Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1918-03-04
THE BEST FERTILIZER
Much Of il Gees to Waste on City
Dump.-IIow Best to Make Use
Of it.

elliileuIS VI Tic SOll IL Will w d
that commercial fertilizers will dc
that is, supply nitrogen, phosphorou
and potash and it also has the follow
ing advantages:
1t will increase the water
holding capacity of the SOIL This
will mitigate drouths.
2-It will make soil mellow.
This causes it to be cultivated
more easily.
SIT makes a soil warmer.
This enables one to have earlier
vegetables.
At prevents soil from bak-
ing. Baking hinders vegetables
from coming up, makes the soil
cloddy and causes it to dry out
more rapidly.
| Sit lessons the danger of
packing when a soil is tramped or
| plowed while wet.
Cit increases the bacteria in
the soil, which unlock the plant
food that is already in the soil
and make it available for plants
A soil may contain hundreds Of
tons of plant food, with but very
little available to plants.
Advantage is Humus.
These six advantages Of manure
over commercial fertilizer are due tt
the humus. Humus is the life Of the
soil.
There are still other advantages tC
be gained by making the garden sol
rich. If plot of ground is too small
it can be 4fertilized and the yield
doubled, which is better than doubling
the area, for in the latter case tht
labor of cultiyating would be doubled
Rich land makes vegetables Of Q
better quality. Beets, for instance
are much better raised in sixty days
than in six months. Gardens often
need humus more than farm land be.
cause on the farm land, roots, stubble
and weeds are plowed under every
year and allowed to rot in the soil
which forms humus.
Much Manure Wasted.
The reason l have called attention
to this. is because hundreds of loads
of manure are hauled to the city
dumps every year. The railroad COM
panies pay several hundred dollars to
have their stock yards cleaned out at
different times during the season
The section foreman generally lets It
out by contracts and the yards are
cleaned out as soon as it thaws in the
spring. The highest price have paid
per load delivered is 20 cents, although
have had several hundred loads de-
livered for little more than a cent
per load. 1t may be a surprise to
some to know that there are well orga-
nized companies in large cities, that
gather and ship manure. There are
a half million tons shipped out of New
York City every year, some going by
rail to New Jersey, Connecticut and
Pennsylvania and some shipments are
even made as far as Maine and Flor
ida.
Another good fertilizer that is often
wasted is wood ashes. Coal ashes are
worthless. Unlcached wood ashes
contain about two per cent phosphorus
acid and eight per cent potash, al
though the amount is variable When
people throw away their wood ashes
and buy fertilizers. that are quoted in
some Of the seed catalogues, they pay
for the same ingredients, which were
in the ashes about the same price that
the wood cost to commence with
no chemist has been
able to compound fertilizer that
would equal wood ashes. The potash
is very easily leached out, but they
still contain thirty per cent of lime
which is very beneficial to CabbageS.
or course, wood ashes do not furnish
any humus.
Some Disadvantages.
Now there are some disadvantages
to applying manure:
1.-The greatest is that coarse
manure applied in large amounts
will dry out the soil and is liable
to decrease the yield the first year.
though if it is applied on top of
the soil it will help hold moisture
Weed seeds are usually con-
tanned in it.
3.-Coarse material in the soil
will cause roots of vegetable
oysters to branch.