St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1910-08-13
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.
THEIR USE AND ABUSE.

| COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS,
THEIR USE AND ABUSE.
That the injudicious use of COM
| mercial fertilizers has been the cause
| of agreat deal of the depleted state
of much land in the South is certain
ly true. But get letters from farm
ers in some sections saying that they
do not believe in commercial fertil-
izers. One writes that he will use
lime in the improvement of his soil
! at the rate of two tons an acre, and
will feed stock and make manure,
but he does not want to have an
| thing to do with commercial fert..-
izers.
This simply shows that he fails
| to understand the essential matters
connected with the restoration and
| maintenance of the productiveness
of the soil. He has seen that men
have grown poor while annually
planting cotton on the same land
with little dribble of low grade
fertilizer, and charges this poverty
of soil to the fact that they used
commercial fertilizers, when it was
due to ignorant methods Of farming
1Id q AC6iCCL vi Lie AlCdUS lOf ultAIA-
tanning the humus in the soil.
He proposes to us lime to enrich
his land, but while lime has valu-
able and important part to play in
farming, lime will never make poor
land rich. Lime is not properly a
fertilizer at all, and lis not used as a
fertilizer, though we often see it adj
verified as such. All our cultivated
soils have plenty of lime in them for
all the use plants make of lime as
food. We use lime to sweeten the
soil when it has become sour. We
use it on lands that abound in in
soluble potash, such as most of the
red lands of the Southern Piedmont,
for lime has the power to release
potash in the soil. We use it to
hasten the notification Of organic
animal matter in the soil, but we
must maintain this by proper rota-
ton Of crops and the use of animal
manures. Lime is very useful ia a
good rotation of crops, but used with
the idea that it is a fertilizer, we
can soon run the land down to a
totally unprodnctiye state through
its use.
Stable manure is excellent, of
course, and few of us can get enough
of it. But stable manure alone will
not maintain the phosphoric acid
and potash in the soil. Every grow
ing animal takes phosphorus to
form its bony system, and thus car
ries phosphorus off the farm.
In fact, phosphorus is the one
element that. we must add to all our
old soils in some artificial way. We
need never buy an ounce of nitrogen,
for we can maintain our supply Of
this and increase the amount in our
soils through the. growing of the
legumes and feeding them to cattle,
but we cannot get the phosphorus
from the air, and in some soils, es-
.pecially the sandy soils of the At
Eiantic coast, potash is also needed.
III a man is situated like DIR. Dietrich
was on his little farm in Pennsyl-
vaia SO that he can afford to buy
and feed grain grown on, the land of
other people, ne can avoid the pur-
chase Of any plant food in fertil-
izer. But such situations are rare,
and most of us must restore the
wasted phosphorus and potassium in
commercial fertilizers.
When these are used for the
purpose of increasing the production
of peas and clover or ther legume
crops, the feeding of which will give
us the needed supply Of manure, 1t
will be found that liberal applica-
lions will pay exceedingly well.
But because thousands have been
putting 200 pounds an acre Of the
poor 2-8-2 fertilizers on cotton
year after year, and have thus re-
duced the fertility Of their soil this
makes no cause for the abandment
of chemical fertilizers. For the lit
tie 200 pounds of 2-8-2 had in it
less than "a pounds of plant food to
go over a whole acre, and this was
at once used up in the start and the
| plants made strong enough to draw
still further on the plant food in the
soil, and the natural result is de-
pletion OF the fertility Of the soil
Then all that is produced is sold off
| 1t is this use OF commercial
/ fertilizers that / not believe in. But
do believe in the heavy use Of
phosphoric acid, and in the many
soils Of potash, to give us more OF
the legumes to t eed and more
/ humus-making manure. The broad
assertion that you do not belive Ii
commercial fertilizers simply shows
that you are ignorant of the needs pi
plant life and Of our old soils. Prof
Massey in Progressive Farmer.