Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1911-01-12
Written for he Beaeon.)
Danger In Uslns Stimslant
Fertilizers Alono.

II should be kept In mind chat
Stimulant Fertilizers, that 10 Gyp.
sum. Lime and Salt are not used for
the plant food contained In them.
hence as used. they do not furnish
nee ded plant food. The chief valueof
their use lies In the fact that they
can change unavailable into avail
able form Of plant food. IL can
readily be seen shat when Stimulans
Fertilizers are used exclusively for
o term Of years. the soil each year
loses Nitrogen, Potash and Phos-
phoric Acid. which are not replas-
ed. The Inevitable result OF such
treatment 10 the exhaustion Of these
important food constituents from the
soil. This affords 90 expl anstior
Of the question often raised now m
to why the application Of Gypsum
and Lime does not give such results
In crop yield at present as In form
or days when Gypsum and Lime
were the only fertilisipg materials
added 10 the soils for years In sue
cession IL was possible TO produce
increased crops SO long as there
was ia the soil enough compounds
OF Nitrogen, POTASSIUM and Phos-
phoric to be rendered available by
the action 0fGypsum or Lime. When
these forms OF plaut food were
largely removed. there was nothing
for the Gypsum ard Lime 20 acS
upon, in order TO increase the SUD
ply OF available food material The
Gypsum and Lime furnished no
needed food but simply helped the
crop to use more rapidly the store
OF plant food PRESENT. the soil. Lime
Is OF course the remedy for acidity
In soils but Lime alone will not
build up sour soil.
Almost without exception the sour
soils Of this State are In need OF
readily decomposable vegetable mat
ter. Lime and habit Of turning
something under In what these sour
soils need. Stable manure NAV OF
course be used to supply the ve9e-
table matter, but soil acidity strikes
tirst at the grasses and q sour farm
Is not likely to produce enough man
ure to start the work Of replenish-
Ing the soils supply OF vegetable
matter. Green mauuring IL the
quickest, easiest and cheapest AND
the most satisfactory way, bus Ii
one thing to persuade the owner OF ,
sour soil TO apply The Lime and with
the aid Of good commercial fertilizer
10 grow the green crop. The srou.
BILE with all these worn out notions
is that they ignore the enormous
stores OF dormant plant food In the
mineral particles Of the soil and the
ability OF decomposing vegetable
matter to draw upon these dormsns
supplies.
Do FERTILIZERS INJuRn Son.
| have often been asked whether
or not fertilizer injured the soil. I
can answer this question by saying
that II properly used. they will nos
injure the soil.
There are cases In which an
parently the fertilissr has been In
furious. A farmer for example
finds that the application Of 200
pounds per acre OF Acid phosphaNe
he makes this application for three
or four years, then finds bis crop In
smaller than 10 was to start with. or
he discontinues the application OF
fertilizers and does not get much OF
u crop. Apparently, the Acid Phos.
phate has injured the soil. The in.
jury has been caused by the method
of farming and not by the fertilis Or.
The Acid Phosphate supplied only
Phosphoric Acid TO the soil. The
increased crop has increased the de.
maud for Nitrogen and Potash 90
that the quantity In the soil has
diminished until 10 Is no longer the
the Phosphoric Acid. but the Nj
trogen or Potash which controls the
yield of the crop. The one sided
application OF plant food has aided
70 the exhaustion In the soil Ia the
other plant food. The other plant
foods can OF course be restored by
using fertilizer containing them.