The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1906-08-01


gen to the soil without great expense
Wheat fields in some of the Atlantic
coast states that yielded but six bush
els of wheat to the acre have had thei
nitrogen content so built up that nov
they yield forty bushels to the acre
| This is not guess work but history
What can be done in Maryland, New
| Jersey and Virginia can be done IL
Washington and Oregon or anywhere
else where the same steps are taken
|
Mr.. Chenaur wanted to know If ht
could not buy some commercial fertil
izers that would act quickly and thu!
save the loss that is inevitable to his
apple crop this year. l told him hi
could and referred HIM to the Chas
H. Lilly Co., whose advertisement ap
pears in each issue of The Ranch.
| informed him that it was too late thi:
year to get the relief he sought, bu
that by beginning early next year hi
could remedy the loss and make hi:
orchards grow better from year tt
year. I further told him that it is ex
pensive to buy commercial fertilizers
and especially nitrogen. But his reply
to that was that he could afford tC
spend one dollar to each tree if he
could get such crops of Spitzenbergs
as he did few years ago. 1t wouit
not cost nearly that much to restore
his trees to their former prolific crops
The above statement about buying
commercial fertilizers leads me to say
txxYO Of inc
the nitrogen to the soil that shows
it's deficiency by lack of vigor in its
trees or plants. One is by buying
commercial fertilizers and applying
them directly to the soil. One of my
neighbors some two years ago bough1
two tons of fertilizers at a cost Of
something like $45 per ton and use6
this fertilizer on his hops. He claim
ed that the expenditure of less thar
$4,000 on seven acres of hops in
creased his income more than $4,000
That was when hops were selling al
rs cents per pound. With hops very
low, as they are now, there is some
doubt whether it would pay to use
costly fertilizers.
The alarming thing in the prophecy
referred to above grew out of the fact
that the supply of commercial nitro
gen will soon be exhausted. The
source of commercial nitrogen has
been chiefly the nitrate beds of Chile
and the guano beds of the islands OF
the Pacific ocean, These guano beds
were the deposits of the sea fowl that
had left their droppings there for ages
No other manure is equal in nitrogen
to hen manure and that was just what
those guano beds were, except that
they were deposited by wild birds and
not by domestic fowls. There is a
reason for the great fertility of hen
droppings that will be taken up later
in these articles. The guano beds re
ferred to are now exhausted. The
nitrate of soda, or salt petre, found in
Chile will be exhausted at the pres
ent rate of use within forty years
Then the world will be almost with
out commercial nitrogen. Barn yard
manure will furnish limited supply
for gardens but not enough to replen
ish our wheat, corn and hay fields.
There is also limited supply in what
is known as tankage and kainit, but
these sources of supply are but drop
in the bucket when field crops are
taken into consideration. Nothing is
palmer than that the supply of com
mercial nitrogen will be exhausted
and the world would face a famine if
there were no other way of securing
this indispensable element of soil fer
tility.
There is not, however, the remotest
danger of the supply of nitrogen being
exhausted That is as impossible as
the exhaustion of the air that we
breathe Four-fifths of the atmos-
phere is nitrogen and that will never