The Yale expositor., 1918-09-19
Better Money-Makers for Farm
erS Now Than Four
Years Ago.
PAY WELL IN CASS COUNTY
Department of Soils Reports on Re
suits of Demonstration on Coun-
ty Farm at Cassopolis.
c. e. MlLLAR.
Asst. Prof. Department of Soils Mich
igan Agricultural College.


East Lansing. Mich.-Ask the av-
erage farmer today if it is good bus
mess judgment to buy fertilizers at
current prices and he will very prob
ably advise you to wait until the war
is over. If the man To whom you put
your question is one of those eXcep-
tlOnal farmers-one of the kind who
sit down every now and then to work
out their problems with a pencil and
p"1er before they risk their venture
in the field-he will tell you some
thing very, very different. His advice
will be something Ike this:
"Find out what your soil needs. If
IL requires drainage, or merely linn
ing, it may not pay to buy fertilizer,
but If it lacks nitrates and phOs-
pilates, then it will pay to buy nitrates
and phosphates. Fact is, these fertiliz-
ers are cheaper today than they were
in 1014-and if they were profitable for
you four years ago. they will be much
more so this season."
OF course you will not be content
to merely accept someone else's opin-
ion in matter which calls for the
expenditure not of his. but of your
money. Without much difliculty-pro-
viding you have at hand list of some
of the prices that prevailed in 1914
you will find that fertilizers can
really be purchased for less today
than was possible four years ago.
Your price lists will show you in
detail that while 1t cost you 1t bush
els OF wheat in 1914 to buy enough
acid phosphate to fertilize one acre,
you can buy the same amount of fer
tilizer this year for IL bushels of
wheat. The same facts hold true of
rye. In 1914 it required 221 bushels
Of rye TO pay FOR enough acid phos-
plate for an acre of land but this
year the same amount of phosphate
can be purchased for II bushels of
rye.
Quite often 1t happens that prob
lens which come out perfectly on
paper anu bring forth visions of a
bumper crop of greenbacks and
castles in Spain, do not work out so
well in prac.sce. But in this matter
of fertilizers, figures run true to
form.
A test of this was made at Cassopo-
lis, in Cass county this last season.
The county farm at Cassopolis was
selected for the demonstration. To
one acre were applied three tons of
ground limestone; to another were
applied three tons of ground limestone,
200 pounds of acid phosphate, and
100 pounds of nitrate of soda, while
third acre, used as a check plot,
was left untreated. When the grain
(rye) was harvested from these plots
this last summer the untreated acre
produced 1882 bushels, valued at
$19.35; the acre TO which the three
tons of ground limestone had been
applied gave 1850 bushels, valued at
$23.40, while the acre fortified with
limestone, acid phosphate and nitrate
of soda gave 2096 bushels, valued at
$31.44. The cost of the limestone
alone was 1925, and the cost of the
limestone and fertilizers $50, includ-
Ing the labor of buying and applying
it. After these items had been sub
tracted from the total returns, the
most heavily fortified field showed a
net return of SAIL traceable directly
to the fertiliZers-a profit Of more
than so per cent on the investment
made.
BY way of indicating how these
fertilizer costs were determined ii
may be explained that the acid phos.
plate was applied the year before, and
consequently the rye crop was charged
with only one-third of the original
| cost. The nitrate OF soda was
charged for in full, since It is put on
every fall, but as there is no definite
Information showing for just how long
one application Of ground limestone
| will suffice on sandy soil, il was as
sumed the three tons will be sufficient
for three years. The rye crop, &C
cordingly, was charged with one-thirt
of the cost of buying.
Similar results were obtained las
year in a test at the farm of Mr.
Green, in Lenawee county. The sol
on Mr.. Green's farm is Of a light
sandy type.
In tnis demonstration three tons o
limestone were spread over one acre
and three tons Of limestone, plus 25I
pounds Of acid phosphate over another
The crop from the lined acre totale'
up to 1919 bushels of rye, while tn
crop from the acre upon which bot
limestone and acid phosphate wer
used amounted TO 22.S2 bushels. Tn
two plots, of course, were adjacen
to each other, so that conditions o
soil, moisture, temperature and othe
factors were identical. The value Q
the 1910 bushels was S27.2S, Will
the value Of the 22.S2 bushels wa
-.