Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1916-02-02
WHAT FERTILIZERs ARE WORTH.
Analyses Not Difficult to Understand.
Know Their Meaning.
Progressive Farmer }


named" In this statement our read
er Is probably not far from correct.
but we believe he is entirely wrong
when he says the reason Is because
"lt has not been threshed out as it
should be-" by the writer's on agricul-
tural subjects.
We are convinced that the explana-
ton Is entirely different from the
one suggested. We believe the rea-
son Is that the uneducated man, and
especially the uneducated farmer.
simply refuses to try to understand
any matters which he regards as
"technicar or "scientific" 1t Is not
because he is unable to understand
them, but because he closes his mind
against them and will not understand
them, much less try to do so. He
refuses to Study such matters,
partly through prejudice against all
"book learning" and partly because
he enormously assumes that he can
not understand them
He is wrong in both cases. There
are certain technical or scientific
facts which would be of the greatest
value to him, and they are not too
hard for him to understand, if he
would but try, just a little.
There is probably no one benefit
resulting from an education greater
than the one Of putting the person in
receptive mental attitude. "There
Is none so deaf as the one who won't
hear" and there is no mind so incap-
able Of understanding as the one
which will not try; will not even open
up to the extent of being willing to
learn. The educated person learns
that he can learn, and he gets a more
or less extended vision Of what there
IS to be learned, and from this knowl-
edge that there are useful facts he
does not know and from this conf
dence that he can learn what he tries,
his mind Is open for the learning Of
new facts. He does not dismiss a mat
ter as useless, or too difficult for him
to learn, until he has at least tried to
understand it. Again we repeat, that
we believe the greatest value of an
education is the openness Of mind,
the Willingness to try to understand
things, which 1t produces.
But SO long as useful things are not
understood. no matter what the
cause, 1t Is the duty OF the editor to
continue to thresh them out until
they are understood. The teacher
should know no such thing as dis
enlargement. Let lis, therefore,
take advantage OF this opportunity to
again. for the hundredth time or
more, try to briefly explain what is
meant when it is stated that a ferti-
liZer contains 2 per cent of nitrogen,
8 per cent Of phosphoric acid, and 2
per cent Of potash.
What does per cent" mean? If
written out in full it would be "per
centum." "Centum" means "hun-
dred," and per" may be literally
stated to mean 'in." Then it is
clear, that 2 per cent means two in
hundred. That is, when it is stat
ed that a fertilizer contains 2 per
cent of nitrogen, what is meant is
that in every one hundred pounds of
the fertilizer there are two pounds
Of nitrogen. If there are two pounds
Of nitrogen in one hundred pounds
Of the fertilizer, then in twenty hun
dreds. or a ton, there are twenty
times two, or 80 pounds. The same
explanation applies to any other per
cent and to any other plant food.
No man would buy pigs without
knowing whether he was buying two
or three, yet hundreds of men will
buy fertilizers without knowing
whether it contains 2 or 3 per cent
Of nitrogen--two or three pounds Of
nitrogen in hundred pounds of fer
tilizer Or If they read the guaran-
tee and see the per cent OF nitrogen
it contains, many do not know what
1T means. They would not buy two
pigs and pay $40 for them when
they could buy three pigs of the
same size and quality for considera-
bly, less than $50; but they will
pay $40 for a fertilizer when they
could buy one containing a half more
plant foods for much less than $50.
cannot understand why they should
buy ton OF 2-8-2 fertilizer, for in