The Little River news., 1916-03-11
1. THE USE OF COMMERCIAL FER
 TiLIZERS-HiSTORY.

|
 give a complete history of the use of
 commercial fertilizers, but only to ] show how this great industry began ! and grew in the Southern United
 States. Generally speaking, the far i mers Of this generation inherited the
 habit of applying fertilizers to soils, 1 but have net been taught the underly i ing principles of the industry.
 | The use Of some kind Of manures on
 soils with crops for the purpose of in 1 crossing tie yields goes back to an
 ciaat times We know that many an ] cient people applied animal manures o their soils for this purpose, Tine 1 Chinese centuries ago, applied ma lUIC5 of various kinds to their soils . and gardens and with phenomenal re
 quits. ln Eon Tshadi's Travels in Pc
 III we find Chat as early as the middle of the last century notes were being
 taken on tfe actual value of GUan0 oy tHe Peruyians.
 80Hsingault speaks of seeing fields
 ia 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 ferti. 1 izcrs vas introduced direct from Pe-
 ru the United States in the year 184G, 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. hut pceu
 eeoms to bo the country in which the application of minerals 10 soils as p1ant 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 about the customs in Peru
 The first man in the Southern States
 to uao ;his Peruvian guano was David Dickson, of Sparta, Ga, who saw &f. I adTertisale1t of it ir the old Am
 can Farmer published in Baltimore. The &9ntL has perhaps never had , wefe sHceeasfel fa1mer th;n Dav1 i Uis0D. who made many millions of . dofla1s tarDing, end who was 9 pio, neerIn }H2a" Cther lines as well as ia the ue~ of -lire,al fertilizers. In tta year 1916, the wear after il WaS intro
 duced into the United States. be bought threo sacks and used #, ani on find irg that t ratd him beo%!1 it in ta- crc3"'ae cta~titi2o till ~ year 1&57 and lSaf. wa"a he "Weat into 1t fGl!y As is sHcgeEtod above 'hfs ia no aon5t the frst instance O. the Hsa of a aoa centratcd mineral fertilizer on cotton
 in the United States
 Tho universal sUaleas with which M. Dickson met iu tHc U5n Of tlEs Pc i ruvian gUaao led many other pro nj
 ncnt farmers to follow his example
 and in every rcpofte9 c&se, success followed its use. We aze constrained to believe tEat the wav sh9} the ap2,i-
 cation of this min - fertilizer to tho
 cotton an4 0'hef cops in the South
 could not De"rff5f'- have been an acci- dent. It's ~ cns5 vas unGuastionably
 based on t4- "esual needs of the solI.
 A quickly af:iiaDle manure was what the crop needed, and when this was
 once applied results were evident.
 After time it was found that the
 Peruvian guano, which contained prin- |, cipaliy nitrogen, produced too much
 stalk and not much increase in the
 yield of fruit, and hence l(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 bels of Germany, also, the offering en the
 market of various kinds of mineral
 fertilizers resulting from the teach ngs of Ion Liebig of Germany, who was at that time the greatest cham,
 pion in the world of agriculture ana it's possibilities. As a result the pop. ularity of Peruvian guano subsidod
 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 contributing factors 10 the rise of the fertilizer trade in the
 South are first the abolition of slav- cry, and second, the rise Of agricuI- 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 slaves to take in nore land" It was
 cheaper to take in land than to pay for any artificial manure In 1862, the Merrill Bill passed Congress, | creating agricultural colleges in the various states, after which there be- ! gan 8 campaign for improving meth
 ods in agriculture. Experiments at public expense were begun on a small scale, and the public was induced to make greater use of plant foods of all 1 kinds. as well as to improve methods 1 of tllage. This, of course, caused an i immediate increase in the use of min
 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 of
 materials were tried out, some was 1 good, and some was not, but much of i both kinds used. The factories had no restrictions and many of them