The Huttig news., 1916-02-05

 to their soils for this purpose. The Chinese centuries ago, appii 1 ma nures of various kinds to their soils and gardens and with phenomenal re- suits. In Von Tshudi's Travels in Pe- Ill We find that as early as the middle or the last century notes were being taken on the actual value of Guano oy the Peruvians.
 Bousingaut speaks of seeing fields i'll Peru on which wheat had been grown every year for two centuries. and the yield still high and the grow CTS prosperous.
 The practiee of using mineral fertf. lizers was introduced direct from Pc I'll the United States in the year 1S46, and was based on such repor,s as We find above. Ii had already been used in England before il found It's way into the United States. but Peru seems to be the country in which the application of minerals 10 soils as plant food originated We do not know this is true. but all evidence points 10 this. It E of greater interest 10 us therefore that we know about the customs in Peru
 The first man in the Southern States 10 use this Peruvian guano was David Dickson, Of Sparta. Ga. who saw an advertisement of it in the old Ameri- can Farmer published in Baltimore The South has perhaps never had more successful farmer than David Dixon, who made many millions Of dollars farming. and who was a pio- neer in many other ines as we'll as in the use of mineral fertilizers. In tho yaar 1916, the year after il was intro duced into the United States, he bought three sacks and used it, and on find- ing that Ii paid him. bought H in in- ereasing quantities til the year 1855 and 1S56, when he went into it fully. z As Is suggested above this is no doubt the first instance of the use of a con eentrated mineral fertilizer on cotton in the United States
 The universal success with which Mr. Dickson met in the use of this Pc ruvian guano led many other prom nent farmers to follow his example and in every reported case. success followed it's use. We are constrained to believe that the way that the appIi cation of this mineral fertilizer to the cotton anu other crops in the South l could not possibly have been an acct dent It's success was unquestionably i based on the actual needs of the soil A quickly available manure was what I once applied results were evident
 After time ii was found that the Peruvian guano. which contained prin- cipally nitrogen, produced too mucn stalk and not much increase in tha yield of fruit, and hence It's use was somewhat discouraged for a season.
 About this time the war between the States began, and at the same time the discovery of the potash beus of Germany, also, the offering on the market of various kinds of mineral fertilizers resulting from the teach ings of on Liebig of Germany. who was at that time the greatest cham. pion in the world of agriculture and it's possibilities As a result the pop ularity of Peruvian guano subsided and more study was given to the gen eral question of the use of mineral manures. both by farmers themselves and the students of agriculture.
 Two great contrb outing factors to tho rise of the fertilizer trade in the South are first the abolition of slaT- cry. and second, the rise Of agricu, tural educatlon Before the war the question of land was secondary If growing farm erops in the South wore the> land out" there were plenty of slaves to take in ore land II was 1 cheaper to take in land than to pay | for any artificial manure. In 1662, the Morrill, Bill passed Congress. creating agricultural colleges in the various states. after which there be- 1 gan a campaign for improving meth ods in agriculture Experiments al public expense were begun on a small scale, and the public was induced to make greater use of plant foods of all i kinds. as well as 10 improve methods of tillage. This. of course. caused an | 1mmediate increase III tlle use Ol inln- eral plant foods. and out of which grew demands for great quantities of fertilizers. From this great demand there sprang up fertilizer factories in all parts of the country. All kinds ur materials were tried out, some was good, and some was not but much of both kinds used The factoras hal no restrictions and many of them palmed off on the farmers anything that would smell strong and tnat could be put in sacks. This condi tion oil account of state laws did not last very long. We begin the next article by giving resume of the part taken in the rise of the trade by the states themselves.