The Pulaskian., 1916-02-04
I. THE USE OF COMMERCIAL FER.
 ZERS-HISTORY.

commercial fertilizers, but only to show how this great industry began and grew in the Southern United States, Generally speaking, the far mers of this generation inherited the habit of applying fertilizers to soils, but have not been taught the underly. ing principles of the industry.
 The use of some kind of manures on soils with crops for the purpose of in< creasing the yields goes back to an. cient times. We know that many an- cient people applied animal manures to their soils for this purpose. The Chinese centuries ago, applied ma nures of various kinds to their soils and gardens and with phenomenal re- suits. In Won Tshudi's Travels in Pe- I'll we find that as early as the middle of the last century notes were being taken on the actual value of Guano by the Peruvians.
 Bousingault speaks of seeing fields in Peru on which wheat had been grown every year for two centuries, and the yield still high and the grow CTS prosperous.
 The practice of using mineral fertf. lizers was introduced direct from Pe- I'll to the United States in the year 1S46, and was based on such reports as we find above. It had already been used in England before it found it's way into the United States, but Peru seems to be the country in which the | or oF plant food originated. We do not know this Is true, but all evidence points to this. It is of greater interest to us therefore that we know ahout the customs in Peru.
 The first man in the Southern States to use this Peruvian guano was David Dickson, of Sparta, Ga, who saw an advertisement of it in the old Ameris 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 pio- neer in many other lines as we'll as in the use of mineral fertilizers. In tho year 1S46, the year after it was intro duced into the United States, he bought three sacks and used it, and on fnd- ing that it paid him, bought 1t In in creasing quantities till the year 1855 and 1856, when he went into it fully" As is suggested above this is no doubt the first instance of the use of con- centrated mineral fertilizer on cotton in the United States.
 The universal success with which MT Dickson met in the use of this Pc. ruvian guano led many other proni. 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 cottan and other crops in the South could not possibly have been an acci- dent. It's success was unquestionably | based on the actual needs of the soil. A quickly available manure was what | the crop needed, and when this waa once applied results were evident.
 After time it was found that the Peruvian guano, which contained prin- cipally nitrogen, produced too much stalk and not much increase in the yield of fruit, and hence it's use was somewhat discouraged for season.
 About this time the war between the States began, and at the same time the discovery of the potash beds of Germany, also, the offering on thu market of various kinds of mineral fertilizers resulting from the teach- 1 ings of Non Liebig of Germany, who was at that time the greatest cham. pion in the world of agriculture and it's possibilities. As result the pop ularity of Peruvian guano subsided and more study was given to the gem eral question of the use of mineral manures, both by farmers themselves and the students of agriculture. l Two great contributing factors to the rise of the fertilizer trade in tho South are first the abolition of slavs cry and second. the rise of agriculs tural education. Before the war the question of land was secondary. If growing farm crops in the South wore the land out" there were plenty of V cheaper to take in land than to pay for any artificial manure. Tn 1862 the Merrill Bill passed Congress-, creating agricultural colleges in tho various states, after which there be- gan campaign for improving meth ods in agriculture. Experiments public expense were begun on small scale, and the public was induced tt make greater use of plant foods of all kinds, as well as to improve methods of tillage. This, of course, caused an immediate increase in the use of min, eral plant foods, and out of which grew demands for great quantities oi fertilizers. From this great demand there sprang up fertilizer factories in all parts of the country. All kinds oi materials were tried out, some was good, and some was not, but much oi