of 1t to that amount. It may bring several times ten dollars. What the commercial valuation does mean is to show the cost of ingredients at prevailing prices. not their value to the purchaser.
 Now while the fertilizlnE material locked up in a plant is not for the present in the same instantly avail able state as nitrate of soda or muri- ate of potash, 1t still has value and we may come as near to expressing q value (but not the cost) of a com mercial fertilizer, always with the un- derstanding that green manures are necessarily slower in their action than A.. NaT A1 or potash or nitric acid. There is at present no analytical method or scheme of prices that will foretell the return in profit from using a ton of fertilizer, whether 1t be a ton of clo- yer, of stable manure or of commercial Money valuations are useful, how ever, as a means of instructive conn parison between different samples of the same kind or between different kinds of fertilizer, but not as an ex- pression of actual financial return to be expected. Just as the chemical salts, valued at ten dollars because they cost that sum, many bring fifty dollars return or no return at all. so a green manure valued at the like sum may bring similar returns, that Is. sometimes a high return and some times none. In either case 1t Is a question of need and suitability that so often has to be settled by eXperi- ence. But of two commercial fertil- izers valued at ten apd twenty dol lars respectively we may fairly ex- pect if they be wisely used. the one to be worth more than the other; so in the comparison with different clover crops or of clover and COW peas, Tor example, we may rate them on their money valuation with equal conn dence.
 m regard to the valuation of nitro gen we meet the difflculty. as we have seen above, that some of the nitrogen in clover is not new" merely soil nitrogen worked over. This of course introduces some uncertainty, for we do not know exactly hoN. much Is gain and how much is merely taken from one place to appear in another. In the potash and phosphoric acid nothing new has been added to the soil at all; there is merely a change of form. But this change is often nearly as great a gain as so much new material. for a makes available for following crops the miners, matter that otherwise Is taken up with dina ulty. JuSt as phos-