Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1922-03-29
WITH THE COUNTY AGENT
Hi Spots From the County Agricul-
tural Agents Office
Friday. March 3lst. 1872

tuTdi agent OihSc
Friday. March 3lst, 1922
During the past few weeks a sale
committee consisting of five members
of the Guernsey BREEDERS association
of Vernon county have been buslly en-
gagged in consigning cattle to the
Guernsey sale on Friday, March 31st.
The cattle consigned in this sale are
grade females and pure bred. males.
Only such stock was consigned to the
sale as was thought would promote
the Guernsey industry OF the county
The quality of stock is the best that
the county affords. At the sale OPP
portunity will be given to choose from
q lot of exceptionally fine grade fe-
males and to pick a pure bred sire
of most any age desired The males
consigned are of all ages and will be
sure to please the average dairyman.
The writer wishes especially to en-
phasize the fact that this sale will
afford the greatest of opportunities
for the Guernsey dairymen with no
particular line of breeding to start in
with good Guernsey cattle.
The sale committee consisting of
Messrs. Dave Engler, Viroqua; A. b.
Swiggum, Westby; Victor Anderson,
Coon Valley; F. X. Malin, Genoa; plan
to have a Guernsey sale each year
hereafter. It is the wish of the Guern-
sey breeders association of Vernon
county that an annual Guernsey sale
be included in the regular program
of work in promoting the Guernsey
industry in the county.
A special feature of the sale will be
the Guernsey dairy lunch to be served
at noon. Immediately following this,
namely at loo P. NJ the sale will be-
gin. Mr.. Harry Griswold of West
Salem is acting as sales manager.
Mr.. VIII Lindemann will act as clerk
and Mr.. Chas. w. 0'Neill will receive
the bids.
Commercial Fertilizers
Commercial fertilizers are plant
foods. You buy fertilizers containing
any one, any two, or all three of the
elements Nitrogen, Phosphorus and
Potassium. Nitrogen in a fertilizer
is called Ammonia, Phosphorus is
called Phosphoric acid, and Potassium
is called Potash. 1t is only with the
use of commercial fertilizers that we
may be able to maintain balanced ra-
ton of plant foods in the soil and
thereby enable us to raise maximum
crops.
Commercial fertilizers can be used
profitably on practically every farm in
the state of Wisconsin. They should
never be used excepting as a supple
ment to good farm practices, and a
successful and profitable use of them
will be measured by the extent to
which the farmer carried out good
practices such as: Crop rotation,
raising of legumes, correction of soil
acidity by the use of lime, the use of
all manure produced on the farm, and
the proper tilage of crops.
The only way in which you will ever
find out whether fertilizers will pay
on your farm is to try them yourself.
Do not look for spectacular results. A
difference of ten bushels to the acres
on corn and five bushels on small
grains may not be apparent, but can
only be shown by measuring out de-
finite areas and comparing the yield
on the fortified field to similar area
of field which has not been fortified.
Fertilizers should not be allowed
to come in contact with the seed un-
less it is mixed with some of the soil.
Exceptions to this may be made in the
case of small grains. None of these
seem to be injured where moderate
amounts of fertilizer are used. The
smallest amount of fertilizer, how
ever, in contact with seed corn, Gu
cumber, squash, mellon, onion, pea
and bean seeds will kill the germina-
ton.
Much comment is now being made
regarding the cost of fertilizers. The
criticism arises from the fact that too
large a portion of the fertilizer is
made up of inert material and conse-
quently much labor must be used in
order to distribute very small por-
tion of plant food over given acre
of soil. Likewise freight rates on
fertilizers are exceptionally high be-
cause of the large per cent of inert
material. These criticisms may be
justly made by the analist or chemist
whose duty it is to determine the avail
able plant food in given fertilizer
but the same criticism cannot be Civ
en- by the man who is to apply this
plant food to the soil. The very ma
ture of this plant food and the man.
ner of distribution necessarily employ
ed in most efficiently using it, makes
it very necessary that the fertilizer
have considerable bulk or carrier. The
|consentration and availability of plant
foods in commercial fertilizers make
it necessary that very small amounts
be added to the soil in feeding any
one given plant 1t may appear that
from the costs of various fertilizers
home mixing would result in great
saving of money. This, however, is
only true when a large quantity of
fertilizer is to be mixed. In the first
place the raw goods are much too con-
centrated to be used as plant food
unless mixed with some inert mater
ial. This necessarily means that
much mixing must be done before a
fertilizer is prepared on the farm
ready for use Moreover, the rev ma
terials or in fact any fertilizer is ra-
Their unpleasant and difficult to handle.
The writer wishes to suggest that
home mixing be practiced only where
large quantities of fertilizer are to
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