The Prescott daily news., 1916-03-18
INTELLIGENT USE OF FERT LIZERS IN GERMANY.

the early nftleS. state organizations of all kinds have taken lively part in the building up of the trade. and in lat CT years the states have taken it for granted that the trade is profitable 70 | farmers and merchants alike, and have therefore framed laws to regu late it's manufacture and sale. In every state where fertilizer is sold in appre ciable quantities laws have been passed eXacting certain requirements of the manufacturer because farmers who are not able to analyze such ma terials for themselves would be the sufferers. Besides the trade, over-am- bilious, would forget it's obligation tO the consumer and offer for Cale in ferior material under the name of fer tilizers. We may say without fear of successful contradiction that the states themselves are largely responsible for the rise and volume of the fertilizer trade.
 It has long been recognized that Germany leads the world in many lines of science. This Is perhaps true in regard to the use of fertilizers in early years. Germany discovered that mineral salts applied to growing crops increased the yields immensely. and gave time and stuoy to the under lying causes, and has suggested to the other parts of the world many valu- able lessons on her findings. Won I thrnnuh lures on modern agriculture has made known much of the work of Germany in the early history of the use of con- merCial fertilizers. Liebig says that Kuhlmann, German agricultural scientist. applied salammoniac to a meadow in the year 1S45 and 1S46, and found that on a hectare (212 acres) he gathered S,140 pounds of hay more than on the same kind of meadow where he did not use the sal ammoniac. He secured this result by using about 2C0 pounds of salam- moniac to the acre.
 In commenting upon this Von Liebig has the following to say: Tt is quite certain, that in the action of the qua no, which produced the crop next high. est after the Chili saltpeter, an un, mistakable part was played by the ammonia contained in it. On the other hand, however. the experiments with carbonate and nitrate of ammonia show that a quantity of ammonia, or nitrogen. equivalent to that in 20 pounds of guano and employed under the same conditions, was almost With. out effect
 A little further along he says: The most recent observations on the com. pertinent of the soil towards the food of plants show how slight is the | knowledge we possess of their mode of nourishment, and of the part which | the soil, by its physical condition, ! plays in it. The compartment of the salts Of ammonia, of chloride of so- dium, and of nitrate of soda, towards the earthly phosphates in the soil may perhaps assist us in throwing some light on their action, or one of their actions on the growth of plants" l This statement was made because it was always found that when common l salt was added to certain mineral ma nures, greater yield was obtained, and l Won Liebig came to the conclusion
 that this was due to the relation of 1 tleis added material to the liberation of potash in the soils.
 | Only Q short time after the war be- l tween the States the German potash
 beds were discovered and by rapid leaps and bounds this material gained
 in favor with planters as we'll as ex- ! perimenters. The necessity for find, ing a combination to lberate the pot
 ash in the soils was now removed
 and thorough satisfaction was found 1 in the use of the nitrate of soda and
 the potash salts, and here the indus
 try stood for long tune. Liebig do as claim, however, that Tribasic phosphate of lime crept into the formula and was
 found efficient This fact Is very sig
 nificant and happened to be discoy,
 cred by constant study of the use of
 the nitrate of soda and potash salts.
 Liebig thought that these two plant
 food materials had the power of dis.
 solving phosphoric acid in the form If
 earthly phosphates, and these in turn
 added greatly to the yield of farm 1 crops.
 We have here many hints of what
 afterwards really developed to be
 facts-namely that the three great
 clements of plant food that should be
 applied to the soil for good crop yields
 are phosphoric acid, ammonia and