The Prescott daily news., 1912-03-06

either directly in artificial fertilizers or indirectly through the growth of leguminous plants which have the power of fixing that element from the atmosphere. The nitrogen can be gathered in this way much more cheaply than it can be purchased and moreover, when added in the form of vegetable matter it decomposes and becomes available to growing crops slowly so that there Is little danger of its loss by teaching from the soil, while nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia are extremely soluble and apt to be largely lost in the case Of heavy rains falling on the sandy soils. However, there are frequently cases where the use of a light dressing even of nitrogen salts is profitable. This would ordinarily be in the growing of certain special crops that have high gross return per acre. It Is along this line that there is considerable possi- bility in the development of the vari- ous forms of nitrogen containing fer tilizers. The new form of cokeing oven makes possible the saving of practically all of the nitrogen in coal undergoing the cokeing process and this by-product is being put on the market in increasingly large amounts. The manufacture of nitrogen-contain- ing salts by electrolytic methods is also increasing. A number of plants for this purpose have been installed recently in European countries and one or two in this country.
 Clay soils are ordinarily abundantly supplied with potassium and on ac- count of their good water-holding ca pacity, grasses and other plants which will add organic matter can be grown for supplying this substance and con- sequently nitrogen, and the only direct fertilizing element usually needed is phosphorus, but probably more than half of the clay loam soils of this country under crop could be fertilized with phosphate fertilizers proftably under present conditions. Heavy clay soils in the northern part of Wiscon- sin which have been under crop but few years have shown increases in yield running from 15 per cent. to 50 per cent. as a result of supplementing barnyard manure with rock phosphate.
 But even on farms where practically all of the crops grown are fed, there is a possibility of considerable loss in fertility. Only where large amounts of concentrated feed stuffs are fed is the supply of phosphorus maintained. Probably the greatest loss on such farms takes place in the teaching of barnyard manure and there Is certain ly great possibility in the direction of conserving fertility by protecting barnyard manures from teaching and also from too rapid heating in the process of composing. It is just as important that Q thoroughly good prac- ticable system of housing and haul ing the manure on the farm be worked out as that the stock be properly housed and cared for. The use of peat for bedding, by which its nitrogen Is added to that of the manure, Is anoth- CT method which may add greatly to the nitrogen in use on the farm. This material contains in the condition in which 1t would be used for bedding from two to three per cent. of nitro gen or more than clover or alfalfa hay would contain, and twice as much as barnyard manure. It occurs in enor- nous quantities in this state and it only needs g little encouragement in it's use to develop the industry to the extent to which 1t exists in European countries. |
 Another matter which ought to be recognized at once in the development of agriculture 10 that 1t Is very much easier to maintain the fer tility of soil than 1t is to reproduce 1t after 1t has once been lost by an ex. haustivs system of farming. This ap- plies particularly to the sandy soils, but is also true in the case of the clay loam soils. Sandy soils frequently show good producing power for the first two or three years and no special care is given to maintain the fertility until the farmer suddenly finds that his crops have become very much less and 1t 10 then very much more difi- cult to reproduce the fertility than 1t would have been to adopt proper meth ods at the start.
 Those who are planning to uss com mercial fertilizers should maks it .