The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1918-09-13
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 Cassopoiis.
c. r. MlllAR,
Asst Prof. Department of Soils Mich
igan Agricultural College.

I9an agricultural college,.
East Lansing, Mich-Ask the av-
erage farmer today ii it is good bus
mess Judgment to buy fertilizers ut
current prices and he will very prob
ably advise you To wait until the war
is over. If the man 10 whom YOU put
your question Is one of those eXcep-
tiOnal farnerS--One of the kind who
sit down every now and then to work
paper before they risk their venture
in the feld-he will tell you some
thing very, very different. His advice
will he something Ike this:
"Find out what your soil needs. If
II requires drainage. or merely linn
Ing, II may not pay TO buy fertilizer
but If ii lacks nitrates and phOs-
pilates. then il will pay To buy nitrates
and phoSphates. Fact is, these fertiliz-
erS are cheaper today than they were
In 10l4-and if they were profitable for
you four years ago. they will be much
more so this season"
vi 'ouiSc yOu VIII uDl Dt tDllttut
To merely accept someone else's Opin-
lon In Il matter which calls for the
expenditure not of his. hut Of your
money. Without much difficulty-prO-
viding you have at hand Il list of some
of the prices that prevailed i'm 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 it cost you IL bush
els Of wheat i'm 1914 to buy enough
| acid phosphate to fertiize one acre,
YOU can buy the same amount of fer
tilizer this year for ID bushels OF
wheat. The same facts hold true of
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 it 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 practice. But in this matter
Of fertilizers, figures run true to
| form.
A test of this was made mt 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,
POO pounds of acid phosphate, and
100 pounds of nitrate of soda, while
Il third acre, used as 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
S19.3J; the acre TO which the three
applied gave 1880 bushels. valued at
S23. 40, while the acre fortified with
limestone, acid phosphate and nitrate
of soda gave 20.96 bushels. valued OF
SCI "A. The cost of the limestone
alone was S2.25. and the cost of the
limestone and fertilizers $50 includ-
ing the labor of buying and applying
1t. After these items had been sub
tracted from the total returns. the
most heavily fortified field showed n
net return of $4.1l traceable directly
To the fertilizers-a profit of more
than 30 per cent on the investment
made.
BY way Of indicating how these
fertilizer costs We're determined 1t
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 MS 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, ac-
cor,lingly, was charged with one-third
of the cost of buying.
Similar results were obtained last
year IN 4 test ut the farm of Mr..
Green, in Lenawee county. The soil
on Mr.. Green's farm is of light,
sandy type.
In rnis demonstration three tons Of
limestone were spread over one acre,
and three tons Of limestone, plus 250
pounds of acid phosphate over another
The crop from the lined acre totaled
| up to 1919 bushels of rye. while the
crop from the acre upon which both
limestone and acid phosphate were
used amounted to 22.S2 bushels The
| two plots, of course, were adjacent
| TO each other. so that conditions of
soil, moisture, temperature and other
factors were identical. The value of
| the 1919 bushels was $27.2S while
the value of the 22.S2 bushels was
$34.23. After the cost of the fer
L tttt,.~ h.I hoan S,,ntractad fv~,xv, Tho