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FERTILIZERS.

WHERE THE MATERIALS COME FROM.

WHERE TO GET THEM IN THE CHEAPEST FORM,

HOW TO COMPOUND FORMULAS, ETC., ETC.

BY

J. J. H. GREGORY, A.M.,

AUTHOB OF WORKS ON CABBAGK -RAISING, ONION-RAISING, SQUASH-RAISIHe, STC

Copyb:ght, 18«3,
Bt 0. J. H. GREGORir.

»»•.<•

PREFACE,

This treatise is by a farmer for farmers. Using forty
or fifty tons of commercial fertilizers on my own crops
annually, I have been compelled to " book myself up," as
the phrase is, — to learn the cheapest market in which to
buy the elements, the best way to combine these, and the
wisest way to apply them to the different crops of the farm.
This treatise is the result of the study of various works
on agricultural chemistry, especially the excellent reports
that have been sent out from our agricultural stations
by Professors. Johnson and Atwater, Goessmann, Dabney,
Caldwell, and others, to whom our sense of indebtedness
will be measured by the growth of our intelligence. This
study, combined with personal observation and experience,
makes up my little book. My treatise is not a work on
barn manure : it is confined, for the most part, to fertilizers.
It can perform no miracles : to ask that it shall show every
one the road to success in the profitable raising of his
crops would be as reasonable as was the search of the
alchemist of old for the wonderful alembic that was to
transmute every thing to gold. The whole matter of soil

240791 •"

IV PREFACE.

action and plant-growth is wonderfully complex ; and so
far from the old axiom being true, that any man can be
a farmer, we find that farming, in the problems it presents
for solution, is a calling that challenges the best ability
and the best culture to be found among men. To give a
history of the three principal elements which enter into
the composition of fertilizers, to discuss their relations to
plant-growth in the various forms in which they exist, to
tell in what form and where they may be obtained at the
lowest rates, to tell how they may be combined and
applied' in the wisest way, brother farmers, is the object
of this treatise. Should it prove desirable to enlarge the
subject, I may take up barn and various other manures in
another work.

To those who desire to study the subject of. plants and
plant-growth more extensively, I would recommend such
excellent works as " How Crops Grow " and " How Crops
Feed," by Professor Johnson ; " Botanical Text-Book," by
Professor Grey ; and " Harris on Manures."

CONTENTS,

PAOB

Introduction 1

Difference between Barn Manure and Commercial Fertilizers ... 6

What is Barnyard Manure ? 8

Humus 12

Are Fertilizers but Stimulants ? 13

Potash 16

Wood Ashes 23

Coal Ashes 29

Cotton-Seed Hulls 29

The Uses of Potash in Agriculture

What is Nitrogen ?

Where Nitrogen or Ammonia comes from 35

How to Handle Fish- Waste, and the Best Way to Feed it to the Crops, 40

Other Sources for Nitrogen 44

Phosphoric Acid 54

Bones, and where they come from 57

Making our own Superphosphate 58

Reduction of Unground Bone 64

The Theories of Fertilizing 68

Testing our Soils 72

A Faith that is Dangerous ; Buying Cheap Fertilizers ..... 74

Making our own Fertilizers 77

The Manufacturers of Fertilizers 78

Leather-Waste 79

Some Facts and Suggestions 81

Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials and Chemicals 84

Commercial and Agricultural Values of Fertilizers 86

Where to Obtain our Fertilizing Material at the Lowest Cost ... 86

Formulas, and how to Compound them 90

Formulas for Various Crops 91

How to Compound our own Formulas 94

Some Formulas as Compounded 96

Condensation of Special and other Formulas 98

How to Mix the Ingredients that enter into a Formula 101

Applying Fertilizers 102

The System of Manuring with Unleached Wood Ashes 103

Fertilizers Excellent for Various Crops, and Suggestions .... 105

Composts 108

American Analyses of Composition of Fertilizing Materials . . Ill, 112

Estimates of Cost of Plant-Food in Crops 114

A Plea for Mercy 115

FERTILIZEK8.

INTRODUCTION.

Chemists tell us that water, and this air around us, that
we can neither see nor grasp, and which in all our every-
day calculations of space we take no account of, make up
from eighty-eight to ninety-nine per cent of our crops, our
trees, or any form of vegetable growth. Practically, we
know this is so ; for we can bring out in a bushel-basket
all the ashes made from a load of wood that it might take
a couple of yoke of oxen to draw in. A wood cord is about
one hundred bushels ; in the ashes which contain the min-
erals that entered into the make-up of that wood, we get
not more than two per cent of this. The great remainder,
after yielding that heat which the sun has fed to it for, it
may be, a hundred years, in the form of vapor and gases
hurries up the chimney, to return to mother-air, from
whence they came. Plant-life builds up the mighty tree,
borrowing almost nothing from the soil. It is the weight
of the air and the water present in its structure that our
oxen strain under when hauling to mill the trunk of some
huge veteran of the forest. All that it has taken from
the soil to make up its huge bulk the driver might carry
in a bag on his shoulder, and then have to go some distance
to get an appetite for breakfast. In brief, to express it in

1

^ FERTILIZERS.

. . . • < o (

a 'familiar- way, i&^ii does but little more than help plants.
; ^tand .upright ; while water and air, obeying chemical
' laws, build up their structure. And what is soil? It is
the result of the destruction of the rocks mingled with
vegetable waste ; it is the turning of all life, organic and
inorganic, into its original elements ; it is the great grave-
yard of creation ; it is the great mine of the world, out
from which come the food of all animal and vegetable
life, the wherewithal they shall be clothed, the means of
shelter and protection from heat, cold, and wet ; it is
Mother Earth, from whom all organized life springs, and
to whom, after completing its little round, all matter that
enters therein returns, to repose a while within her bosom,
there to rest and refresh itself before entering into new
forms, and running another course of vitality.

" The earth is my mother," said Red Jacket, the Indian
orator, at the Great Council, declining a chair offered him :
" I will rest upon her bosom." Yes, she is the material
mother of all organized life; and, when their course is
ended, all her children go home to her.

The giant of the forest may span his thousand years
of time, and, towering upward a hundred feet above his
fellows, may seem to despise his humble origin ; but his
mother is patiently waiting for him : and, hoary with
years, worn and weary, seeking rest, he bows his lofty
head, falls upon her breast, and receives her final embrace.
Man himself, standing at the head of all organized life,
in sleep, imago mortis, reclines by instinct on her bosom ;
and, when comes the final hour, his material self by loving
hands is gently lowered into her yearning care, " dust unto
dust." If any man could really believe that this is the
final end, he would that instant die of horror, or become
insane. The cheer that every good deed leaves in our
hearts is full of the instinct of immortality.

FERTILIZERS. 3

If we give the bushel of ashes into the hands of the
chemist, to tell us what it is made of, he will return us
silicon, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, sodium, alumin^
ium, sulphur, iron, chlorine, magnesium. These are the
elements that all plants take from the soil. The soil itself
obtained them originally from the ledges of solid rock,
which through eons of years have been slowly disinte-
grating and decomposing. Geology tells us, that, by the
action of the drift waves of ancient eras, mountains of
water six thousand feet or more in height swept from the.
north, breaking down, filling up, and smoothing off, the
ragged, craggy surface of the ancient lava-covered earth ;
by later glacial action, and that of water and frost, which
extend into the human period, the rocks have been ground
up, and scattered over a large portion of the surface of
our planet in gravelly hills and plains, covered more or
less by vegetable matter, through which protrude, in places*
the rocky ribs of the ancient earth. This soil is but a
sprinkling on the surface of our globe. At a depth of but
a few hundred feet, at the utmost, on any spot of its mil-
lions of miles of surface, we would strike rock, solid to
the great lava centres.

The principal ledges from which have come originally
the mineral matter of the soil, are of the granite class.
These yield the minerals felspar, mica, hornblende, and
quartz ; and they, the silicon, potash, iron, alumina, soda,
lime, and manganese. The sedimentary rocks, of which the
various slates are a type, have the particles in a finer forin
than they exist in the parent primary rocks ; and hence the
soils formed from these, such as the clays, have the mineral
constituents in a finer condition. But the finest subdivis-
ion of all, in which the mineral matter of the soil exists,
is that supplied by dead plant and animal life, into whose
structure the minerals entered in so fine a state as to be
held in solution by water.

<k FERTILIZERS.

In felspar and mica we have the great natural store-
houses of potash; the former containing seventeen per
cent, and the latter nine per cent. It has been estimated
from tests on a small scale, that, in soils from granite
taken to the depth of twenty inches, on an acre of land
the potash from the felspar alone is over one million two
hundred thousand pounds. What this means may be in-
ferred when we consider that it has been computed that
two cubic feet of felspar contains sufficient potash to
supply the wants of an acre of young oaks for five years.

Not only is the soil of the earth to be supplied with
mineral matter, but the ocean also, to enable her to furnish
food for her many forms of marine life, both animal and
vegetable. Water, percolating through the soil, with the
help of the carbonic acid it holds in solution, which it has
derived mostly from the air, dissolves an infinitesimally
small portion of mineral ingredients, and carries them to
the streams and rivers ; and these run on, with their invisi-
ble freight of soda, potash, chlorine, and other minerals, to
the ocean. Here, nothing but water being evaporated, the
mineral strength increases ; and in the kelps, sea-mosses,
rock-weed, and eel-grass which we gather along the shore,
and carry back on the land to manure our farms, or in
the waste fish we handle, we find the identical manurial
elements that exist in the various land plants which we
feed to our animals. And we find, moreover, that these
elements are about equally well proportioned for plant-
food.

The rocks of the little State of Massachusetts have
locked up in them, it is safe to say, all the potash, the sili-
con, the iron, the alumina, the soda, necessary to supply
the population of the whole earth, from now to the end of
time, with all of these ingredients that enter into their
daily food, provided they were made soluble, and were

FERTILIZEES. 5

not wasted. The soil of Massachusetts could doubtless
grow food sufficient to feed a population of a million and
a half of inhabitants, without a spoonful of manure being
needed beyond her own natural resources, and continue to
do this through all time, could, from the beginning, all ex-
cremental waste made from the consumption of such food
have been returned to it. We say that soil is an accumu-
lation of broken rock, decomposed minerals, and disor-
ganized organic matter, the waste of Nature's workshop, —
a dead mass. And so it is, from the organic stand-point.

But there is a chemical as well as an organic life ; and
from this stand-point, in the loam we turn with the plough,
apparently so inert and dead, there is a life of unceasing
activity throughout the growing season, which rests only
when paralyzed by the frosts of winter. So complicated
is it in its action and re-action, its marriages and divorces,
in utter disregard of all moral laws in seeking its affini-
ties, that it presents some of the most complicated prob-
lems to be found in physical science. The utmost that
has been attained is the possible and probable. The man
who could tell the world exactly the composition of a rod
of ground, and the daily changes that took place in it
during the growing season, and how these affect the ma-
nures applied, and how they affect it, and how the results
of these actions and re-actions affect the growing crop,
would take his place among the immortals without a dis-
senting voice from among his fellow-men.

Chemical action is mineral instinct^ or, more accurately,
a demonstration of the existence of such instinct.

Higher than mineral instinct stands plant-life. Plants
have more than life, they have intelligent volition. Plant-
life builds up the structure ; while plant instinct, active at
the little spongioles, dissolves from the rocks, or selects
from the soil, with unerring accuracy, the materials needed.

6 FERTILIZERS.

The order in creation, then, is, that the rocks supply the
minerals ; plants feed on these minerals ; animals feed on
these plants ; while omnivorous man, lord of all, feeds on
both minerals and plants.

Chemists have settled the fact that most of the dozen
elements that enter into the composition of plants are
found in sufficient quantity in almost all soils, leaving but
potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid as the three essen-
tials, more or less of each of which, as a general rule, we
farmers must supply to the soil if we plant for a crop ;
though on some soils, such as muck meadows, lime and
silicon in some form may be necessary adjuncts. We pro-
pose to discuss these, and. the sources from which they are
obtained.

Before taking up in detail the three essential elements
of plant-food, let us here discuss the difference that is
assumed to exist between them as they exist in barn
manure and commercial fertilizers.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BARN MANURE AND
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS ?

All plant-food is manure ; and all manure is plant-food,
whether it is in the form of the artificial products, — which
are known among farmers as "artificial manures," "chemi-
cal fertilizers," — or is the natural product of the barn
yard : and the feeding value of each is measured in the same
way ; viz., by the quantity they contain of the three essen-
tial elements, viz., nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid,
and the digestible condition in which these elements exist.
The great bugbear dealers in fertilizers have to contend
with in dealing with us farmers is, the deeply rooted belief
that the only real manure is that which comes out of the
barnyard, and that all other forms in which it is presented
are mere makeshifts.

FERTILIZERS. 7

Where do the fertilizing elements in barn manure come
from ? From the food animals eat. But do all the fertilize
ing elements in the food find their way to the manure ?
Certainly not ; a portion of them are used to promote the
growth of the animal, going into its flesh and bones. Is
there not, then, in the body of the animal, which has in it
a part of the fertilizing elements contained in the food,
plant-food also, as well as in the manure that passes
through it ? Every farmer will assent to this. As it has
less water and waste in its composition than the manure
itself, is it not more concentrated plant-food? Now, it
is these bones, blood, flesh, and other waste that are used
in fertilizers as one of the principal sources for ammonia
and phosphoric acid, — ammonia in the dried blood and
flesh, and phosphoric acid in the bones, — to carry back to
earth the plant-food received from it. What is the differ-
ence, then, between using the manure of an animal as
plant-food, and using the animal himself as plant-food?
Simply, that we get more water and waste in the one case
than in the other.

Go into the fields, and study the crops of the Great
Farmer of the universe. From the majestic Sequoia^ that
tower toward high heaven, even to the tiny hyssop, that
creepeth on the wall, observe the green mantle of his
mighty domain thrown over the mountains that span a con-
tinent, and trailing along their thousand valleys, contrast-
ing, in its vast amplitude, with the patches of soil on which
dwell nations, covering every latitude and enveloping all
continents in its mighty folds up to the great icy circles.
How does the Great Farmer raise his crops ? Take your
spade, and dig down into the soil. Do you find any ham
manure there ? Go out on the boundless prairies of the far
West, " where bounteous nature only, tills the willing soil."
Do you find any barn manure there ? They waved their

8 FERTILIZERS.

oceans of verdure thousands of years before the human
era. Enter the limitless woods, and ask the giant pines
for the secret of their towering robustness. Was it barn
manure ?

Sajs Bruckner, " Farmers, accustomed to think of ma-
nure as a bulky article, want bulk for their money. They
are slow to realize that a little of the substance needed is
better than a good deal that is not needed."

I will say, at the outset, that this little treatise is not
designed to be a tilt against barnyard manure : that will
always have its place in agriculture, as I find, myself, in
the great quantities I use annually in my own farming
operations. But I would like to see the circulars of some
of the dealers in fertilizers take a little bolder stand, and
not say, that, after we have used all our barn manure, then
comes the time to buy fertilizers, but to declare that there
are crops which can be raised decidedly cheaper on fertil-
izers, besides ripening earlier (as corn), and being of
better quality (as potatoes), and that it would always be
decidedly better to use a part or all of fertilizers on such
crops, and give what manure we have remaining to the
acres of grass-lands that would be fertilized by it on every
farm. I contend for a broad handling of this subject of
plant-food, and a recognition of the true value of it in
every form in which it exists.

WHAT IS BARNYARD MANURE?

I took a little of it, fresh from the horse-stall, and dried
all the water out of it on the hearth, and was surprised at
the result. On breaking it up fine, all I could find, by the
closest scrutiny with the naked eye, was a mass of bits of
hay, ranging from a third of an inch long to so small as to
be barely visible ^ and I will defy any one with the naked
eye to find any thing else. Many of the fragments of the

FERTILIZERS. 9

hay had suffered so little change, that they yet shone
in the light. The whole mass had a yellowish color, and
smelt as manure smells ; but the puzzle was, to find any
thing in it that could be called manure. There were frag-
ments of hay, a slight color, and nothing else. Now,
where was the plant-food in it? The potash, ammonia,
and phosphoric acid evidently must have been hidden
among, or soaked into, the fragments of hay. I found, by
weighing it before and after it had dried, that it lost
seven-tenths of its original weight ; in other words, seven-
tenths of its weight was water. Now, fresh barnyard
manure has been analyzed, and found to contain the
following kind and quantity of elements : —

Water 71.3

Nitrogen 0.5

Silica and insoluble matter 10.5

Alumina and oxide of iron 0.7

Lime 0.5

Potash 0.4

Soda 0.1

Phosphoric acid 0.5

Chlorine . . . . • 0.1

Now, taking a cord of average stable manure, which
will average in weight about 4,500 pounds, we should
have in it 3,208 pounds of water, 22i pounds of nitrogen,
47 2i pounds of silica, 31 J pounds of alumina and iron,
22i pounds of lime, 13^ pounds of magnesia, 18 pounds of
potash, 4J pounds of soda, 4J pounds of sulphuric acid,
22i pounds of phosphoric acid, and 4i pounds of chlorine.
Taking a common one-horse load of two cord-feet, and it
would contain, of water, 802 pounds ; of nitrogen, about 5 J
pounds ; silica^ about 118 pounds ; of alumina, 6J pounds ;
lime, 3i pounds ; magnesia, 3 J pounds ; potash, 4i pounds ;

10 FERTILIZERS.

soda, 1 pound ; sulphuric acid, 1 pound ; phosphoric acid,
5 J pounds ; chlorine, 1 pound.

Now, while you are urging on the faithful old horse,
sweating and tugging at his load through the mud, into
the soft ploughed ground, where the wheels sink nearly
to the hubs, put on your thinking-cap, and consider that
in that load you are teaming 802 pounds of water on youi
land ; and what in the world do we want to do that for,
with the ground already so wet that we don't dare stick a
plough into it, and are waiting anxiously for the sun to
look out with power, and dry it up ? You are teaming 14
pounds of silica, which is another name for sand, — carrying
coals to Newcastle ; for, nine cases out of ten, the soil has
already a good deal more sand in its composition than you
want there. Of the iron, lime, soda, and chlorine, already,
as a rule, the soil has all it needs ; leaving but the nitrogen,
the potash, and the phosphoric acid as the only parts oi
the big load that are really needed by the crop, no matter
what that is to be. And the 54 pounds of nitrogen, as fai
as weight goes, would not be a heavy load for one^ coat-
pocket, nor the 5i pounds of phosphoric acid for uPOcher,
nor the 4i pounds of potash for the third. liowerer, there
is a little of fiction in this ; for though it is literally true that
all there is of value in that horse-load of manure for the pro-
duction of whatever crop you intend to plant, is the nitro
gen, potash, and phosphoric acid, which altogethr weigh but
15i pounds, still, it is practically not possible to carry them
to the field in a pure form : yet in the form of sulphate of
ammonia for nitrogen, phosphate of lime from bones, and
muriate of potash for potash, they would altogether weigh
52 pounds, and might easily be carried in a bushel-basket,
which they would but little more than half fill, and yet
have in them all the manure value contained in that two
feet of manure which the old horse is tugging at.

FERTILIZERS. 11

Why should we farmers insist upon it, that bulk is
necessary in manure ? We do not so insist when we use
ashes, lime, or plaster; but then, we look upon them —
at least, the two latter — as agricultural miracles, though
there is nothing miraculous about them. If bulk is so
desirable in feeding crops, then why not, in feeding our-
selves corn, eat stalk, cob, and husk ? or, with the kernel
of wheat, eat the straw and husk which grew with it ?
Just as the store of the apothecary, in the neat jars and
phials on his long, narrow shelves, supplies us all that is
really valuable in a mass of medicinal herbs that in their
natural state would fill his shop solid full many times
over, so in commercial fertilizers we find concentrated all
that is valuable as plant-food in a mass of barn manure a
hundred times as bulky.

The objection sometimes urged against the use of fer-
ilizers, that they do not leave so much food in the ground
lor the crop that follows, is, I consider, an argument for
them The plant-food in them is in so digestible a condi-
tion, that the crop we plant can get about all of it : whereas,
in using barn manure, the food is not all in such condition ;
and to get the same result the first season, we must put
on more manure than the crop would need, provided the
ingredients became plant-food the same season. Fertilizers
in some form can be made to last, like barn manure, and
feed several successive crops with a single application, if it
is desired. For instance, in ashes and bone we have all
the three elements for a complete manure. Now apply an
extra quantity of the ashes, and apply a portion of the
bone in a coarse state. Ashes are always enduring in
their effect ; and the coarse bone will be years in decaying,
and setting free nitrogen and phosphoric acid.

12 FERTILIZERS.

HUMUS.

There is, however, a value in barn manure in addition
to its fertilizing properties. Its bulk has a mechanical
effect on the soil, improving heavy soils, and lightening
the texture of all soils, — a fact of especial value to market
gardeners in their early crops. By its partial decomposi-
tion, it adds to the mass of dark-brown earth which we
so especially notice in old gardens, and which goes under
the name of humus. Humus is dead vegetable and animal
matter in process of decay. In the surface twelve inches
of good soil, there is, in a latent condition, about fifteen
hundred pounds of phosphoric acid, fifteen hundred pounds
of potash, and seventeen hundred pounds of lime. Car-
bonic acid changes these into plant-food. Now, humus,
by its decay, develops carbonic acid, and so brings about
the decomposition of this latent food. Wet weather favors
this action. That carbonic acid has this power to set free
plant-food in the soil, has been proved by the experiments
of Professor Stockhardt. Our crops take up only a small
portion of the fertilizers we apply before the nutrient sub-
stances they contain become insoluble. The humus keeps
them in a soluble condition, which is an argument for the
use of barn manure, muck, or the ploughing-under of sod
or green crops, in connection with the use of fertilizers.
It acts as a sponge, to absorb and hold moisture in low,
black soils, which are made up of dead vegetable matter
in a state of semi-decay, halfway towards coal, — a carbo-
naceous mass of stems, roots, and leaves. Burnt, it makes
an ashes red, from the presence of iron, having but one-
sixth the potash to be found in hard-wood ashes. The
trouble with the humus of soil of a mucky nature for till-
age purposes is, that when dry it takes up water very
slowly; and it takes, therefore, a good deal of rain tc

FERTILIZERS. 13

moisten it: while, on the other hand, when wet, it keeps
wet and cold too long for the health of vegetation. With-
out draining, manure is a waste on such soils. I once top-
dressed such a meadow for two or three years, to get but
wild dandelion, that was not worth the money. I deepened
the outlet, and now can cut three good crops of grass from
it every year.

Humus holds a great store of carbonic acid ; which de-
composes the minerals in the soil, setting free potash and
phosphoric acid. It also holds latent nitrogen, sometimes
as high as three per cent, which is six times as much as
in average stable manure. This is made plant-food by the
application of lime or carbonate of potash. It is the great
argument for the use of barn manure in preference to
commercial fertilizers, that it forms humus; but we can
gain the same end by turning under a grass or clover sod,
cow-pease, or a green crop, and these we can raise hy com-
viercial fertilizers.

Humus is not in itself plant-food. It is not necessary
for the yield of heavy crops.

ARE FERTILIZERS BUT STIMULANTS?

The old-fashioned farmer is apt to look askance on this
new-fangled fashion of manuring, call fertilizers "medi-
cine, stimulants," '' a sure way to run out the land."

To continually apply but a single one of the three ele-
ments which enter into the complete manure, and especially
if that one should be nitrogen, and for a series of years be
in marked excess of the other two, would in the end, sooner
or later, prove that the old farmer was right in his conclu-
sion, however faulty he might be in his reasoning. Let
me here emphasize the fact repeatedly proved, and that
squares with common sense ; viz., that the one of the three

14 FERTILIZERS.

elements, nitrogen, potash, or phosphoric acid, of which the
soil has the least, will always be the measure of the crop.

A hundred pounds of potash applied would not give a
larger yield than five pounds (and so of the other two
elements) if there is not a proportionate increase of the
other elements.

Says Professor At water, in his generalizations from over
a hundred carefully studied experiments, " Either the com-
bined testimony of these experiments, similar ones else-
where, and the best experience, are totally false, or chemical
fertilizers bring larger, better, and even surer crops than
farm manure. . .. Artificial fertilizers rightly used must
prove among the most potent means for the restoration of
our agriculture." The professor makes this general rec-
ommendation : " For general farming, at a distance from
the large markets, the chief use of commercial fertilizers
should be to supplement the manure of the farm. The
right way is, to make the most and best manure that is
practicable upon the farm, and piece out with such com-
mercial fertilizers as experiments and experience prove
profitable. At the same time, there are many cases, espe-
cially near cities, where every thing depends on getting
the largest and best (and earliest) yield, where the more
exclusive use of chemical fertilizers is advisable." This
is sound sense ; but I would modify it somewhat by advis-
ing to use fertilizers on leachy soil in preference to barn
manure, depending on occasional laying-down to grass to
improve the texture of such soil. Also, as a rule, to de-
pend on fertilizers for the vegetable and grain crops, and
give the manure to the grass crop, ploughing under a good
sward to enrich the land with humus, when the grass
crop is as heavy as a ton to the acre, and not waiting till
you can span between the blades.

The celebrated experiments of Mr. Lawes of Rotham-

FERTILIZERS. 15

sted, Eng., when he raised wheat for twenty years in
succession, depending wholly on chemical fertilizers, the
same amount each year, with the results, that, where the
first ten years the average was twenty-nine bushels per
acre, the second ten the average was forty-one bushels
per acre, ought forever to settle the " stimulant and medi-
cine " theory. Professor Atwater says, further, " That a
great deal of successful farm experience goes to show that
artificial fertilizers may take the place of farm manures,
there is no question. The experience and experimenting
that bear on this point are of too great accuracy, too long
continuance, and too large amount, to be ignored, and the
results too decisive to be derided. Nor is there in the
results of the best scientific investigators any thing antago-
nistic to the doctrine."

To sum the matter up, the arguments for the use of fer-
tilizers are, (1) As a rule, they cost considerably less to
produce the same crop results. (2) They are much more
cheaply transported; and, containing the fertilizing ele-
ments in so condensed a form, the whole handling of them
is much cheaper. (3) They enable the farmer to cultivate
much larger areas. (4) They enable us to feed just the
proportion of each of the three elements the crop needs.

(5) They ripen crops earlier, and so practically prolong
the season, making the raising of some varieties possible
when before their use they could not wisely be risked.

(6) They improve the quality of potatoes and grain. (7)
They virtually bring outlying fields nearer to the farm.
(8) They have indirectly raised farmers to a higher intel-
lectual level by stimulating them to acquire more infor-
mation, and a clearer insight into the laws which govern
plant-growth. (9) They lessen our crop of weeds, as,
unlike barn manure, they carry with them no weed-seed
into the soil.

16 FERTILIZERS.

POTASH.

Potash is the element potassium combined with oxygen
— " potassium oxide " it is called by the agricultural
chemists. Potassium itself is but a curiosity of the labora-
tory ; for it can be kept pure only by excluding all air, and
is therefore only to be found in the bottle of the chemist.
The name " potash " was given it because it was made in
iron pots from ashes.

In Canada and other primitive countries, in clearing the
land, the trees having been felled, piled, and burnt, the
ashes are collected, mixed with about one-twentieth of
lime, and placed in half-barrels, with false bottoms perfo-
rated with holes, and covered with straw. They are
drenched with water ; and in an hour or two the water is
drawn off into shallow iron pans, and evaporated. The
crude potash obtained is purified by heat on the floor of a
furnace, where most of the sulphur and water is driven
off, making the pearl ash of commerce.

Potash is a most caustic, biting alkali, dissolving and
decomposing all organic structures it comes in contact
with. It is one of the most powerful bases; in other
words, it is a vigorous, unprincipled chemical thief, seizing
upon, and absorbing into itself, the acids it finds combined
with various saline compounds. Pure water could not
dissolve the potash as it exists in the particles of felspar
and mica that are found in the soil ; but, taking carbonic
acid from the air, it has the power of dissolving the sili-'
cate of potash, leaving the quartz and alumina to form the
clays. Caustic lime also has this power. The silica,
combined with the potash, preferring the lime, divorces
itself from the potash, and, marrying the lime, sets the
potash free. In the vegetable kingdom it is held by
plants, while in the process of growth, in a soluble state,

FERTILIZERS. 17

combined with oxalic, tartaric, silicic, and sulphuric acids.
When wood is burnt, these acids are decomposed; and,
the potash combining with carbonic acid, we have the
common form of carbonate of potash. Potash is not only
one of the three essentials for all plant-growth, but it is
also found in the fruits, vegetables, and grains. The
grape, the apple, the potato, are illustrations. The ashes
of bean and pea vines, the potato-vine, and beet-leaves,
are especially rich in potash ; while corn-cobs and aspara-
gus stalks yield an enormous proportion, though but a
small amount compared with their bulk. The principal
sources from which we obtain potash are, India, from
which comes the nitrate of potash ; Germany, from which
come the sulphates, muriates, kainite, kruget, etc. (all of
them products of the famous Stassfurt deposit), wood
ashes (which includes those from the brick-kiln and lime
kiln), burnt tan, logwood, etc., and a limited amount
from the burnt hulls of cotton-seed. The potash in all
these forms comes originally, as we have already stated,
from the Creator's great storehouse, the felspar and mica
bearing ledges, with the soils formed from their disintegra-
tion and decomposition. From the nitrate of potash is
made the saltpetre of commerce. Being costly, it is rarely
used for agricultural purposes, though, to a limited extent,
a waste product enters the market.

The Stassfurt mines of Germany were originally opened
for salt-mines ; and what was at first looked upon as a
worthless waste, the wand of Chemistry pointed out as by
far the most valuable product. These mines make, I am
informed, the centre of a vast basin, many miles in diam-
eter, which is believed to have been the bed of an ancient
salt sea. The various salts, from their composition and
the order of their formation, are believed by men of science
to havie resulted from the drying-up of this sea. The de-

18 FERTILIZERS.

•

posit appears to be inexhaustible in its extent. The gen-
eral name given to the potash-bearing mass is carnallite,
from the pinkish color which it bears. Most of the prod-
ucts marketed are made from the original material of the
bed by chemical processes, which, as is common in old
countries, are kept well-guarded secrets. It comes to this
country in different grades of muriate, sulphate, and kai-
nite.

The chemists tell us that a high grade of muriate of
potash contains about 80 per cent of muriate of potash,
which is equal to 50 per cent of potassium oxide, or pure
potash. A high grade of sulphate contains about 52 per
cent of sulphate of potash, which is equal to about 28 per
cent of pure potash, and 30 per cent of sulphate of mag-
nesia, which is equal to 10 per cent of magnesium oxide.
A high grade kainite contains about 30 per cent of sul-
phate of potash (equal to about 14^ per cent pure
potash), 35 per cent of chloride of sodium (which is but
another name for common salt), and 10 per cent of sul-
phate of magnesia. It generally has also some chloride
of magnesia.

In buying these fertilizers, we farmers are apt to think
we are getting more potash than they really contain. For
instance, 80 per cent of muriate of potash is apt to be
taken as meaning 80 per cent of potash, whereas it means
80 per cent of potassium combined with chlorine. The
quantity of potassium in the 80 per cent of pure muriate
would make 50 per cent of the weight of what we buy in
pure potash : and so on of each of them. Of wood ashes,
we are told that a certain quantity contains 5 per cent of
carbonate of potash. Now, carbonate of potash is not
pure potash, but a combination of carbonic acid (a com-
pound of carbon and oxygen) and potash ; about two
parts of the five being carbonic acid, leaving but three

FERTILIZERS. 19

parts pure potash. The cost of the potash in these combi-
nations varies somewhat from year to year, but, at their
lowest figure thus far, may be set down at seven cents per
pound for the potash in the combination of sulphate, and
three and three-quarters to four and one-half in muriate and
kainite. One reason why the sulphate bears a higher price
is, because it is sold as a purer article, costing more to pro-
duce, being especially freer from salt than either of the,
others.

It has been found in reality, however, that much of
the so-called sulphate is really mostly muriate. Both the
muriate and kainite forms have salt in their composition,
which is considered injurious in its effect on some crops,
especially tobacco and potatoes ; affecting the quality of
the leaf in the former, and, by decreasing the proportion of
starch, tending to make potatoes watery. Because of the
heavy per cent of salt, I have found it dangerous to apply
kainite in the hill where small seed, such as cabbage, are to
be planted : it is better to apply it around the plants just
before their second hoeing. There is also the objection to
kainite, that it sometimes comes not purified from the chlo-
ride of magnesia, which is considered by agricultural
chemists to be generally injurious to vegetation. Those
forms of the salt containing sulphate of magnesia help
diffuse the potash throughout the soil, carrying in down ;
and hence such potash compounds (muriate oftentimes,
and kainite generally) having it in their combinations are
especially recommended for use when growing deep-rooting
crops, such as clover, beets, etc. This combination has
also another valuable characteristic, — its great power to
absorb or " fix " ammonia, and so preventing its escape,
being in this respect far superior to plaster.

It also has a rare and remarkable power of gathering
nitrogen from the air. A chemist experimented on several

20 FERTILIZERS.

heaps of barn dung which were kept for a year. In one of
these, to which had been added 0.5 per cent of carbonate
of lime, there was a loss of 9.78 per cent of the nitrogen.
Where 1 per cent of plaster had been mixed with a heap,
there was a loss of but 0.34 per cent ; where 1 per cent
of sulphate of magnesia had been mixed, the heap was en-
riched with 5.06 per cent of nitrogen ; while 1 per cent of
kainite added 7.97 per cent, which must have come from
the air. For such reason as this, kainite becomes very val-
uable to sprinkle in stables, or mix in manure heaps to
both fix and absorb ammonia. That word, " fix," ammonia
will bear a bit of defining ; and I will stop right here and
define it, because it will be likely to be used again before
we get through with our treatise. Ammonia in animal
manure, especially the liquids, is more or less in the form
of carbonate of ammonia. In this form it is volatile, and,
escaping into the air, is lost. It is this that makes us sneeze
when working over manure heaps. When in the form of
a sulphate (i.e., sulphate of ammonia), though it can be dis-
solved in water, yet it is not volatile. Now, sulphuric acid
likes ammonia better than it likes magnesia, while carbonic
acid likes magnesia better than it does ammonia : therefore,
when sulphate of magnesia and carbonate of ammonia are
brought near each other, there is a mutual divorce and a
remarriage all around ; and, the new unions being more
stable if not sedate, we have the non-volatile sulphate of

J ammonia and the carbonate of magnesia.
There remains yet another hearty good word to speak
for kainite. Says Professor Dabney, " Lime promotes the
action of kainite to a very marked degree ; kainite is, by
itself, frequently a proper application to swamp-lands and
new lands, being also a powerful digestive agent." The
action of kainite may be either a direct one, supplying pot-
ash where potash is needed, or an indirect one, through the

FERTILIZERS. 21

agency of the secondary salts present, such as common
salt and sulphate of magnesia. These salts may promote
the solution of all the plant-nourishing material in the soil ;
hence the favorable action of kainite upon swamp-lands^ newly
cleared land^ and all lands abounding in vegetable matter.
They also benefit sandy soils by keeping them more moist.
German agricultural writers advise to apply kainite in
fall or winter, or the year previous, that the chlorides
may be diluted and washed down, and so be made harm-
less. They believe it is to be the foundation-rock of all
improvement on swamp-lands, as it has already brought
great blessings to the poor dwellers among the bogs* and
moors of North Germany.

While plaster dissolves in four hundred and sixty times
its weight of water, kainite dissolves in one and three-
fourths its weight. Some fear is felt by our agricultural
chemists that farmers are using too much of these varieties
of potash having so large a per cent of salt in their com-
position. There may be ground for this in its application
to some crops. Five hundred pounds of kainite per acre
would carry with it less than three bushels of salt, which,
repeated for a series of years, might in the end prove hurt-
ful to some of our crops : but much of this would pass off
in the drainage of the soil ; while I have, by mistake, had
as high as thirty bushels applied to an acre of onions in
one year, with certainly no detriment to the crop.

In his report for 1882, Professor Dabney of the North
Carolina agricultural experiment station devotes twenty-
two pages to kainite and its uses. " Kainite," he says, " is
now an established specific against rust in cotton, and is
undoubtedly of great value, in connection with phosphate
and pease, as an improver of the soil." It appears that
about all brought into Carolina is in the crude state, just
as mined, costing five dollars per 2,240 pounds at Stass-
furt, and having an average composition of

22 FERTILIZERS.

Sulphate of potash 23.38

Sulphate of magnesia 16.76

Chloride of magnesia 13.59

Common salt 32.11

Moisture . 13.40 .

Insoluble matter 73

There is as much sulphuric acid in kainite as in sul-
phate of lime, which is but another name for plaster or
gypsum, all three being names of the same mineral. In
some instances kainite has given better results on re-
claimed meadows than muriate or sulphate of potash. On
sandy soil, in Germany, five hundred to eight hundred
pounds of kainite, with marl or lime, produced excellent
crops of pease for fodder, and gave, without additional
manure, a fine after-crop of grain or potatoes. In the
South the good effects of kainite has been much more
marked in dry seasons. Manuring with kainite only is
not wise ; for the salts composing kainite are powerful
digestive agents, and, though producing good crops as
long as the soil contains any plant-food to be dissolved,
may utterly fail afterwards, leaving the soil in far worse
condition than at first.

Kainite applied to meadows or grass appeared to check
the growth of the rougher grasses : it did best in combina-
tion with superphosphates and ammonia. It is the general
opinion of leading agriculturists^ that all the varieties of Ger-
man potash do better if applied in the fall ; and particularly
is this true of those having soda or magnesia in their com-
position, as do all varieties of kainite and most of the
muriates. Potatoes have done well when kainite has been
applied the fall previous, but have at times been injured
by the application of it at the time of planting. That the
mischief done is mostly or wholly due to the presence of
salt in the kainite, is shown by the effect of any manure

FERTILIZERS. 23

abounding in salt. A neighbor, some years ago, used a
large quantity of salt-marsh mud on his potatoes. The
result was a fine crop of remarkably smooth potatoes :
but he could not sell a second lot to the same customer ;
they were so watery as to be utterly useless for table use.
Kainite, with lime or superphosphate, appears to be a
special manure for pease and beans. On boggy land, where
nitrogenous manures injured the crops, kainite was a suc-
cess, surpassing even the richer potash salts.

WOOD ASHES.

Wood ashes are our great home source for potash.
These are brought into the market from several sources,
— the product of the brick-kiln, lime-kiln, or from the
woods of Canada or the far West. " Wood ashes," says
Professor Goessmann, "have an agricultural value much
above their chemical value." The principal reason of this
is, that they contain, not only potash, but all the elements
of plant-food except nitrogen, and these in just the same
proportions as they exist in nature, with the additional
advantage of having them in a very fine state of subdi-
vision. The n\ain source of supply for the Eastern States
has been, of late years, those brought from Canada ; single
firms selling several hundreds of thousands of bushels
annually. The wood of different trees differs, not only in
the proportion of potash, lime, and phosphoric acid in
their ashes, but also in the quantity of their ashes in
equal quantities by measure of wood. Professor Johnson
gives the following analysis of birch, hickory, oak, and
chestnut wood. In the last two columns is the analysis,
by Professor Storer, of thirteen samples of unleached Can-
ada ashes, and also thirteen samples taken from household
fires : —

24:

FERTILIZERS.

Hickory.

Birch.

Oak.

Chest-
nut.

Storer,

13
Samples
House-
hold
Ashes.

Storer,

13
Samples
Canada
Ashes.

Potash

Phosphoric acid . . .

Magnesia

Percentage of ash in the
wood

7.54
2.19
6.51

2.01

8.15
2.30
4.36

2.27

9.26
1.92

4.28

1.04

3.96
1.69
5.82

0.50

8.50
2.04

• 5.77
1.17

The birch was the common gray or pasture birch, which,
it will be perceived, yielded more ashes than any of the
others, — more than double that of the oak ; while, with
the exception of the oak, it was the richest in potash, and
in phosphoric acid excelled either of the four. It is sur-
mised that the sample of chestnut may have been excep-
tionally poor in potash. I have been often told by those
who offered me the Canada ashes for sale, that, being
made from primitive wood, it was richer in potash than
our secondary growth. Let that fact be as it may, the
analysis by Professor Storer shows that the average of
the Canada ashes sold in New England are worth but
about five-eighths as much as the home product ; that is,
taking the potash and phosphoric acid as the measure of
value, where the home-made ashes is worth thirty-two
cents a bushel, the Canada would be worth but twenty
cents. Says Professor Johnson, " As a cord of hickory
wood weighs, on an average, about 3,500 pounds, a cord
of oak from 2,300 to 2,400 pounds, from the above figures
we find that the amounts of potash and phosphoric acid
recoverable in the ashes of a cord of oak and of hickory
are found to be as follows : —

FERTILIZERS. 26

Oak. Hickory.

Potash .2.3 lbs. 4.3 lbs.

Phosphoric Acid 5 lb. 1.3 "

The ashes made from burning the wood of deciduous or
hard-wood trees (those which shed their leaves in the fall)
are nearly as strong again in potash as those made from
trees of the evergreen class. Peat ashes are about one-
sixth as strong as the ashes of hard-wood trees ; those from
the burning of bituminous coal, one-twentieth as strong ;
while those from anthracite are but one-sixtieth as rich.
The deciduous trees differ considerably among themselves
in the per cent of potash found in their ashes ; the poplar,
apple, elm, oak, and birch taking a high rank. Though the
phosphoric acid in ashes is in an insoluble condition, yet
it is so finely subdivided that it readily becomes soluble
through the action of the carbonic acid present in the soil.

Ashes are sold, delivered at any railroad station, at
prices varying with the distance and the dealer. The
price per bushel, by the car-load of about six hundred
bushels, delivered in Eastern Massachusetts, is from 26
to 34 cents for unleached, and about 16 cents for leached.
Several parties supply the market, each of whom has a
word of criticism for his fellow-dealers: "He has coal
ashes, more or less, in what he sells." " He picks his up
through agents, and knows not what he gets." " He sells
more or less leached ashes for unleached." I have bought
several car-loads of Messrs. Munroe & Stroup of Oswego,
N.Y., and believe that they have generally been of good
quality. More or less of them are of a suspiciously light
color : but I am informed that is the natural color of the
ashes from elm-trees, which abound in lime ; and, as the
ashes taste very strong of potash, I am inclined to be-
lieve it. The Canadians hold, that, for upland soils, the
ashes made from the " black " oak are nearly worthless.

26 FERTILIZERS. .

Trees vary greatly in the richness of their ashes in potash,
some being over twice as rich as others. For this reason,
and the additional variation possible through fraud, all
ashes ought to be bought and sold on analysis. It is true,
a man may make a pretty near guess by tasting or by
leaching a sample; but the test of a chemist, though a
fool, can far surpass the best guess of the most experi-
enced man. The result in the one case is a certainty ; in
the other, at the best but an uncertainty. In dealing with
some of the smooth-tongued fellows who have all the way
to Canada between you and their facts, it is much easier to
analyze the ashes than the man. Ashes have been sold as
Canada unleached that proved, on analysis, to be nothing
more than oyster-shell lime having a slight admixture of
wood ashes. Leached ashes contain, on an average, about
1.40 per cent of potash, and 1.24 of phosphoric acid.

Let us not forget, what has been already stated, that
the potash in ashes is not pure. It is a carbonate, being
about three-fifths pure potash ; that is, five pounds of car-
bonate of potash are equal to three pounds of pure potash.
As to the value of ashes per bushel, if we allow 8 cents
per pound value for the potash, and 10 cents for the phos-
phoric acid, then we have, for Canada ashes, 5.77 X 8 =
46.16 + 1.17 X 10 = 11.70, equals 57.86 cents for the pot-
ash and phosphoric acid present in 100 pounds: we have
about 58 cents in value. If to this we add, for the lime,
soda, and magnesia, 8 cents, we have 66 cents as the com-
mercial value of 100 pounds of unleached Canada ashes;
and, as a bushel weighs about 45 pounds, its value would
be nearly 30 cents.

The peculiar proportion and fine condition in which the
several ingredients enter into ashes, make the agricultural
value considerably higher than this. The value of leached
ashes may be figured on the same basis ; all the ingredients

FERTILIZERS. 27

except the potash remaining about the same, while the
percentage of lime has been increased.

These facts seem to explain why leached ashes are
sometimes as valuable to the farmers as unleached. Such
cases simply prove that it was not potash the crop needed
so much as the lime or other ingredients which exist in
the leached about equally as strong as in the unleached.
In two experiments, tried two years in succession, on corn,
the leached, value for value, proved to be worth more
than the unleached. In giving value for value, more
magnesia, lime, and soda were applied with the leached
than with the unleached ; and in these, rather than pot-
ash, the soil was probably deficient. Or, the better results
may have been caused by the action of the lime and mag-
nesia in their releasing elements in the soil, thus making
its nitrogen available ; or by their improving its texture.

Professor Ville says, that though chloride of potassium,
sulphate of potassa, and the carbonate are all three soluble
in water, and all three are absorbed by the roots of plants,
yet chloride of potassium is inactive, the sulphate of po-
tassa nearly so, while the carbonate gives the best results.
If this is so, then it seems to follow, that potash in ashes
is worth more for agricultural use than in the form in
which much of it is found in the potash salts of Germany.

Logwood Ashes. — These are made from the wood or
wood sawdust after the coloring-matter has been ex-
tracted. They contain but a trace of potash (.08), with
2.30 of phosphoric acid. I have had them offered at ten
cents per bushel. Obviously all their value comes from
their phosphoric acid.

Rotten Wood. — As bones exposed a while on the sur-
face, part with their nitrogen to the greedy soil ; so wood
exposed so long as to be pretty, rotten, appears to part with
its potash, for I am told that little or none is found in its

28 FERTILIZERS.

ashes. Probably this is one of the reasons why the soil
from chip-waste is so good a fertilizer.

Tan Ash. — This is a very light ash, and is considered
by soap-makers as very poor in potash ; the lye from it
being " about equal in strength to pump-water," as one told
me. Nevertheless, there is value in it, especially on low
grass-land, probably from the lime, magnesia, etc., in its
composition. It sells for a low figure, less than half the
price of ordinary ashes.

Brick-Kiln Ashes. — These always come mixed more
or less with broken brick and burnt clay, and are worth no
more than the ashes made from the wood used in burning
the brick. The mass is worth from five to seventeen cents
per bushel.

Lime-Kiln Ashes. — These are usually a little wood
ashes mixed with five or six times their weight of particles
of lime partly burnt. Some analyze of less value than air-
slacked lime. A few years ago I examined a sample from
some thousands of bushels offered me at sixteen cents per
bushel : a common sieve took out over half its weight of
worthless limestone, leaving the remainder largely made
up of smaller particles of the same. The lot would have
been dear at eight cents per bushel.

Ashes from bushes, bark of trees, and animals, are richer
in potash than those from the body wood ; and those from
cultivated trees are said to be richer than those made from
trees of wild growth.

Burnt Soil. — Where stumps, bushes, and sods are
burned, there is left a mass of red-colored, light, ash-like resi-
due. This, farmers usually call ashes. Bear in mind our
axiom, that, in manure matters, nothing more can come out
than goes in. The real ashes, therefore, in such heaps, must
bear the usual proportion to the vegetable matter burned.
By this measure to guide us, we must conclude that but a

FERTILIZERS. 29

very insignificant proportion of the ash-looking mass is
ashes from burnt vegetable matter. And such is the fact :
the great bulk of it is simple mineral matter from burnt
soil, colored red by the action of the fire on the iron that is
found in about all soils, — the same mineral that makes the
white brick turn red in burning.

COAL ASHES.

Coal ashes contain no appreciable amount of potash:
the chief ingredient is silica. They contain also some
lime and magnesia : some assert that there is as high as
100 pounds of magnesia to the cord, with 160 pounds of
sulphuric acid. The trace of potash comes from the wood
used in kindling fires, and the coal itself. Theoretically,
coal ashes should prove of but little value on most soils,
beyond making heavy soils more open, and supplying silica
to land of a muck-like character ; still, there is considerable
of value. in them, when used in connection with manure,
on some crops, especially potatoes, and around bushes and
fruit-trees. Here they serve as a mulch, and, like all
mulches, indirectly improve the soil beneath them. Many
of the coal ash-heaps in towns are made receptacles for the
slaps of the family, which turn them into manure that will
pay for carting a mile or two. When night-soil is col-
lected, they are valuable for forming the bed to receive it,
acting as an excellent absorbent.

COTTON-SEED HULLS.

This is one of the sources for potash confined mostly to
the South, not only because they are wholly burned there,
but because the ashes are oftentimes mixed more or less
with coal ashes, and charred and unburnt hulls used in the
furnaces of the oil manufactories, where they are largely
consumed as fuel. Because of these impurities, they are

30 FERTILIZEKS.

rarely found in the market for sale. The ashes analyze,
on an average, 19.5 potash, and 9.2 phosphoric acid ; nearly
all of each in a soluble condition. They are usually sold at
twelve dollars per ton, while the potash alone makes them
worth nearly twice as much. The strong potash attracts
moisture, of which there is usually 15 per cent present.

THE NEED AND USES OP POTASH IN AGRICULTURE.

Potash, as we have already stated, is one of the three
essentials for plant-growth. By this I do not mean to
advise that it should always be applied to every crop ; for
there are soils already so over-rich in potash and soda, that,
except the wild sage and a few other shrubs, nothing will
grow on them. This is the characteristic of what was
known in our geographies as "the great American
desert." The trouble was, it was over-rich in soda ; but^
when the Mormons at Utah diluted these with water from
the mountains, the " desert " disappeared, and in its place
stands a fertile land. Some of the soils of New Eng-
land, even, will bear cropping for a few years without any
application of potash : they may have good natural stores
of it in plant-food form, or the potash may have accumu-
lated in the soil through years of heavy manuring. The
natural growth on any soil is a good indication as to
whether or not our farms are rich in potash. If they yield
a thrifty growth of potash-bearing trees or plants, such as
beech, maple, oak, walnut, or elm among trees, or tansy or
purslane among plants, it is a fair inference that it is nat-
urally rich in potash in food condition. Soils that have
been manured for years with either barn manures or sea
manures, have large stores of accumulated potash; and,
when using commercial fertilizers on such soils, this fact
might economically be borne in mind. As has been shown
before, about all soils derived from granitic rock are enor-

FERTILIZERS. 31

mously rich in potash in a latent state. Soils formed from
red sandstone contain potash (usually) enough to make
the application to some crops unnecessary.

It may be objected, to the above position, that the trees
and plants, having taken the quantity necessary for their
structure out of the ground, would leave it poor in potash.
In reply, I would say that the natural potash supply is
practically inexhaustible : the thrift of the trees indicates
that it is supplied as fast as plant-growth can take it up,
which is another way of stating that it is rich in available
potash. Clover and beans are very sensitive to a defi-
ciency of potash in the soil ; and if we farmers wish to
inquire of our land as to whether it needs potash in the
fertilizers we apply, if we plant either of these, we shall
get an answer. Kemp's manure-spreader is an excellent
means for spreading ashes, though one would not be likely
to think so on looking at it ; yet it is really as good for dis-
tributing ashes as it is manure. When filled with manure,
it distributes at the rate of four cords to the acre. Four
cords are 400 bushels. Now, then, if we wish to spread
any given quantity of ashes per acre, we must fill the body
just that proportion full as the quantity we desire to use
on an acre is of 400. For instance, if we wanted to spread
100 bushels to the acre, then we must fill it one-quarter
full ; for, if entirely full, it would spread 400. And just
here let me repeat, that neither potash nor phosphoric acid
wastes to any extent in the soil ; that is, they always re-
main within the reach of the roots of plants : and therefore
any surplus left over from one crop will be found by after-
crops.

If farmers will get into the habit of testing their soils
(we shall illustrate this farther on), they might at times
omit the use of potash on their crops with no loss. But it
would not be wise to risk this : we should know what we

32 FERTILIZERS.

are doing. " The result of a study of a long list of experi-
ments," says the " Connecticut Agricultural Report " of
1880, "is to prove clearly that in many instances the
reason why guano, fish, bone, superphosphate, and other
manures fail to give a satisfactory result is, for want of
potash." In cases where fish or night-soil has been used
exclusively as fertilizers for a series of years, the soil some-
times bakes, and becomes nearly sterile ; the application
of potash to such soils is often followed by very strik-
ing results. On land where potash did no good applied
to corn, it did prove valuable to potatoes alongside : " and,
if it does good under such circumstances, it might be
assumed to do good to potatoes on any soil ; and such is
the fact." On some soils the effect of potash is very strik-
ing. On the farm of Mr. Sage, one of the enterprising
experimenters with chemicals, potash paid him ten times
its cost on corn, potatoes, oats, and wheat. A good deal
more enterprise along the line of these soil-tests would
pay all of us brother farmers a heavier per cent than we
ever received from any savings bank. The effect of all
forms of potash is decidedly greater if applied in the fall
or winter. The sulphate and muriate may be mixed with
any fertilizer, as they will not free the ammonia. Un-
leached ashes, the agricultural chemists tell us, can be
safely mixed with guano, flesh, blood, castor-pomace,
cotton-seed meal, and with stable manure (if it is not in
a fermenting condition), if in each instance a little soil is
thrown over the mass, or they are ploughed under soon after
mixing. If the ashes are first treated with sulphuric acid,
so as to change the carbonate of potash they contain, which
is volatile, into a sulphate which is not volatile, it may
then be used like the German potash salts, and be freely
mixed with any manure, under any circumstances. Guano,
given in the above list, I should take exception to ; for.

FERTILIZERS. 3iJ

if either that or the ashes are damp, in my experience
I found a loss of ammonia immediately perceptible. If
mixed with a mixture of fish and barn manure, it will
hasten decomposition; but the mass should be covered
with soil, to catch the ammonia.

Mr. Lawes, after his famous experiments in England,
extending over a period of forty years, concludes that in
his soil, which is a strong clay, potash is found naturally
in sufficient quantity, and therefore no artificial supply is
required. In this country, the application of potash usually
has a good effect on clay soils ; though, as potash enters
largely into their composition, one would naturally infer
the contrary. The benefits from it are thought to be due
to its indirect action in opening the soil or otherwise im-
proving its mechanical condition, and also by rendering
other plant-food available. In the valuable experiments
inaugurated by the Connecticut commissioner of agricul-
ture, it was found that potash helped the crop most on
the poorer soils, while it did but little good on those that
were rich. Professor Ville recommends potash especially
for pease, beans, clover, lucern, flax, and potatoes. Out of
twenty-six experiments in corn-raising, it was noted by
Professor Atwater, that of the three elements, viz.,
nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, the latter did most
good in five of them, proved useful in six, and in the
remaining fifteen did no good. In the experiments at
the Agricultural College of Maine, beans were decidedly
benefited by the application of potash, while ruta-bagas
were not helped. It has been found, that, when muriate
of potash and nitrate of soda are mixed together, and'
applied as a fertilizer, in dry seasons they did more harm
than good. It is found that plants have the power of
substituting potash for soda, but the reverse does not
always hold true.

34 FERTILIZERS.

WHAT IS NITROGEN?

The air mass which surrounds the earth for a depth of
about fifty miles, as it flashes through space more than
twenty times swifter than a cannon-ball at the highest
velocity, is made up of about four-fifths nitrogen and one-
fifth oxygen gas. This gives unnumbered thousands of
tons of nitrogen always right at hand, but never avail-
able ; for human knowledge has not as yet discovered a
way by which nitrogen can be economically got at for
plant-food. We have to depend, for our supply, wholly on
what plants and animals have incorporated into their
structure ; using their waste in the form of manure and
dead remains, either from land or sea, for our source of sup-
ply. The ammonia ted liquor from the gas-works is but the
waste produced from the remains of ancient forests, which
we burn as coal. The same is true of animal life as of plant
life. Though over three-fourths of the air we breathe is
nitrogen, and it enters so largely into the composition of
our bodies, yet we have to obtain it from the animal
and vegetable food we eat. As the product of animal
waste in drinking-water, it sometimes causes dangerous
fevers. When nitrogen is combined with hydrogen, — 18
parts of hydrogen to 82 parts of nitrogen, — we have am-
monia, one of the most common forms in which, from the
waste of both animals and plants, nitrogen is fed to our
crops.

The other most important source of nitrogen is nitric
acid. This is a combination of nitrogen with oxygen ;
and nitrates, of which we see frequent mention in all
works on manures, are a combination of the nitric acid
with soda, potash, and other materials, which are called
bases. It is, well to fix in the mind, that, in changing
nitrogen to ammonia in any manure analysis, we must add

FEBTILIZERS. 35

about one-fifth to the quantity given. It appears to be
the settled conviction among men of science, as the results
from many experiments, that plants cannot take up pure
nitrogen directly from the air. The theory is, that they
are able, to a greater or less degree, to get their supply
through the water, that carries it in some form in solution
into the soil, and also from the air indirectly, by the soil
first separating it from the air that permeates it. Still
another source of natural supply for plant-growth is nitro-
gen in a latent condition, that has accumulated in the soil,
set free by the action of such substances as lime and
plaster. There is a general belief among agriculturists^
that plants have ways of collecting nitrogen still but little
known ; while some extremists have gone so far as to de-
clare that there is no necessity of feeding nitrogen to our
crops, for they can of themselves collect from natural
sources all they require. There is a growing belief that
their power to supply their wants from natural sources
is greater than has hitherto been credited to them. It is
found, also, that different kinds of plants have different
capacities for taking up nitrogen. Clover is an example ;
for, though nitrogen enters largely into its composition, it
has such a capacity to help itself to the good things which
surround it, that it needs but very little artificial help
from the manure pile : while wheat, though it needs but
little nitrogen, is so dainty a feeder that it insists on a
large artificial supply, from which it may pick out that little »

WHERE NITROGEN OR AMMONIA COMES FROM.

The Waste of the Fisheries. — One of the prin-
cipal sources from which manufacturers obtain the am-
monia in their fertilizers is from the fish waste or offal
which they pick up all along the Atlantic coast, from
Maine to Florida. The largest portion of the waste is

36 FERTILIZERS.

from the fish known by various names in different locali-
ties, as '* manhaden," "heart-heads," "moss-bunkers," and,
in the South, as "fat-backs." These are caught in nets,
and boiled, to secure the oil, in which they are rich, at
various establishments along the shore and islands of the
€oast. After boiling, the water and oil are pressed out of
the mass, and the residue sometimes thrown into heaps,
to heat and dry ; at other times it is put directly into bar-
rels, and pressed in. In this condition it is known as
*' pomace " or " chum." If it is to be sold as fish-guano, it
is spread on large platforms to dry, after which it is ground.

As a general rule, three barrels of fish before cooking
make one barrel of the chum. The fertilizer manufac-
turer dries and grinds it, using it crude, or treating it with
acid, to make the nitrogen and phosphoric acid directly
available for plant-food. Sometimes, when the catch is a
large one (over two hundred thousand fishes are at times
taken in a single haul of the net, enough to load two or
three vessels of fifty tons each), and the quantity of fish
is larger than the oil-factories can take care of in hot
weather, the surplus is sold to the neighboring farmers at
the best price that can be got. These fish are oftentimes
put directly on the grass-land. The effect is very stimu-
lating, and enormous crops of grass can be raised for a
few years by such annual dressings ; but the final result,
especially on light soils, is, the fish have less and less effect,
and the crop is almost nothing. The soil is dying for
want of potash, in w^hich element fish-waste is deficient.
To recuperate it, apply potash, or manures rich in potash,
and its fertility will be restored. Soils abounding in clay
will stand fish-manuring without showing injury longer
than those of a gravelly character.

Besides the manhaden, there are numerous other fisli-
wastes, all rich in nitrogen and phosphate. On two occa-

FERTILIZERS. 37

sions I have purchased cargoes of spoiled herring ; in one
instance, nine hundred barrels, at the rate of fifty or sixty
cents a barrel, which, as a barrel weighs about two hun-
dred pounds, would be about five dollars per ton. In some
instances the fish are preserved in salt, which adds one-
quarter or more to the weight : in others they are fresh,
with the oil in them, which does not add to their value as
manure, for oil is nearly pure carbon, which is of no value
for that purpose ; on the contrary, it hinders, somewhat,
their decomposition. Occasionally, during the fall fishing
on the fishing-banks near the coast, a supjDly of pollock
will accumulate more than the market can take, when
they can be purchased at a price that will make cheap
manure. A few years ago, to help sustain the market, 1
left a standing offer with our fisherman that I would pay
twenty-five cents a hundred pounds for pollock: the
result was twenty thousand pounds of fine large fish,
weighing from eight to fifteen pounds, just out of the
water, hauled to my manure heaps. A few years ago vast
quantities of waste were made in the heads, sound-bones,
and entrails which accumulate at fishing-ports. These
were for years dropped into the ocean as refuse. So
immense was the waste, that at the Isle of Shoals, off
the New-Hampshire shore, the harbors actually became so
nearly closed to navigation that the inhabitants on two
occasions had to dredge them out. I am told, that, be-
neath some of the long wharves of Gloucester, the great
fishing-town of the United States, there has accumu-
lated an almost immeasurable quantity of this bone refuse.
When, a few years ago, the heads, sound-bones, and en-
trails became a market article, I used to buy it at five or
six dollars a cord on board the cars : a cord weighs from
three and a half to four tons. It was exceedingly cheap
manure, but a very disagreeable one to handle, the smell

38 FERTILIZERS.

being any thing but ottar of roses, while it took a vast
quantity of soil to compost it. After remaining some
months, oftentimes the heads would not be fully decayed,
making the mass extremely disagreeable to handle ; while
there could be only a rough guess made as to how much
of it would become plant-food the same season it was
applied. Of late years the fish are for the most part
cleaned before the vessels reach port, and the waste
thrown overboard. At places along the coast where bay-
fishing is carried on on a large scale, there can be some-
times found a liver or blubber " chum ; " it being the refuse
after oil is extracted from fish-liver. If a year -old, it
loses moisture and consequently weight, and is therefore
richer. This liver chum is a pasty, sticky substance, gen-
erally sold at a figure considerably below its value by
analysis. I have bought it as low as $4.50 per ton the
present season (1885) ; and it is rarely higher than $12,
though, by analysis, it is worth 118.83 per ton. I would
advise cutting liver refuse with sharp sand, to make it
fairly fine.

Halibut " chum " is the refuse from the heads of hali-
but, which are cooked under high pressure, to extract
the oil that exists in the bones. The result is, to leave the
bones in such a state that they can easily be crumbled.
Naturally, this is especially rich in phosphoric acid. It
analyzes worth $19.99 per ton, and is sold at from $6
to $10. This chum is usually engaged beforehand by
dealers in fertilizers ; but a wide-awake man, by looking
around, can generally pick up a- supply. The waste of
herring and mackerel at the fishing-towns is sometimes
made up into " chum," being first boiled, to secure what-
ever oil they contain. These usually contain more or less
of salt, having sometimes as high as twenty per cent,
which makes them about as salt as kainite ; and, like the

FERTILIZERS. 39

potash-bearing mineral, they therefore need to be used
with some care, lest the proportion of salt present injure
the roots of growing plants.

There is another waste of the fisheries which has come
into the market of late years : I refer to the skins, bones,
and fins of salted fish. These come from the fish that
are stripped, and sold, boxed, free of bones. It is a heavy
article, and the strips come a little tangled. Fertilizer
manufacturers usually monopolize this; though it can
sometimes be picked up at Gloucester, Mass., at from
$3.75 to 115 per ton.

Dog-fish, which is another name for a small species of shark,
in the summer season swarm along the New-England coast,
on the inner fishing-banks, driving away most other varie-
ties. They weigh from three to five pounds. They are
very easily caught, and, their muscles being very firm, are
rich as manure. The great trouble in manipulating these
has been because, the flesh being of a sticky and oily na-
ture, acid will not readily act on it. Still, they are used
very largely, as a source for ammonia, by one large fertil-
izer manufacturer in the vicinity of Boston, who composts
them with horse manure, and, I infer, lets his compost
heaps remain two years before using, when the objection
disappears. Being so abundant along the coast, and so
cheap, being sold, wholesale, at $1 a hundred fish, they
are well worthy the attention of farmers who live along
the shore ; for, though it might be necessary to keep them
over a year, the investment would pay an interest of some
hundred per cent. The fishermen in many localities would
catch them if there was a market for them. The oil from
the livers averages about a cent each fish ; and, with one
cent from the livers and another for the fish itself, quite a
fair business can be done during the hot months.

Waste salt that has been once used on fish contains in

40 FERTILIZERS.

it some fish-waste, such as blood, and particles of the flesh
and scales of the fish ; for this reason, it has some value
as manure, in addition to its action on crops as salt. The
fish-scales analyze in the vicinity of sixteen per cent in
ammonia, and forty cents in phosphate of lime : they de-
compose more . slowly than the flesh of the fish. Fish-
manure, having the same origin as Peruvian guano, has the
same constituents, but not in the same proportion ; for
ages of decay have reduced the guano greatly in bulk, and
in the same proportion have concentrated it. All forms
of " chum " have a large proportion of water in their com-
position. The fish-heads and back-bones have as high
as 66 per cent: the chum pressed by a hand press has
about 50 per cent, and that from a hydraulic press about
40 per cent. The average of the whole fish, as taken
from the water, is about 80 per cent. The fish-guano
made from dried fish-waste, contains, on an average, 7.8
per cent of nitrogen. In making fish-guano, the waste is
dried in the sun or by waste steam, and, when sufficiently
dry, is ground, and sold at about $33 per ton.

The shells of lobsters, of which vast quantities accumu-
late at canning-factories, are ground up, and sold as plant-
food. They are a complete manure, and especially rich in
nitrogen : analyzing, nitrogen, 6.2; potash, 0.2 ; phosphoric
acid, 2.3.

HOW TO HANDLE FISH-WASTE, AND THE BEST WAY TO
FEED IT TO THE CROPS.

All fish-waste used in a crude state, as might be inferred
from its composition, is very stimulating, and, being pur-
chased at a low figure, is oftentimes used by farmers with
a very liberal hand. As a consequence, their crops are
sometimes " burned up," as the phrase is. They are apt
to infer, that, if they cannot see the presence of the fish i:^

FERTILIZERS. 41

any part of the soil of the compost heaps as they pitch it
over, such soil can have no richness. Now, one of the
wonderful properties of dry soil is the avidity with which
it takes ammonia to itself; and it may always be safely
inferred, that, in a well-mixed compost heap of fish-waste,
the ammonia has diffused itself through every portion of
it ; and, all portions being assumed to be rich plant-food, it
should be used accordingly. Owing to the great richness
of manure made from fish in bulk, it is wiser, even after
composting it, to use it broadcast, rather than in the hill.
Fish "chum, " or "pomace," may be used either broadcast
and harrowed in, or by first composting with poor manure,
to enrich the same. If, after being broken up fine, it is
put in thin layers with the manure, it will help the devel-
opment of heat, which will tend to fine it up, so that it will
combine with the mass when it is pitched over. A third
way is, to compost it with soil, waste turf, muck, or saw-
dust. In either way it is composted, it is always good
farming to take careful notes of how many barrels go into
the heap, that from that we may know how much of pot-
ash, ammonia, and phosphoric acid we are applying to any
given crop, and govern ourselves accordingly. There are
two mistakes made in applying too heavily to one to
applying too sparingly.

It is surprising how penetrating is the ammonia from
fish-compost. For this reason, in making a heap, the bot-
tom layer of soil should be a foot or more in thickness. I
have seen cases, where the fish was mixed liberally, where
the soil was full of ammonia for several feet below the
surface. In making the compost heap, after spreading
the bottom layer, which should be thicker when whole fish
or the coarser waste is used, cover this with sufficient waste
to just hide the soil ; then cover with sod or soil about six
times the depth of the fish ; and thus proceed, scattering

42 FERTILIZERS.

raw ground plaster over each layer of fish before covering
vrith soil, at the rate of fifty pounds of plaster to three
hundred weight of fish. After the pile has been built up
four or five feet in height, surround the entire heap (it
should be on level ground) with a little embankment of
fine soil. This will catch the liquid that often runs from
it when the fish begins ,to decompose, as well as catch what
may be soaked from it by heavy rain^ ; while it will also
be handy to fill up the holes that are apt to show them-
selves in the top as the decomposition progresses, letting
out bad odors unless they are promptly closed. As the
presence of oil or salt tends to check decomposition, fish-
waste containing much of either of these had better be
composted with stable manure rather than soil, as the heat
from the manure will start decomposition. If decomposi-
tion is slow to start, unleached ashes or lime and plaster
may be mixed with the mass ; but be sure to cover such
heaps with soil. The compost heaps, when manure is not
used, should be made, if possible, before warm weather
closes; and, should no heat be found by driving a bar
down, and testing it, after it has lain a couple of weeks,
then pitch it over, to let the air in, and cover the outside
lightly with soil. Where chum is used, after having been
made fine, it can be applied directly to the surface of till-
age land in the fall, and harrowed in, or be ploughed
lightly under, to be thrown up near the surface by a
deeper ploughing in the spring. If left on the surface, I
find it is spreading a table all winter long for the crows
of the country.

By applying the chum in the fall, it will have the ad-
vantage of rain and frost to help subdivide and dissolve it.
Fish-skins, when used on tillage land, had better first be
composted. If to be used on sward-land for grass, spread
thin in the fall or very early spring.

FERTILIZERS. 43

HOW MUCH FISH- WASTE SHOULD BE USED TO THE ACRE ?

To determine this, we must consider two points. First,
what proportion of it will make digestible plant-food the
iirst season? and secondly, what and how much of the
phosphoric acid and ammonia found in them do the crops
we propose to raise require ? I think we can assume, as a
general truth, that about all the ammonia becomes plant-
food the same season it is applied, while not much over
one-half of the phosphoric acid can be safely counted on.
If we use fish-waste on the same land the second year,
we may assume that all the phosphoric acid is available ;
for by that' time the half left over from last season will
have decomposed.

However, as this form of plant-food affords phosphoric
acid and nitrogen in a very cheap form, and as there is
usually some loss from the amount assigned to each acre,
by the depredation from dogs, and more especially from
crows, before it is ploughed or harrowed under, I would
advise, what I myself practise, rather a liberal application
of the fertilizer, whether it be in the form of chum or of
fish-skins. On good soil a fine crop of cabbage may be
raised, by first ploughing under a hundred bushels of un-
leached ashes to the acre, and, after having first run fur-
rows at the distance apart decided on for the rows of
cabbage, scattering over the surface two tons of fish-chum
that has been made fine and mixed with soil. Harrow the
land, when naturally the furrows will get an extra share of
the fish, which will be a cheap way of manuring in the
hill. The seed either may be drilled in, or planted as
usual.

44 FEKTILIZEKS.

OTHER SOURCES FOR NITROGEN.

Peruvian Guano, Sulphate of Ammonia, Nitrate of Potash, Nitrate of Soda,
Castor-Pomace, Azotin, Ammonite, Tankage, Dried Blood, Cotton-Seed
Waste, Hoof and Horn Shavings, and Leather- Waste.

(An analysis of the above will be found in the table on pp. Ill, 112.)

As this treatise is to be for the most part confined ta
those sources of crop-food, which, by way of contrast with
barnyard and the more common class of manures, are
called "fertilizers," I will not go into details relative to
several of the sources from which nitrogen may be obtained^
as this would make my treatise too extensive. If the public
should appear to desire a more extended work, containing
other manure resources, I may write it at a future day.

At the head of fertilizers, as distinguished from barn
manure, stands guano. This may be defined as rotten
sea-bird dung, with the remains of birds mixed with it. It
is found on thousands of islands, but only on a few of these
in large quantities. Being manure of birds that feed on
fish, it would always contain the same manure elements
as fish, but that the rain dissolves and washes out the
ammonia, leaving but the phosphate behind. Near Peru^
however, there are a few islands lying in a region' where
no rain falls ; as what would otherwise be the rain-bearing
wind for the region loses all its moisture by the time it
passes over the high, dry tops of the lofty Andes Moun-
tains. These islands yield a guano rich in ammonia.
There are several kinds of guano in the market, known as
Rectified, Guaranteed, Standard, Lobos, Navassa, Carib-
bean^ etc. The first three named are varieties of the
Peruvian (sometimes also called Chincha, or Guanape, to
designate the localities from which they were obtained), all
rich in ammonia, — Standard containing nine to ten per
cent, Lobos five to five and one-half, and Guaranteed six to

FERTILIZERS. 45

seven. Each is rich in phosphoric acid, nearly all soluble,
and has from two to three per cent of potash. The Navassa
and Caribbean-sea guanos are rich in insoluble phosphoric
acid, but are entirely wanting in nitrogen or potash. I
have usually purchased my guano of Seth Chapman's Son
& Co., No. 170 Front Street, New- York City, who are the
sub-agents of the Peruvian Government for the North-
Eastern States. Their published analysis gives to the
Standard nine to ten per cent ammonia, twelve per cent
phosphoric acid, and three per cent potash.

It is claimed that the nitrogen in the guano has a value
over that contained in manure, into which enters fish
blood or meat as a supply of ammonia, and hence called
"organic nitrogen," inasmuch as in the guano it is in a
form ready to be taken up by plants, while the fish blood
and meat must first enter into a state of putrefaction,
when some of the nitrogen is set free in a pure state,
and, being, in that condition, inert as plant-food, is partly
lost to the plant. This loss has been estimated to be from
one-sixth to one-third the total amount of nitrogen con-
tained in the substance. Be the reason what it may, no
one fertilizer has given such universal satisfaction as
guano. It, indeed, is the standard by which we almost
instinctively measure the value of all other fertilizers. . It
having been asserted that about all the guano sold of
recent years was an artificial product, made from fish as a
base, with enough of real guano added to give the guano
color to the fertilizer, I wrote about the matter to Seth
Chapman's Son & Co., who are the agents for the sale of
his fertilizer." In justice to them, I publish their reply : —

New York, Feb. 5, 1885.
Mr. J. J. H. Gregory, Marblehead, Mass.

Dear Sir, — Yours of the 4th inst. is received. We have heard more or
less about adulteration of Peruvian guano ever since Messrs. Hurcado &
Co. commenced making it of uniform quality by mixing cargoes of differ-

46 FERTILIZERS.

ent analyses, some nine years ago ,' but we have never been able to learn
that any thing was added to it other than sulphate of ammonia. This,
which is the same form of ammonia found in Peruvian guano, is used to
bring up the percentage to the standard when the guano is deficient. We
can supply the crude guano in sealed bags, as imported, and furnish a copy
of analysis, which is not guaranteed ; nor is any allowance made for stones.
Price, same as Standard, $63 for 2,240 pounds; and analyses said to be the

same.

Yours respectfully,

SETH CHAPMAN'S SON & CO.

From this we learn that it is still possible to obtain
guano in the original, unbroken packages, directly from
the guano islands, though it will be more or less lumpy,
and there may be some stones among it. Messrs. Chap-
man & Co. quote, Feb. 6, 1885, guano in original bags per
ton of 2,240 pounds, $63; Standard, $63; Lobos, $48.
This price is at their store, for which cartage to the cars
is $1.25 per ton. After paying freight, I have found
the price to be several dollars per ton cheaper than the
same quality of guano is sold at nearer home. Farmers,
in buying, should remember the difference in quality be-
tween Lobos and the Standard, and should see that the
price corresponds. I am told of an instance in Central
Massachusetts, where last season a party mixed a little
guano with salt-cake, as the residue of the manufacture
of sulphuric acid is called, and sold five hundred tons of
the stuff as a fertilizer. He was prosecuted, but, being a
lawyer himself, found some loophole in the law, through
which he crawled.

It is proper to state just here, that the fertilizers in the
market into whose name the word " guano " enters, how-
ever good they may be, have not now, as far as I can
learn, a particle of Peruvian guano in their composition.
I must also add, that dealers in fertilizers assert that the
amount of real Peruvian guano imported is but trivial
compared with the quantity sold under that name, and

FERTILIZERS. 47

that some of that imported into this country from England
has been found to be grossly adulterated. All that we
farmers can do is, to buy it under a warrant that it contains
given quantities of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash.
Mr. Chapman says in his letter, that, in bringing the nitro-
gen up to that required for Standard, sulphate of am-
monia was used. Assuming this to be so, and that it is
not obtained from any organic source, then it would be of
the same value as though obtained from the guano itself.
From tests I made on grass-land, I found that the Peru-
vian guano I purchased of Messrs. Chapman & Co. started
the grass earlier than did an equal value of sulphate of
ammonia applied at the same time, side by side, on an
equal area. This satisfied me that its nitrogen was not
derived wholly, if at all, from waste fish or meat.

Ten years ago the New York Agricultural Society took
up the matter of the adulteration of Peruvian guano,
purchased eleven bags of as many dealers, and had them
analyzed. The result was a value differing from $38.33 to
f 107.68, though each was sold at the same price per ton.
In the report of the Connecticut agricultural station for
1881, it is stated, that, while Peruvian guano used formerly
to contain no more than one or two per cent each of soda,
sulphuric acid, and chlorine, the sample analyzed that
year contained about thirteen per cent of sulphate of soda
(salt-cake), and eleven per cent of common salt.

The Chincha Islands, which have been the great source,
in past years, of Peruvian guano, lie near the coast of
Peru, barren granite rocks, with great depth of water
close by them, so that in places the largest vessels can
lay alongside and be loaded from the land by a shoot
entering into their holds. The guano, a thoroughly rotted
mass of bird-dung, in which are mixed feathers, carcasses,
and eggs, was from four to a hundred feet in depth.

48 FERTILIZERS.

Old salts tell me that they brought up the same material
from deep bottom on the flukes of their anchors. Had
they said it looked the same, I should have believed them.
From twelve to fifteen million tons have been taken from
the Chincha Islands alone. Bat guano is sometimes ex-
tensively found in large caves in various parts of the
world, but it varies greatly in quality.

In applying guano, the Standard, which is especially rich
in ammonia, should be applied to those crops which are
especially ammonia-loving ; while the Lobos should be
used on those which need phosphoric acid more than
they do ammonia. The potash required beyond what the
guano contains may be added from muriate or sulphate
of potash. The quantity to be used will vary with the
condition of the soil in natural strength and richness by
manuring in past years, the range being from two hun-
dred and fifty to eight hundred pounds per acre. The
manner of applying will depend somewhat on the crops
to be raised ; but a good general rule is, to apply a part
before the crop is planted, and make one or two applica-
tions at different stages of its growth. If scattered broad-
cast, it should be harrowed in at once, to prevent the
escape of ammonia. That used in drills, I find it easy to
mix thoroughly with the soil by dragging through the
furrow the top of a stocky red cedar, to which a stone
weighing eight or ten pounds has been firmly tied ; or, a
brush-broom similarl}^ weighted answers very well. When
used in the hill, the farmers who employ help will need
to look sharply after them ; for I find but very few farm-
hands take the care necessary to so thoroughly incorporate
it in the soil as to prevent the destroying of the young
plants. In all our handling of this powerful manure, we
must bear in mind the danger of bringing it in contact
with the young roots of the sprouting seed. I recall, that,

FERTILIZERS. 49

a dozen years ago, a foreman, who assured me he knew all
about the handlmg of guano, planted for me a couple of
acres of cabbage. A few days after they had broken
ground, I noticed the very dark color of the leaves, and,
mistrusting the cause, ran my fingers under the plants, and
brought up the pure guano. All that piece was replanted.
To insure, as near as possible, a thorough admixture
with the soil in hill-planting, I have a rule for each man, —
after the guano has been scattered over an are^ as large as
a dinner-plate, after covering it shallow, tc draw his six-
tined fork three times through it one way, three times
through it the opposite way, and then, holding his fork per-
pendicularly in the middle, give it a twist around. Some
advocate mixing it with two or three times its bulk of earth
before applying it. While this insures a thorough mix-
ture with the soil, it adds considerable work to the labor
of distribution ; and, since the plan of dragging the cedar-
boughs in the drill has worked well, I have adopted that
as a saving of time. However, whenever there is any thing
of a breeze blowing, it is wise to adopt some such plan;
otherwise your neighbors' fields will be apt Jbo share the
manure with you. Let me here say, that I have found it
an excellent plan, when distributing fertilizers, to take the
earlier part of the day ; for I find that, as a rule, the calmest
portion. It is a good plan, in handling almost any fertilizer,
except guano, — a little damp soil will answer for this, —
to have plenty of water at hand, and pour a half-bucket
now and then into the barrel you are spreading from;
then stir it with a hoe until, while dry enough to spread
freely, it is too damp to blow away. If applying to the sur-
face, always do it, if possible, just before a rain. I some-
times use it on onions, to hurry up the bottoming of the
crops, — about two hundred pounds to the acre. Having
scattered it with the hand, immediately follow with a

50 FERTILIZERS.

slide-hoe, to work as much of it as possible into the soil,
and so save loss of ammonia. This is an excellent fer-
tilizer to use, in connection with barnyard manure, in the
early season, to give the crops a start.

Market gardeners in the vicinity of our large cities
have but very little respect for phosphate and special fer-
tilizers, but, using from ten to twelve cords of stable
manure to the acre, think highly of guano at the rate of
a thousand pounds, or bone at the rate of two thousand
pounds, per acre as an adjunct ; or, when stable manure
alone is to be depended on, from twenty to thirty cords.^
Now, it is the nitrates that start the plants of the mar-
ket gardener, and, as far as the guano goes, for this end
it is a wise use of it; but to develop nitrates in stable
manure requires a degree of heat that the soil does not
receive before the season is somewhat advanced. With-
out knowing it, gardeners are using this vast amount of
barn manure to get a small stock of plant-food, which
they have already at hand in the fertilizer market, ready-
made, in the form of guano and nitrate of soda. A wise
head has suggested that they dispense with three-quarters
of the heavy manuring, and use one-half of the value of
this in investing in nitrate of soda, and put the balance
in their pockets as so much money saved.

In closing the subject of nitrogen, I cannot do better
than quote the able remarks of Professor Goessmann :
" The air contains at all times carbonic acid, and in most
instances also nitric and nitrous acid and ammonia. The
soil absorbs, continually, more or less of the former, and
receives the nitrogen compounds in rain and snow. Once
absorbed by the soil, they find access to the plant by the
roots, as carbonates and nitrates, where they assist in the

1 Assuming the stable manure costs him $7 a cord, he saves from $70 U
$120 by using a thousand pounds of guano.

FERTILIZERS. 61

formation of the organic portion of the plant. Besides
this direct support of plant-growth, they serve, also, the
very important purpose of increasing the supply of inor-
ganic plant-food ; for they aid in the disintegration of the
soil."

Sulphate of ammonia, a by-product of works where coal
is used for the manufacture of gas, is one of the princi-
pal sources for nitrogen. It looks like rather coarse salt,
and is marketed from barrels up to huge tierces weigh-
ing from a thousand to fifteen hundred pounds. It is
readily soluble in water, but does not waste in the air.
Nitrate of potash (saltpetre) is usually too dear a source
for nitrogen to make it available. Nitrate of soda is
found in the interior of Chili, on the surface and in the
soil. It is a remarkably stimulating fertilizer, and, if there
is much rain, will waste before plants can take it up. Mr.
Lawes advises to apply it only when not more than three
feet in depth of the soil will be moistened. From one
hundred to two hundred pounds per acre is excellent to
give grass a start in the spring : it should not be applied
before the leaf has made a growth of three or four inches.
In dry seasons it is better and cheaper than sulphate of
ammonia, as the latter needs a degree of moisture to make
plant-food. Still, on the whole, the sulphate of ammonia
is considered the better investment: for, (1) it is not
likely to be lost in the atmosphere ; (2) it is not too solu-
ble ; (3) it has the power of clinging to the ingredients
of the soil, clay will hold it persistently, and even pure
sand, when washed with water, will retain a large portion
of it ; (4) its ammonia is easily changed into nitric acid
by ingredients in the soil. Nitrate of soda, we are told,
"is very liable to be adulterated with white sand or
broken quartz, and with salt or the cheap potash salts.
. . . The purchaser should see that it dissolves entirely in
water, and does not taste distinctly of salt."

52 FERTILIZERS.

I sometimes use sulphate of ammonia to hurry along
crops of onions that are rather backward ; spreading two
hundred pounds per acre just before they begin to bottom,
and working it into the soil with a slide-hoe.

Castor-Pomace is a waste from the West, being the
cake left after the oil has been pressed from the castor-
beans. In using it, care should be taken to keep it where
animals cannot get at it. The men who spread it ought to
walk with the wind ; for, though not poisonous, it is a very
disagreeable customer for either the eyes or mouth. It
is a favorite manure for tobacco. I have used car-loads of
it in former years on general crops, with good results.

AzoTiN, Ammonite, Tankage. — The first two of these
are animal wastes, which have been exposed to the vapor
of naphtha to extract the grease. (Of late years glue-
waste, of which, in its crude state, for years I used from
one to two hundred cords annually, is also so treated.)
The residue is dry and brittle, and rich in ammonia, and
every way superior for fertilizing purposes to the same
substances before treatment. These are not usually found
in the retail market, but are purchased by manufacturers of
fertilizers at prices based on their per cent of nitrogen and
phosphoric acid, as shown by analysis in each lot offered
for sale. Job lots of from five to ten tons can sometimes
be purchased of brokers, or from great slaughtering estab-
lishments like that of Armour & Co. of Chicago. Tankage
is a waste product from the intestines and other parts :
it contains more or less of bone, easily crumbled, and is
not uniform in fineness.

Dried Blood is the blood of the slaughter-house with
most of the moisture dried from it, leaving it in good me-
chanical condition for handling. It is very rich in nitro-
gen, and is largely used by manufacturers of fertilizers.
There are two grades, the light and the dark colored;

FERTILIZERS. 5^

the latter being kiln-dried. Sometimes, when the heat i»
too great, it is partially burned, to the destruction of a
portion of the ammonia. The nitrogen in blood acts very
readily as plant fooc^ .

Cotton-Seed Meal had better be first fed, as the ma-
nure from it is almost as rich in fertilizing materials as
was the meal before feeding ; for, as we have stated else-
where, full-grown animals take but a small per cent of the
potash, phosphoric acid, or nitrogen that exists in their
food, while butter takes none. Occasionally spoilt cotton-
seed meal can be found in the market that is nearly as.
good for manure as the best of meal, and, being generally
valued at about three-fifths as much, is a very cheap source
for nitrogen and phosphoric acid. When spoilt by trans-
portation by salt-water, it is generally in very hard lumps,,
which have to be ground in a mill. One high recom-
mendation that castor-pomace and cotton-seed meal have,,
is, that their manure elements are in condition for imme-
diate use as plant-food.

Hoof and Horn Shavings and Leather. — All of
these are very rich in nitrogen, but it is not readily avail-
able, and therefore has a low value as a market article.
Hoof and horn shavings analyze as high as 11.81 nitrogen j
and, if first steamed and then ground, the nitrogen they
contain becomes to a degree available. When used to
adulterate superphosphate, as they very rarely are, being^
ground up, the particles can be readily detected by the
microscope. Horn-waste is mostly in thin, bulky shavings,
which are marketed in huge bags. Several years ago I
purchased a ton, to test its availability and value, not hav-
ing any idea of the peculiar mechanical condition of the
article. Standing at my door one morning, I saw a team
coming down the street with a bulk of bags piled as-
high as a large load of hay. While wondering what new

54 FEKTILIZERS.

product had come to town, the driver stopped, when
abreast the house, and told me he had a ton of horn-
waste bearing my address. I got rid of the elephant the
easiest way possible, by tumbling it into the manure cellar,
and throwing the daily manure upon it until it disap-
peared from view. My men found combs, more or less
perfect, among the mass, enough to supply their families
for a year or more. This stuff is very rich in ammonia ;
but, though by layering it with horse manure it might be
softened and dissolved by fermentation, yet it is so bulky
that even at a low figure few farmers would care to invest
in it.

PHOSPHORIC ACID.

This, the third substance in the three components of a
complete fertilizer, is composed of the element phosphorus
combined with the gas oxygen. The four great resources
for phosphoric acid are the mineral called apatite, which
contains ninety-two per cent of phosphate of lime, and is
believed by some scientists to be the original source in
nature from which phosphate of lime is derived; the
phosphatic guanos, which are the dung of sea-fowls from
which the ammonia has been washed out by the rain; the
bones of all animals; and the mineral phosphate rocks,
which are the remains of ancient marine animals. Min-
eral phosphates have within a few years been discovered
to exist, in almost limitless extent, in North and South
Carolina and Georgia, usually accompanying beds of marl,
cither just above or just below them, and covering hun-
dreds of square miles: They exist largely as nodules of
rock, having holes or depressions on their surface filled with
worthless material, which makes it necessary to wash them
before grinding. That they are marine remains is evident
to the eye from their composition, which includes marine
shells and numberless sharks' teeth, some being in a per-

FERTILIZERS. 55

feet state of preservation. Single teeth are sometimes
found as large as a man's hand, weighing over two pounds.
These nodules were carted out of fields as waste, just like
any other rock, until the querying chemist touched them
with his wand. The rocks are ground, and the finer por-
tions of them, called "floats," sometimes applied directly
to the soil ; and when that is rich in organic matter, or
when vegetable matter can be added by ploughing under
green crops, it has been found to do quite well without
having been treated with acid. Says Professor Dabney of
the North-Carolina experimental station, " On sandy soils,
or soils destitute of vegetable matter, it appears to have
no effect whatever ; and, when tested by ammonium citrate,
but an insignificant portion of the finest ground, called
* floats,' was found to be soluble." Composting in fer-
menting manure is recommended, to ascertain whether it
cannot be dissolved in sufficient quantity to economically
improve the manure. On some of the lands in Scotland
it has been used with success as a paying investment with-
out having been first treated with acid.

These mineral phosphates are the great source for
phosphoric acid ; for, at the rate commercial fertilizers
are now used, bones could not begin to supply the de-
mand. The soluble phosphoric acid, whether made from
bones, apatite, phosphatic guanos, or the mineral phos-
phates of the Carolinas, have been found by careful tests
to be all of equal value as plant-food; though the pub-
lic, for old acquaintance' sake, naturally prefer that made
from bones. Some manufacturers of fertilizers, from hav-
ing superior facilities for collecting them, and knowing
the prejudice of the public, get the phosphoric acid that
they use in their fertilizers wholly from bones. This much
may be said in their favor, that, should any of the bone
remain undissolved when treated with the acid, it would

56 FERTILIZERS.

still have a value of from four to six cents per pound,
while in the finest ground Carolina rock it would be worth
but two cents and a half. The phosphate of lime, as it
exists in bones and the mineral rock, is made up of three
atoms of lime to one atom of phosphoric acid. In this
condition it is insoluble in water, though in bones slowly
soluble in the soil; but if two of the parts could be got
rid of, then the remainder, made up of one part lime com-
bined with phosphoric acid, v/ould be soluble in water. This
is accomplished by mixing sulphuric acid and water with
finely ground bone, or burnt bone, or finely ground min-
eral rock, when the two atoms of lime leave their home in
the bone or the mineral, and, combining with the sulphuric
acid, become sulphate of lime or plaster, leaving the phos-
phoric acid combined with but one atom of lime soluble
in water. After having been thus formed, under certain
conditions it sometimes takes to itself another atom of
lime, and becomes what is called ' reverted,' or, in other
words, has turned back again to an insoluble form. But
this two-part lime combination is readily decomposed and
rendered soluble when acted on by the carbonic acid pres-
ent in the soil, and when so acted on, being in the fine
mechanical condition that the action of the acid produced,
readily dissolves in water, and becomes plant-food. There
are a few terms used, in speaking of phosphate of lime in
different forms, that it will be necessary for us to become
familiar with. The insoluble combination of three parts
lime is often called bone-earth phosphate. When the
two parts of lime have been removed, and the phosphoric
acid has become soluble, it is often called acid phosphate,
but generally superphosphate of lime, the prefix ' super *
being used to indicate that the lime has a proportion of
phosphoric acid greater than is natural to it. The term
* soluble bone phosphate ' is criticised by Bruckner as a

FERTILIZERS. 57

misnomer ; for there cannot be such a thing as ' soluble
bone phosphate, for bone phosphate is always in an insolu-
ble condition, and, when it is made soluble, it is no longer
a bone phosphate." The term "• available " phosphoric
acid is sometimes used. This includes both the soluble
and the reverted, as the latter soon becomes soluble in the
soil.

BONES, AND WHERE THEY COME FROM.

The bones of land animals are composed of the follow-
ing ingredients ; —

Gelatine, fat, and water . . . . .48

Phosphate of lime, with a little magnesia . . .46

Carbonate of lime ' . .04

Potash and soda . . 02

100

The gelatine contains from three to five per cent of
nitrogen, and the phosphate of lime (or bone phosphate)
from eighteen to twenty-three per cent of phosphoric acid.

Bones are brought to the fertilizer market as the waste
of the slaughter-houses or butcher-shops, from the plains
of South America or the prairies of the West, or a&
" char," or burnt bone, that has been used principally as
a purifier in the process of manufacturing sugar. This
latter is sometimes counterfeited by mixing lampblack
with mineral phosphates. Where they have been exposed
to the action of the elements, bones are found to have lost
more or less of their gelatine, and hence are not so rich
in nitrogen. The ways of preparing bone for plant-food
are numerous: by one class of processes the gelatine is
saved, and by the other lost. By burning bones either in
closed vessels — which produces the bone-black, or " char "
— or in open fires, all the animal matter, which includes
the gelatine and oil, is consumed, and we have only phos-

58 FERTILIZERS.

phate of lime remaining. To make the phosphoric acid
in this fully soluble, we must treat it to sulphuric acid ;
though the results from burning the bones are, to reduce
the particles to so fine a state as to make them more or
less available without the use of acid.

MAKING OUR OWN SUPERPHOSPHATE.

Dr. Nichols, in his clear, practical " Barn-Floor Lecture,"
gives, in substance, the following plan : Take a plank box
four feet square and one foot deep. This may be simply
water-tight ; but, if so, there must be no nails that the acid
can reach, for it will eat them out and so make a leak : or
it may be lined with lead, as the doctor directs ; all solder-
ing to be done with lead solder. The box will be large
enough to take a carboy of sulphuric acid, with the neces-
sary quantity of phosphate material and water to make
about a quarter of a ton of superphosphate. If we take
finely ground bone, the result, following the doctor's plan,
will be a pasty mass, needing mixing with muck, or
other dry material, to get it in good mechanical condition
for use. If, instead of bone, we use bone-black, as he ad-
vises, we shall have, as a result, a dry mass easily handled.
" To make our superphosphate," says Dr. Nichols, " a car-
boy of one hundred and sixty pounds of sulphuric acid or
oil of vitriol (sixty-six degrees strength), three hundred and
eighty pounds of bone-black, and ten gallons of water,
are needed. Having first donned old clothes, and having
at hand a little saleratus or some alkali, ready to rub on
any spot, should, by chance, a drop of the acid spatter on
our clothes or boots (for where it touches, if not immedi-
ately neutralized, it will char like fire), be sure to first
pour in the water, and then the acid ; next^ slowly add the
bone, stirring it all the while with an old hoe of but little
value. There will be a great commotion, — a great boil-

FERTILIZERS. 69

ing and frothing and foaming and thro wing-off of heat
with a suffocating vapor, which will make you think for a
moment that you have drawn your last breath. But have
courage : there have been a few millions of tons made be-
fore your day, and the men who made them yet survive.
Because of the suffocating vapor, it is well to do the work
in the open air or in an open shed.

In the report of the Connecticut experimental station
(1881), Professor Johnson gives two methods. That pro-
posed by Dr. Alexander Miiller, Professor Johnson thinks
the one best adapted for domestic use of any of the pro-
cesses involving the use of oil of vitriol : " Take one hun-
dred pounds of ground bone, such as contains twenty
to fifty per cent, more or less, of material coarser than
would pass through a sieve having a one-half inch mesh,
twenty-five pounds of oil of vitriol, and six quarts of
water. Separate the bone by sifting into two, or, if the
proportion of coarse bone is large, into three, parts ; using
sieves of one-sixteenth and one-eighth inch mesh." Mix
the coarser part of the bone, in a cast-iron or lead-lined
vessel, with the oil of vitriol. When the bone is thor-
oughly wet with the strong acid, add the water, stirring
and mixing well. The addition of the water to the acid
develops a large amount of heat, which favors the action.
Let stand, with occasional stirring, for twenty-four hours,
or until the coarser fragments of bone are quite soft ;
then, if three grades of bone are used, work in the next
coarser bone, and let stand another day or two, until the
acid has softened all the coarse bone, or has spent its
action ; finally, dry off the mass by mixing well with the
finest bone. In carrying out this process, the quantity of
oil of vitriol can be varied somewhat, — increased a few
pounds if the bone has a large proportion of coarse frag-
ments, or diminished if it is fine."

60 FERTILIZERS.

Professor Stockhardt, the celebrated Saxon agricultural
chemist, gives the following process : " From a mixture
of sifted wood or coal ashes and earth thrown upon a
barn or shed floor, form a circular wall so as to enclose
a pit capable of containing one hundred weight of ground
bone ; then make the surrounding wall of ashes so firm
as not to yield by being trodden on ; sift off the finer
part of the bone, and set it aside ; throw the coarser part
into the cavity, and sprinkle it, during continued stirring,
with three quarts of water, until the whole is uniformly
moistened ; add gradually eleven pounds of oil of vitriol
of sixty-six degrees, the agitation with the shovel being
continued. A brisk effervescence of the mass will ensue,
which will not, however, rise above the margin of the pit
if the acid is poured on in separate small quantities. After
twenty-four hours, sprinkle again with three quarts of
water, add the same quantity of sulphuric acid as before,
with the same brisk shovelling of the mass, and leave the
substances to act for another twenty-four hours upon each
other. Then intermix the fine bone previously sifted off,
and finally shovel the ashes and the earth of the pit into
the decomposed bone, until they are all uniformly mixed
together."

It will be noted, that the two last processes use half
or less than half the usual quantity of acid allowed for a
hundred pounds of bone. This is economy ; for though,
by using more acid, we add to the weight of the mass,
still, all that is used over and above what is necessary to
make soluble the phosphoric acid in the bone, merely
increases the quantity of plaster present, at a cost of about
$28 per ton for the same, which is four times the mar-
ket price. From the small quantity of acid used, I infer
that it is assumed that the finest grade of bone is available
for plant-food, with but little help from the sulphuric acid.

FERTILIZERS. 61

By Dr. Nichols's method, our available phosphoric acid
from bone-black will have cost us about as follows : —

380 pounds bone-black, at $22.50 per ton, or IJ cents per pound, $4 27
170 " oil of vitriol, at If cents per pound . . . 2 38
80 " water.

630
63 one-tenth deducted for waste, steam, and evaporation.

567 pounds, costing $6 65

Cost per ton for home-made phosphoric acid, where bone-
black, or "char," is used . . . . .. . .23 40

Price in the market per ton 30 00

Cost of available phosphoric acid per pound, the average being

17 per cent nearly 0 07

Now, let us see what it would cost to make soluble the
phosphoric acid, or, in other words, to make a superphos-
phate, when 100 pounds of bones are used.

52 pounds sulphuric acid, at ly% cents . . . ^ 92
100 " fine bone, at If cents . . . . 1 75
25 " water.

177

17 loss in steam, gas, and waste.

160 pounds, costing . . . . . . . $2 67

The superphosphate in a ton of bones would weigh
160 X 20 = 3,200 pounds ; and the cost, at the same rate,
would be, 12.67 X 20 = $53.40, which would be, for a
ton by weight, $33.37. The average price at which it is
sold in the market is $38. Difference in cost between the
home-made and purchased is $4.63.

To determine the profits of this operation, we must
deduct from the $4.63 the extra freight of the acid and

62 FERTILIZERS.

bone over the freight on a purchased ton of the super-
phosphate, and a certain fraction of per cent to be allowed
on the breakage of carboys, which will occasionally occur
in transportation ; and the remainder, plus the advantage
of knowing that we have the real article, will be the re-
turn for our labor. Let us next see what the home-made
phosphoric acid will cost us when the mineral phosphate
is used.

The phosphate rocks of South Carolina supply us with
our cheapest source for soluble phosphoric acid. These
are richer in phosphate of lime than the deposits of North
Carolina, and require half more sulphuric acid to make
their phosphoric acid soluble. The cost of soluble phos-
phoric acid at the present market price for material, viz.,
•$13 per ton for finely ground phosphate rock, and $28 per
ton for oil of vitriol, sixty-six degrees, is as follows : —

1,000 pounds phosphate $6 50

600, " sulphuric acid . . . . .8 40
300 " water.

1,900 " total.

90 deducting 10 per cent for loss in gas and vapor.

1,810 pounds, costing |14 90

At 13 per cent, the soluble acid would be 235 pounds^
costing $14.90, or about 6^ cents per pound.

The phosphoric acid in finely ground bone can also be
made available by the caustic action of the potash in un-
leachedwood ashes. Dr. Nichols recommends the following
method : " Take 1 barrel raw bone flour, 3 barrels dry un-
leached wood ashes, 90 pounds gypsum, and 10 gallons of
water ; make a heap of the solid materials on the barn floor,
and add the water, stirring constantly with a hoe. The re-
sult is perfect plant-food, containing all the elements plants

FERTILIZERS. 63

require in about the same proportions." Steamed bones,
burnt bones, bone-black, or char, cannot take the place of
the raw ground bone ; neither can any form of the German
potash salts take the place of the ashes : for animal matter
is needed in the bone, and potash in a caustic form in
the ashes, to produce the chemical action. Says Dr.
Nichols, "Five barrels of this mixture to the acre is a
cheap and mo»t effective dressing for any kind of a crop."
The material used would cost, in Massachusetts, about
$7.50. I would advise using the mixture in the hill, with
about half the usual quantity of barn manure ploughed or
harrowed in. In my own practice I incline more and
more to keep the manure near the surface, that it may
have the advantage of all rains, to moisten and help dis-
solve the plant-food in it, for plants can take their food
only when in a liquid or gaseous state. With this end in
view, I surface manure for most crops, and work slightly
under with the wheel or some other good harrow. Mr.
Darling advises a little different method and proportions :
" Mix 5 barrels finely ground bone with 5 barrels of un-
leached hard-wood ashes ; add water sufficient to moisten
the mass, and then cover with loam. Leave the heap three
weeks, adding a little water if it, on examination, appears
to be nearly dry." Mr. Darling, who is well acquainted
with fertilizers, and might be presumed to know of what
he is speaking, says that the mass will be worth fifty dol-
lars per ton, which is at least double the cost of the mate-
rials that entered into the composition of the heap.

When bones are steamed under pressure, to extract
from them oil and gelatine, they are left in such a state
that when ground, I have found, on using a lot of a dozen
tons that had stood in heaps some months after having
been steamed, apparently as good effect on crops as though
they had been treated with acid. I found, that, when used

64 FERTILIZERS.

in hills where cabbage-seed had been planted, they soon
softened into a soap-like mass. If the gelatine is taken
from them, with it they lose all the nitrogen ; and there-
fore their value as a fertilizer is to be measured solely
by the phosphoric acid which they contain, and this, I
think, would be classed with the form known as "in-
verted." Oil or grease in any form is not plant-food,
hence the loss of this is no loss to the farmer. As has
been stated, bones exposed to the weather lose more or
less of their nitrogen, and therefore are not so valuable
for fertilizing purposes. Professor Johnson states that
bone char is a little more certain as a fertilizer than finely
ground phosphate rock when the latter is applied to the
soil in its crude state, but it needs treating with oil of
vitriol to get from it the best results.

REDUCTION OF UNGROUND BONE.

Professor Johnson, in the report of the Connecticut ex-
periment station for 1881, gives several methods for the
reduction of unground bones, from which I make the fol-
lowing extract: "If whole bones are treated with acid,
suitably diluted, it acts energetically on the bones at first,
and readily disintegrates them to a certain depth : unless,
however, a large excess of acid be used, the action soon
becomes sluggish, because, where the acid is in contact with
the bone, it forms sulphate of lime. Fresh acid must, then,
be brought in contact with the bone by abundant stirring,
in order to renew and maintain the action. The excess of
sulphuric acid rapidly absorbs moisture from the air : and
the final result is, the solution of the bone, or most of it, at
an expense of a wasteful excess of acid ; while the product
requires moisture, with something to take up the water,
and neutralize the excess of sulphuric acid.

" On a small scale, cast-iron vessels could be employed.

FERTILIZERS. 66

A pit lined with blue flag-stones, or with hard bricks
closely laid in common lime mortar (not cement), would
be more suitable for large quantities. After the bones are
disintegrated, the sloppy mass could be dried, and its excess
of sulphuric acid utilized by admixture of ground South
Carolina phosphate rock or other similar material, which
would thereby be converted into superphosphate."

The Russian method is as follows : " To 4,000 pounds of
whole bones, take 4,000 pounds (about 90 bushels) un-
leached hard-wood ashes, 600 pounds of fresh-burned lime,
and 4,500 pounds (562 gallons) of water. First slack the
lime to a powder (using part of the 4,500 pounds of water
for this purpose), mix it with the ashes, and, placing a
layer of bones in a suitable receptacle, — a pit in the
ground, lined with boards, slab, or brick, — cover them with
the mixture ; lay down more bones, and cover, and repeat
this until half the bones, 2,000 pounds, are inter-stratified
into the ashes and lime ; then pour on 3,600 (450 gallons)
pounds of water, distributing it well, and let stand. From
time to time add water, to keep the mass moist. As soon
as the bones have softened so they can be crushed between
the fingers to a soft, soap-like mass, take the other 2,000
pounds of bone, and stratify them in another pit, with the
contents of the first. When the whole is soft, shovel out
to dry ; and finally mix with dry muck or loam, enough to
make it handle well."

Professor Johnson's method is as follows : " Arrange a
circular layer of bones, closely laid, on a bed, a foot thick,
of good loam, under shelter ; wet them from a watering-
pot, and sprinkle them over with wood ashes, enough to
fill all the chinks ; then give a coat of gypsum ; put upon
that a few inches of muck or loam, adding, all along, as
much water as will well moisten the earth and ashes, but
not more than the mass can readily absorb ; then place

66 FERTILIZERS.

another layer of bones, with ashes, gypsum, loam or muck,
and water, as before, until the heap is built up several feet i
finally cover with loam, and keep moist by adding water
from time to time, but not enough to run away from the .
bed. When the bones are sufficiently softened, mix well
together with the loam used on the bed, and cover with
loam." Professor Johnson thinks this plan would require
more time, but perhaps would be as efficacious, and more
convenient than the process last described.

Fifteen or twenty years I tried to reduce a lot of bones
by a method like this, except that some lime was used with
the ashes. The results were not satisfactory ; possibly the
lot was kept too moist.

" A third method suggested is by inter-stratifying them
with fermenting horse-dung, and keeping the mass moist '
by covering with loam, and adding occasionally urine or
liquor from the dung heaps."

Professor Johnson mak^s an estimate of the commercial
value of the product made by the Russian process : —

" Four thousand pounds of average bones contain 4 per
cent, or 160 pounds, of nitrogen, and 20 per cent, or 800
pounds, of phosphoric acid ; 4,000 pounds of good wood
ashes, unleached, contain 8^ per cent, or 340 pounds, of
potash, and 2 per cent, or 80 pounds, of phosphoric acid.
Therefore

« 160 pounds of nitrogen, worth 20 cents . . . $32 00
880 pounds of phosphoric acid, worth 9 cents , 79 20

380 pounds of potash, worth 5^ cents . . . 18 70

$129 90

" Admitting that there is no loss of nitrogen, and no loss
or gain of water, and taking no account of the loam, the
value of $129.90 would belong to 13,100 pounds, or 6 J tons,
of the finished lime compost. The cost of one ton would
accordingly be, in round numbers, §20."

FERTILIZERS. 67

The cost of the raw material would be about as follows : —

4,000 pounds of bone, at $20 per ton $40 00

90 bushels of unleached ashes, at 33 cents per bushel . . 30 00
600 pounds of lime 2 00

$72 00

Deducting one-tenth as waste in gases and evaporation, as $129 90
claimed by manufacturers of fertilizers . . . 12 99

$116 91
Deducting cost of raw material . . . . . . 72 00

We have left, to pay for our labor ' . . . . . $44 91

At a meeting of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society^
Mr. William Hunt made an interesting statement of his
method of making the phosphoric acid in bones available.
He bought the elements bone and ashes, which he used
freely on grapes and strawberries, and was much pleased
with the results. He bought from three to ten tons of
bones per year, and ashes when he could get them. He
found that it did not pay to use acids to reduce bones : the
same money in potash would produce better results. Last
year he used from 1,800 to 2,000 pounds of potash, which
cost 4i cents per pound. It comes in casks of about four
hundred pounds each, and is as hard as stone. He uses
four or five parts of bone to one of potash. The bone,,
which is ground, but not very fine, is spread in the barn
cellar. The potash is put, in large pieces, in a bag, and
there broken with a sledge-hammer, and put in a tight bar-
rel, into which was poured boiling water, and dissolved to
saturation. In handling the potash, care must be taken not
to get it on the clothes or person. It is then turned on
the bone, which sets up a great heat, evolving the nitrogen^
to absorb which, plaster is used. It is allowed to remain
two or three weeks, and is turned over several times, and

68 FERTILIZERS.

every time covered with plaster. It is considerable trouble
to reduce bones in this way, but it gives a better return
for the money than buying fertilizers in the market. After
the potash has acted on the bone, large pieces can be
crushed in the fingers. He has used no other fertilizer
than this on his strawberries, and it is equally good for
grapes. He has put no animal manure on his grapes since
they were set out, but either ashes or bone and potash ;
and this treatment has been so satisfactory that he will
continue it. A neighbor has used a similar preparation of
bone and potash on his pear-trees, making the fruit better
and fairer. Mr. Hunt's method would be apt to volatilize
a large portion of the nitrogen from the bones by the rapid
caustic action of the potash. ^

THE THEORIES OF FERTILIZING.

My little treatise, aiming at facts, can hardly stop to
discuss theories. When the able men who have spent
their lives in investigating plant-feeding differ fundamen-
tally in their views, which shall we, simple farmers, pin
our faith to ? Boussingault values manures in proportion
to the ammonia they contain, making no account of the
mineral constituents. Leibnitz bases his value on what
he finds in the ash, and ignores the ammonia qualities.
Ville, in his theory of manuring, advocating the use of
nitrogen for wheat, potash for legumes, such as beans,
pease, etc., and phosphoric acid for roots, such as turnips,
parsnips, etc., considering potash — lime in some form —
and nitrogen as making a complete manure, .advocates
manuring on poor soil with a combination of all of these
for the first crop, no matter what that may be, to the
end that the soil may be made a fertile one ; and, after
the first crop, to make each jear an application only of the
one element which is the preponderating one in the crop

FERTILIZERS. 6^

we plant, varying the kind of crop each season, so that
each element in turn will be necessary, and thus, in the
course of three years, each will have been applied. I un-
derstand he holds, that, by this system of manuring, we
may continue indefinitely to raise crops, using yearly not
more than a single element for each.

The two theories that are especially advocated in our
day are what may be called the Stockbridge and the anti-
Stockbridge. The professor gave a great impulse to the
use of fertilizers when he laid his theory before the pub-
lic. It had in it a fascinating simplicity, and seemed to
present a short cut to success in farming. As tersely
stated, in its most advanced form, by the company who
are authorized to compound the formulas that bear his
name, it is, "To feed plants those elements found by
analysis to enter into their composition, and which they
do not obtain from the soil or air in sufficient quantity ;
to feed the plant rather than the soil, and, in the feeding
of the plant, to select those forms of plant-food which
experience has shown are best adapted to produce perfect
growth." The objections of those who do not believe in
formulas for different crops are, in brief, that the formu-
las are not constant, having varied in the course of four
years, — that for corn, from 4.7 to 6.2 for nitrogen, 3.8 to
7.2 for phosphoric acid, and 6.2 to 7 for potash ; in that
for the potato, from 3 to 4.4 in nitrogen, from 3.8 to
7 in phosphoric acid, and from 4.9 to 10.2 in potash;
while in that for onions, the variation was from 3.1 to 3.9
in nitrogen, 5.3 to 6.4 in phosphoric acid, and 7.9 to 8.3
in potash. In studying the tables of differences, it is well
to bear in mind the remark of the distingi'ished Professor
Voelcker : " Before a manure can be obta^'ned that is spe-
cially adapted to particular soils or crops, it is necessary
that enterprising and intelligent men incu? heavy expense,

70 FERTILIZERS.

in trying all kinds of fertilizing mixtures, before they can
succeed in ascertaining the states of combinations, and
the relative proportions in which these shall be combined,
in order to produce the best practical results."

The original formulas published by Professor Stock-
bridge, in which his plant-food was determined solely by
analyzing the plant, — as further experience has thrown
light on the subject, the feeding-power of the plant hav-
ing been found to be a factor of importance, — have been
considerably modified. He has increased his phosphoric
acid for potatoes and grass about thirty-three per cent, for
corn fifty per cent, and in the two latter has decreased the
nitrogen about twenty-five per cent. In pease and beans
he has increased the phosphoric acid about fifty per cent, and
has decreased the nitrogen : and, further, some of the finer
distinctions have been dropped ; and the formulas are now
generalized so far as to have in several instances the same
formula for several different crops, in this respect approach-
ing to the " Ville " theory of plant-feeding. The objec-
tion that the wide latitude shown in the extremes in the
nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid in the corn, potato,
and onion formulas, elevates them in real value at pres-
ent but little above a good superphosphate, has a degree
of weight. To my mind, it arises from the fact that
formulas, being for general use, can be compounded only
in a general way, by reason of the many differences in
the natural condition of various soils, the additional vari-
ations in the manurial elements which they may have
acquired through years of manuring, and the difference
between crops in their feeding capacity. Here, I think,
we have the weakness of the Stockbridge or any other
formulas. They do not take cognizance of the state of
the soil to which they are to be applied; neither can they
do so, except in a general way, for otherwise they would

FIjRTILIZEES. 71

have to be modified to suit each particular case presented.
It is true that Professor Lawes says, that, after an experi-
ence of forty years, he knows little of certainty about the
soil ; what he has learned is, what plants feed on. This
seems to sustain the Stockbridge theory ; but when he
adds that he has learned, that, if he puts on an excess of
phosphoric acid or potash for any crop, he gets it back
in the next crop, his argument is one for the use of any
good fertilizer, rather than a formula. We all expect to
know more of the feeding-habits of plants, and the artificial
condition and natural character of soils, as years pass
on ; and, as this knowledge increases, the theory will have
the advantage of it, and be modified accordingly. The
Stockbridge theory gives us a starting-point. If we are to
wait, in all patience, until science points out a perfect way,
meanwhile we stagnate.

Take the case of Mr. Bartholomew, the results of whose
soil-tests are frequently alluded to in the reports of the
Connecticut experiment station. By testing his soil, he has
really learned something of great value to him, though the
man of science may well say, that, as a scientific experi-
ment, it lacks lots of conditions. Now, can any one believe
that Mr. Bartholomew need rest simply on the fact that
phosphate is the ruling element needed in his corn-crop ?
Can he not, by studying the effects of combinations of
fertilizers, and the modifications they receive by different
crops on different soils, gradually work nearer and nearer
to just the best proportion of each fertilizer to use in each
combination he makes for each crop ? and is not this work
ing up to formulas ? Just as England, Scotland, and the
United States have each their man to thank for giving
vitality to the steam-engine, entirely aside from the man
who may have originated the elementary ideas, and will
always hold him in remembrance, though the relation be-

72 FERTILIZERS.

tween the original engine and the after-product may be
more that of striking contrast than one of resemblance,
so, I believe, we farmers ought always to feel a debt of
gratitude to the professor for starting on the farm the
formula system of manuring, thus insuring it a future
outside of the laboratory. All manufacturers of formulas,
as far as I have observed, now take into consideration
what they have ascertained of the feeding-hubits of plants.
Now, let each farmer who uses formulas, ascertain, by
actual trial, the peculiar needs of his own soil, and modify
the application of these formulas accordingly, and he will
certainly have something better in his hands than the
best superphosphate in the market.

TESTING OUR SOILS.

Professor Atwater was the first in this country, as far
as my knowledge extends, to digest into a practical plan
the idea of testing our soils to ascertain which of the three
elements is especially lacking. The test is most satis-
factory on poor or worn-out soils. The fertilizers with
which to make these tests are put up seven in number,
making a full set, which is sold for seven dollars, — the
bare cost. The sets are not sold in parts ; they contain
the elements singly and in combination. The quantity of
each lot is sufficient for one-tenth of an acre, making fer-
tilizing material sufficient for seven-tenths in all. Corn,
potatoes, or any other crop, may be planted, leaving two
of the plots without any manure, on the remaining tenth
using the same value of barn manure. The design of these
experiments is, to enable farmers to settle the question in
which of the three elements, viz., nitrogen, potash, or
phosphoric acid, the soil is especially deficient, and which
combination of them is most needed to produce the crop.
Besides the set to settle these q uestions, others are put up

FERTILIZERS. 73

to enable the farmer to determine what form of nitrogen,
potash, or phosphoric acid is best adapted to his soil, or to
produce any particular crop ; also a set to determine what
special fertilizer was most profitable for any special crop.
These sets are supplied by the Mapes Formula and Peru-
vian Guano Company, 158 Front Street, New York ; also
by the Bowker Fertilizer Company of Boston. I believe
Messrs. Mapes, and probably Bowker & Co., send out
explanatory circulars, giving full instructions how to use
them. Several of our agricultural papers have been very
active in encouraging this good work. I have used one
of these test sets on my own land with profit.

One fact may be safely inferred without a test; viz.,
that all old pasture-lands, when brought under cultivation,
especially need phosphoric acid to give back to the soil
the great draught that has been made upon it by the
phosphate carried away in the milk of cows and in the
bones of the young calf. I advocate the Stockbridge
theory as modified by the soil-test plan advocated by
Professors Atwater and Johnson: first, to determine by
actual tests what our soils lack, -and then use the Stock-
bridge formulas, modified by the knowledge so obtained.
The fundamental idea is, that, to use manures economi-
cally, we must select those which fit the wants of the
special cases where they are to be applied. The old idea
of the practicability of analyzing the soil to determine
what plant-food it is necessary to apply, is exploded. It
is found, that, if ten times the amount of plant-food for
any crop is mixed with the soil, the chances are not one
in ten that the chemist can detect its presence. The crop
can do it far better than the chemist can. A few pounds
of guano applied to an acre of land would be found by
the crop, and make a difference in the yield ; while Pro-
fessor Johnson tells us, that, even if a thousand pounds

74 FERTILIZERS.

were applied to an acre, the chemist might not be able to
detect its presence.

A FAITH THAT IS DANGEROUS. — BUYING CHEAP FERTIL-
IZERS.

There is a class of farmers who have a degree of faith
in fertilizers, but regard them as a sort of " hodge-podge "
combination of various ingredients sold as making things
grow, which sometimes hit it, and at other times miss it,
either because the maker missed his guess, or because he
deliberately intended to cheat his customers. Believing,
therefore, that one fertilizer is just about as likely to be as
good as another, they very naturally buy the cheapest in
the market, regarding the whole business as a mere lot-
tery. The want of knowledge that lies back of this
view of fertilizers reminds me of the doings of one of my
foremen some years ago. I sent him various materials for
a compost heap, and also a lot of unleached ashes, guano,
and hen-dung, with particular directions what to mix, and
which of the various materials to keep separate. When I
came, a while after, to view the state of affairs, I asked to
see his manure piles. He showed me his compost heap.
I then asked for the ashes, hen manure, and guano. " It's
all there, boss," said he, pointing to the compost heap ;
" and, I tell you, it's the greatest manure heap you ever
saw." I thought so, too : hen manure, guano, unleached
ashes, glue-waste, rotten sea manure, tumbled together
pellmell, and the free ammonia generated filling the air
with its pungent fumes ! I had it covered at once with
dry muck, and then endeavored to enlighten him on the
difference between a " hodge-podge " of material, and a
compost heap intelligently put together.

I was told of an instance where last season a market
gardener, a man of superior ability in some departments

FERTILIZERS. 75

of his business, having used fertilizers in former years,
believing that the more of a good thing the better, in
planting his drill-crops, cut a hole in each bag of fertilizing
material, when two men would walk along the rows, carry-
ing the bag between them until it was empty. A gentle
man told me, who saw his potatoes dug, that at that time
the fertilizer would turn up two or three inches deep under
them. This gardener used sixty or more tons in this way ;
and more or less of his crops, as might have been antici-
pated, were any thing but a success.

The words " cheap " and " cheat " are almost synony-
mous when applied to fertilizers offered for sale. Consider
the matter a moment. Potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric
acid, the three ingredients which give to them about all
their value, have become regular market articles in every
form in which they are found, whether in bones, fish-waste,
phosphate rock, German potash salts, slaughter-house waste,
cotton-seed, tankage, or in any other combination in which
they come into the market. When a dealer has any of these
for sale, and offers them to manufacturers of fertilizers, he
(the manufacturer) takes an average sample of the lot,
puts it into the hands of his chemist, who at once analyzes
it, and reports what per cent of nitrogen, phosphoric acid,
or potash, as may be, the article contains. The manufactur-
ers purchase it on that basis ; viz., so much per pound for
either ingredient : in valuing it, reference being had to the
degree of availability in which they exist in the articles
offered. Potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid being,
therefore, regular market articles, how can any manu-
facturer undersell his fellow-dealers with a fertilizer of
equal value ? The whole thing is governed by the common
rules of business. It can only be by using more capital,
and so buying his raw materials on a larger scale, and thus
getting the reduction that any man in any business gets ;

76 FERTILIZERS.

or by improved machinery, improved processes of manu-
factures ; or, finally, by selling more than his fellow-dealers,
and so being able to afford a smaller profit on each ton. The
difference in the selling-price of fertilizers turns, then, on
how much of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid enter
into their composition, modified by the above-named cir-
cumstances.

The analyses published by the able chemists at the
head of the various agricultural colleges are the great
check on frauds, and, in general, a very safe guide to the
farmer as to the richness of the various fertilizers in the
market, though they do not pretend to be able to tell
whether any particular one is cheaper for him to use than
barn manure, is best adapted to his soil, or to produce
profitably any particular crop : this is a matter that the
farmer must determine for himself. The fertilizer laws of
the different States have driven most of the " cheap and
cheat" class from the market. If any one is interested
in knowing what these laws have accomplished for the far-
mer, let him read the last chapter of Bruckner's work on
" American Manures," where he will find analyses of
eleven fertilizers that were advertised in 1870 for an aver-
age price of $50 per ton, the average of whose real value»
aside from the insoluble phosphoric acid in their composi-
tion, proved to be but $13.75 per ton. It is good advice
to buy no fertilizer of which you have seen no analysis
published in the bulletins or annual reports of some of our
agricultural colleges. There is one just now being sold in
• Eastern Massachusetts by a new firm which is little or
nothing more than a mixture of ashes, lime, and salt.

With the best of helps, we take as much risk in our pur-
chases as wise men should take ; for the chemist does not
tell us always whether our phosphoric acid was derived
from bones or the mineral rock, or our nitrogen from fish
or flesh, or the practically worthless leather scraps.

FERTILIZERS. 77

MAKING OUR OWN FERTILIZERS.

There is one way by which a fertilizer can be afforded
at a price lov/er than the standard price of the three ele-
ments that enter into its composition ; and that is, by using
such local waste materials as are not accessible to dealers
in general. Dead animals and surplus fish supply these
material in some localities. If farmers in the vicinity of
large towns would start some one in the business of work-
ing up the carcasses of horses, cows, and other animals
that die from disease, accidents, or are killed because they
can no longer serve their masters, they might have a cheap
source for superphosphate ; for in the hides, manes and
tails, oil, grease, gelatine, hoofs, and horns, the manufac-
turer would find sources of income which would enable
him to offer the waste, in the shape of a superphosphate,
at a figure below the average market rate.

Where it is necessary to have heavy machinery to grind
bone or other materials, it is a question whether either the
individual farmer or an association of farmers can make
it a profitable investment. I know one instance where
farmers associated, and, buying machinery, ground bones,
treated them with acid, and so made their own superphos-
phate. The leader in the enterprise stated that it did not
pay when they could get an honestly made phosphate at
the average market price. The Cumberland Superphos-
phate Company, in Maine, an association of individuals
who have in their employ experienced chemists, was organ-
ized, I understand, for the special purpose of supplying the
members of the association with an honest superphosphate
as cheaply as it could be afforded. I am told that pecuni-
arily this is not a successful enterprise ; and any one who
looks at the analysis in the Maine " Report of the Inspector
of Fertilizers " will see the reason why, — they are selling

78 FERTILIZERS.

an over-good article. If the farmers of Maine will buy
Red Beach at $45 per ton, when the analysis shows a valua-
tion of but §26.19, and pass by Cumberland, which sells
$40.83 worth of fertilizers for $40, why, they are not as
shrewd Yankees as they have the credit of being. Here
naturally arises the question, why a fertilizer that by
analysis is shown to be of a low grade in value, sometimes
may give better returns than one of higher cost. It is
generally because it may have had more of one of the three
elements than the better fertilizer, and hence may have
been better adapted for some particular crop to which it
was applied; whereas the more costly one would have
shown returns commensurate with its cost had it been
applied to the right crop. Where bone-black, ground
bone, or finely ground phosphatic rock is used, it will pay
farmers to make their own superphosphate when the pro-
cess of Dr. Nichols, and especially that of Professor
Stockhardt and Dr. Miiller, are follt)wed, as given on p.
61. For the past three years I have made, more or less,
my own superphosphate.

THE MANUFACTURERS OF FERTILIZERS.

I have no war to wage against the manufacturers of
fertilizers. The degree of dishonest}^ and carelessness or
ignorance of former years is now rendered impossible in
many localities by State laws and the frequent reports of
the agricultural chemists. The manufacturer is a neces-
sity that we farmers cannot do without. He brings to the
business the knowledge and the capital necessary to handle
the various great wastes in the most economical manner to
get therefrom fertilizing materials. Most of them have
one, and some of them two, chemists constantly in their
employ ; and one, I know, has ten thousand dollars invested
in a building wholly devoted to the single department of

FERTILIZERS. 79

repairing machinery. They have the expense of work-
men, clerks, costly rents, travelling-agents, to meet (one
has eleven), and allow a profit to the retail dealer.
While those engaged in many occupations turn their capi-
tal several times a year, making more or less of profit every
time, the sales of the manufacturer of fertilizers are lim-
ited to a few months in the year ; and these are made on
long time ; so that, from the date they invest money in
crude materials, to the time they receive pay for the same,
is nearer two years than one. In the table from our ex-
perimental stations, comparing the value of the various
fertilizers with the market price of the materials that
enter into their composition, we rarely see credit given
for the bags in which they are packed. These must cost
not far from a dollar and a half for each ton of fertilizers,
while many rot, and have to be replaced before they leave
the establishments. From considerations such as these, it
appears but fair to concede to the manufacturer, as his just
due, an advance on the cost of the materials he handles
sufficient to cover the interest on his plant, the cost of
production and of selling, with a fair profit added.

Professor Dabney gives good testimony to the honesty
of manufacturers when he says, that, of the six hundred
samples of fertilizers analyzed in North Carolina, but one
was found in which there was an attempt to defraud in
the element ammonia ; and that, if I remember correctly^
was in an imported English superphosphate.

LEATHER-WASTE.

This consists of the scraps of the shoe-manufactories,
the waste from the uppers and soles. In many of the
establishments it is burnt as fuel, to which there is the
objection that the creosote formed from it destroys the mor-

80 FERTILIZERS."

tar in chimneys. Owing to its richness in ammonia, and
the facility with which, when steamed under pressure, it
granulates into a fine blood-colored powder, or readily
grinds up after being charred, it has been largely used by
ignorant or unprincipled manufacturers as a source for
nitrogen in their fertilizers, several of the States having,
until recently, required by law the per cent of nitrogen,
without designating in what form it should or should not
be. The gelatine present, though rich in ammonia, is
rendered by the tannic acid nearly insoluble, and hence
for aiikiual crops is practically worthless. This adultera-
tion has been carried on to a far greater extent than the
public is aware. Tens of thousands of tons have been so
disposed of, as I have been informed by those behind the
scenes. In the Massachusetts Agricultural Report for
1882, it is stated that leather scraps were offered in Boston,
early in the season, in a fine state of subdivision, at $5.50
per ton ; hut later ^ in the month of May^ tliey advanced to
$15 per ton. The cause of this advance, it would require
no great wit to perceive. It is said that from four thou-
sand to five thousand tons were sold in and about Boston
that year, to be used in the manufacture of fertilizers. If
every State would require the dealers to state the source
from which their nitrogen was obtained, the adulteration
would soon cease, for every chemist has at hand the
means of detecting its presence. Though the process is a
slow one, leather scraps, even the coarsest, from sole
leather, will eventually decay ; but this fact gives no value
to them for the growing of annual crops, for they need to
be years in a mass before they will turn black and rot. I
have used tons of them around currant-bushes, where
they serve to keep down weeds, and in the course of years
entirely disappear, becoming plant-food. If used into
tillage-land, they become a nuisance, for more or less of

FERTILIZERS. 81

them will keep working to the surface, where the hoe-
coming in contact with their tough substance, will be
bounced out of place, with the danger of cutting off the
plants among which you are at work. The only other
really profitable use of these scraps b}^ farmers is for
covering over blind drains, to keep the soil from sifting
down among the stones or tile. I have used them in
covering miles of such drains, and know of nothing as
good, especially where the sole-leather waste is used. I
have one that was made nearly thirty years ago, where the
scraps — over small stones, with tile below ; — appear to be
as useful as at the first.

SOME FACTS AND SUGGESTIONS.

In using potash or phosphoric acid in any form, we will
not forget that it never wastes in the soil to any extent ;
and, if there is more applied than a crop needs, the next
crop will find it. " Fertilizers rich in ammonia, Peruvian
guano, sulphate of ammonia, etc., should be applied, a
little at a time, and often." Clayey soils do not, as a rule^
need so much potash or nitrogen as phosphoric acid.
Nitrogen tends to promote leaf-growth. Fertilizers ap-
plied to poor land produce more effect than when applied
to rich land. In twenty-five experiments with various fer-
tilizers, under the direction of Professor Atwater, it was
found that the most important factors in the growth of
the corn-crop were, first, the soil ; next, the season. It
was a sensible and suggestive remark of Mr. Bartholomew,
that, if the bone in the soil does not all decompose the first
year, the nitrogen contained in it goes over with it — ^is
not wasted. If but one of the commercial fertilizers is to
be used, let it be bone. The finer the bone, and the finer
and dryer the fertilizer, the more valuable it is. " The
most profitable fertilizers," says Professor Atwater, "are

82 FERTILIZERS.

those that fit special cases. ... To compost fish-waste with
plaster and earth is more economical than to treat it with
acid." " The soil," says Professor Ville, " is the medium
in which we convert at pleasure phosphoric acid, potash,
and nitrogen into any crop we choose to grow." When
the animal matter in bones decays, the phosphoric acid in
the bones, say our scientific teachers, is in a reverted con-
dition. Says Professor Atwater, " The common impression
among farmers, that the best use of artificial fertilizers is
to supplement farm manures, is doubtless, in ordinary
circumstances, correct." Both Mr. Lawes and Professor
Ville are of the opinion that the largest crops are grown
by chemical manures. Salt-cake (sulphate of soda) con-
tains about forty per cent of sulphuric acid, and is an
excellent material to check decomposition. Under this
plea, it is used by some manufacturers with altogether too
liberal a hand in their fertilizers, for of itself it is of but
little value as plant-food. Nitre-cake, the refuse from
the manufacture of nitric acid, contains about forty-seven
per cent of sulphuric acid, and is an excellent material to
scatter over manure heaps, to hold the ammonia. The
difference between nitrogen in barnyard manure and in
ammoniacal salts (sulphate of ammonia, etc.) was strik-
ingly shown in some of the experiments of Mr. Lawes,
where forty-one pounds of nitrogen in the latter produced
as great effect on a crop of barley as did two hundred
pounds in the former. Dr. Voelcker found in perfectly
fresh horse-dung but one pound oifree ammonia in fifteen
tons, though there was nitrogen enough to supply one
hundred and forty pounds of it. This suggests the wis-
dom of first composting, and so decomposing and making
it soluble, when we want prompt effects. Barnyard ma-
nures decompose faster in porous (sandy or gravelly) soils
than in compact ones. Say^ Professor Goessmann, " Good

FERTILIZERS. 83

manuring increases the quality as well as the quantity of
our crops. . . . Besides salt-cake (as mentioned above),
nitre-cake, ground oyster-shells, spent lime, plaster, and
soil are mixed with ground bone as preservatives, dryers,
or adulterants."

In purchasing our elements out of which to make fertil-
izers, their degree of fineness or dryness has an important
bearing on their value. Says Professor Goessmann, " The
mechanical condition of any fertilizing material, simple or
compound, deserves the most serious consideration of
farmers, when articles of a similar chemical character are
offered for their choice. The degree of pulverization con-
trols, almost without exception, under similar conditions,
the rate of solubility, and the more or less rapid diffusion
of the different articles of plant-food throughout the soil.
The state of moisture exerts a no less important influence
on the pecuniary value in case of one and the same kind
of substance. Two samples of fish fertilizers, although
equally pure, may differ from fift}^ to a hundred per cent in
commercial value, on account of mere difference in moisture.
If obliged to increase our home resources of manure, he
advises to compound fertilizers from the most suitable stock
in the market. Although a first trial of that course of
action may not realize all the advantages expected, there
can be no doubt about the correctness of the statement,
that the best financial success on the part of the farmer
can ultimately be secured only by the gradual adoption. of
that system of manuring the farm. Our leading dealers in
fertilizers begin to realize the late tendency in their trade,
and are preparing to meet the call."

84

FERTILIZERS.

COMMERCIAL RETAIL VALUES OF FERTILIZING INGRE-
DIENTS IN RAW MATERIALS AND CHEMICALS.

For the Years

Nitrogen in sulphate of ammonia ....

" '' nitrate of soda

" *' dried and finely ground fish . .
Organic nitrogen in guano and fine-ground

blood and meat

Organic nitrogen in cotton-seed, linseed meal,

and in castor-pomace

Organic nitrogen in finely ground bone . .
'' '' " fine, medium bone . .
*' " " medium bone o o . .
*' " " coarse, medium bone .
" " ** " bone, horn shav-
ings, hair, and fish-scraps

Phosphoric acid soluble in water . . . - .
" " " ammonia citrate . .

" " insoluble in dry, finely

ground fish, and in fine bone

Phosphoric acid insoluble in fine, medium

bone

Phosphoric acid insoluble in medium bone .
" " " " coarse, medium

bone

Phosphoric acid insoluble in coarse bone . .
" " '* " finely ground

rock phosphate

Potash as high-grade sulphate

" kainite

" muriate

Cents per Pound.

1881. 1882. 1883. 1884,

22i

26

20

20

16
15
14
13
12

11

12i
9

6

5i
5

4

4i

24

24

18
17
15
14
13

11

12i

9

6

5i
5

4i
4

3

7
5
5

26
20
23

23

18
17
15
14
13

11
11

8

5i
5

4i
4

2f
7

4i
4i

22

18
20

18

18
18
16
14
12

10
10

9

5i
5

4

2i
7i
4i
4i

The retail rates average about twenty per cent higher
than the wholesale rates of this table. As a rule, fertilizing
materials are cheapest in the fall and winter. At the time

FERTILIZERS. 86

of writing (spring of 1885), nitrogen in some forms is
somewhat higher than last season.

The word " organic " in the above table may be practi-
cally ignored by us farmers when figuring on these
fertilizers. The table is an estimate of relative commercial
values agreed upon by the chemists and directors of the
experimental stations of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and
New Jersey. In point of fact, competition forced prices
below these rates, as will be noted in the following table,
which gives the prices at which the nitrogen, phosphoric
acid, and potash were sold in various combinations in 1884
by leading dealers : —

Average cost per pound of nitrogen in nitrate of soda

in sulphate of ammonia

in dried blood .

in ammonite and tankage

in dried fish

in castor-pomace

in hair manure .

Cents.
16.9
17.1
18.3
15.8
12.5
20.2

lo.a

Average cost of phosphoric acid from bone-black, soluble in water, 7.3

cents ; insoluble, 2.9 cents.
Average cost of soluble phosphoric acid from South Carolina rock,
8.6 cents; insoluble, 1.9 cents.

Cents.

Average cost of potash per pound in muriate . • . .3.7

« " " " inkainite . . . .4.0

" " « « in sulphate . . . 7.2

The above are the retail prices, delivered on cars or
boats.

Professor Cook of the New Jersey experimental station^
from which valuable report the above table was taken,
states that the samples analyzed by the station in 1884, in
five cases out of six contained more plant-food than their
minimum guaranties demanded: they were better than
the manufacturers claimed.

86 FERTILIZERS.

COMMERCIAL AND AGRICULTULRAL VALUES OF FERTIL-

IZERS.

The prices in the above tables are the market or com-
mercial value of the three elements. Says Professor Cook,
" The agricultural value of a fertilizer — in other words, the
profit which its use secures for a farmer in an increased
crop — is in no way indicated by its market price. Reliable
mformation concerning agricultural values must be sought
upon the farm, and not by the guesses of the farmer, but
from the actual weight of the crops grown under known
conditions, and upon accurately measured areas." Hot or
cold, wet or dry, seasons, will affect the results obtained
from fertilizers, but cannot be said to affect their commer-
cial value ; in fact, the average of numerous experiments
demonstrates that these extremes have a greater effect on
crops fed on barn manure than on those fed by fertilizers.

WHERE TO OBTAIN OUR FERTILIZING MATERIAL AT THE
LOWEST COST.

The table (84) directs us for what substances to inquire
when we go into the general market. But there are out-
side sources which are more or less accessible to the aver-
age farmer. Even in the varied products of the farm, the
three elements vary greatly in cost.

Professor George Caldwell makes the following esti-
mates of the value of nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric
acid in various combinations. Assuming that in 1884
potash could be purchased at 5 cents per pound, phos-
phoric acid at 9, and nitrogen at from 16 to 18 cents,
then, at these rates, —

FERTILIZERS.

87

Cost of
Nitrogen
per Lb.

Cost of
Potash.

Cost of
Phos-
phoric
Acid.

In cow manure, at $1.16 per thousand pounds

(about $7 per cord)

In horse manure, at $1.54 per thousand

pounds (about $6.90 per cord)

In rock-weed, at $1.21 per thousand pounds

(about $4.25 per cord)

In night-soil, at $0.43 per thousand pounds,

the price of collecting

In tanner's waste (clippings of hides and

hair), at $0.78 per thousand pounds . . .
In hen manure, at $4 per thousand pounds.

Cents.

19

14

20i

■ 2^.

1
27

Cents.
6
4i

6f^

1

Cento.
11

6A
15

The tanner's waste would decompose slowly, and there-
fore its components would practically be of less value than
in the other manures named. At 43 cents per thousand
pounds, night-soil would cost about $2.50 per cord. As
average night-soil is worth about f 6 per cord, the professor
evidently means a purer article than we farmers usually
find. Most farmers will be surprised at the low value
given hen manure in the table, but it requires a pretty
good article to reach even that valuation. Hold fast to
the fundamental principle, that no more value in, potash,
phosphoric acid, and nitrogen can come from the manure of
any animal than is fed to it in its food, minus the quantity
of these elements taken up to maintain its vitality, and
perform its various functions, which in fowls includes the
eggs laid and the annual growth of feathers. And next
consider the fact that two bushels of corn will support an
average fowl a year, and that this grain contains about
38 cents in value of the three elements ; and, finally, that
of this, but about half can be found in the manure, of

88 FERTILIZERS.

which but about half can be saved, making a little over
a quarter of the 38 cents in the manure saved from a
fowl annually. Where we are so situated that we can go
outside the general market for our fertilizing elements, -ve
can sometimes pick them up at a very cheap rate. The
present season (1885) I have purchased at the town of
Gloucester, Mass., fish-waste in the form of liver, halibut,
and herring chum at a remarkably low figure, — the liver
chum at $4 per ton, which would make the nitrogen in it
come to about 4J cents per pound, and the phosphoric acid
at about li cents. Halibut chum is now worth $8 per ton,
which would bring the nitrogen in that form about 8 cents
per pound, and the phosphoric acid 2J cents per pound.
Fish-skins, by which I mean the skins, bones, and fins
stripped from fish, which are sold under the name of " bone-
less fish," are sold this season in Gloucester at the low figure
of '14 per ton. I have not an analysis at hand ; but they are
very rich in both ammonia and phosphoric acid, having
about 4.50 of the former, and 6 of the latter. They are
very salt, being stripped from salted fish. In this form the
ammonia cannot cost over 6 cents, or the phosphoric acid
over 2 cents, per pound. " Chum," or pomace, from waste
mackerel or herring, is sold the present season as low as
$6.50 per ton. There is usually a large per cent of salt
in its composition. The ammonia at these rates cannot
be over 6 cents, and the phosphoric acid over 2| cents, per
pound.

I would have my farmer friends understand that the
above rates are lower than usual, — about, on an average,
from a third to a half the usual price ; still, at the usual
prices of material, fish-waste is the cheapest source for
nitrogen.

Says Professor Goessmann, '' Manufacturers put it in a
better mechanical condition, and sell it at about $34 per

FERTILIZERS. 89

ton, or an advance of from two hundred to four hundred
per cont." In these forms, about all the ammonia may be
assumed to be available the same season they are used,
and from one-half to two-thirds of the phosphoric acid.
As these fish-wastes are usually heavily charged with salt
(used when fresh, to keep them), it is the best plan to use
them on salt-loving crops, as cabbage, onions, and mangel-
wurzels. They can either be spread on the surface in the
fall, harrowed in, or slightly ploughed under, or be com-
posted in the spring with barn manure into which enters
a good proportion of horse manure. Be sure to cover the
heap, especially the top, with dry earth and plaster. These
wastes are usually bought up by manufacturers of fertil-
izers ; and the surplus to be found in the market, acces-
sible to farmers, is never very large. I have used them
for many years somewhat extensively, having fifty tons of
them at the present time, mostly composted with barn
manure and rock-weed.

As my treatise is for the benefit of my fellow-farmers,
I will give the addresses of parties who deal in these and
other fertilizing materials at first hand ; though it may not
be the wisest thing for me to do, viewed from a pecuniary
stand-point, as it will tend to send me to a dearer market*

Dealer in fish-skins, Fred L. Stacey of Gloucester, Mass. ;
dealers in liver and halibut chum, A. W. Dodd & Co. of
Gloucester, Mass., and Messrs. Parker & Smith, Derby
Wharf, Salem, Mass.

Dealers in unleached Canada ashes, Messrs. Munroe,
Judson, & Stroup, Oswego, N.Y.

Dealers in ammonite, M. L. Shoemaker (he has two
grades), Philadelphia, Penn.

Dealers in tankage, John Taylor & Co., Trenton, N.J. ;
Armour & Co., Chicago (in ten-ton loads).

The list might be indefinitely extended, but I give the

90 FEETILIZERS.

addresses of those who deal in fertilizing material not
often found by farmers in the market. The reports from
the various agricultural experimental stations contain the
addresses of almost numberless manufacturers and dealers
in superphosphates, potash, and ammonia.

FORMULAS, AND HOW TO COMPOUND THEM.

From what I have written, my farmer friends will see
that I do not present the formulas I have used as the best
guide for them to follow. Their soil, in its natural or arti-
ficial condition, may differ from my own ; and so these
formulas would require modification accordingly. In my
own practice, perhaps, all these may be improved ; while I
know the one for beans and pease can be : and I expect
to find, from some indications, I can dispense with more
or less of the potash on most of my land.

It will be noticed that they are all what are known as
" complete " manures ; that is, each has all three of the
essential elements of plant-food. It is quite possible, that,
on land that has been manured for a series of years, espe-
cially if by stable manure, the potash probably, and the
phosphoric acid possibly, may be in excess of the needs
of crops, and therefore can for awhile be omitted from
formulas ; but in such case we need to be on the watch
to detect when the limit is reached, and govern ourselves
accordingly, bearing in mind that the quantity of crop is
.always measured by the element of which the soil has the
smallest quantity, and that a large quantity of one ele-
ment will not help the crop over a deficiency in either of
the others. This is the reason why, when, for instance,
fish is used liberally, a manure especially rich in nitrogen,
for a while there are enormous crops ; but they soon grow
less, even under a heavier application. The trouble is,
the potash of the land has been exhausted. That this is the

FERTILIZERS. 91

trouble can be proved by using manures rich in potash,
when fertility will return. . My farms, four of them, are
made up of land ranging from sandy loam to strong loam
and reclaimed meadow. They have been under cultiva-
tion from one to ten years. During the first five years
they were dressed with various manures, and more or less
with commercial fertilizers ; during the last five years I
have depended more and more on commercial fertilizers,
using, of the three ingredients which compose these, from
thirty-five to forty-five tons annually. Much of this I
have used in connection with barnyard manure, using the
latter broadcast, and the fertilizer in the drills. I say
drills, for I have not planted corn, beans, or potatoes in
hills for the past dozen years ; neither do I believe that
any of my farmer friends, after once giving the drill
system a fair trial, will ever go back to the old way.

FORMULAS FOR VARIOUS CROPS.

The following table of formulas for various crops are
such as are used by fertilizer dealers of good repute. I
present them as good starting-points, to be followed or
varied as the characteristics of each field, as developed by
the soil-tests, may iiidicate. The figures in the first three
columns indicate the per cent of ammonia, etc., needed.
In the next they indicate how many pounds of the mixture
to apply.

92

FERTILIZERS.

Potatoes

Corn

Cabbage and cauliflower . .

Squash

Tomatoes

Fruit and fruit-bearing vines

Oats

Rye

Strawberries

Raspberries

Asparagus

Wheat

Barley

Grass

Melon

Tobacco

Onion

Cucumber

Turnips

Carrot

Beet

Celery

Lettuce

Pease and beans

Cotton

Hops ........

Sugar-cane

/

Phos-

Ammouia,

Potash,

phoric

per cent.

per cent.

Acid,
per cent.

6

8

5

2i

6

7

6

7

5

6

7

5

6

7

5

2i

11

8

5

9

5

5

9

5

H

8

6

H

8

6

5

9

6

6

3

n

6

3

7i

6

7

5

6

7

5

5i

8

4

5

9

5

5f

7

5

5

8

7

7

9

5

7

9

5

7

9

5

7

9

5

2

7i

8

2i

4

7i

3i

13

5

2i

7i

8

Lbs.

500

600

1,000

1,000

750

600

400

400

600

600

500

200

200

400

1,000

1,000

1,000

1,200

400

650

400

1,000

1,000

500

300

1,000

800

to 1,000
"1,000
" 2,500
" 1,500
"1,000

" 600
" 600
" 800
" 800
" 700
" 600
" 600
" 700
" 1,600
"2,000
"2,000
" 1,600
" 600
" 900
" 800
" 1,400
"1,400
" 800

In these formulas, all the phosphoric acid is to be avail-
able ; that is, either soluble or reverted, and mostly of the
former. It will be noticed that all these formulas are
conxplete fertilizers; that is, contain all of the three essen-
tial elements of plant-food. Let me again enjoin on my
fellow-farmers, when using a portion of them in the drill,

FERTILIZERS. 9b

in order to prevent destroying the seed, to mix thoroughly
with the soil before planting ; using the top of a cedar-tree
to which a stone has been tied, dragging it along through
the furrow, or a brush barn-broom, or even a hoe if care-
fully dragged. With extra care in mixing for crops such
as corn, the whole of the fertilizer might be used in the
furrows or hill ; but no good farmer would, as a rule, raise
his crop in that way. With potatoes, fertilizers are some-
times successfully applied by first covering the potato with
an inch of earth, and then sowing it, finishing by covering
the seed to the usual depth. A portion can be applied to
the corn-crop after it is up ; but in such cases it must be
cultivated under, or the plant will get but little benefit
from it.

In using these formulas, if you live near a good market,
your vegetable crop will bring more than it otherwise
would ; while your land, and probably your labor-bill, will
be higher than it would be back in the country, and- the
cost of the fertilizer will be as cheap or cheaper. Such
being the case, it would be wise to use the larger quantity
named, and to experiment a little to ascertain whether or
not, under your exceptional circumstances, it might not
pay you even to increase this. Fertilizers, as has been
said, do not respond so well on soil that has been heavily
enriched with barn and other manures for a series of years.
On very rich truck-farms, some fertilizers, even when lib-
erally applied, have but little effect. In such cases the
ground is already heavily stocked with the surplus left
over by many manurings, and will sometimes yield full
crops without help from any manure whatever ; but usually
nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, guano, or bone will
give good paying returns, even on such soil. I have
made use of the above formulas, with excellent results, on
crops of potatoes, corn, i)ease, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers,

94 FERTILIZERS.

melon, squash, onions, oats, grass, beet, and Hungarian
millet.

HOW TO COMPOUND OUR OWN FORMULAS.

To start with, we will aim to get our three elements
from more than one source, believing that the greater the
variety from which they are obtained, the better it will be
for the varied and varying wants of the crop. In making
up my formulas, I start with some one fertilizer, and then
add to it, from various sources, what I need to complete
it. To illustrate, let us take the first on the list, that for
potatoes.

The potato formula calls for : ammonia, 6 per cent ; pot-
ash, 8 per cent ; phosphoric acid, 8 per cent ; quantity re-
quired, 1,000 pounds. That is, of this 1,000 pounds, 6 per
cent, which is 1,000 X .06, must be ammonia, = 60 pounds;
8 per cent potash, that is, 1,000 X .08, = 80 pounds;
and 8 per cent phosphoric acid, = 1,000 X .08, = 80
pounds. The formula would stand thus : —

Ammonia. Potash. Phosphoric acid.

Wanted : 60 pounds. 80 pounds. 80 pounds.

Let US start with a superphosphate, which we will
assume to analyze as follows : Ammonia, 3.50 ; available
phosphoric acid, 11. From this we will supply the phos-
phoric acid needed in the formula, which, as there are 11
pounds in every hundred, will require as many hundred
pounds as 11 is contained in 80, which will be 7 hundred,
and y^Yi which would be just about 27 pounds more, making
727 pounds in all. Now, in taking these 727 pounds of
the phosphate, as each hundred has, besides the phosphoric
acid, 3|- pounds of ammonia, we have at the same time 3|-
per cent of 727 pounds of this element, = 25 pounds : we
have thus obtained all the phosphoric acid needed in our
formula, and (60 — 25 = 35) all but 35 pounds of the

FERTILIZERS. 95

ammonia. As the ammonia in the phosphate was doubt-
less from bone, let us get the remainder from sulphate of
ammonia, which is a form in which it will act more
promptly, and start the crop, while that from bone will
feed it later in the season. Now, sulphate of ammonia
contains 25 per cent pure ammonia : therefore we get our
remainder of ammonia in about || of a hundred pounds,
:= 140 pounds of sulphate of ammonia. Passing next to
the potash needed, viz., 80 pounds, let us get part of it
in muriate of potash, and part from wood ashes, where the
potash is the carbonate of potash. 80 per cent of muriate
of potash contains just above 50 per cent (50.46) of pure
potash. Taking a hundred pounds of this, and we have
remaining, to be got from unleached ashes, 88 — 50, = 38
pounds. Now, a hundred pounds of unleached wood
ashes, containing about 7 per cent of carbonate of potash,
would contain about | as much of pure potash. | of 7 =
4i pounds ; 38 -^ 4^ = 9^ hundred pounds nearly. As
unleached wood ashes weigh about 45 pounds to the
bushel, in 9J hundred pounds there would be about 21
bushels. Now, using these ashes, we have also brought
with them some phosphoric acid, for wood ashes unleached
has about two per cent of it ; therefore in our 21 bushels
we should have 21 X 2 = 42 pounds. Let us take
away sufficient of the bone to allow for the 42 pounds.
As the boiffe has 11 per cent, we will drop as many hun-
dred pounds as 11 is contained in 42, = 4 nearly. But, in
dropping these 450 pounds of bone, we, of course, drop
also the ammonia contained in it, which would be 4 J X 3^,
= 16 pounds nearly. To get this 16 pounds of am-
monia, we will take some dried blood, which analyzes 13
per cent ammonia. It would require ^| of 100 pounds of
this, = 133 pounds nearly. Now, bringing all the sources
together, and we have

96 FERTILIZERS.

Lba.

Acid phosphate 727 — 450 = 277

Sulphate of ammonia ....... 88

Unleached wood ashes 950

Dried blood 133

1,448

We have for our formula, which called for 1,000 pounds
of a fertilizer containing ammonia, 6 per cent, potash, 8
per cent, and phosphoric acid, 8 per cent, a compound
containing 1,448 pounds. I know that the question will at
once occur to my farmer friends. How can this be correct,
as only 1,000 pounds were called for? True, but that was
to be of a given strength, while the elements in this will
not average as rich as the elements in that, and therefore
more bulk is required. If, instead of taking the ashes, we
had taken our entire supply of potash from the muriate,
then the result would have been a compound weighing
less than 1,000 pounds, for the reason that the average of
the materials would have been richer. This illustration,
which I have purposely made to cover about all possible
variations, covers the whole matter of compounding our
own formulas. What we now need to ascertain is, where
we can get our own raw materials the cheapest. The
various facts presented in other portions of this treatise,
especially under the heads of " Potash," " Nitrogen," and
" Phosphoric Acid," with the tables to be found on pp.
Ill and 112, will inform us from what source to obtain
the cheapest materials needed to compound these or any
other formulas.

SOME FORMULAS AS COMPOUNDED

I herewith present the way I have compounded several
formulas for my own use, not as the wisest course in the
selection of material, but as suggestive in the variety of

FERTILIZERS. 97

substances from which the three elements are obtained.
The per cent of ammonia, potash, and phosphoric acid is
the same for each variety of vegetable as those given in the
table on p. 92. The quantity applied has, in each case,
the larger amount. The " Ames bone " is an honest super-
phosphate made by a reliable neighbor, A. L. Ames of
Peabody, Mass. I will here say, that, while on old land, I
have had excellent results from the potato fertilizer four
years in succession, raising crops that averaged, with differ-
ent years, from 200 to 317 bushels per acre in fields con-
taining eight acres, on pasture land broken up for the first
time, the results have not been so satisfactory.

FORMULAS OF FERTILIZERS.

Pease for One Acre.
{Half harrowed in, Half in Drill.)
600 lbs. Ames bone. ( 250 lbs. muriate of potash.

40 lbs. dried blood.

Potatoes for One Acre.

500 lbs. Ames bone, in drill. I 75 lbs. cotton-seed meal, or 50 Ibi

50 " sulphate ammonia, in drill. I guano, in drill.

200 lbs. muriate of potash, in drill.

Vegetable Vines for One Acre.

{Three-fourths harrowed in, One-fourth in Drill.)

600 lbs. Ames bone. i 100 lbs. dried blood.

100 " sulphate ammonia. | 200 *' cotton-seed meaL

200 lbs. miu-iate of potash.

Carrots or Beets for One Acre.

{Harrowed in. )

400 lbs. Ames bone. I 100 lbs. dried blood.

100 " sulphate ammonia. I 200 '* cotton-seed meaL

160 lbs. muriate of potash.

98 FERTILIZERS.

Beans for One Acre.
{Half harrowed in, Half in Drill. )
550 lbs. Ames bone. | 33 lbs. sulphate ammonia,

110 lbs. muriate of potash.

Hungarian for One Acre.
{Harrowed in.)
400 lbs. Ames bone. | 150 lbs. muriate of potash.

50 lbs. sulphate of ammonia.

Corn for One Acre.
{Half harrowed in, Half in Drill).
600 lbs. Ames bone. i 160 lbs. sulphate of ammonia.

200 " cotton-seed meal. | 180 " muriate of potash.

Grass for One Acre.
{Harrowed in. )
400 lbs. Ames bone. I 150 lbs. muriate of potash.

100 " dried blood. I 100 *' sulphate of ammonia.

Onions for One Acre.
(Raked in before Ploughing.)

700 lbs. Ames bone.
100 ** dried blood.
400 " cotton-seed meal.

200 lbs. muriate of potash.
* 250 * ' sulphate ammonia, or 300
guano.

Oats for One Acre.
{Harrowed in. )

300 lbs. Ames bone.
150 " dried blood.
25 " sulphate of ammonia.

35 bushels unleached hard-wood
ashes.

CONDENSATION OF SPECIAL AND OTHER FORMULAS.

Professor George H. Cook, of the New Jersey experi-
mental station, gives five formulas, which contain the
three elements in about the same proportion as they were
found by analysis to exist in seventy-two different brands
of fertilizers, of which thirty-six were sold specially for
various crops, such as potatoes, corn, buckwheat, etc. In

• To slide in when they begin to bottom.

FERTILIZERS. 99

calculating the proportions of crude materials to use in
making up a ton of fertilizer by either of these formulas, it
was assumed that —

Sulphate of ammonia contains 20 per cent of nitrogen.

Nitrate of soda contains

16

(^

it

<i

((

Blood and ammonite contain

12

«

«

tt

({

Bone-black superphosphate

contains

16

a

<(

tt

availab]

Acid phosphate from South

Carolina rock contains

12

<<

tt

tt

((

Muriate of potash contains

50

it

((

it

potash.

Kainite contains

12

n

n

<<

a

No difficulty will be experienced, says the professor, in
securing supplies of these guaranteed to contain the above
percentages of plant-food.

Class No. 1. — This is a small class, containing three
brands, and includes all of the fertilizers in which the guar-
anteed nitrogen does not exceed one per cent.

Class No. 2. — This is a large class, containing twenty-
four different fertilizers, of which sixteen are intended for
general use, and eight are specially designed for fruit,
tobacco, potatoes, lawn-dressing, hops, and buckwheat.

Class No. 3. — This class includes eighteen different
fertilizers, of which eleven are for general use, and seven
are specially designed for sorghum, potatoes, etc.

Class No. 4. — This class includes twenty-one different
fertilizers, of which five are for general use, and sixteen
are specially designed for grain, tobacco, potatoes, and
vegetables in general.

Class No. 5. — This contains six fertilizers, of which
five are for special crops, — tobacco, lawn-dressing, grain,
and vegetables.

The value of the plant-food in an unmixed condition,
given in each formula, was calculated by using the manu-
facturers' average retail prices for 1884.

100 FERTILIZERS.

Class No. 1.

To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of

Blood 110 lbs. Nitrogen. 13.2, or 0.66% of ton.

South Carolina rock (treated

with acid) 1,600 " Phos. acid, 192.0, "9.60% "

Kainite 250 " Potash . 30.0, "1.50% "

Total . 1,960 lbs.

Cost of materials unmixed $19.36.

Class No. 2.
To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of

Nitrate Of soda ^^ ^^f' [ Nitrogen . 32.80, or 1.64% of ton.

Ammonite 140 " ) * '

South Carolina rock (treated

with acid) 1,400" Phos. acid, 168.00, "8.40% "

Muriate of potash . ... 50" } potash . 61.00, "3.05% "
Kainite 300 " >

Total 1,990 lbs.

Cost of materials unmixed $21.49.

Class No. 3.

To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of

Sulphate of ammonia . . 50 lbs. \

Nitrate of soda 100 " > Nitrogen . 47.0, or 2.35% of ton.

High-grade blood .... 175 " )
South Carolina rock (treated

with acid) 1,450" Phos. acid, 174.0, "8.70% "

Muriate of potash. ... 125 " \^^^^^^ , 74.5, "3.78% "
Kainite 100 " > ' '

Total 2,000 lbs.

Cost of materials unmixed $25.31.

Class No. 4.

To make One Ton when mixed together. Containing Lbs. of

Sulphate of ammonia . . . 100 lbs. \

Nitrate of soda 100 " [Nitrogen. 72.00, or 3.60% of ton.

High-grade blood ... 300 " )

Bone-black superphosphate . 940 " Phos. acid, 150.00, "7.50% "

Muriate of potash . ... 100" I potash . 110.00, " 5.50 % "
Kainite 500 " J '

Total 2,040 lbs.

Cost of materials unmixed $27.46.

FERTILIZERS. 101

Class No. 5.

To make One Ton when mixed together. Coatajnjnp; l^%i<^

Sulphate of ammonia . . . 150 lbs. ^

Nitrate of soda 200 " > Nitrogen, 104. 'X), or 5^29% of tc0.

High-grade blood . i , , 350 " ) ..•,!.,.', >,-*•,:•

Bone-black superphosphate . 875 " Phos. acid, 140.00, "7.00% "

Muriate of potash .... 75 ^-^ }^^^^^ 80.00, "4.00% "

Kainite 350 " ) ' '

Total 2,000 lbs.

Cost of materials unmixed $31.06.

HOW TO MIX THE INGREDIENTS THAT ENTER INTO A

FORMULA.

Now let US try our hand at mixing together the ingredi-
ents that enter into a formula. As a base from which to
start, I have taken a local superphosphate made honestly
by Mr. A. L. Ames of Peabody, Mass., and have added to
this, plant-food from various sources. In mixing the vari-
ous ingredients together, you will need a sieve as fine again
as a common coal-sieve. Having cleared a place upon the
barn floor, and having decided upon quantities of each
element needed, first weigh these out, and have them near
at hand ; next, sift each lot that needs sifting, by itself
separately, breaking up with your feet or the back of the
shovel all lumps that will not pass through the sieve.
Now begin with the element you need most of, and sift a
portion of it evenly over a circle of sufficient width so that
the first layer will not be over an inch in depth. Follow
with the next, using about the same proportions as of the
first, and thus on until you have a proportion of each. Go
back again and repeat the process, until the quantities
weighed out are used up. If the entire mass is but six or
eight inches in depth, it will mix the easier. To mix, an
iron-toothed rake may be used ; cutting it down, and mixing
it, and ending by throwing it together with a shovel, if
well mixed, the entire mass will be of a uniform color. In

102 ' FERTILIZERS.

many fertilizers, as I have stated before, all forms of pot-
ash, excfipv tho . carbonate which is found in wood ashes,
ajid one form of crude potash, can be safely mixed with
diiy !fer tilizer without loss of ammonia. My farmer friends
will remember that I have before this recommended that
potash in any form would be likely to do most good if
spread on in the late autumn or early in the spring. When
wood ashes are used as a source of potash in formulas, I
would spread it separately, harrowing it in, and raking in
the remainder of the formulas.

APPLYING FERTILIZERS.

A man needs a little experience to get them evenly dis-
tributed. It is well to practise a bit at first. Suppose, for
instance, we, want to scatter six hundred pounds over an
acre of land : that would be one pound to every seventy-
two square feet, or a piece of land about eight and a half
by eight and a half feet. If we desire to strew, say, three
hundred pounds in the drill, the drills being three feet apart,
there would be about fourteen thousand feet of drill to the
acre, which would give one pound to about forty-five feet
of row. One trouble to be met with in distributing fer-
tilizers is the wind, which during the planting-season is
apt to begin to blow as soon as the air gets warm in the
morning, generally slacking up toward night. It is best,
therefore, when possible, to put several hands on to spread
them, either early in the morning, or toward the close of
day. Otherwise, it would be well to have a few buckets
of water handy, and pour into the barrels enough at a
time to gently moisten by stirring the contents of each,
being careful to have them dry enough to distribute freely.
To mix them in the drill so that they will not burn the
seed, I use often the thick top of a cedar-tree to which a
stone has been securel}^ fastened. This, dragged once

FERTILIZERS. 103

through the bottom of the furrow, will mix Peruvian
guano, or any fertilizer, so thoroughly that it will not
injure the seed. It has been found in practice, and is now
generally advocated by dealers in fertilizers, that, as a gen-
eral rule, it is a better plan to use barn manure and fertil-
izers together on the same crop, as far as circumstances will
permit ; using the barn manure broadcast, and the fertilizers
in the drill or hill, to give the crop a start. In my own
practice I have not paid much respect to the rule, and
thus far am very well satisfied with the results. I believe
that farmers, as a general rule, would do better for many
crops to use their manure on their grass, and so get a good
sward, and depend on this, turned under, for the bulky
vegetable matter when using fertilizers ; for most of the
difference between fertilizers and barn manure is the
presence of a bulky mass of vegetable matter in the latter,
which not only acts mechanically to lighten heavy soils,
but frees the plant-food locked up in all soils; and this
the sward would supply.

THE SYSTEM OF MANURING V7ITH UNLEACHED WOOD

ASHES.

The firm that probably sells the most unleached ashes
in New England and the Middle States, Messrs. Munroe,
Judson, & Stroup, Oswego, N.Y., gives the following direc-
tions for its use. As I know that excellent crops have
been raised by following a portion of their instructions, I
will give them in full under their proper heads; though
we must remember, that, although ashes contain all the
mineral elements in plant-food, it is wholly lacking in
nitrogen, and there must come a time when, the accumu-
lation in the soil having been used up, most crops will need
to have nitrogen fed to them in the manure. They advise
for all crops, to apply heavily the first year the full dollar

104 FERTILIZERS.

value you would use of stable manure, and in after-years
give a light dressing. The effect of ashes lasts two or
three times as long as stable manure. They are especially
valuable for fruit-trees, fruit, grass, onions, cabbage, melons,
cucumbers, and potatoes. A thorough application calls for
from 45 to 200 bushels per acre.

For Strawberries. — Apply, in early fall or before,
40 to 125 bushels per acre, spading in a little bone before
they start in the spring.

For Potatoes. — Scatter from 21 to 57 bushels a foot
wide over the drills after they are covered.

For Corn. — Harrow in 40 to 80 bushels per acre be-
fore planting ; and, after covering the seed, spread 15 to
28 bushels on the top of the hills, covering a strip a foot
wide.

For Lawns, Meadows, or Pastures. — In fall or
early spring, or soon after haying, spread from 25 to 125
bushels. If 125 are used, no more will be needed for sev«
eral years.

In Laying down to Grass. — Broadcast 45 to 225
bushels, in summer or fall, to give it time to leach down-
Next year plant with potatoes, top-dressing with from 12
to 18 bushels per acre. Next year sow to wheat or rye,
and lay down to grass. No more fertilizer needed for
eight or ten years, when the largest quantity is used.

For Wheat, Rye, and Oats. — Broadcast from 85 to
170 bushels in November, and plough slightly under. In
spring plough deeper, throwing it up to the surface, and
harrowing it ; or, for the immediate crop, 20 bushels may
be harrowed in, in the spring: but in the long run the
larger use will be the more profitable.

For Onions. — Broadcast from 45 to 250 bashels in the
fall, and plough them just under. In the spring plough
them back to the surface, and harrow. If 250 bushels are

FERTILIZERS. 105

used, 40 will do for the second year, 60 for the third, and
85 for the fourth.

For Cabbage and Cauliflower. — Use from 125 to
200 bushels in early spring, harrowing it into the ploughed
land. After the plants are four inches high, put half a
pint around each hill before hoeing. By such an applica
.tion, cabbage can be raised several years in succession on
the same soil. Apply 40 bushels, broadcast, the second
year, 60 the third, and 85 the fourth ; using also some each
year in the hill.

For Cucumbers and Melons. — Harrow in 88 bush-
els, and scatter a pint over the top of each hill.

fertilizers excellent for various crops, and sug-
gestions.

For Strawberries, Raspberries, Peaches, and
Pears, and the Fruit Garden and Orchard Gen-
erally.— There has been found nothing more satisfactory
than the phosphoric acid and potash, with but a small
quantity of nitrogen. Bone that has been treated with acid
will act at once, but coarse steamed bone is more enduring.
I have a pear-orchard in land that has naturally a good sup-
ply of potash, that, being in a sickly condition, I treated
to coarse steamed bone eight years ago, with the result
of producing a good growth of wood, and noble crops of
fruit, while I could cut two good crops under it annually
ever since. (See Mr. Hunt's remarks, on p. 67, on the
advantage of the bone and potash application to such
fruits.) It appears to be settled that the " yellows " on the
peach-trees is caused by want of nourishment, there being
especially a lacking of potash. Diseased trees have been
cured by a liberal application of it.

Professor Penhallow advises, after stirring the soil, to
apply per acre the following mixture, viz., sulphate of mag-

106 FERTILIZERS.

nesia (hieresite), 25 pounds; muriate of potash, 100 to
150 pounds ; dissolved bone-black, 450 pounds : omitting a
space of a foot all about the tree. Instead of the muri-
ate, probably 10 bushels of unleached wood ashes, with a
peck of waste salt, might be used. Dr. Nichols recom-
mends the following as a good stock fertilizer, a good com-
bination for all crops, five hundred pounds to be applied
to the acre. While he considers superphosphates as good
for all crops, he considers them especially good for roots
and cereals.

Llw.

Superphosphate of lime . . • • . . .40

Sulphate of ammonia 25

Muriate of potash . ...•••. 25
Sulphate of lime (plaster) . . • , . .7
Sulphate of magnesia 3

For Asparagus. — J. B. Moore, the well-known market
gardener, has an acre and a half of asparagus on soil nat-
urally very poor, mere pitch-pine land, which has, since
broken up from nature, received no other dressing than
phosphate of lime and potash. It is remarkably thrifty.

For Pasture-Land. — Raw ground bone will restore
to the soil the phosphate of lime that has been carried away
in the milk and in the bones of the young calf. Use finely
ground bone (not treated with acid) at the rate of four hun-
dred to five hundred pounds per acre, and the effects will
be seen for years. It is better to double the productive-
ness of a pasture than to double the area of it.

For Fruit-Trees in Pasture-Land. — To Professor
Maynard, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, I be-
lieve the public will, as years go on, realize that they owe
a great debt. The professor was the first, as far as I am
aware, to agitate, and carry out in practice on some-
thing of a large scale, the idea of using for orcharding,

FERTILIZERS. 107

waste land, rocky pastures, and hillsides which neither
the plough nor manure cart could reach. This was made
practicable by the use of commercial fertilizers. The
professor's plan is, in brief, to dig holes three or four feet
across, throwing out the earth to the requisite depth, and
then, with picks, loosening the soil eighteen inches deeper
if practicable. Make a mixture of half bone, half potash,
and, when planting, scatter about four good handfuls over
the soil thrown out before planting, and as much more in
the holes when they are half filled up with earth. Mulch
with waste hay or tan. Apply the same amount of manur-
ing yearly for a few years, until the trees are well estab-
lished and in a thrifty condition. I have planted a hundred
or more trees in this way on my waste hilly pasture-land,
and am thus far pleased with their promise.

In Laying Land down to Grass. — Finely ground
bone harrowed in at the time of laying down, at the rate
of from five hundred to a thousand pounds to the acre,
will be found to be an excellent manure, and a lasting one.
If the bone is stet^med, it can be used in a coarser state. If
the grass is light upland (such land is better for corn than
grass), then have half of the bone in the form of acid
phosphate. When wood ashes are accessible, test your
upland, and manure a portion with a mixture of the two,
using value for value of each, and be governed in the
future by the results. In bone and ashes we have a com-
plete manure, all of the three elements being present.

For Corn. — In the valuable experiments inaugurated
by the Connecticut experimental station, in the experi-
ments with barn manures and various fertilizers on corn, it
was found that the mixture of three hundred pounds of
superphosphate with one hundred and fifty pounds of
muriate of potash gave the greatest profit, though not the
largest crop ; the average yield in fifty-three experiments

108 FEETILIZERS.

being a little over fifty bushels of shelled corn to the acre,
while the cost of the fertilizers was not over eight dollars.
A mixture of either fish or Lobos guano and muriate of pot-
ash has proved an excellent manure for large crops of corn.
Try it at the rate of five hundred pounds of either variety
of guano and one hundred and fifty pounds of the potash.

For Potatoes. — The summing-up of many experiments
made over a large area of country was, that the best
manure for potatoes is five hundred and fifty pounds of
Peruvian or fish guano, with one hundred and fifty
pound of muriate of potash.

For Cotton. — For cotton in sandy uplands, the fol-
lowing mixture is said by Professor Dabney to have given
excellent results: "20 bushels dry earth, 250 pounds kai-
nite, 400 pounds pure dissolved animal bone (or 600 pounds
acid phosphate), and 100 pounds sulphate of ammonia, well
mixed : 500 to 1,000 pounds to the acre."

For Wheat. — In using guano on wheat, it is recom-
mended to use one-third in the drills at time of sowing ;
one-third early in the spring, to be lightly harrowed in ;
and one-third just before a rain, when the plants are eight
or ten inches out of the soil.

For Grass or Grain Crop. — Where finely ground

bone only is used (we will remember there is no potash in

this), an application is recommended by good authority, to

vary with the condition of the soil, of from 600 to 1,200

pounds to the acre. The effect of this will be seen for

several years.

composts.

Our farmer friends in the South do more in making a
class of composts which in^ their composition and con-
centration approach commercial fertilizers, than do we of
the North. And this is not to be wondered at, when on
so many farms they have cotton-seed, so rich in am-

FERTILIZERS. 109

monia and phosphoric acid, while in a thickly wooded
region there must be plenty of ashes to supply potash,
and almost in their midst lie the great phosphate beds of
North and South Carolina and Georgia. We of the North,
with our coarser materials, such as night-soil, fish-waste,
sea manure, and the like, make composts, but not nearly
so rich, or approaching so near in character to the commer-
cial fertilizers in the market. Professor Dabney submits
four valuable compost formulas, which I here present :

Formula No. 1.

Lbs.

Stable manure 800 .

Cotton-seed 750

Dissolved bone 450

2,000

He advises in substance as follows : Have barn manure
two inches deep, next the bone two inches, and then
cotton-seed four inches. Wet the mass well with urine if
possible, otherwise with water. Continue to repeat in
same order until all the material is used. Cover the heap
with dry earth or plaster. In from three to seven weeks
the fermentation will have killed the cotton-seed. When
using, pitch over, and mix thoroughly.

For Cotton. — For cotton, use 300 pounds per acre,
half in the furrow, and half with the seed. On poor soil,
use 400 to 500 pounds, — 150 pounds with the seed.

For Corn. — Use one pint to the hill. If the land is
in pretty good condition, use less. On sandy pine lands
or old fields, add 75 pounds per acre of muriate of potash.
When ashes are plenty, substitute these, — about 10
bushels unleached hard-wood.

For Winter Wheat. — Use 400 to 500 pounds per acre,
adding 50 pounds sulphate of potash dissolved in water.
If the season is backward, add in the spring 100 pounds
nitrate of soda.

110 FERTILIZERS.

Formula No. 2. Lbs.

Dry muck, peat, or soil 600

Cotton-seed (twenty-two bushels) 600

Acid phosphate 600

Muriate of potash 100

Sulphate of ammonia 100

2,000
Compost in same manner as No. 1 ; the muriate of potash
and sulphate of ammonia being dissolved in water, and
used to wet the heap.

For Wheat, Rye, or Oats. — Three hundred pounds
to the acre. It may be harrowed in with the grain.

Formula No. 3. Lbs.

Stable manure 500

Unburnt marl 500

Salt 200

Dissolved bones 500

Sulphate of potash 150

" " ammonia 150

Mix in layers, or first mixing the marl and salt together

thoroughly, and cover with it the compost of cotton-seed,

stable manure, and dissolved bone ; then sprinkle with the

solution of sulphate of ammonia, and turn the whole over

once in two weeks till fermented. Use as directed for Nos.

1 and 2

Formula No. 4, for Tobacco. Lbs.

Stable manure 1,000

Sulphate of potash 300

" " ammonia 100

" " magnesia 100

Dissolved bone 400

Land plaster 100

2^0

Use 400 to 500 pounds to the acre. In place of the pot-
ash, 80 bushels of hard-wood ashes may be substituted.
Says the professor, " The formula for tobacco (No. 4) is
intended for those sections where cotton is not raised, and
lias met with marked success."

FERTILIZERS.

Ill

•anpoiqo

0.10
0.10

0.02
0.01

0.60
0.10

0.20
1.40

•ppv

o|JoqdBoqj

0.50
0.50
2.20

0.10
0.10

0.03
2.30
0.20

0.50
0.20
0.04
0.10

2.10
1.50
9.20

0.50
1.70
2.20

5.00
6.90
6.90

•ppv
ofjtiqding

0.10
6.70

0.20
0.50

0.50
4.10
0.60
0.04

1.40
0.10

4.20

41.90

47.80

•Bpog

o'o''oo'''o'o'''' ,-H0l-'000' 'g'''r-i

•qBB^OJ

0.40
0.40
0.30

0.20
0.20

0.04
0.20
0.04

5.20
0.10
0.10
0.30

7.70
1.10
19.70
23.20
0.70
0.90
4.70

0.40

3.00

•B|Ban3BK

0'0''00'''0r-|00''' T*.eO^'eO(M(N' lllllo

•amn

o 'ooooo-H 'goMO c^gco '«^c^^;g ' ' • > ' t.

•UOJI

JO apixo
puBBUiraniv

•aiqnioBui
puB Boiiig

lO t-; OS 00 U3 OO QO O CO i-((M O ■* OKJ M OO rH <0 CO -^ i "'^ i ® i

•uaSoj^iK

»« CO ■* eO eC <M (M "* r-l <M CO 00 CO (N O r-l 00 CO t- Tjt t- 00

•qsy

i-H t- t- O CO 05 to ec r-l »0 05 00 <M 00

CCOrHOOjoddW; ' ' •uJdc.-rHdw • II III I I 1 1 • • 1 •

I— ( C^ ^ C^ t— -H" t- 00 iH rH

opuBSa 0

tOeOrHOOCOrHWOJt^O «^ 00 CO M O (N ,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,

SSSISS^'^^'^S S:^gSS^ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 • 1

•iQVej^

. - - _ . -

Farm Manure and Factory Refuse : —

Stable manure

Hen manure

Night-soil, /?OM(Zre«e

Swamp muck, fresh

" air-dry

Pond mud

Marine mud

Catch-basin sediment

Shells of mollusks

Shells of Crustacea

Oyster-shell lime

Gas lime

Tobacco-stems

Pine straw (dead leaves of pines) ....

Spent tan

Spent sumach

Sugar-house scum

Ashes and Lime Manures : —

Wood ashes

Leached wood ashes

Ashes of cotton-seed hulls

Ashes of corn-cobs

Ashes of bogs and peat

Lime-kiln ashes

New Jersey green marl (average of all) . .

Land plaster (gypsum)

Fertilizers Valuable chiefly for their Nitrogen : —

Nitrate of soda

Nitre-cake

Sulphate of ammonia

Dried blood

"Azotin"

Dry-fish guano

112

FERTILIZERS.

•aupoiqo

49.40
1.60
34.70
10.40
26.30

37.70

•PPV
ouoqdsoqj

^ rJ<N0Or;dr4 O J^ « ^ ^ ^ § ^ S « gj ^ ^

•ppv

oijnqding

0.60

46.50
11.70
46.50
15.90

2.70
0.60

1.40
3.40
2.20

•Bpog

(N t- O (N .-i(N
• ' ' ' 'd ' 1 ' d ' '^t^ 'dd ' ' • ' '

•qsB^oj

0.30

1.00
2.00

2.20

62.30
40.50
30.50
36.00
13.10
43.10
23.50
5.20

1.50
Trace

•BisaugBH

' ' ' ' 'd • ' ' ' ' 'dS ^S6 ' ' • • • '2 'S 'S '

-araiT

0.2

0.1
4.2

oTs

3.6

44.9

37.7

42.9
30.1
40.8

•UOJI

JO aptxo
puBBuininiv

0.2

0.1
13.0
0T5

•8iqn[09ni

pUB B0I1I8

" .. .i:^ 2'.S2 .2:^.^.dd. - '2

•U9gOi?lJ^

5|5SS^|^S .... ..§2 :|.... . .2" .^^

•qsv

•J8'}')BH

oiubSjo

1 1 1 1 ig 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1^ 1^ 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ig

•aa^B^

46.00
11.50

20^20

7.40

14.20

32.00

0.11

0.60

6.20
32.70

9.60
9.90
5.00

5.50

11.60

16.30

7.40

10.40
19.60

Fertilizers Valuable chiefly for their Mtrogen (con-
cluded) : —

Half-dry fish

Fish by Goodale's process .

Castor-pomace

Cotton-seed meal

Tanking and slaughter-house refuse ....

Malt sprouts

Hoof and horn shavings

Hair manures

Wool waste r ■

Potash Salts and Waste Products with Potash : —

Muriate of potash

Sulphate of potash, high grade

" " " low "

' acid

Kainite

Residue from prussiate of potash manufacture.

Saltpetre waste .

Tobacco-stems

Phosphatic Materials : —

Bone manures

" black

" ash

Canadian apatite

Navassa phosphate ,

South Carolina phosphate

Curacao guano

Pelican guano

Orchilla guano

Phoenix guano

Caribbean-sea guano

Bat guano

FERTILIZERS. 113

The table is very interesting and instructive, and will
bear a good deal of studying. Notice how many sub-
stances, in their percentages of nitrogen, potash, and phos-
phoric acid, approach in value stable manure. Notice that
the humus-making capacity (the organic matter) of dry
muck is three times as great as in stable manure. To
make the potash and lime in oyster-shells and mollusks
available for plant-food, they must be burnt. In marine
mud it is probably the nitrogen and alumina only that are
available ; the mineral matter, mostly fragments of shells,
being insoluble. As a rule, the per cent of organic matter
in the several substances is a measure of their humus-mak-
ing capacity. Note that all the substances that are the
product of combustion contain no nitrogen : combustion
destroys nitrogen.

Corn-cobs, as will be seen, are amazingly rich in potash ;
but the quantity of ashes from them is amazingly small.
The potash in the ashes from a bushel of cobs is worth a
little scant of one-third of a cent. Note that decayed vege-
table matter, in its various forms, is much the same in the
proportions of the three elements.

Let us bear in mind that the nitrogen in the different
substances varies greatly in its value, depending on its
availability : for instance, that in horn, hoof, and hair is
worth not over ten cents per pound, while that from blood,
castor-pomace, and cotton-seed meal is worth not far from
eighteen cents. Note that there is no potash in the lime
manures, phosphates, and phosphatic guanos.

The following table is copied from an excellent little
pamphlet on the cultivation of potatoes, issued by the
Mapes Formula Company, 158 Friend Street, New York.
It shows the value of the plant-food taken out of the soil
by various crops. It is very valuable to us farmers, by
enabling us to determine whether or not we are increas-

114

FERTILIZERS.

ing the fertility of our soils. If the value of the phosphoric
acid, potash, and nitrogen in the plant-food we apply is
less than their value in the crop we take off, then we are
robbing our land, and running down our farms, and vice
versa. Take wheat, for an illustration. The value of these
three elements in both stock and grain taken from the soil
(assuming that one-half of the nitrogen is obtained from
the air) is 34 cents per bushel, or f 8.50 in a crop of
twenty-five bushels. Now, whether we are improving or
robbing our land turns on the fact of our having put on
more or less than $8.50 in fertilizers, and in the proportion
indicated by the analysis.

ESTIMATES OF COST OF PLANT-FOOD IN CROPS.

The phosphoric acid and potash are figured at the full quantities contained in the
crops; but the nitrogen is figured at one-half or less, asBummg the balance to be fur-
nished by the soil and atmosphere, which is in accordance with the tendency of the
results of modern scientific investigation.

In practice, on many soils half-rations of potash are ample; but, in the case of the
phosphoric acid, its deficiency in nearly all soils calls for full rations to be supplied from
outside sources.

t Nitrogen, J . .
One bushel wheat, 60 lbs. ] Phosphoric acid
Potash . .

The natural proportion of ( Kp^ric acid
straw . . . 150 lbs. j p^^^g^jj ^

Nitrogen, ^
One bushel barley, 48 lbs. I Phosphoric acid
( Potash . .

The natural proportion of piosSric acid
^ straw . . . 67 1bs. ™X;>"f««^d

One bushel rye .

( Nitrogen, |
56 lbs. I Phosphoric acid
I Potash . .

! '"^trSw^'^P'^P^mZ* 1 PboTphoric acid
[ straw . . . nSlbs.Jp^^Jjj^ _

i Nitrogen, |
I One bushel oats, 32 lbs. ' Phosphoric acid
I ( Potash . .

I '^^IrlT'"^ P'°P°'fi??hf PhoTp^hoVc acid
1^ straw . . . 67 lbs. j p^^j^gijj ^

' One bushel Bhelled corn, ( K|hori^ acid,
! ^6 1^«-(Potash. .

i The natural proportion of ( phoTohoric acid
«. stover . . . 107 lbs. j ™Pf ^^^^ ^^^^^^

Al

0.625 lbs.® 211 c. pe

0.475 - -

0.320

0.360

0.330

0.945

0.458

0.321

0.211

0.104

0.180

0.860

0.500

0.468

0.312

0.140

0.218

0.906

0.306

0.200

0.140

0.186

0.126

0.593

0.223

0.306

0.186

0.126

0.40e

1.773

® H

@ 2l|

@ 9

@ H

@ 2U
@ 9
@ 41

@ 2l|
@ 9
@ 41

@ 211
@ 9
@ 41

@ 2l|

@ 9

@ 41

@ 211

t\

@ 21

@ 41

@ 2li
@ 9

15

13

16

Cents,
lb., 13.28

4.26 J 19 cts.
1.36
7.65
2.97
4.01
9.56
2.88
0.89
2.21
1.62,
3.65
10.62
4.21
1.36)
2.97
1.96
3.62

1.80

0.60

3.95

1.13

2.50

4.73

2.75

0.79

2,67

3.65,

7.50 I

14

FERTILIZERS.

115

{ One buBhel potatoes (tu-
( bere). . . . 60 IbB.

{One buBhel buckwheat,
48 lbs.
The natural proportion of
straw ... 67 lbs.

) One bushel onions, 50 lbs.

Dry-leaf tobacco, 100 lbs.

The natural proportion of
stalk .... 87 lbs.

Seed cotton (334 lbs. lint),
1,000 lbs.

J One ton meadow hay . .
\ One bushel pease, 60 lbs.
I One bushel beans, 62 lbs.

! Nitrogen, i . . 0.097 lbs.

Phosphoric acid, 0.106 "

Potash .... 0.336 "

( Nitrogen, | . . 0.172 •'

\ Phosphoric acid, 0.273 "

(Potash. . . . 0.129 "

I Nitrogen . . . 0.216 "

Phosphoric acid, 0.406 "

Potash. . . . 1.613 "

! Nitrogen, i . . 0.053 "

Phosphoric acid, 0.077 "

Potash. . . . 0.084 ««

( Nitrogen, ^ . . 1.944 "

\ Phosphoric acid, 0.595 "

( Potash .... 5.634 "

I Nitrogen . . . 1.305 "

Phosphoric acid, 1.186 "

Potash. . . . 3.717 "

! Nitrogen, xV • 2.583 •*

Phosphoric acid, 9.600 '«

Potash. . . . 11.066 "

I Nitrogen, \ . . 16.000 "

Phosphoric acid, 8.200 "

Potash .... 23.340 "

! Nitrogen, jV • 0.179 "

Phosphoric acid, 0.512 "

Potash. . . . 0.588 "

! Nitrogen, -^^ . 0.210 "

Phosphoric acid, 0.734 "

Potasb. , . . «,.809 ••

@ 21J c. per
@ 9
@ 44
@2l|

Cents,
lb.. 2.06

11

@21
@ 9
@ 4J
@2l|

@ 9

@2l|

t\

@21
@ 9
@ 4i
@2U
@ 9
@ 4|.
@2H
@ 9
@ 4i
@21^
@ 9
@ 4|
@2U
@ 9
@ 4i

0.95 (
1.32)

4cts.

15

72

3.66

2.45'

0.54

4.59;

3.65!

6.85

1.12

0.69

0.35
41.31

5.35
23.94 )
27.73 )
10,67 I 54
15.79 )
54.88
86.40 I
47.03

3 18 )

0.74 ! $1.0311
99.19 )

3.80)

4.50 J 11 eta.

2.49 )

4.46;

6.60

3.63

$1.89

jl4
)

A PLEA FOR MERCY.

Though repeatedly urged to write this treatise by the
Essex County Agricultural Society, I excused myself again
and again, not only from a feeling of lacking ability to do
the subject full justice, but also for the solid reason that it
would bring down on my defenceless head a shower of cor-
respondence asking advice and instruction on the many
questions which will arise in individual experience ; for, on
a subject so rich in its many phases, it would be impos-
sible to write a work that would anticipate all matter in
which its readers might like information. Now, it is the
most natural thing in the world that my good friends
should desire to ask these questions : I should were I in
their place. But if they will please turn about, and put
themselves in my place, and consider not only the time
that would be required to perform the mere manual labor
of answering such letters, but the thought and study that

116 FERTILIZERS.

would be necessary to give intelligent replies, I have no
doubt but that they would unanimously concede to me the
right to put in this plea for mercy. I suppose the able men
at the head of our experimental stations will hardly thank
me ; but I would, sotto voce, suggest to my friends, that, if
questions must be asked, they switch the vast freight on to
their track, and so send them to abler heads and freer hands
than mine, — to those whose business it is to make such
investigations as would supply the facts needed in the an-
swering of this class of questions. Such as I may receive, I
propose to pigeon-hole until some future time, when I may
get out a book on barn manure and the various wastes
used as manures (in which, living near great manufactur-
ing centres, I have chanced to have a large experience),
and, either in the body of such treatise or in its closing
chapters, reply to my correspondents-

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE
STAMPED BELOW

DEC 13 »aj6
NOV 23 1916

FEB 10 1919

JAN 2$ 1968

RECD LD

J!\W

2V68-7P^

30m- 1,' 15

YB 16599