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LIBRARY OF THE University of California. GIFT OF Class |
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R^BMHaHBKS^^UHBHBHn^U^BaHBUBBaHHB^H
jfoob for plants
HARRIS
NEW EDITION WITH SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
( «NI
EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY
William s. Myers, f.c.s., Director
Nitrate of Soda Propaganda
Late Professor in Chemistry in the State Agricultural
College of New Jersey
12-16 John Street, New York
THE Chilean Nitrate Propaganda is not engaged in the sale of Nitrate of Soda but will furnish a list of dealers to all who apply for it.
It should be remembered that the original package of Nitrate of Soda contains approximately 200 lbs. of normally dry Nitrate of Soda. Sacks of 100 lbs. and 50 lbs. are now on the market.
Nitrate of Soda is generally sold in the original pack- ages and should be stored or kept in a dry place. Glass Works and Manufacturers of Dynamite and Gunpowder usually have Nitrate on hand.
If you have any difficulty in obtaining Nitrate, either by reason of prohibitive prices or undue delays or on account of inability of dealers to supply you promptly, let me know at once, and the difficulty will be investigated immediately.
Correspondence concerning excessive freight charges is invited. If Nitrate is discriminated against by the Trans- portation Companies, please secure and forward all the facts and details properly verified.
When ordering Nitrate, please be sure to request your Dealer, Manufacturer or Importer to have your invoice clearly and distinctly marked as " Fertilizer." This is necessary that this valuable Farm Chemical may be properly classified in order to avoid the discrimination practised by the Railroads against Nitrate.
WILLIAM S. MYERS, Director
CHILEAN NITRATE PROPAGANDA
i2-i6 John St., New York
FOOD FOR PLANTS
HARRIS
New Edition with Supplementary Notes
^
EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY
"William S. Myers, f.c.s., Director
Nitrate of Soda Propaganda
Late Professor in Chemistry in the State Agricultural
College of New Jersey
12-16 John Street, New York
CONTENTS.
Food Necessary for Plants, ------
Are the Farmers of Europe More Intelligent Than Those
of America ?_--_--- Nitrate and Potash Test at Kentucky Experiment Station, - Supplement, --------
Michigan Experiments on Sugar Beets in 1901,
Nitrate Nitrogen vs. Ammonia Nitrogen,
What Orange Growers Say, -----
Profitable Onion Cultivation, -----
Stable Manure and Artificial Fertilizer Upon Fruit Trees, -
How Big Chrysanthemums Are Made,
Market Gardening with Nitrate, -
Typhoid from the Soil, _____
How to Use Chemical Fertilizers to Advantage,
Wheat and Oats, Rye and Barlev, -
Fertilizers for Fruits, -
How Nitrate Benefits the Farmer, - - -
Niter in Fertilizing, California Bulletin, -
Grass Growing for Profit,
Making Two Blades of Grass Grow — Grass a Responsive
Crop, ---------
Nitrate of Soda Experiments at the North Carolina State
Horticultural Society's Experiment Farm, The Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, Summary of Bulletin No. 150 — Value of Different Forms
of Ammoniates, ______
Terms Used in Discussing Fertilizers, South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arizona Agricultural Experiment Station, Purdue University — Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station, U. S. Department of Agriculture — Experiment Station
Work, XII — Farmers' Bulletin No. 105, U. S. Department of Agriculture — Farmers' Bulletin No. 122
— Experiment Station Work, XVI, - - - _
Experiment Station Work, XIII — Farmers' Bulletin No.
107, - - - - - -
Summarv of Increased Yields from Application of 1 00 Pounds
per Acre of Nitrate of Soda, -
Table Showing Prices of Nitrate of Soda on the Ammoniate
Basis, _____ _ _
Some Practical Hints Regarding Nitrate,
13
18
31
40
4^ 48
52 58
fco 61 73 75 79 80 81 85 88
89
ICO
125
126 129 l3l *33 l33
136 138 139
H3
144 H5
Chapter on Market Gardening with Nitrat
FOOD FOR PLANTS.
From the writings of Joseph Harris, M. Sc. Revised by S. M. Harris.
It is well known that animals, and ^ A NT • 11 , i 11 i Food Necessary
especially young animals, must have all the f p.
food they can eat in order to properly
develop and grow fat. This is equally true of plants.
Plants will manage to live on very little fcod, but to grow,
thrive and bear fruit they require an abundance of food in
the soil.
The food of plants consists of a number of elements, including Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, lime, magnesia, iron, silica, potash, etc. A sufficient quantity of all these neces- sary elements, except Nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, exists in nearly all agricultural soils. Nitrogen is nearly always deficient, phosphoric acid usually, and potash often. In some soils there may be enough of all the elements of plant food except one. Let us assume that this one is Nitrogen. In this case the growth and yield of the crop will be limited by the quantity of Nitrogen it can contain. There might be an abundant supply of all the other elements, but the plants could not use them without Nitro- gen. This would be true of any one of the other elements that might be deficient. The plants must have them all at the same time to develop in perfection.
What the farmer and gardener must do therefore is to furnish the plants with the elements of plant food that are lacking in the soil.
Nitrogen is one that is nearly always N. deficient. This is due to the fact that N . .. Nitrogen in a soluble form is easily washed rw- • out of the soil, while phosphoric acid, potash and the other mineral elements will not wash out.
Food for The question that presents itself to the farmer, gardener Plants and fruit grower is, How can I supply my plants with Nitro-
4 gen, phosphoric acid and potash, in the best forms and at the least expense? We will try to throw some light upon this question in the following pages. We will take first,
Phosphoric Acid.
r». . . . . , There are two principal sources of phos- Phosphonc Acid. , . . , * v r
phone acid, namely, hones and rock
phosphates. Of these, the rock phosphate is the cheapest
source. A prevailing impression exists that superphosphate
made from rock phosphate is not as good as that made from hones. It has been shown by many experiments that this idea is entirely without foundation. What the plants want is soluble phosphoric acid, and it makes little or no difference from what source it is derived.
The largest deposits of rock phosphates exist in South Carolina and Florida. These beds of phosphate are sup- posed to be composed of the petrified bones and excrements of extinct animals. When this substance is ground and mixed with a sufficient quantity of sulphuric acid, the larger part of the phosphoric acid which it contains becomes soluble in water. The knowledge of this fact was one of the greatest agricultural discoveries of the age.
When the rock phosphate is thus treated with sulphuric
acid, it becomes what is chemically known as superphosphate
of lime. The same is true if ground bone is treated in the
same way. A good example of superphosphate contains
14 per cent of soluble phosphoric acid.
p> . The cheapest sources of potash are muriate
Potashes. c / , , , v
or potash and wood ashes.
Wood ashes, if unleached, contain from 3 to 5 per cent of potash in the form of carbonate of potash. They also contain from 1 to 2 : 2 per cent of phosphoric acid (insoluble 1. They are worth, as plant food, from 5".cc to Si 2.00 per ton, according to the amount of potash and phosphoric acid they contain.
Muriate of potash is by far the most important source of potash. It is found in large deposits near Stassfort, Germany, in what is called " Carnallite," which contains about 1 5 per cent of muriate of potash. This is refined so
VIEWS OF CHILEAN NITRATE WORKS.
Food for Plants
Opening up Trench After Blasting, Showing Extraction of Caliche bv Piece Work.
'
Loading Caliche into Railway Trucks.
Food for that when exported the commercial article contains from 80 Plants to 85 per cent of pure muriate of potash, or 5c to 52 per cent of actual potash. This is the cheapest form in which potash can now be bought.
It is claimed that a few plants, of which tobacco is the most important, are injured by the chlorine contained in the muriate of potash ; sulphate of potash is therefore used for these crops.
Nitrogen is the most expensive, impor- 1 ltrogen' tant and effective element of plant food,
and at the same time is the one that is generally deficient in the soil.
There are a great many sources of Nitrogen, such as sulphate of ammonia, which is obtained during the process of making gas, dry ground fish, cotton-seed meal, dried blood, leather scraps, etc. But none of these furnish Nitro- gen in the form in which it is taken up by plants. This can or.lv be furnished to plants in the form of Nitrates. Nitrogen applied in anv other form has to be converted into Nitrate before it can be taken up by the plants.
A Nitrate is the result of a union between nitric acid and an element called a "base." Nitric acid contains the Sitrogen that is necessary for the growth of plants. It unites with many different elements, and forms a number of salts that are useful for many purposes. For instance, when united with potash it forms Nitrate of potash, or what is commonly called "nitre'' or "saltpetre;" when united with soda it forms Nitrate of Soda, which is the best form in which to furnish Nitrogen to plants. When we say the best form we mean the best practical form. Nitrate of potash 'saltpetre would be just as good, but is much too expensive. Nitrate of Soda not only furnishes Nitrogen in its most available form, but it furnishes it at a lower price than almost anv other source. The exceptions are a few organic substances in which Nitrogen exists in an insoluble form.
cc , Nitrate of Soda is found in vast quanti-
Nitrate of Soda. ^ [q ^ north rf ^^ wh America.
The beds of Nitrate, or "caliche," as it is called in Chile before it is refined, are several thousand feet above the sea, on a desert plain extending for seventy-five miles north and south, and about twenty miles wide, in a rainless region.
VIEWS OF CHILEAN NITRATE WORKS.
Food for Plants
>p of Caliche Hopper : Carts Tipping Caliche.
Elevators from Crushers to Boiling Tanks.
Food for The surface of the desert is covered with earth or rock, Plants called " costra," which varies from three to ten or more feet 8 in thickness. Under this is found the " caliche," or crude Nitrate. The layer of "caliche " is sometimes eight or ten feet thick, but averages about three feet. This " caliche " contains on the average about 50 per cent of pure Nitrate of Soda.
The " caliche " is refined by boiling in water to dissolve the Nitrate. The hot water is then run off and allowed to cool in tanks, when the Nitrate forms in crystals like com- mon salt. The Nitrate is then placed in bags of about three hundred pounds each and shipped to all parts of the world. Nitrate of Soda, as exported, contains about i$}4 per cent of Nitrogen. The export of Nitrate of Soda from Chile, in the year 1890, amounted to over a million tons of 2,240 pounds each. By far the largest part of this went to Europe, for use as a fertilizer. How these beds of Nitrate were formed has been the subject of much speculation. The generally accepted theory is, that they were formed by the gradual decomposition and Nitrification of marine animal and vegetable matter, containing a considerable amount of Nitrogen.
The same wise Providence that stored up the coal in the mountains of Pennsylvania to furnish fuel for the people of the United States when their supply of wood had become exhausted, preserved this vast quantity of Nitrate of Soda in the rainless region of Chile, to be used by the people of the nineteenth century to furnish their crops with the necessary Nitrogen, when the natural supply in the soil had become deficient.
„,., , By "complete fertilizers," we mean fertili-
Complete J r. . XT. , , ■ ,
P ... ,, zers containing Nitrogen, phosphoric acid
T-, A, ' and potash. This includes the majority of
The Most , K ... , , ^, c ■%■
c . the fertilizers sold. 1 hese fertilizers are
Expensive . „ , .. . , D .
p. p . commonly called "phosphates. People
have fallen into the habit of calling any
commercial fertilizer a "phosphate," whether it contains
any phosphate or not.
Bearing in mind that all that is of any value in these
" phosphates," no matter how high sounding their names,
is Nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, let us see what
they are really worth — that is, what the same amount of
VIEWS OF CHILEAN NITRATE WORKS.
Food for Plants
Automatic Push-plate Conveyor for Conveying Caliche from Top of Elevators to Deposit over Boiling Tank.
Crystallizing Pans — Full, Filling, and Empty.
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Food for plant food can be bought for in our markets, in just as Plants good, if not better, forms.
10 The New Jersey Experiment Station analyzed 195
different samples of brands of " Complete Fertilizers," and published the results in Bulletin No. 89, October 10th, 1892. It was found that, in some instances, complete ferti- lizers that sold for $34.00 to $36.00 per ton only contained plant food worth $15.00 to $17.00 ! But they were not all as bad as this. The average of all brands analyzed was as follows : They contained 2.74 per cent Nitrogen, 7.70 per cent available phosphoric acid, and 4.50 per cent potash. The selling price was $34.23 per ton and the actual agricul- tural value $25.66 per ton. By this is meant that the same amount of actual plant food that is contained in the " com- plete fertilizers," costing $34.23, could be purchased in the open market, in just as good forms, for $25.66. As a matter of fact, it could be purchased for much less than this in quantities often tons or more. In one ton of the above " average fertilizer," selling for $34.23, there is 154 pounds available phosphoric acid, which can be bought for 5 y± cents per pound in superphosphate or "acid phos- phate," as it is called by the trade. This 154 pounds of phosphoric acid is therefore worth $8.09. There is 54*/5 pounds Nitrogen; which can be bought in Nitrate of Soda for 15 cents per pound, making it worth $8.22 ; 90 pounds potash, worth 4^ cents per pound, equals $4.05, making in all $20.36 for the plant food contained in aton costing $34.23. But this does not tell the whole story. The Nitrogen contained in these " complete fertilizers " is often in a form that is not available to the plants until it has undergone oxidation in the soil and become converted into Nitrate. The time required to do this varies from a few days to years, according to the temperature of the soil and the kind and condition of the material used. In calculating the value of complete fertilizers, Nitrogen in the form of sulphate of ammonia, which has to be converted into Nitrate before it is available, is reckoned at two cents per pound higher than it can be bought in the form of Nitrate of Soda. This is not because the Nitrogen in sulphate of ammonia is any better than in Nitrate of Soda, but because it costs more. This makes the fertilizers appear to be worth more than they really are. But taking the figures as they
VIEWS OF CHILEAN NITRATE WORKS.
Food for Plants
Crystallizing Pans After Running off Mother-liquor, Showing Deposit of Nitrate Crystals.
Drying Floors and Bagging of Nitra
MBBMBBMMMBMi^B"""""™™™""""™"
Food for are given, it is "readily seen that the consumer of these
plants "complete fertilizers " pays on the average $8.57 per ton
12 more than would buy the same amount of plant food in as
good, and in the case of Nitrogen, better form in unmixed
chemicals.
Statistics gathered by the stations show that over one million dollars was spent in 1 891, in the State of New Jersey alone, for "complete fertilizers." Considering that the average "complete fertilizer" costs 25 per cent more than it is worth, it is evident that the farmers of New Jersey paid 1250,000 more for their fertilizers than they got value in return. And this state of things is not confined to the State of New Jersey. It is the same all over the country. The farmers of this country are paying out millions of dollars annually to the manufacturers of " complete ferti- lizers," which they could very easily save by the exercise of a little intelligence in buying their plant food.
T1 0 Would vou not think a man very unwise
How to Save , , u u u j » « r- 1 *
.. who should buy somebody s Complete
Money on n , ^ , /, i , . , ; , r ,
c ... Prepared Pood, at a high price, when he
Fertilizers. r , r , r ',. , • . c
wanted reed for his horses, instead or going
into the market and buying corn, oats and hay, at market
prices ?
The " Complete Prepared Food " would probably be composed of corn, oats and hay mixed together, and the price would be perhaps twice as much as the corn, oats and hay would cost separately. It is the same with plant food. You should buy your plant food in the best and cheapest forms, and feed it to the plants separately or mixed together as you prefer. You can buy available Nitrogen in Nitrate of Soda for less than 15 cents per pound. In so-called " complete fertilizers," Nitrogen costs from 20 to 30 cents per pound, and even then it is often in an insoluble and unavailable form.
Nitrate of Soda is at the present time the cheapest and best form in which to buy available Nitrogen.
You can buy soluble phosphoric acid in superphosphate of lime, made from rock phosphate, for about 6 cents per pound (the superphosphate costing from $15 to $17 per ton, retail), or in bone-black, which is made from bones that have been used during the process of refining sugar, for about 7 cents per pound. These are, I think, at present,
the two cheapest sources of soluble phosphoric acid. Food for Peruvian guano and Thomas slag are also excellent sources s
of phosphoric acid. 13
Potash can be bought, in muriate of potash, for about 41. cents per pound.
Let us see what a " High Grade Complete Fertilizer" made from these three sources of plant food would cost.
600 pounds Nitrate of Soda, containing 46 pounds Nitrogen, costs. .$13.50 1,100 pounds superphosphate, containing 150 pounds phosphoric
acid, costs 8.25
300 pounds muriate of potash, containing 150 pounds potash, costs.. 6.75
2,000 pounds, or one ton, costs $28.50
This fertilizer would contain Nitrogen 5 percent (equal to over 6 per cent of ammonia), phosphoric acid 7^ per cent, and potash 7^ per cent.
A " complete fertilizer "containing as high a percentage of Nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash as the above mix- ture, would cost at least $35.00, and nine manufacturers out often would charge $45.00 for it; and even then the Nitrogen would not be in a form in which it would be immediatelv available.
If a fertilizer is wanted that contains no more Nitrogen than the majority of the so-called " complete fertilizers " sold for $28.00 per ton, it could be made for about $22.00 per ton.
Are the Farmers of Europe More Intelligent Than Those of America ?
It certainly seems so. The English and European farmers instead of buying their Nitrogen in complete fertilizers and paying over 20 cents per pound for it, used during the year 1890 over eight hundred thousand (800,000) tons of Nitrate of Soda as a fertilizer, while not ten thousand tons were used as fertilizers in America.
American farmers, gardeners and fruit growers are supposed to be ready to " catch on " to a good thing. And as soon as our agricultural papers let them know the facts in regard to the great value of Nitrate of Soda as a fertilizer our farmers will not be slow to use it. The reason why so little
1^— ^— 1— ■«■ mi mil i
Food for is Said about Nitrate of Soda is simply owing to the fact that
Plants there is " no money in the trade." It is an article that every-
14 body can sell and consequently no one can afford to advertise
it. The manufacturers of so-called "complete fertilizers" pay
the agricultural papers large sums of money every year for
advertising, and consequently the editors do not like to
publish anything that might injure this trade. The real
friends of agriculture, however, will be pleased to know
that there was a decided increase in the demand for Nitrate
of Soda in this country the past spring. As soon as the
farmers demand it, the importers and dealers in fertilizers
will be glad to keep the Nitrate for sale, and sooner or later
will advertise it. In the meantime, if your agricultural paper
does not tell you about Nitrate of Soda and how to use it,
take a paper that keeps up with the science and practice of the age.
^ ... P The Roval Agricultural Society of England
Fertilizers for , J . t&, -. , c s.
,V,L have conducted experiments with fertilizers
Wheat. L r l
on wheat for over twenty years on the same
land on the Duke of Bedford's estate at Woburn. The
results are shown in the following table :
Description of manures. „„
1 . No manure 25
2. Mineral manures (super-
phosphate and potash) 28
3. Same as No. 2 and 275
lbs. Nitrate of Soda... 45 33 38 43 39 31 40 31
N. It should not be forgotten that these are
~ -p. t- _. the results with Nitrate of Soda -on'wheat Specific rood c , ,
„ ,VM grown year after year continuously on the
for Wheat. 5 1 j 1 u .-.■ J ^
same land. In such conditions, unquestion- ably more or less Nitrogen is lost, and consequently we do not get as profitable results from its use as in ordinary rotation on a well managed and properly cultivated farm. One thing is absolutely proved, however, and that is that wheat must have Nitrogen.
-r, n t- Some interesting experiments were con-
The Best Form , jit»Ptjau .u
e ... c ducted by Prof. H. A. Huston, at the
of Nitrogen for D , /T . . . . , v,
w, Purdue University Agricultural Experi-
ment Station, at Lafayette, Indiana, during the season of 1890-91, to determine the best form of Nitrogen for wheat. We quote what Professor Huston
|
Yield per |
acre of wheat in |
bushel. |
|||
|
1882 |
1883 |
1884 |
1885 |
1886 |
1887 |
|
'3 |
16 |
23 |
21 |
13 |
22 |
|
'5 |
17 |
22 |
22 |
l5 |
18 |
|
3 3 |
38 |
43 |
39 |
31 |
40 |
says on the result of the experiments, in Bulletin No. ]6, Food for August, i 8 9 1 :
" The forms of Nitrogen selected were Nitrate of Soda, azotine or dried blood, and sulphate of ammonia. The main object was a comparison of Nitrate of Soda with dried blood, and the sulphate of ammonia was intro- duced into the series for comparative purposes. The forms of Nitrogen used in nearly all commercial fertilizers are dried blood and the Nitrogen of organic compounds like bone meal or cotton-seed meal.
" It is well established that Nitrate of Soda is superior to sulphate of ammonia for wheat, but comparatively little seems to be known of the relative merits of Nitrate of Soda and organic Nitrogen. The present price of ammonia salts is such that they are not generally used in compounding ferti- lizers, and it so happens that the Nitrogen of organic compounds is used in the so-called ' ammoniated ' fertilizers. Nitrate of Soda furnishes more Nitrogen for the same money, but it is very difficult to keep a mixture of superphosphate and Nitrate of Soda."
Here follows a table of the results, which we have not room to give. Professor Huston goes on to say :
" It will be noticed that the Nitrate of Soda gave by far the best results, the gain being nearly double that for the organic Nitrogen, and about one-half more than that for the ammonia compounds. There appears on the whole no advantage from the use of fractional applicadons, while in the case of the ammonia compound there was a decided loss in fractional applications."
The results of changing the form of the Nitrogen at different stages of the growth of the plants are given at Table II. We have not room to reproduce this table, but Professor Huston's remarks which follow give the practical result :
" Here the Nitrate of Soda seems to be the controlling factor, and so far as the appearance of the plants indicated, there was no advantage from change of form. All the plants in this series to which Nitrogen was applied looked practically alike from the beginning to the end of the experiment. No appreciable difference could be seen in the fall, or at the opening of the spring up to April 10-15, between the plots to which Nitrogen had been applied and those which had received no Nitrogen. On April 20th the plots to which the Nitrogen had been applied showed a darker color and the plants were larger with broader leaves. From this time on the Nitrate of Soda plots seemed to lead the others. On May 1 8th the ground was too dry for the wheat to make much growth, but the rain of May 20-21 was very seasonable, and the Nitrogen applied on May 1 8th was washed into the ground. At this time the Nitrate plots seemed better than those having sulphate of ammonia, and both the Nitrate and ammonia plots were heavier and of much darker color than those receiving azotine. The plants on the plots that had received Nitrogen were about six inches taller than on those receiving no Nitrogen, and this continued until the grain was ripe."
Plants
15
Food for Summary.
Plants — — — "i. The experiment confirms the superiority of Nitrate of Soda over
ammonia salts for wheat, and indicates that its superiority over organic Nitrogen is even greater than that over ammonia salts.
"2. A given sum of money will buy more Nitrogen in the form of Nitrate of Soda than in any other form except cotton seed, yet the gain from Nitrate of Soda is nearly double that from the use of organic Nitrogen.''''
Professor Atwater, in writing of some experiments made by Professor McBride, at the South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station, on oats and wheat, in 1889, says:
"A comparison of four of the tests conducted on both farms indicates that the inorganic Nitrogen (Nitrate of Soda) gave nearly 1 00 per cent more increase of yield than the organic (cotton-seed meal, dried blood, etc.), and nearly 50 per cent more than both forms used together."
u . A , Drill in with the wheat in the fall a mixture How to Apply - , 111
Nitrate of Soda of 2j° Pou ™P«T>hosphate a"d 5°
W/u » pounds JNitrate or Soda per acre. Or, if
to Wheat. ^ i j ■ j j ^ ,, ■,
your land is sandy and poor, add 50 pounds
muriate of potash to the above. Early in the spring, sow
broadcast 100 pounds Nitrate of Soda per acre.
Professor W. F. Massey wrote to Mr. H. J. Scott, of
Virginia, in regard to the effect of Nitrate of Soda on wheat,
as follows:
"I have made several experiments with Nitrate of Soda. The first was on wheat in Albemarle County, Va. I used 200 pounds per acre on part of the field which had been fertilized with 400 pounds acid phosphate in the fall. The result was 9 bushels per acre more than on the rest of the field, and a stand of clover, while none of any account stood on the rest of the field."
A smaller application of Nitrate possibly would have produced nearly as good results.
d I At the celebrated Experimental Farm of
Lawes & Gilbert, at Rothamsted, England, in 1883, the following results were obtained by the use of superphosphate and Nitrate of Soda on barley :
No manure 16*^ bushels per acre
lY2 cwt. superphosphate of lime 23^ bushels per acre
3 i/£ cwt. superphosphate of lime and 200 lbs. ammonia
salts 49/^ bushels per acre
lY2 cwt. superphosphate of lime and 275 lbs. Nitrate
of Soda 5 3 /i bushels per acre
The 200 pounds of ammonia salts contained as much Food for Nitrogen as the 275 pounds Nitrate of Soda, but the Nitrate Plants produced nearly four bushels more barley per acre. It is 1T evident from the foregoing that barley must have Nitrogen, and that it is more effective in the form of Nitrate than in the form of ammonia.
In the experiment made by Dr. Voelcker, in behalf of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, at Woburn, the following results were obtained with barley sown year after year on the same land :
„ . . , Yield per acre of dressed barlev in bush.
Description of manures. iggo iggj ig£ igg3 igg4 ^ igg6 igg? iggg
No manure ...21 33 27^ 22^ 33^ ^^y^ r8# *o% i6y2
Mineral manures 22^ 33^ 23 28 32 21 i8# 22 20
Mineral manures and 275
lbs. Nitrate of Soda. .49 53 5o'/2 55^ 57^ 5o% 4°X 43>^ 45^
The mineral manures consisted of superphosphate and potash. We would recommend drilling in with the barley a mixture of 200 pounds superphosphate and 150 pounds Nitrate of Soda per acre, and if the land is " run down " or sandy, add 50 to 100 pounds muriate of potash to the mixture.
We recommend the use of the same ^
mixture for oats as for barley.
In 1888 we used 200 pounds superphosphate and 150 pounds Nitrate of Soda on 7^ acres of oats, and harvested 610 measured bushels. The oats weighed 40 pounds per bushel, and we, therefore, got over 100 bushels of 32 pounds per acre. The land was sown to wheat in the fall and seeded down with timothy and clover. The wheat was a heavy crop, and the crop of hay the following year was immense.
■MMBHMBI^^M^MMMranBli^MBMMB
NITRATE AND POTASH TEST
at Kentucky Experiment Station. Bulletin 99, page 71.
The oats in this experiment were planted April 15, 1899, and harvested July 10th. Plot No. 1 was one acre in area ; the others were one-half acre each.
The fertilizers were sown May 27th. The fertilizers used and yields obtained, both calculated to the acre, were as follows :
p In 1 89 1 the New Jersey Experiment
Station conducted some experiments with potatoes on the farm of Mr. Amos Gardner, in Gloucester County, N. J. The potatoes were planted in plots of one- twentieth of an acre. The results are given in the following table :
Experiments with Fertilizers on Potatoes.
W , • A Yidd Per
Yield per plot in pounds. Kind of fertilizer used. Large. " Small. Total. J«£
i. No manure 143 57 2°° 33^3
2. Bone-black (superphosphate) 16 lbs.;
muriate of potash, 8 lbs. . ... . 321 51 372 124
3. Same as above with Nitrate of Soda,
10 lbs 562 40 602 200%;
4. Barn-yard manure, 1 ton 432 65 497 1 15^
It will be noticed that on plot 3, where Nitrate was used, the yield was not only greatly increased but the per- centage of small potatoes was very much less than on the other plots. The addition of Nitrate* of Soda, at the rate of 200 pounds per acre, to the superphosphate and potash made an increase of 80 bushels of large potatoes per acre. The 200 pounds of Nitrate cost about $4.75. The value of 80 bushels of potatoes at 60 cents per bushel would be $48.00. The profits can be easily calculated. It is also worthy of note that the chemical fertilizers produced 43 bushels of large potatoes more per acre than 20 tons of barn-vard manure.
IB
Mr. E. S. Carmen, editor of the Rural New Yorker, Food for experimented with fertilizers on potatoes on rich land with Plants the following results :
1. 400 pounds superphosphate and 300 pounds sul-
phate of potash 245 bushels per acre.
2. Same as plot 1 with the addition of 200 pounds of
Nitrate of Soda 348 bushels per acre.
It is evident from the fact that the addition of 200 pounds of Nitrate of Soda produced ] 03 bushels more than the superphosphate and potash alone, that potatoes must have Nitrogen, and that in greater quantities than is supplied by the ordinary so-called "Complete Potato Manure."
It is the usual practice among sweet ^ p
potato growers to use large quantities of stable manure for this crop. In 1891 the New Jersey Experiment Station made some experiments in order to determine whether commercial fertilizers could not be used instead of stable manure, which is a large item of expense. The experiment was conducted on the farm of Mr. Theodore Brown, in Gloucester County, New Jersey. The following table gives the most important results:
Experiment with Fertilizers on Sweet Potatoes.
xr- j c c .T j -■.. Cost of Bushels per acre.
Kind of fertilizer and quantity per acre. r ... . „,,„,,
M ; h fertilizer. Large. Small. Total.
1. No manure 157 51 208
2. 320 lbs. bone-black, 160 lbs. muriate of potash $ 7.70 205 36 241
3. 200 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 320 lbs. bone-black, 160 lbs. muriate of potash 12.34 27° 58 328
4. 20 tons barn-yard manure 30.00 263 61 324
It will be seen that the addition of Nitrate of Soda to the bone-black and potash gave an increase of 65 bushels per acre, and that the Nitrate, bone-black and potash, together costing $12.34, produced a little larger yield than 20 tons of manure, costing $30.00. In speaking of the results, Professor Voorhees says:
" Another point of considerable importance, since it has reference to the salability of the potatoes, was noticed at the time of digging, \iz. : That those grown with chemical manures alone were bright and smooth of skin, while at least one-third of those grown with barn-vard manure were rough and partially covered with scurf."
Food for The value ot tobacco depends largely
Plants lObaCCO. . r , , r J S
ridnii> upon its quality, and as the quality depends
20 greatly upon the amount of available plant tood in the soil, the use of fertilizers often results in very large profits.
At the Kentucky Experiment Station, in 1889, experi- ments were made with fertilizers on Burley tobacco. The land was " deficient in natural drainage," so that the ferti- lizers could hardly be expected to have their full effect. Yet, as will be seen by the following table, the profits from the use of the fertilizers were enormous :
Experiments on Tobacco at the Kentucky Experiment Station, in 1889.
|
Fertilizer per acre „ |
ight. |
Yield of tobacco — po Red. Lugs. Tips |
unds. Trash. |
Total. |
Value of tobacco per acre. |
||
|
210 |
2CO 45° |
360 3 10 |
60 90 |
54° 5 3° |
I 160 l6lO |
S 6-. 20 |
|
|
1 60 lbs. Nitrate of Soda |
138.40 |
||||||
|
160 lbs. sulp. of potash; |
|||||||
|
1 60 lbs. Nitrate of Soda |
190 |
755 |
605 |
1 20 |
I40 |
l8lO |
190.4.5 |
|
320 lbs. superphos- |
|||||||
|
phate; 160 lbs. sulp. of |
|||||||
|
potash; 1 60 lbs. Nitrate |
|||||||
|
of Soda |
3 10 |
810 |
420 |
10 |
360 |
2000 |
201.2c |
The tobacco was assorted by an expert and the prices given as follows : Bright and red, fifteen cents per pound ; lugs, six cents per pound; tips, eight cents per pound; trash, two cents per pound.
One hundred and sixty pounds Nitrate of Soda, costing about S3. 75, increased the value of the crop $71.20 per acre. The addition of 160 pounds sulphate of potash gave $52. q<; more, and 320 pounds superphosphate, Si 1.25, making altogether Si 34.50 per acre more than where ferti- lizers were not used.
A larger application of Nitrate in connection with the phosphate and potash would probably have still further increased the value of the crop.
Mr. Robert P. McAnally,' of Saxon, N. C, wrote us September 29th, 1892, as follows:
" Your essay on the use of Nitrate of Soda for manure induced me to try it on tobacco last season and it did so well that I have used five times the amount this season that I did last, and my crop at this writing is the wonder and admiration of every one that sees it ; so much so that the agriculturist at our Agricultural Experiment Station has written me he will call on me next week to see my tobacco crop."
We should recommend for tobacco a mixture of 200 Food for
pounds Nitrate of Soda, 300 pounds superphosphate and s
150 pounds sulphate of potash per acre. This mixture 21
would cost about $28.00 per ton and would contain over
6 per cent of Nitrogen (equal to nearly eight per cent of
ammonia). This is nearly twice as much Nitrogen as would
be obtained in a "complete fertilizer " or " special tobacco
manure," costing 535.00 per ton.
There are numerous cases where Nitrate NT. c c ^
c 0 , . , • 1 j Nitrate of Soda
or Soda can be used with very great advan- „ p
tage and profit as a top dressing for grass.
Milkmen, who sell milk in our cities, know the great
inconvenience and loss arising from a failure of pasture or
green fodder from drouth.
Farmers who raise early lambs for the . ,
l l 11 a- 1 ii-i Advantages,
butcher can well afford to spend a little , ,. ,,
XT. c o j -r • -M • Indirect as well
money for Nitrate of Soda if it will give y^..
, , ,. c , • 5 , as Direct.
them a good bite of grass early in the
season for the ewes and lambs, and that it will certainly do. In the United States such seasons as that of 1870 in England are the rule rather than the exception, and the following results from the use of Nitrate of Soda on per- manent meadow at Rothamsted, in the drv season of 1870, are of great interest :
Hav per acre.
1 . No fertilizer. 644 lbs.
2. 300 lbs. sulphate potash, ioo lbs. sulphate soda, ioo lbs.
sulphate magnesia, 3^ cwt. superphosphate of lime 1,968 "
3*. Same mineral manures as plot 2 and 400 lbs. ammonia salts. . 3,306 " 4. Same mineral manures as plot 2 and 550 lbs. Nitrate of Soda 6,300 "
It will be seen that 550 pounds of Nitrate of Soda give an increase over plot 2 of 4,332 pounds of hay.
The same amount of Nitrogen, but in the form of ammo- nia salts, with an equal amount of minerals, on plot 3, produced about 3,000 pounds less hav per acre than when Nitrogen was applied as Nitrate of Soda.
In a letter written March 17th, 1890, Sir John B. Lawes savs :
" At equal prices for Nitrogen I certainly prefer Nitrate of Soda to salts of ammonia. The superiority on pasture grasses is more decided, and in dry seasons when the grass upon the ammonia plots is quite burned up there is always plenty of grass where the Nitrate is used. We had a great drouth
Food for in 1870, and we had no grass anywhere except upon the Nitrate plots. We Plants found roots four feet deep from the surface, evidently following the Nitrate ^ and of course getting water from the soil."
Mr. C. L. Fuller, a large and practical farmer of Rensselaer County, N. Y., wrote us in September, 1892, as follows :
What ?nn lh<: " ^n regard t0 Nitrate of Soda, I have used it on grass
_ ' more than any other crop. It gives me large crops of
or Nitrate Did na^ This year j had three acres 0f new seecijng that
for Grass. I put 200 pounds per acre on and I have cut twenty-
one large two-horse loads from it at two cuttings. This lot three years ago produced little but moss, and would not keep one cow through the summer. I have other land that was so nearly exhausted that it required eleven acres to produce four tons of hay of poor quality. I have succeeded in getting it seeded with the use of 400 lbs. of fertilizer (phosphate and potash), and a little stable manure, and then by the use of 200 pounds Nitrate of Soda last spring, I cut four tons of hay per acre this season.''''
^ , ^ Gardeners who make a specialty of growing
Garden Crops. . c , , ur c a •? 1 Z.
large areas or early cabbage find it almost
impossible to make the land rich enough the first year.
They find that the second or third crop, grown and
manured every year on the same land, is better and earlier
than the first crop.
An experienced American gardener recommends the application, every year, of 75 to 80 tons of stable manure per acre for early cabbage and 10 tons per acre for late cabbage. Many gardeners make this distinction between early and late cabbage, and yet the late cabbage produce much the larger crops and remove far more plant food from the soil than the early crops.
A market gardener near New York, who used large quantities of manure and was very successful, was about to open a street through his garden. Believing his land to be sufficiently rich to carry through a crop of cabbage without manure, he thought it useless to waste money by using guano on that portion on which the street was to be, but on each side he sowed guano at the rate of 1,200 pounds per acre, and planted the whole to early cabbages. "The effect," says the lamented Peter Henderson, who relates the incident, " was the most marked that I ever saw. That portion on which the guano had been used sold readily at $12 per hundred, or about $ 1,400 per acre, but the portion
from which the guano had been withheld hardly averaged Food for $2 per hundred. The street occupied fully an acre of _ants ground, so that my friend actually lost over £1,000 in the crop by withholding £60 for manure."
There is no difference between the manurial require- ments of an early and a late cabbage Both require the same food, and the late crop being the larger, requires more rather than less food or manure per acre.
And yet, in practice, it is found absolutely necessary to use far more manure for the early crop than for the late crop. The explanation is this:
It is now known that the Nitrogen in the organic matter of the soil or manure is slowly converted into the Nitrate form by the growth of a minute organism. This micrococcus cannot grow if the soil is too cold, or too wet, or too drv, or in the absence of lime or an alkali. As a general rule, there is no lack of lime in the soil, and the other conditions necessary for the conversion of the Nitrogen into the Nitrate form are warm weather and a moist soil in good physical condition.
In the early spring the soil is too wet and too cold for the change to take place. We must wait for warm weather. But the gardener does not want to wait. He makes his profits largely on his early crops. Guided only by experi- ence and tradition, he fills his land with manure, and even then he gets only a moderate crop the first year. He puts on 75 tons more manure the next year, and gets a better crop. And he mav continue putting on manure till the soil is as rich in Nitrogen as the manure itself, and even then he must keep on manuring or he fails to get a good early crop. Why? The Nitrogen of the soil, or of roots of plants, or dung, is retained in the soil in a comparatively inert condition. There is little or no loss. But when it is slowly converted into Nitrate during warm weather, the plants take it up and grow rapidly.
How, then, is the market gardener to get the Nitrate absolutely necessary for the growth of his early plants? He may get it, as before stated, from an excessive and con- tinuous use of stable manure, but then he fails to get it in sufficient quantity.
One thousand pounds of Nitrate of Soda will furnish more Nitrogen to the plants early in the spring than the
■BHHBBNWHHHHHDHHBBHIUBgunsraHraHH
gardener can get from 75 or 100 tons of well-rotted stable manure. The stable manure may furnish Nitrate for his later crops, but for his early crops the gardener who fails to use Nitrate of Soda is blind to his own interests. T It has been found by experiments made at
the New Jersey Experiment Station for three years, that Nitrate of Soda, applied when the plants are set out, greatly increased their growth early in the season and produced a much larger crop of early ripe fruit than either barn-yard manure, "phosphates," or no manure at all.
In the experiments conducted by the New Jersey Experiment Station on the farm of Mr. J. M. Gill, of Gloucester County, N. J., in i89i,the following results were obtained :
Experiment with Fertilizers on Tomatoes.
„. , , c ... , , . Cost of P Value of Kind or fertilizer used and quantity per acre. „ ... acre in
1 J r fertilizer. . , , crop,
bushels. r
i. No manure 613 $208.61
2. 160 lbs. Nitrate or' Soda $ 4.00 838 300.64
3. 160 lbs. muriate of potash, 320 lbs.
bone-black 7. 20 649 252.92
4. 160 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 160 lbs.
muriate of potash, 300 lbs. bone- black 11.20 867 301-25
5. 20 tons barn-yard manure. ....... . 30.00 612 218.27
It will be noticed that 160 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, costing $4.00, made an increase in the value of the crop of $92.03 per acre over the unfertilized land, and $82.37 over the land where 20 tons of barn-yard manure, costing $30.00, was used. It will also be noticed that the addition of phosphate (bone-black) and potash had little or no effect. This does not indicate that tomatoes do not require phos- phoric acid and potash, but tljat enough of these elements of plant food was already in the soil. Other experiments made on poorer land showed that the phosphoric acid and potash were necessary in addition to Nitrate of Soda to produce a full crop. In writing of these experiments, Professor Voorhees, who conducted them, says :
" The yield of early tomatoes was very decidedly increased by the use of Nitrate of Soda, both alone and together with phosphoric acid and potash."
We have had good success with tomatoes fertilized in Food for the following manner : before the plants are set out work ants into the soil where they are to be planted a handful of a * mixture of equal parts of Nitrate of Soda and superphos- phate. Then, when the plants have started to grow, scatter about a small tablespoonful of Nitrate around each plant.
Experiments have been conducted under p , the direction of the New Jersey Experi- ment Station by Mr. Stephen C. Dayton, of Somerset County, N. J., with fertilizers on peaches. The fertilizers and manure have been applied every year for six years, during which time the trees have borne four crops. Their first crop was in 1887. In 1888 and 1889 good crops were secured, but in 1890 the crops were a total failure, as else- where in the State; in 1891 there was a large crop harvested. It was found that an application of 150 pounds Nitrate of Soda, 350 pounds superphosphate, and 150 pounds muriate of potash produced nearly as good results as twenty-two horse loads of manure, costing nearly three times as much. In 1 891 the trees that had Nitrate, in addition to super- phosphate and potash, vielded 1 6 t baskets per acre more than where the superphosphate and potash were used alone. And where the three were used together the vield was 342 baskets per acre more than where no manure or fertilizers were used.
By the use of Nitrate of Soda, superphosphate and muriate of potash, an average clear net profit of over $75.00 per acre each year was secured. Where barn-yard manure was used the average yearly profit was only $44.00.
Mr. Robert B. Treat, of Centreville, Rhode Island, wrote us February 24th, 1893, as follows:
" Up to 1 89 1 we had never received even a fair crop of peaches, but that spring I applied Nitrate of Soda at the rate of 250 pounds to the acre. The result was most gratifying. We raised more fruit that year than for several years previously combined. Bv the use of Nitrate of Soda our tomatoes yielded at the rate of 350 bushels per acre."
An experiment with Nitrate of Soda on Ci , . l • j jla/ttat Strawberries,
strawberries was conducted by Mr. J. M.
White, of Middlesex County, N. J., in 1 891, under the direction of the New Jersey Experiment Station. Phos- phoric acid and potash were supplied when the plants were
26
)od for set out in 1889. In the spring of 1891 Nitrate of Soda ts was sown broadcast on part of the patch at the rate of 200 pounds per acre, while the other part received no Nitrate. The result was as follows :
No Nitrate 162 quarts per plot (y% acre).
With Nitrate 213 quarts per plot \yi acre).
The gain from the use of Nitrate was at the rate of 408 quarts per acre. This was due largely to the increased size of the berries. These berries sold at the average price of io^/s cents per quart, so that from the use of 200 pounds Nitrate of Soda, costing $4.50, there was a gain of $44.32. per acre, or 10 cents for every cent invested in Nitrate.
In Orchard and Garden for May, 1890, Professor W. W. Massey, of the North Carolina Experiment Station, writes as follows :
"In the spring of 1888 I top-dressed an old strawberry bed, in its fifth year of bearing, with 300 pounds of Nitrate of Soda per acre. I had intended to plow it up the previous summer, but other matters prevented, and the bed was in an exhausted condition and rather foul with white clover and sorrel. The effect was amazing, for this bed of an acre and a quarter, from which I expected hardly anything, gave me 7,000 quarts of berries. Variety Crescent with fertilizing rows of Wilson, Sharpless and others. The crop was nearly as large as the best plot had made."
This was on moist bottom land, naturally fertile.
As has been shown by the experiments on
asp erne , tomatoes, peaches and strawberries, enor-
urrants, mous profits are often realized from the
gooseberries, ^ of fertiHzers on these fmits> The same
is undoubtedly true in the case of rasp- berries, currants, etc., although we have unfortunately no comparative experiments with the use of fertilizers on them. We have, on our own farm, a little over three acres of red currants which have been in bearing for five or six years. In 1890 the crop was less than 6,000 pounds; in 1891 it was 8,200 pounds. In the spring of 1891 we applied a mixture of superphosphate and kainit (potash) at the rate of about 400 pounds per acre. In the spring of 1892 we applied 200 pounds superphosphate, 100 pounds muriate of potash and 200 pounds Nitrate of Soda per acre. The crop of 1892 amounted to nearly 16,000 pounds, and sold for over $800, yielding a net profit of $300 more than the
year before. That this great increase of yield was due to Food for the application of the 200 pounds Nitrate of Soda per acre Plants is, of course, not proved, but it certainly looks as though it ^ had a good deal to do with it. The season of 1891 was a remarkably favorable one for fruit. The season of 1892 was certainly no better, and usually considered much less favorable.
We haye used Nitrate of Soda in connection with superphosphate and potash on raspberries with equally good results. In fact, as red raspberries usually sell for twice as much per pound as currants, the profits from the use of fertilizers are often much greater.
We think it is the best plan to apply the superphosphate and potash in the fall and the Nitrate of Soda in the spring. There is no danger of losing any of the phosphoric acid or potash, as they will not leach out of the soil, and they need the heavy rains and frosts of winter to get them down to the roots of the plants. The Nitrate is easily dissolved, and the first heavy rain will wash it down to the roots. If it is applied in the fall it may be wasted by leaching out of the soil during the winter.
Enormous profits may be derived from .
the proper use of fertilizers on asparagus.
If the rent, labor, etc., for a crop of asparagus is $200 per acre, and the crop is three tons of green shoots at $100 per ton, on the farm, the profit is $100 per acre. If we get six tons at $100 per ton, the profit, less the extra cost of labor and manure, is $400 per acre.
In such crops as asparagus, however, doubling the yield by the use of Nitrate of Soda does not tell half the story.
Asparagus is sold by the bunch, weighing about 2^ pounds. The prices range, according to earliness and quality, from 10 cents to 25 cents per bunch at wholesale, or from $80 to $200 per ton.
By leaving out all these considerations and assuming that the non-Nitrated asparagus yields three tons per acre and sells for $100 per ton, and that the Nitrated asparagus yields six tons per acre and sells for $200 per ton, the profits of the two crops, less the extra cost for labor and manure, are as follows :
Without Nitrate of Soda S • 00 per acre.
With Nitrate of Soda 1 ,000 per acre.
Food for The safest way is to apply in the fall 400 pounds super-
Plants phosphate, 1 50 pounds muriate of potash, and 100 pounds
28 Nitrate of Soda per acre, sown broadcast. Early in the
spring sow broadcast 300 to 400 pounds Nitrate of Soda
per acre.
. The first thing to do is to prepare the
How to Apply fertiUz and if th are to be used at the
TA\ same time> mix them together-
and Other Nitrate of Soda comes from South America
Fertilizers. -n bagg which weigh about 224 pounds
each. It is usually sold in the original bags. The Nitrate looks much like coarse salt and is often compacted into large lumps. These lumps should be broken, which can easily be done by turning the Nitrate out on the barn floor and striking the lumps with the back of a spade. The Nitrate should then be run through a sieve with a mesh not larger than one-fourth inch. It will then be ready for use. . Muriate of potash comes from Germany
Muriate 0 -^ ^^ weighing 224 pounds each. It
' sometimes forms in lumps, which should
be broken as directed for Nitrate. If the fertilizers are to be mixed together, pour the right quantity of each in a pile on the floor and turn them over two or three times with a shovel until they are thoroughly mixed. It is a good plan to run the whole through a sieve, which will mix the ferti- lizers better than any other way. If Nitrate is used, the mixing should not be done more than a week before the fertilizers are to be used, as the mixture may "attract moisture and get hard if left too long after mi:
nxinf
Mode of
We have found the following methods of
applying fertilizers to the various crops to Application. ^^ gest and most practicaL We have
given directions for application to wheat, oats, barley, etc., and refer below to the pages on which these directions may be found :
Wheat — See page 16.
Barley — See page 16.
Oats — See page 17.
p If in rows marked only one way, scatter
a mixture of, say, 200 pounds Nitrate,
350 pounds superphosphate and 100 pounds muriate of
potash along the rows, a handful to every step. If you
step three feet, this will put on about 600 pounds per acre; Food for If only two feet, 900 pounds per acre. Run a fine tooth ants cultivator along the rows to mix the fertilizers with the soil. ^ It will, of course, be necessary to mark out the rows again before planting the potatoes. If planted in hills marked both ways, drop a handful on each hill and mix well with a hoe or potato hook ; but this is not as satisfactory as the other method.
Sweet Potatoes — See page 19. Tobacco — See pages 20 and 21. "Tomatoes — See pages 24 and 25.
Corn — Apply the same mixture as recommended for potatoes and in the same way. It usually will not pay to use more than one ounce (about one-half handful) to a hill. For growing cabbage and cauliflower sow Cabbage and broadcast the same mixture as recom- Cauliflower mended for potatoes, using a small handful to each square yard of ground, and rake or harrow it in before sowing the seed.
For early cabbage set close together, it will pay to sow the fertilizers broadcast over the whole ground and work them in before setting out the plants. If the land has been heavily manured for a number of years Nitrate of Soda alone may do as much good as the mixture. In this case, the Nitrate may be applied after the plants are set out — a teaspoonful to a plant.
For late cabbage, set 2^ to 3 feet apart each way. It is a good plan to apply the fertilizers after the plants are set out, To do this, scatter a small handful of the mixture recommended for potatoes near each plant, but not on the plant. Cultivate this in with a small tooth cultivator. It is best to go twice on each row, dropping the fertilizer on both sides of the plants, using half the quantity on each side. Superphosphate should be worked into Celerv
the land intended for growing celery plants, either the fall before or in the spring before the seed is sown, at the rate of 500 pounds per acre. As soon as the plants come up, sow broadcast 500 pounds Nitrate of Soda per acre, or a small handful to each square yard. If heavy rains occur, it is well to give the plants another application of Nitrate. This need not be as heavy as the first application.
„ , ^ For garden crops such as beets, carrots,
Garden Crops. 9 r . , ,
parsnips, onions, spinach, lettuce, etc., sow
the mixture as recommended for potatoes, broadcast before the seed is sown, at the rate of from 500 to 1,000 pounds per acre, according to the richness of the land. When the land has been heavily manured for a number of years, it may not be necessary to use so much superphosphate and potash ; in fact, potash would probably not be needed at all. Nitrate of Soda alone on such land often has a wonderful effect. c , In setting out a new bed, scatter along the
rows and cultivate in, before the plants are set out, the same mixture as for potatoes. It is well to scatter the fertilizers for a foot each side of the rows so that the runners will have something to feed upon. In the spring sow Nitrate of Soda on the bed broadcast at the rate of about 200 pounds per acre. On old beds sow the mix- ture broadcast in the fall and an additional 200 pounds of Nitrate per acre in the spring. R , . Sow broadcast, in the fall, a mixture of, say,
n c' 350 pounds of superphosphate and 100
v_>urrants, ttc. , • , r 1 tl"
pounds muriate or potash per acre. I his
can be done, if the rows are six feet apart, by sowing a large handful at every two steps on each side of the row. Raspberries should have a small handful and currants a large handful to each bush. This should be cultivated in, if possible, early in the spring. Sow Nitrate of Soda in the same way. It will pay to put on as much Nitrate as you did superphosphate and potash, but if you do not want to put on so much, use smaller handfuls. If the super- phosphate and potash have not been applied in the fall, sow in the spring at the same time the Nitrate is sown and cultivate it in early in the spring. H , Since Nitrate of Soda and muriate of potash
,wu D are brought to this country by sea, and
Where to Buy , , 5 . ,, ; -; f ' ,
c ... . phosphate is usually transported from the
Fertilizing ^ . r . 1 i_ i • 1 1
M . . mines in vessels, these materials, as a rule,
can be purchased at the seaports cheaper
than in the interior. New York is the largest market for
these materials, but Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore
also receive very large quantities, as well as San Francisco.
Lower prices can be obtained by ordering fertilizing
materials in car-load lots. A car-load is not less than ten
tons. If you cannot use a car-load your self * get your neighbors Food for to join with you. From $2.00 to $4.00 per ton can often _an!s_ be saved in this way.
In buying superphosphate always consider the percentage of available phosphoric acid. You should not pay more than 7 cents per pound for the phosphoric acid. That is, if the superphosphate analyzes 14 per cent, of available phosphoric acid, a ton would contain 280 pounds, and should not cost more than $19.60 per ton.
The various brands of fertilizers are composed, for- the most part, of substances such as lime, plaster, fillers, superphosphate, etc., which can be manufactured for much less than the price charged for these substances in so-called " complete fertilizers."
Supplement.
Since the foregoing pamphlet was written, there have been so many inquiries in regard to fertilizers for special crops, and the best methods of applying them, that this supplement is added to furnish information of this character. . There seems to be a widespread impression
hxpenments ^ & fertilizer for potatoes should contain with Potatoes. Nitrogen in tw0 or more different forms, and also that potash is more important and effective than Nitrogen. In order to test these points in actual field culture, the writer made the following experiments in 1895, with the results indicated :
Experiment with Fertilizers on Potatoes.
Amount of fertilizers used per acre. Yield per acre.
Plot No. o. No fertilizer 1 55 bushels.
!200 lbs. Nitrate of Soda )
100 lbs. muriate of potash - 245 bushels.
300 lbs. superphosphate J
( 400 lbs. cotton seed meal )
Plot No. 2. J 100 lbs. muriate of potash V 210 bushels.
( 300 lbs. superphosphate )
(' 100 lbs. Nitrate of Soda |
200 lbs. cotton seed meal. 100 lbs. muriate of potash 300 lbs. superphosphate
Plot No. 4. J ,0° J* mUriat? of P°tash- • 170 bushels.
T J 300 lbs. superphosphate )
piot No. 3. 1 2°° ;?• !otton seer _m!.: ' z3° bushels-
■llllllllllllllWHlllllllllillllllllllllllllllllllllllllHIIIINIIIll
Food for On plot No. I, where all the Nitrogen was in one form
Plants — Nitrate of Soda — the largest yield was obtained, being 35 33 bushels per acre more than on plot No. 2, where the Nitrogen was in an organic form, and 15 bushels more than on plot No. 3, where two forms of Nitrogen were used. It will also be noticed that potash and phosphoric acid without Nitrogen only increased the yield 15 bushels per acre, while with Nitrate the increase was 190 bushels per acre.
• . The land is first marked and a furrower
c ... c run along the rows, making a furrow about
Potatoes1*8 four incheS deep' In this furr°W the ferti"
lizer is applied, either by hand or with a
distributor, and well mixed with the soil. This is best done
bv running a cultivator along the row ; or when a distributor
is used, an attachment in the form of a small cultivator can
be made to do the work at one operation. The potatoes
are then dropped in the furrow and covered. If it is
thought best to cultivate both ways, the land can be marked
across the furrows after the fertilizer is applied.
On What Crops Theoretically a given quantity of Ni-
Should Nitrate tnf wlU Produ,ce a P^n *m°™ °f dr\
T y substance in a plant. 1 he smaller amount
of dry matter a plant contains the greater will be the increase in weight of crop from a given quantity of Nitrate. This is true in nearly all cases. Compare, for instance, wheat and cabbage ; a ton of wheat, straw and grain together contain about 1,500 pounds of dry matter, of which 25 pounds is Nitrogen. To produce a ton of wheat and straw together would require, therefore, 170 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, which quantity would contain 25 pounds of Nitrogen
A ton of cabbage, on the other hand, contains only 240 pounds of dry matter, of which about 4^ pounds is Nitro- gen. To produce a ton of cabbage, therefore, would require 28 pounds of Nitrate of Soda. As cabbage sells often for about half as much per pound as wheat, there is evidently much more profit to be derived from the use of Nitrate on this crop than on Wheat and in practical ex- perience this is so. All crops that contain a large amount of water and sell for comparatively high prices considering the small amount of dry matter they contain, yield the
f UNIV
largest profit from the use of Nitrate and other fertilizers. Food for The most important of these crops are beets, carrots, cabbage, PIants cauliflower, celery, onions, tomatoes, potatoes and other w vegetables and fruits.
After these the Nitrate produces the most profit when used on tobacco, grain crops, cotton and grass (excepting clover).
There are no crops on which it is more pertilizers for profitable to use fertilizers than on vege- Vegetables and tables and small fruits, provided they are on pru;ts used in the right way and in the proper forms. Many failures with chemical fertilizers are caused by lack of knowledge on these points. Stable manure, when used in sufficient quantities, almost invariably produces good results, while the unintelligent use of chemical fertilizers did not do as well. In this way many gardeners were persuaded that there was nothing equal to stable manure, which they continued to use in large quantities, paying in many cases fully twice as much for it as the plant food it contained was worth. There is no doubt but that stable manure is very valuable as a fertilizer, and is in many cases indispensable, but at the same time the quantities necessary to produce the results now obtained could be greatly re- duced by using fertilizers to supply the plant food and only enough manure to give lightness and add humus to the soil.
For crops like cabbage, beets, etc., that What Fertilizers it is desirable to force to rapid maturity, t ,, « ,-, , r . , • , , , r j • 11 t0 Use for Gar-
tnt form in which the plant rood, especially ^ r>nns
Nitrogen, is applied is of the greatest im- portance. Many fertilizers sold for this purpose have all the Nitrogen thev contain in insoluble and only slowly available form, so that it requires a considerable time for the plants to get hold of it. Another fault is that they do not contain enough Nitrogen or "ammonia." Stable manure contains on the average in one ton, 10 pounds Nitrogen, 10. pounds potash, and only 5 pounds phosphoric acid, while the average "complete" fertilizer or "guano" contains more than twice as much phosphoric acid as Nitrogen. A fertilizer for quick-growing vegetables should contain as much Nitrogen as phosphoric acid, and at least half this Nitrogen should be in the form of Nitrate, which is the only form in which it is immediately available to plants.
Food for Where'stable manure is used in addition to the fertilizers,
plants all the Nitrogen applied should be in this form, and in
34 most cases it is better to have it all in this form, whether
manure is used or not.
p P ,, The best fertilizer is a mixture of equal
n ~ . parts of Nitrate of Soda and superphos-
Beets, Onions, r, , . , , , x A n *.•*.
P p phate (acid phosphate). A small quantity
' ' of muriate or sulphate of potash should be added when the land is naturally poor or sandy. The pro- portion of Nitrate to superphosphate can be varied accord- ing to the kind of soil and previous manuring of the land. Land on which barn-yard manure has been used in con- siderable quantities for a number of years, and on mucky land full of decaying vegetable matter, the proportion of Nitrate should be smaller than on sandy land or on land that has not been manured properly and contains only a small amount of vegetable matter. Bearing these facts in mind, it is easy to judge about what proportion of each ma- terial to use on the different kinds of soil.
TT . , In applying fertilizers it should be re-
How to Apply i j i_ c c u u •
~ .,• membered that any form or phosphoric
acid, such as acid phosphate, dissolved bone-black, or bone meal is only partially soluble, and will not circulate in the soil. These fertilizers should therefore be evenly distributed over the soil and well mixed with it. This is usually best done by applying broadcast before sow- ing the seed and before the ground is thoroughly prepared. In this way it gets well mixed with the soil.
Nitrate of Soda, on the other hand, is extremely solu- ble, and will diffuse itself throughout the soil wherever there is enough moisture to dissolve it. It can therefore either be applied with the phosphate before sowing the seed or be scattered on the surface of the ground after the plants are up. This latter method is usually the best.
t. x. , The best way is to scatter the fertilizer
For Melons, c c J , , ,.., , ,- •.
~ . .for two feet around the hills and rake it
Cucumbers and . , ., . , , , ,
s . into the soil with a steel garden rake.
This not only mixes the fertilizer with the
soil, but it loosens the ground and kills all small weeds
that are coming up.
For other crops, see pages 1 6 to 31.
Some interesting and valuable experi- Comparative ^o°d for ments were made at the Connecticut kx- Availability of periment Station, in 1894, to ascertain how Nitrogen in much of the Nitrogen contained in such Various Forms, materials as dried blood, tankage, dry fish, cotton-seed meal, etc., is available to plants.
The experiments were made with corn, and it was found that when the same quantity of Nitrogen was applied in the various forms the crop increased over that where no Nitro- gen was applied, as shown in the following table:
Increase of Crop from Same Quantity of Nitrogen from Different Sources.
Relative Sources of Nitrogen. Crop Increase>
Nitrate of Soda 1 00
Dried Blood 73
Cotton-seed Meal 72
Dry Fish 7°
Tankage 62
Linseed Meal 7 8
The above table shows some interesting facts. It is evident that only about three-fourths as much of the Nitro- gen in dried blood or cotton-seed meal as in Nitrate of Soda is available the first season. The Nitrogen in tankage is even less available, only a little over half being used by the crop.
These experiments were made with corn, which grows for a long period when the ground is warm and the con- ditions most favorable to render the Nitrogen in organic substances available and yet only part of it could be used by the crop. When Nitrogen in organic forms is applied to oats, barley and other spring crops that are sown when the ground is cold, and which grow only a short time dur- ing warm weather, the amount used by the crop must nec- essarily be considered less.
When it is considered that Nitrogen in the form ot Nitrate of Soda can be bought for less per pound than in almost any other form, the advantage and economy of pur- chasing and using it in this form is very apparent.
It is always more economical to buy the What Fertilizers different fertilizing materials and mix them g at home than to purchase mixed fertilizers
or "guano" as they are often called. Bur many people do not wish the trouble of getting the materials and mixing them, so purchase the ready-mixed fertilizers. If this is done, great care should be taken to examine the analysis, so that some idea can be had of what the fertilizer contains. Special attention should be given to ascertaining in what form the Nitrogen or "ammonia" exists. Many of the manufacturers do not tell this, but the Experiment Stations analyze all the fertilizers sold in their respective States and publish the results in bulletins, which are sent free to any one asking for them. These analyses usually show in what form the Nitrogen is. The "brands" that contain the most Nitrogen or "ammonia" in the form of Nitrate is the one to use. If you use a "fertilizer" containing only a small per- centage of Nitrogen or ammonia in an organic form, such as cotton-seed, "tankage," etc., it will be of great advantage to use a small quantity of Nitrate of Soda in addition to, or in connection with, this fertilizer. This is often an econom- ical and convenient method of procuring fertilizers.
. The Alabama Agricultural Experiment
fertilizing Station at Auburn, Alabama, made -some
0tt0n' interesting experiments in fertilizing cotton
in 1 89 1. Experiments were conducted in many different parts of the State and on various kinds of soil. A con- densed table of some of the results obtained is given on opposite page.
It will be noticed that in nearly every case 96 pounds Nitrate of Soda, when used with acid phosphate, gave a better yield than 240 pounds cotton-seed meal when used with the same quantity of acid phosphate. The 240 pounds of cotton-seed meal contained more Nitrogen than 96 pounds of Nitrate, and cost more than the Nitrate, yet did not give, as a rule, as good results. It will also be noticed that, as a rule, potash did not pay, except on poor land. Where the "no fertilizer" acre gave only a small yield, the best results were obtained from the combination of Nitrate, phosphate and potash, but where the land was fairly good, the potash did not seem to be necessary.
Cotton-seed meal is undoubtedly an economical source of Nitrogen when it can be bought at low enough prices, but it should not be depended upon to furnish #//the Nitro-
Experiments with Fertilizers on Cotton.
Locality and Character of Soil.
Barbour Co., Sandy Loam
Elmore Co., Gray Sand
Elowah Co., Red Loam
Greene Co., Sandy
Clay Co., Soil Red
Calhoun Co., Mulatto Soil. . . . Lawrence Co., Clay Loam. . . . Cullman Co., Sand and Gravel.
Madison Co., Clay Loam
Randolph Co., Sandy Loam
Butler Co., Light Sand
Marengo Co., Dark Sand
|
s |
«' m |
M M |
|
|
S a |
|||
|
0 . |
<~ 0 . |
||
|
a. u |
° a. 5 |
ca, t |
|
|
J; |
■o< |
n^< |
Z-n< |
|
a |
< a. |
■£<£. |
<->< s. |
|
-O -O |
|||
|
o Z |
-1- |
fct |
H |
|
Yield |
Yield |
Yield |
Yield |
|
per Acre. |
per Acre. |
per Acre. |
per Acre. |
|
lbs. |
lbs. 672 |
lbs. I 2l6 |
lbs. |
|
624 |
768 |
||
|
469 |
736 |
I088 |
960 |
|
24O |
6l6 |
IOOO |
720 |
|
IO4 |
512 |
960 |
IO56 |
|
389 |
480 |
800 |
704 |
|
171 |
480 |
64O |
624 |
|
235 |
600 |
864 |
688 |
|
347 |
928 |
I080 |
1096 |
|
312 |
448 |
800 |
544 |
|
288 |
3H |
752 |
544 |
|
200 |
64O |
744 |
760 |
|
648 |
8l6 |
936 |
784 |
Food for Plants
%32
Yield per Acre.
I020
I088 952
I256 848 8l6 9O4
I 120 800
544 800 968
gen. At least a half of the Nitrogen applied should be in the form of Nitrate. The reason for this is that the Nitro- gen in the cotton-seed meal is not immediately available and only becomes so after undergoing the process of Nitration in the soil. If there is no available Nitrogen present, the plant must wait until that in the meal becomes so, which in cool, damp soil is often a considerable time. Thus the plant, in its most critical stage, is held back and checked in its growth, from which it never fully recovers. But, on the other hand, if a small quantity of Nitrate is used, the plant can take it up at once and get a good strong start by the time the cotton-seed meal is converted into a form that can be used by the plant.
It will be noticed by reference to table above that Nitrate gave much better results than cotton-seed meal on heavy land, such as that on which the experiments were made in Madison and Lawrence counties, and that the cotton-seed did best on light land — notably in Greene and Butler counties. The reason for this appears to be that Nitrification will take place much more rapidly in light,
Food for Plants
Without Manure.
Brown Cotton
4 Cwt.
Kainit.
12 Tons Farm Yard Manure.
4 Cwt. Superphosphate 2 Cwt. Nitrate of Soda.
2 Tons of Poudrette.
5 Cwt. Superphosphate.
Abbasi White Cotton, Lower Egypt.
[2 Tons Yard Manure.
4 Cwt. Kainit.
Without Manure.
5 Cwt.
Superphosphate.
2 Cwt.
Nitrate of Soda.
4 Cwt. Superphosphate 2 Cwt. Nitrate of Soda.
Results on Cotton Grown in Lower Egypt.
warm, sandy soil than in heavier and colder soils, so that Food for the plants get the Nitrogen more quickly on the sandy soil Plants than on the other, and consequently grew better and pro- ,!J9 duced larger crops. Kven on this soil, however, it is best to use at least a small proportion of Nitrate.
The subject of the best fertilizers for Sugar Beets sugar beets has not had much attention as vet in this country. One reason for this is that the beets have been grown on "new soils" that were capable of pro- ducing a good crop of beets without fertilizers, but the time will very soon come when beet growers will have to use some method of returning fertility to their soils, and it would be a very good thing for every grower to experiment with fertilizers to ascertain what his land requires.
The manufacturers who buy the beets have thoroughly impressed upon the growers that they should not use Nitrogenous manures, as these are supposed to reduce the percentage of sugar in the beets while they greatly increase the quantity of beets raised per acre. It is undoubtedly true that large quantities of manure or fertilizers containing high percentages of Nitrogen ("ammonia") do have the effect of producing large beets with but little more sugar in them than is contained in a smaller beet grown without the manure. But if the Nitrogen applied is in the right' form and is not used in quantities out of proportion to the phos- phoric acid and potash applied or existing in the soil, this effect is not produced, while the yield of beets per acre is greatly increased ; the percentage of sugar is not reduced, but sometimes even increased.
Bennettsville, S. C, R. F. D., April 11, 1903. Mr. William S. Myers,
New York, N. Y.
Dear Sir — I have used Nitrate of Soda for a number of vears; it has no equal as a "Top Dresser" for Cotton, Corn and small Grain; I look upon it as a necessity. I use it to Corn at the "Lay-By" ploughing and it assures a good crop as a rule. I can't speak too highly of it. Yours very truly,
B. E. Moore.
— —Ml—- «— «»«-,«..—.——
Bennettsville, S. C, R. F. D., No. i, April 17, 1903. Mr. Wm. S. Myers,
New York. Dear Sir — I am much pleased with Nitrate of Soda as a "Top Dresser;" am convinced it has no equal. Yours very truly,
H. S. Grant.
Bennettsville, S. C, R.F. D.,No. 1, April 19, 1903. Mr. Wm. S. Myers, New York.
Dear Sir — I could not farm without Nitrate of Soda; it has no superior as a Top Dresser. I have used it for years and will continue its use.
Yours very truly,
Excelsior Seed Farm,
Per C. F. Moore, Proprietor.
Bennettsville, S. C, April 20, 1903. Mr. Wm. S. Myers, New York.
Dear Sir — I have in past years used Nitrate of Soda as a Top Dressing for Oats and Cotton, also used in around Corn, and am satisfied it paid me well; so well satisfied with the results that I now have twenty tons to put to this year's crop. Yours very respectfully,
P. L. Breeden.
Bennettsville, S. C, April 21, 1903. Mr. Wm. S. Myers, New York.
Dear Sir — As a Top Dresser, I consider Nitrate of Soda far superior to anvthing I have ever used, and especially for Corn and small Grain.
Yours &c,
A. H. Odom.
Michigan Experiments on Sugar Beets in igoi.
(Extract from Michigan Bulletin 197, Issued February, igo2. )
" A field was planned to test the effect of excessive amounts of each of the various fertilizing elements in com- parison with normal applications in the form of commercial and home mixed fertilizers.
A standard brand of commercial fertilizers was selected ^ for and a mixture equal in fertilizing value to 250 pounds was prepared. This required 32 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, 25 pounds muriate of potash, and 137 pounds of dissolved phosphate rock. The six plots of the experiment received applications as follows : Plot 1. — Nothing.
Plot 2. — 147 pounds mixture plus 24 pounds Nitrate Soda. Plot 3. — 147 pounds mixture plus 103 pounds dissolved
phosphate rock. Plot 4.-147 pounds mixture plus 20 pounds muriate of
potash. Plot 5. — 195 pounds mixture. Plot 6. — 250 pounds commercial fertilizer.
It will be seen by the above that Plots 2, 3 and 4 re- ceived but three-fourths of the mixture as applied to Plot 5 ; the other fourth being supplied by doubling the amount of Nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash respectively.
The yields of beets, percentage of sugar, and pounds of sugar per acre are given in the following table :
Yield Percent. Sugar
Plot. FERTILIZERS. per Acre. .J^ per Acre.
Pounds. Pounds.
1 Nothing 16,793 15.98 2,709
2 Excessive Nitrate Nitrogen 25,098 16.23 4>°83
3 Excessive Phosphoric Acid 22,84.3 15-%S 3»621
4 Excessive Potash 21,817 J5-64 3,412
5 Normal Home Mixture 18,900 17.04 3,220
6 Commercial Fertilizer 17,74° 1S66 *'778
These figures show decidedly in favor of increasing the Nitrogen content of the sugar beet fertilizers. Not only is the yield of beets greater, but the percentage of sugar is higher where an excessive amount of Nitrate of Soda is applied. The marked difference in yield of sugar from the home mixed fertilizer over the commercial fertilizer suggests the possibility of Nitrate Nitrogen being superior to the form of Nitrogen found in the commercial fertilizer.
While no experiment comparing in equal quantities organic Nitrate and ammonia Nitrogen, the general results so far favor the Nitrate.
In the fertilizer experiment on page 37,:;: the Nitrogen in the commercial fertilizer analyzing 2.24 per cent, am- monia was undoubtedly of organic origin. The results trom
♦Michigan Bulletin 197, issued February, 1902.
mmmma^emm
mmmwmm
Food for three years' experiments show a yield of ao per cent, more igar from Nitrate Nitrogen than from the commercial
Plants
4~ fertilizer.
Nitrate Nitrogen vs. Ammonia Nitrogen.
This experiment has been in progress for three years. The results recorded in the following table are from experi- ments in three different fields of the College farm. In every case the potash and phosphoric acid applied on the compared plots were identical. The quantity of Nitrate of Soda and sulphate ammonia was in each case regulated according to the ammonia content of the two materials, so calculated that the same quantity of Nitrogen was applied in every case where results are compared.
The following is a fair comparison of Nitrate of Soda and sulphate ammonia as a source of Nitrogen for sugar beets, and being the average result from five different ex- periments conducted for three years in succession, and showing a yield of over 1 1 per cent, more sugar from the Nitrate than from the ammonia presents conclusive evi- dence of the superiority of the former.
|
Nitrate Nitrogen. |
Ammonia Nitrogen. |
||||
|
CHARACTER OF SOIL |
Yield Per - „„r of Beets cent. S» e per acre, i Sugar. v |
Yield „Pefr |
Sugar per acre. |
||
|
P un is. 20,408 20,136 16,479 18,789 15,058 |
Pounds. 12.45 2>463 13.19 2,6c6 |
Pounds. . 19,387 12.68 16,412 12.44 |
Pounds. 2,459 |
||
|
2,041 |
|||||
|
3 Sandy loam (complete fertilizer). 4 Same as 3 plus (one ton lime). . 5 Sandy loam (as single elements). . |
14.09 13-43 13.29 |
2,323 2,524 2,003 |
15,899 i5>57* 13,916 |
14.19 2,255 13.19 2,176 13.19 1,837 |
|
|
Average sugar per acre. . . . |
2,394 |
! *»i54 |
In Germany and France, where beet sugar raising is much more largely and successfully carried on than in this country, the benefit of using Nitrate of Soda is thoroughly understood and is one of the reasons why sugar beet grow- ing is conducted with greater success than in this country.
The principal points to be remembered when using Nitrate on sugar beets are :
First — The Nitrate should be applied early — either be- fore or shortly after the beets come up — and the quantity
applied should not be more than 200 pounds per acre ; on wet land 100 to 1 50 pounds per acre is enough.
Second — Be sure that there is enough phosphoric acid and potash in the soil. To do this, apply superphosphate ("dissolved bone-black" or "acid phosphate") and sulphate of potash before sowing the seed.
Third — The beets should stand thickly in rows so that the Nitrate will not make them grow too large.
When these conditions and directions are complied with, a large increase in the yield of beets may be expected with- out any reduction in the percentage of sugar in them.
The reason that Nitrate is the best form of Nitrogen to use is because it is perfectly soluble and at once available to the plants when they most need it, in the early stages of their growth, while other forms of Nitrogen, such as dung, animal refuse, cotton-seed meal and sulphate of ammonia, are only slowly converted into available form (Nitrate), and thus furnishing Nitrogen to the plants in the latter part rather than the beginning of their growth, which delays ripening and development of sugar in the beets.
The effect of Nitrate of Soda is to give the young beet a good start, and soon being used up, allows the beets to ripen early and with the greatest development of sugar.
The great and growing interest now NJtrate of Soda taken in the subject of raising beet sugar in for Sugar Beets# this country makes the use of Nitrate of Soda on this crop of special interest, for it is only by the judicious use of this fertilizer that we can hope to compete with the best growers of Europe who have long profited by its use. Dr. Maercker, one of the most eminent authorities on sugar beet growing in Germany, says, in his work, " Profitable Cultivation of the Sugar Beet :"
"It is generally speaking impossible to grow sugar beets with profit with- out supplying them in a judicious manner with easily assimilable Nitrogenous food, and that, best of all, in the form of Nitrate of Soda. Of all our crops the beet is the one whose requirements in Nitrogen are the greatest ; it is capable of taking up Nitrogen in far greater quantities than are usually supplied to it, and there are in this respect scarcely any limits to the increase of the yield.
****** **
"In the first place, the question suggests itself : Why cannot we dispense with the use of Nitrate of Soda ; and has it such special properties that it is indispensable as food for the sugar beet ? The reply to this is : Yes, in
Food for Plants
Food for certain circumstances we could employ other Nitrogenous manures with good
Plants results ; but no one of them comes up to Nitrate of Soda in its effects. The
44 conditions of the nutrition of plants are such that they give the preference to
Nitrate as a Nitrogenous food, and with no other Nitrogenous food are they
able to yield crops in any way worthy to be named.
"The conversion of ammonia into Nitrates is not completed in the soil all at once, but is brought about by the growth and nourishment of small or- ganisms, and this process requires a certain time ; I cannot say how long it occupies, but some lapse of time always takes place before the last of the am- monia in the soil is converted into Nitrate. But as the beet is quite unable to consume ammonia, and can only live on Nitrate, it is, in my opinion, an agricultural sin of omission not to place at its disposal at the outset the quantity of Nitrogen necessary for its first development in the form of Nitrate of Soda. "For this first development, which I repeat once more, must in the case of the sugar beet proceed rapidly and healthily, / hold the application of Nitrate of Soda in certain quantities to be quite indispensable ; so that it may with truth be said that without Nitrate of Soda the profitable cultivation of the sugar beet cannot at the present time be carried on at a//."
This is the opinion of a man who has thoroughly- studied the raising of sugar beets for many years where it is most successfully carried on. The conditions are prac- tically the same in this country, and every grower should realize the significance of the remark and acquaint himself with the use of Nitrate on sugar beets.
Nitrate should be used only in connection with super- phosphate and potash, and should be applied early in the growth of the beet — as soon after they come up the better ; 200 to 300 pounds of Nitrate per acre is about the quantity that should be used. About 300 pounds of superphosphate and 100 pounds of sulphate of potash should be applied per acre before sowing the seed.
_., ~ The proper fertilization of these fruits is
Plums, Prunes F r . , , c c -Vi. .1
. . . very important. A lack or fertility in the
and Apricots. •. • j . 1 _ ..u a
soil is more detrimental to the size and
quality of the fruit than to the quantity borne by the
trees. This is especially true when there is an insufficient
amount of Nitrogen in the soil.
The following table shows the amount of Nitrogen,
phosphoric acid and potash removed from an acre of ground
by an average crop of the fruits named :
Nitrogen. Phosphoric Potash,
lbs. Acid. lbs. lbs.
Grapes, crop of 10,000 lbs 17 15 50
Prunes, crop of 30,000 lbs 45 16 80
Apricots, crop of 30,000 lbs 69 21 84
It will be noticed that while a crop of prunes takes ¥ood for practically no more phosphoric acid from the soil than a crop of grapes, yet the amount of Nitrogen removed is 4o nearly three times as much, and in the case of apricots over four times as much as required by grapes. It is evident that a few crops of plums or apricots will materially reduce the amount of Nitrogen in the soil, which is usually de- ficient to start with and therefore this element of plant food must be replenished or the fruit will soon deteriorate in size. Mr. E. Petrie Hovle, who has 150 acres of prunes and apricots in Orange county, California, says :
"In my experiments and use of Nitrate of Soda I find that to apply Nitrate when the fruit is set and half grown is best. If the top of the ground is dry then cultivate it in. I used some Nitrate on nearly full grown Apricots, cultivating it in, and the effect was to enlarge the fruit so much that people who saw them thought they were Moorparks instead of Royals.
"Nitrate doubled the number of melons on the vines and in no way affected their quality. The same may be said of Apricots. Prunes made larger fruit, but I applied too early to get best results. Time to apply should be when fruit is half grown, and cultivate in to get the Nitrate mixed with the moist soil."
Unless it is known that there is sufficient Quantjtjes phosphoric acid and potash in the soils, dis- ReqUjre(j an(j solved bone (superphosphate of lime) or Time tQ Appjy- bone meal, and if necessary to furnish pot- ash, muriate of potash or wood ashes should be applied early in the winter or early spring. Two or three pounds of bone and (if necessary) one pound muriate of potash or ten pounds unbleached wood ashes per tree would be about the right quantities. The Nitrate of Soda should be applied after the fruit is set at the rate of 2 to 2 ^ pounds per tree.
It is important that the fertilizers should be well mixed with the soil, and that they be applied not close to the trunks of the trees, but considerably further out than the branches reach.
After investigating the requirements of p.
the fig, Professor George E. Colby, of the University of California Experiment Station, says :
"The Fig leads among our fruits in its demand upon the soil for this substance (Nitrogen). Thus we find for the southern localities especially, the same necessity of early replacement of Nitrogen in figs and stone fruit as for Orange orchards, and partly for the same reason, viz., that California soils are usually not rich in their natural supply of this substance."
Food for Nitrate of Soda will furnish the necessary Nitrogen in
ants its most available form, and at less cost than any other ma- 46 terial. It will probably be best to use in addition to the Nitrate an equal quantity of bone meal or " Dissolved Bone " (superphosphate), say two pounds of each per tree applied as recommended for plums and apricots. Fertilizers for ^e writer has taken considerable pains
nMn„oc „„j to ascertain from the best authorities and Oranges and . , , _ c ,.„
Other Citrus Practlcal growers the effect of different prui fertilizing materials on orange trees and
fruit. The facts obtained seem to show that the following results are, as a rule, produced :
First — Phosphoric acid alone produces very little effect, either on the growth of the trees or fruit.
Second — Nitrogen produces a marked effect in promo- ting good growth and increasing the size of fruit ; but unless combined with phosphoric acid in some form, tends to make the fruit too large, dry and puffy. This is especially true when the Nitrogen is applied in an organic form, such as cotton-seed meal, blood, "tankage," etc.
Third — The best fertilizer seems to be a combination of phosphoric acid, potash in the form of sulphate, or wood ashes and Nitrogen in an immediately available form, such as Nitrate of Soda.
Fourth — That the Nitrate should be applied while the fruit is small, or only just forming, and not in quantities so large that an excess of wood growth will be produced and the fruit made too large and puffy.
Mr. G. W. Peck, a large orange grower of Orange county, Florida, says :
"When I started in the orange-growing business I was sure that there was nothing so good as ground bone, for the Nitrogen and phosphoric acid it contained, so I used it in large quantities with sulphate of potash to make a complete fertilizer, using enough bone, as I thought, to supply the necessary quantity of Nitrogen. The bone used was of the best quality and finely ground, but although it is several years since it was applied, the trees have so far been unable to find the Nitrogen that the dealer said was there and that the chemist guaranteed. I now use Nitrate of Soda, and the trees find it as well as the chemist, and thrive and bear full crops that show very much less dam- age from red spider and rust mites than when bone was used.
"Until quite recently the old orange growers used to tell us that we must give the trees but very little Nitrogen, or they would have the 'die bark' and foot-rot, which may be true if too much is used from animal sources, not
properly balanced by the chemicals needed ; but I have failed to see any bad Food for results from the use of a well-balanced mineral fertilizer, though used in large Plants quantities with six to eight per cent, of Nitrogen (in the form of Nitrate of ~^ Soda).
"Having five groves of bearing oranges, lemons and pomelo (grape fruit) trees, which I have fertilized for some years with a purely mineral fertilizer, composed of Nitrate of Soda, superphosphate and sulphate of potash, which I had mixed at home, all of these surrounded by other groves on similar soil where mixed fertilizers have been used of nearly all the standard brands, costing from five to twenty dollars per ton more than mine, and in many cases more pounds per tree used, I am certainly satisfied with the comparison of condition of the trees and amount and quality of fruit. Not only have I my groves for comparison, but in different parts of the country are other groves, where the same materials and formula have been used at my sug- gestion, and in every case they are in the finest condition of any in the neighborhood.
"When I began buving materials to mix my own fertilizers, I used sul- phate of ammonia for Nitrogen, thinking it more lasting in its effects than Nitrate of Soda, but recently I have been using the Nitrate exclusively, be- cause it is cheaper per unit of Nitrogen than the sulphate of ammonia, and I can see no appreciable difference in the result, excepting that the Nitrate is quicker in its action upon the trees, and I think upon the whole preferable of the two."
Dr E W Hilgard, Director of the What is Most Agricultural Experiment Station, uni- Neec}ed in Cali- versity of California, in a paper entitled fornia Soils "Fertilization of Orchards," after showing that there is an abundance of lime in nearly all California soils, says :
"Now we are usually aiming to supply one, if not two, of the three in- gredients, potash, phosphoric acid and Nitrogen. What I have just said in reference to lime in California soils, investigations, so far as they have gone — and they have not extended very far north of Sacramento — have shown that in the vast majority of California soils, potash is not an ingredient that need be supplied at the present time. It is so abundant in the large majority of soils that when the soil fails to produce what you want, the presumption is not that potash is lacking, but that either Nitrogen or phosphoric acid has given out, if the soil is otherwise in good condition. Now this conclusion is the result of several hundred examinations of California soils which have been made at the central station at Berkeley."
Dr. Hilgard also says :
"By far the most convenient, and at present certainly the cheapest and most available source of Nitrogen at command of the farmer is Nitrate of Soda, which contains about sixteen per cent, of Nitrogen in its most effective form. From I 50 to 200 lbs. per acre is the usual dose."
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Food for Plants
Profitable Onion Cultivation.
„ There is no crop that can be grown so Adaptability of successfully on a ]arge scalej on such a
,,es .?10D t0 variety of soils, under such varied climatic conditions, and that will respond more pro- fitably to intelligent cultivation and fertilizing, than the onion; and while in the past the American farmer has usually been willing to leave the growing of this savory vegetable almost entirely to the enterprising foreigner who has emigrated to this country, he has at the same time very often seen that thrifty cultivator make more net profit at the end of the season from his five or six acres of onions than the average farmer makes at general farming on his 100-acre farm. And now that the advent of the weeder and the improved wheel hoe, together with a more intelli- gent understanding of their use, has made it comparatively easy to care for the crop there is no reason why the pro- gressive farmer who is looking about for a New Money Crop, i. e.y one that will give handsome returns for any extra care and study given it should not raise onions with ease and profit.
We will consider here the growing of onions only as a field crop for the fall and winter market, with a few notes on their culture as practiced successfully throughout New York, Ohio and Michigan, although the onion can be successfully grown anywhere in the United States where other vegetables thrive.
The reason that onions have not been more generally grown by farmers is in the mistaken idea that it is impossible to grow them without the application of vast quantities of stable manure, but we have learned that onion growing with the aid of chemical fertilizers is not only much cheaper, but the average crop grown is much larger ; the excessive quantity of stable manure required to grow a maximum crop militating against the chance of a good crop by tending to make the land open, when the great secret of onion culture is to get the land solidified.
Besides, the ploughing under of so much bulky manure tends to cut off the moisture supply from below, which is so important in the quick growth of crops of this nature and
which can only be obtained by having the soil very com- Food for pact and in fine tilth so as to promote the capillary move- Plants ment of the soil moisture to the surface, where it may be retained for the use of the crop by means of frequent and shallow cultivation.
In view of the foregoing fact the advantage of using Nitrate of Soda instead of stable manure as the source of Nitrogen for this crop is plainly evident, as the Nitrate supplies the most beneficial and important ingredient con- tained in the stable manure (Nitrogen), and in a form in which it is not dependent upon soil bacteria and weather conditions to make it available for the young plants when thev need it most. If it be necessary to add humus to the soil in the shape of stable manure it should be applied to the crop preceding whenever possible.
Considering the fact that Nitrogen is Character of the element most frequently lacking in our pja t pood pe. soils, and knowing that the onion responds ired by the most liberally to a plentiful feeding of am- Qnion moniate fertilizers it would seem conclusive that it is to our interest to see that the plant has a liberal supplv of that element and in the best possible form, which is undoubtedly Nitrate of Soda.
We know that if a young pig or calf does not have an abundance of the right kind of food when it is young it be- comes stunted in growth and never recovers from it, no matter how judiciously it is afterwards fed. The intelligent cultivator has learned that the same rule holds good in the feeding of plants ; hence the great importance of an imme- diately available supply very early in the season just as the plant is starting growth, and at which time it can only be obtained from an application of Nitrate of Soda, since the Nitrogen in other ammoniates and from organic sources does not become available until later in the season after the soil has warmed up to a temperature of 70 deg. or more Fahrenheit.
By having a supply of available Nitrate at once the plant starts off with a good healthy root growth, which en- ables it better to take up the other and more complex food elements as they become available throughout the season.
Food for it is on}y by thoughtful and painstaking study of the
Plants needs of his different crops that the farmer is enabled to feed 54 them so as to obtain maximum crops at the lowest cost per acre or per ton of product.
In a general way it may prove of interest to the reader to reflect on the following :
If it cost $45.00 per acre for rent, ploughing, harrowing, seeding, weeding and cultivating to produce a crop of onions ready to harvest^ then
The crop of 225 bushels per acre costs 20 cts. per bushel. The crop of 450 bushels per acre costs 10 cts. per bushel. The crop of 900 bushels per acre costs 5 cts. per bushel.
The latter yield is not at all unusual when the crop is properly fed with Nitrate of Soda and supplementary chemical fertilizers.
In the first place, the onion, contrary to the general be- lief, does not require any special kind of soil, such as muck, black sand, etc., but will do almost equally as well on any good corn or potato soil, provided it is not so stony as to interfere with the cultivation of the crop when young, and is capable of being worked into fine tilth on the surface so as to satisfactorily cover the seed in order that they may germinate evenly and quickly.
Even though a field is somewhat stony, if otherwise suitable, it will pay to rake the stones into the dead fur- rows (which should not be more than twenty feet apart) with a hand rake, as the stones would make it impossible to do good work with the weeder and wheel hoe when culti- vating the crop.
c In selecting your field for onions it is, of Necessity of _ , f ' {, _ „u«™ ™ +unt. :„ i;i^i„
Moisture in Soil.
course, advisable to choose one that is likely to be affected as little as possible in the event of a severe drought, and it is for this reason that onions, cabbage and those crops that especially require large quantities of moisture during their growth are usually grown upon bottom lands. In fact, it is next to impossible to raise a money crop of any kind unless we can have a fairly good supply of moisture at the right time, which is when the plant is making its strongest growth ; therefore it is important that we treat our soilj from the start with that object in view, viz., to conserve an adequate
supply of moisture for the plant to draw upon during the season of dry weather which we invariably have during July and August.
Ploughing for the onion crop should Cultivation,
preferably be done in the fall and to the depth of eight inches or more, leaving the soil in the furrow to be acted upon by the frost during the winter, and at the same time becoming more compact — the onion likes a solid seed bed. When for any reason the ploughing has to be done in the spring it should be done very early and worked down solid. The lands should be narrow, so that the numerous dead furrows will drain off any excessive surface moisture early in the spring, as it is desired to get the seed sown as early as possible.
As soon as the condition of the soil will pree yse Qf the permit in the spring it should be worked Harrow ancj over with the harrow or pulverizer as puiverizert deeplv as the ground will allow and rolled with a heavy roller, which should be followed at once with a light harrow, which will loosen the surface soil and form a light mulch to help conserve the moisture. This operation should be repeated each week until it is time to sow the seed, which should be sown in this latitude when the apple trees begin to bloom.
The seed should be sown with a hand seed drill sowing about three-quarters of an inch deep and in rows about fifteen inches apart, sowing about six pounds of seed per acre. (The variety depending on the requirements of your prospective market, also on the behavior of different varieties when grown in your locality.)
In about five days after the seed is sown the field should be gone over with the weeder to destroy any weeds that have started to germinate near the surface, and again in three or four days or before the onions come up, always going across the rows with the weeder.
After the onions are up so that you can see the rows you can take the wheel hoe and carefully cultivate the rows, using the sharp blades that are made for that purpose and CToiny; not more than one-half inch deep.
As soon as any more weeds appear to be germinating in the rows go over again with the weeder. The weeder may appear to be doing some damage, but if handled caremlly
Food for Plants
Food for there is no danger, as we have sown an extra pound of seed Plants to allow for some being pulled out.
56 When the onions are about four inches high it will prob-
ably be necessary to go through and weed them once by hand, but which will prove to be a not very tedious job if the weeder and wheel hoe have been used with good judgment. . In fertilizing, the Nitrate should be applied
Fertilizing. as fo]lows . Qne hundred pounds scattered
broadcast over the field within a week after the seed is sown and before the plants break through the ground, and two more broadcast applications of ioo pounds each at intervals of two or three weeks, depending somewhat on the appear- ance of the plots as to growth, color, etc.
. , Generallv speaking the Nitrate should all When to Apply be j.^ 5uring5May and june5 except Nitrate. that in a ver^7 ^ time -m juj^ ^ the onions
should show signs of turning yellow at the tips, an extra dressing of 50 pounds per acre may be applied to advantage. In a wet season it is well to avoid putting it on late in the growth of the crop, as it might aggravate the tendency to produce a considerable number of thick-necked onions, or scullions, which sometimes happens in a wet season.
Nitrate is usually in a finely pulverized condition, but if lumpy from anv cause it may easily be fined by emptying it on the barn floor and crushing the lumps with the back of a shovel or similar tool. In applying it broadcast to growing crops, especially those having a large leaf surface like cabbage, it should be done when the plants are not wet with rain or dew, for if very much should adhere to the leaves it might injure them.
r The onion is also an alkali-loving plant,
Use otum- an^ Hke asparaguS) seems to have a
mon bait. peculiar fondness for salt ; and the results
of experiments on widely different soils shows that it nearly always responds profitably to an application of about 200 pounds of salt per acre. This guides us to the choice of kainit for this crop, as that product contains about 3 5 per cent, of chloride of soda or common salt, which also has a value for conserving moisture in the soil during a dry season. Some little judgment must be used here, however, as the kainit might have a harmful effect in a wet season on a low and naturally damp soil.
About 400 pounds of kainit per acre should be used on Food
P01
entire
an ordinary soil, and it should be drilled into the surface of the ground the first thing in the spring and at least three inches deep, as the kainit becomes fixed in the soil very quickly and should be rather deep, so as not to attract the feeding roots too near the surface. In case wood ashes or muriate should be used instead of kainit the time of making the application should be the same.
In the light of recent investigations at the Rhode Island Experiment Station and elsewhere it has been shown that most of the vegetable crops will give greatly increased returns from the use of chemicals if lime is used in con- junction with them, and the facts seem to confirm what has been observed of late by many large practical growers throughout the country.
An application of 75 bushels per acre of ground quick- lime has also proved beyond question its efficiency as a preventive of onion smut ; however, if the onions have been kept in a healthful growthy condition with a sufficient amount of Nitrate of Soda we need have no fear of smut or any other fungous disease.
Nevertheless there is a hint in regard yse 0f Thomas to the best source from which to obtain the g. an(J ^ phosphoric acid for our onions, and it is ^jme plain that we must be guided by the charac- ter of the soil in which we are to grow them. For instance, if it is a strong, deep soil, rich in humus and with an ex- cessive quantity of organic matter, it is quite probable that •it is deficient in lime and we know that on these muck soils basic slag if very finely ground seems to give better results usually on most crops except the peas and clovers than the readilv available acid rock, which may be accounted for in the fact that the basic slag contains from 40 to 50 per cent, of lime, which is so necessary in this sort of soil to neutralize the excess of organic acids present and which are otherwise detrimental to plant growth.
Whereas if our soil is a medium heavy clay upland we know it is best to use the acid rock which contains, besides the phosphoric acid, about 50 per cent, of calcium sulphate (gypsum) which reacts upon the silicates of potash and aluminum in the clay soil, forming sulphate of potash and thereby unlocking the natural potash in the soil.
Plants
Food for The clay soil probably does not contain enough
Plants moisture and decaying vegetable matter to make the phos- 68 phoric acid in the basic slag available, so it would be folly to attempt to use it there ; while the acid rock would not give as good results on the black soil as the slag, although the cost is greater. The quantity of either to apply on ordinary soils is 1,000 pounds per acre very early in the spring, so that in fitting the ground it will become very thoroughly incorporated with the soil before the onion seed is sown.
The following table gives the actual field results of six years' experiments with fertilizers and seven years with manures at the rate of 30 tons per acre :
Manure. Chemicals.
Tons per acre, average 8.90 14.02
Market value per ton, average $18.16 $20.52
The crop grown with chemical fertilizers was 5.12 tons greater per acre, a gain over the stable manure of nearly 58 per cent.; while the Nitrate crop averaged $2.36 greater market value per ton, an advance over the manure-grown crop of 13 percent. The chemical fertilizers proved much superior to the stable manure, though the latter contained much more plant food, as the following table shows :
Chemicals. Stable Manure.
Ammonia as Nitrate 60 lbs. 360 lbs.
Phosphoric acid 130 lbs. 1 50 lbs.
Potash 5° lbs- 3+° lbs-
Thus proving that the onion will thrive on a much' smaller amount of actual plant food when it is supplied in an immediately available form.
Stable Manure and Artificial Fertilizer Upon Fruit Trees.
In this country the manuring or fertilizing of fruit plantations is very commonly neglected, but in Europe fruit trees are as regularly treated with plant food as staple crops. According to the investigations of Professor Barth-Colmar and Dr. Steglich, Dresden, the wood, foliage
and fruit of apple, pear, cherry and bush fruits consume Food for yearly per square yard of surface shaded by the tree or bush, 219 grains of Nitrogen, 65 grains of phosphoric acid, and 284 grains of actual potash; equivalent to fertilizer chemi- cals as follows :
Nitrate of Soda per square yard 3.5 ounces.
Acid Phosphate per square yard 1.5 ounces.
Muriate Potash per square yard . . . . , 1.5 ounces.
Except on high-priced land garden Amoum of Ra_ crops should not be grown in orchards, but . ^ p\am where this custom is followed the quantity pQod ^ Qne of plant food should be increased to suit jrQQ the needs of the additional crop to be grown. For fruit alone apply between the fall of the leaf and the bursting of the buds, per square yard of surface shaded by the tree, the quantities of plant food shown above to be the actual needs of the crop. If the trees have made a weak growth the previous season, or have heavily fruited, applv between May and July about one ounce of Nitrate of Soda per square yard of surface ; this in addition to the previously applied plant food.
The practical effect of artificial manures for fruit cannot be denied, not only for quantity, but also for the quality of the crop. Stable manures seem to fail of regular bountiful results, probablv because the stable manure supplies its ammonia in the Nitrated form very irregularly, and fruit trees can use ammonia plant food only in the Nitrated form. Practical figures showing the profitableness of artificial ma- nures, fertilizers, have been shown by many experiments, particularly by those conducted at Feldbrunnen, near Osterode, Germany.
The rational fertilization of fruit trees depends somewhat upon their period of growth ; young trees need ample sup- plies of Nitrated ammonia and potash to develop and ripen new wood. Later, at the bearing age, phosphoric acid and Nitrated ammonia are required for the formation of fruiting buds. These two phases in the making of an orchard should have due consideration and plant food used accordingly.
Apples. Cherries. Plums.
Unfertilized 100 lbs. 100 lbs. 100 lbs.
Fertilized 3>42° lbs- 2l8 l°s- 329 lbs-
Food for How Big Crysanthemums are Made.
— w — According to American Gardenings Vol. XXI., No. 313,
one of the most effective methods of producing the big blooms of the exhibition rooms is to apply a solution of Nitrate of Soda containing one ounce of Nitrate to four gallons of water. The solution is used only on established plants, and three times a week for three consecutive weeks, followed by rest. The solution is not used after the buds have formed.
Market Gardening with Nitrate.
The following is the result of a practical Resuhs in an study of conditions on a large truck farm, Unfavorable near New York. In every case the opera- Qrowing gea_ tions of the farm were carried out on a gon wJth Low strictly money-making basis. The soil is a prices for heavy clay with a rather intractable clay procjucts> subsoil, decidedly not a soil naturally suited to growing garden crops. The weather was unfavorable, including the most severe drought in thirty years; from March 22d to July 8th practically no rain fell. Owing to the unfavorable season, the grade of garden products was low causing a low ruling in prices. Details by crops follow :
Asparagus.
The bed was twenty years old, and had been neglected. As soon as workable, it was disc-harrowed, and later smooth- harrowed with an Acme harrow. Nitrate of Soda was applied to the three test plots April ioth, 200 pounds per acre, sown directly over the rows and well worked into the soil. A second application of 100 pounds per acre was made to plot 1 April 24th; and, on the 29th, a third application of equal amount.
The experiment comprised three plots, two fertilized with Nitrate of Soda, and one without Nitrate, plot 3. Plots 1 and 2, treated with the Nitrate, produced marketable stalks ten days in advance of plot 3, a very material ad- vantage in obtaining the high prices of an early market. The results were as follows, in bunches per acre.
Plot and Fertilizer. Bunches per acre. Gain.
3. No Nitrate 56°
2. 200 lbs. Nitrate 680 1 20
1 . 400 lbs. Nitrate 840 280
The financial results are as follows, prices being those actually obtained in the New York Markets :
Plot I. Plot 2. Plot 3.
Fertilizer, Nitrate 400 lbs. 200 lbs
Gross receipts $207.90 $161.50
Fertilizer cost 8.40 4.20
Applying fertilizer 2.00 1.00
Net receipts 197-5° 161.50 $112.00
Nitrate made gain. . 85.50 44-3°
Food for Plants
Food for Plants
The use of 400 pounds of Nitrate of Soda produced on plot t a gain of $85.50 on a fertilizer and application cost of $10.40 ; the use of 200 lbs. of Nitrate returned a similar gain of $44.30 on a fertilizer and application cost of $5.20. There is little difference between the per cent, of gain on the two plots, but the evidence is conclusive that the heavier application was very profitable.
Table Beets Grown on Ni- trate were Ready for Mar- ket 16 Days Ahead of Un- fertilized Plots
produce mar applied at the cations.
Table Beets.
The crop must be forced to quick growth in order to obtain tender, crisp vegetables, always quickly salable and at good prices. Nitrate of Soda was com- pared with unfertilized soil, with the re- sult that on the Nitrated plots, marketable beets were pulled 56 days from seeding; the unfertilized plot required 72 days to ketable vegetables. Nitrate of Soda was rate of 500 pounds per acre, in four appli-
Beets.
500 lbs. Nitrate of Soda to the acre, in 4 applications.
No Nitrate.
Snap Beans. Food for
The Beans were grown for pods, or what is known as string beans. Two varieties were experimented with, Chal- lenger black wax, and the Red Valentine. Seed were drilled in with a machine, May ioth, in rows two feet apart; on May 22d, ioo pounds of Nitrate of Soda were applied per acre, and on the 27th, another application of 1 50 pounds were drilled in. June 12th, an application of 50 pounds was drilled along the rows, followed by 100 pounds Increase in June 19th ; in all 400 pounds of Nitrate of c and Ret_
Soda per acre. Half the field was not / <-\ t-.
j • l xt- 1 l c l ter Quality
treated with Nitrate. In the case of the D . ,
111 1 1 xt- j 1 1 Resulted as
black wax beans, the Nitrated land gave a „ c .
. , . ' , r , & well as Saving
crop 6 davs in advance or the part not . ~,.
r , • , ^T- , , r in 1 lme.
treated with Nitrate, and the same gam
was made by the Nitrated Valentine beans. The black wax
beans treated with Nitrate produced 75 per cent, more
marketable crop than the not Nitrated portion, and the
Valentine variety 60 per cent. Taking into consideration
the enhanced price due to earlier ripening, the average
price of the Nitrated black wax beans averaged some 60
per cent, higher than the portion of the field not treated with
Nitrate of Soda ; in like manner, the increased price of the
Valentine beans was 45 per cent.
Early Cabbage. The cabbage plots were thoroughly worked up, and planted to Henderson's Early Spring variety. Part of the soil was treated with Nitrate of Soda at the rate of 575 pounds per acre, in five applications ranging ._. r ^ from May 1st to June 17th. The part of ^SavedTmm the plot not treated with Nitrate of Soda was ~ . , c ..
1 r -i l n • l 1 Total Failure.
a total failure, but allowing the same number
of plants as the fertilized portion, and also allowing for
difference in price on account of later ripening, the crop on
the portion not treated with Nitrate should A ^ ,, c
, r A Dollar Spent
have returned a gross amount of ^292. 50. jn Nitrate Re
The Nitrated portion returned gross re- mrned
ceipts of ^720, from which deducting in Increased
Si 9.50 for fertilizer and application of ^
same, we have $700.50 for Nitrate of Soda
as compared with #292.50 without Nitrate, a net profit for
Food for rne Nitrate of $408. That is, for every dollar spent for Plants Nitrate 0f Soda, the crop returned an additional $21 nearly.
64
Celery.
Crisp stalks of rich nutty flavor are a matter of rapid,
unchecked growth, and plant food must be present in
unstinted quantity, as well as in the most quickly available
form, the best example of which is Nitrate of Soda. The
soil was plowed early in May, and subsoiled, thoroughly
breaking the soil to a depth of 10 inches. Thirty bushels
~ ,. of slaked lime were broadcasted per acre
Extraordinary . ,. , c . r 11 j t.
p immediately alter plowing, followed by a
rvciLirns on t * r c 1 i 11
P . dressing or 20 tons or stable manure ; all
well worked into the soil. Plants were set May 10th. The tract was portioned into three tracts for experimental purposes ; plot 1 received 675 pounds of Ni- trate of Soda per acre in six applications, May 1 6th, 22nd, June 1 st, 10th, 17th and 24th. Plot 2 received 475 pounds in five applications, May 16th, 22nd, June 1st, 17th and 24th. Plot 3 was not treated with Nitrate of Soda.
Plot 1 was ready for market July 6th, and was all off by the 10th. Plot 2 was ready for market July nth and was all harvested by the 14th. Plot 3 was practically a failure and was not harvested. Plot 1, being first in the market, had the advantage of the best prices ; the gross re- ceipts were, per acre, $957.80 ; from which must be deducted 1 1 8.67 for Nitrate of Soda and the application of same — a net result of $939.13 per acre. Plot 2 gave a gross return of $676.30, from which $13.72 must be deducted for ferti- lizer, leaving $662.58 per acre net. Plot 1 makes therefore a gain of $276.55 over plot 2, simply from the earliness in maturing, due to the heavy applications of Nitrate, for the total crop was approximately the same for both plots. The plot not Nitrated gave no return.
Cucumbers.
Plants were set in box frames May 4th. The frames were well filled with rotted manure, and were banked as a protection against late frosts. A portion of the field was treated with Nitrate of Soda ; on May 10th each plant was given a quart of a solution made by dissolving three pounds of Nitrate of Soda in 50 gallons of water. Applications in
quantity the same were made on the experimental plot May Food for 1 6th, 22nd, 29th, June 3rd, 9th, 15th, 22nd and 26th; Plants making a total of 165 pounds of Nitrate of Soda per acre. On June 27th the experimental plot was setting fruit rapidly, while the plot not Nitrated was just coming to bloom. The Nitrated plot was given on June 29th a quart of a solution made by dissolving two ounces of Nitrate of Soda in a gallon of water; and this application was repeated July 3rd, 7th, 1 5th, 24th, and August 8th. This practically doubled the Nitrate application.
The first picking on the Nitrated plot was Gain jn T-me made July 1st, on the non-Nitrated plot -n ^ q July 22nd, when prices were at the lowest y Remark- point. After the early market season was ^ Two over, the vines were treated for pickling ^egks in Ad- cucumbers, the Nitrated plot receiving 50 vance pounds of Nitrate of Soda dissolved in water as before ; later two applications of a quart each, con- taining half an ounce per gallon. The result was that the vines continued bearing until cut down by frost. The estimated yields were as follows: Nitrated plot, per acre, 6,739 dozen, plot not Nitrated gave per acre 948 dozen.
Sweet Corn.
The crop was planted on rather poor soil. Seed was planted May 4th, and the cultivators started May 12th. A portion of the field was selected for experiment, and on this 75 pounds of Nitrate of Soda were applied per acre May 20th, drilled close to the row. A second application of the same amount was made May 26th, and on June 5th a third application. On June 17th 100 pounds per acre were applied and cultivated into the soil. The total Nitrate applied to the experimental plot amounted to 325 pounds per acre. The Nitrated plot ripened corn 5 days ahead of the non-Nitrated portion, and produced 994 dozen ears against 62 j dozen from an acre not treated with Nitrate or Soda. The Nitrated crop, being earlier in the market, brought better prices ; the gross return being 599.40 per acre as compared with S62.30 for the non-Nitrated plot. The cost of the Nitrate and its application expenses amounted to 59.75 Per acre> leaving a net gain from the use of Nitrate of Soda, of S27.35 per acre.
Egg-Plant.
The plants were set in the usual manner, part of the tract being treated with Nitrate of Soda at the rate of 475 pounds per acre to observe the practical value of the Ni- trate for forcing. Before setting, the plants were given a light application of Nitrate in solution. June 1st 150 pounds were applied, on the tenth this was repeated, and on June 22nd a third application was made. The Nitrated plot produced marketable fruit July 5th, the non-Nitrated plot did not reach the market until July 26th. The Ni- trated plot produced per acre 33,894 fruits, all of good quality; the non-Nitrated plot produced only 8,7 12 fruits per acre.
LETTUCE (Early.)
750 lbs. Nitrate of Soda to the acre, in 5 applications.
No Ni
Early Lettuce. The plants were started in the hot-house, and pricked into cold frames, April 26th they were set in the field. The Nitrate applications on the experiment plot were per acre as follows : April 29th, 100 pounds; May 4th, 150 pounds; May 12th, 200 pounds; May 1 8th, 200 pounds; May 23rd, 100 pounds; a total of 750 pounds per acre. The Nitrated plot was first cut May 26th, and at this time the non-Nitrated plot was just beginning to curl a few leaves towards the heart for heading. Approximately, the Nitrated plot produced per acre 1,724 dozen heads, and so early to the
market that the average wholesale price was 25 cents per p°a°^sfor dozen ; per acre, $43 1 .00. From this we must deduct . 520.00 for Nitrate and the expense of applying same, leaving net $41 1.00. On the non-Nitrated plot only about 4 per cent of the plants headed, and these reached the market three weeks late. The financial statement shows 48 dozen heads at 10 cents, or a net return per acre of $4.80. That is, without the Nitrate dressing, the crop was a failure.
Onions.
The soil was in bad condition, and was liberally limed. Seeding was completed April 15th, and the plants were rapidly breaking ground by the 28th. The tract was divided into three plots; plot 1 received 675 pounds of Nitrate of Soda in six applications at intervals of a week or 10 days; plot 2, 375 pounds in four applications, plot 3 was not treated with Nitrate. The Nitrated plots seemed least affected by the exceptionally dry weather, but the crop on all the plots was no doubt reduced by the unfavorable conditions. The following table gives the results by plots, computed to an acre basis :
Nitrate, 6" lbs. Nitrate, 375 lbs. No Nitrate.
Total yield 756 bu. 482 bu. 127 bu.
Per cent scullions 1.5 i-7 I9-°
Average price per bushel .... 75 cts. 65 cts. 35 cts.
Total receipts $567.00 $3!3-3° $44-5°
Fertilizer cost 20. 1 7 9-3°
Total net receipts 5+6.83 304.00 44-5°
The results show very clearly that but for the Nitrate applications, the crop must have been a failure in every
respect.
ONIONS (Main Crop.)
675 lbs. of Nitrate of Soda to the acre, in 6 applications.
3-5 lbs. ot' Nitrate of Soda to the acre, in 4 appli- cations.
No Nitrate.
Early Peas.
This crop was planted under same conditions and in like manner to the snap beans, 300 pounds of Nitrate of Soda were applied per acre, to the experiment plots. Two varieties were planted, early and late. The results were :
Early. Late.
Nitrate. Nothing. Nitrate. Nothing.
Date planted April 15. April 15. May 1. May 1.
First picking June 8. June 17. June 29. July 4.
Gain to Market 7 days. 5 days.
Period of bearing 11 days. 8 days. 10 days. 6 days.
Crop on first picking 55 p. ct. 40 p. ct. 57 p. ct. 38 p. ct.
Total yield (p. ct.) 165 100 168 100
The season was very unfavorable for this crop, yet the results show that the Nitrate made a powerful effort to offset this disadvantage. The earliness to market in this case is as pronounced as in the other garden crops, and is one of the most profitable factors in the use of Nitrate of Soda. The lengthening of the bearing period is an added advantage.
Early Potatoes.
Plowing was finished the second week in April, and limed at the rate of 35 bushels per acre. Furrows were opened three feet apart, and 750 pounds per acre of a high-grade fertilizer worked into the rows. May 1st the potatoes were breaking ground, and 100 pounds of Nitrate of Soda were applied per acre on the experiment plot. On the 11th 200 pounds of Nitrate were applied, and on the 29th 150 pounds more were cultivated in with a horse-hoe. The total Nitrate application per acre was 450 pounds. The Nitrated plot was harvested July 6th, and retailed at an average price of $1.60 per bushel ; the plot not treated with Nitrate was dug July 17th, eleven days later, and the highest price obtained was 80 cents per bushel. The Nitrated plot produced per acre 19 bushels unmarketable tubers, the non-Nitrated plot 46 bushels. The total crop marketable was 297 bushels for Nitrate, and 92 bushels for non-Nitrated plot. Deducting the cost of Nitrate of Soda and the expense of applying same, the Nitrated crop was worth $463.30 per acre, while the non-Nitrated plot re- turned only $69.00 per acre. For every dollar expended for Nitrate of Soda, the crop increase gave $30.18 return.
Late Potatoes. Food for
Plants
Conditions same as in the case of early potatoes, except — — — the Nitrate of Soda was used at the rate of 500 pounds per acre, in five applications. The crop per acre on the Ni- trated plot, marketable tubers, amounted to 374 bushels; on the non-Nitrated plot the yield amounted to 231 bushels marketable tubers. The gain for Nitrate of Soda was 143 bushels, or nearly 62 per cent, increase.
Early Tomatoes.
With this crop the object is to mature quickly ', rather than obtain a heavy acre yield ; one basket of early tomatoes at $1.2 3 is worth more than 13 baskets later in the season, when the price is about 8 cents per basket. The plants to be used on the Nitrated plot were treated with a dilute solution of Ni- trate, four separate times. Plants were field set May 17th, and given six applications of Nitrate of Soda: 1st, 100 pounds per acre soon after setting out ; 2nd, 3rd and 4th of 75 pounds each ; and 5th and 6th of 50 pounds each — in all, about 450 pounds per acre. The results were :
Nitrate. No Nitrate.
Plants set out in field May 1 7. May 17.
First picking June 30. July 19.
Davs, setting to first picking 43 62
Crop at $1.00 and upward per basket 40 p. ct.
.75 " " 30 " 10 p. ct.
.50 " " 20 " 15
.30 " " 10 " 20
•25 " " 25
•15 " " lS
.08 " << 15
Estimated yield per acre, baskets 500 600
Gross receipts $377-5° $190.20
Cost of fertilizer and application I°-35
Net receipts. 367. 1 5 190.20
Gain per acre for Nitrate 1 76. 95
The indicated gain amounts to a return of $17.09 for every dollar expended for Nitrate of Soda.
The experiments detailed in this pamphlet are all on a working basis. In every case the object was to force the crop to an early yield, and while the applications of Nitrate of Soda seem large and are large in proportion to the actual needs of the crops grown, at the same time the nature of
Food for market-gardening requires free use of immediately available Plants plant food, and the results show that such use is very pro-
fitable. Other crops than those enumerated were experi- mented with, notably Carrots, Kale, Lima Beans, Melons,
Rhubarb, Spinach, Strawberries, Endive and Kohl-Rabi. Food for
While the detail of results is not given, illustrations from ants
actual photographs show the increased growth from the use "' of Nitrate of Soda.
Cantaloupes.
A continuous and rapid growth in Cantaloupes is essen- tial to earliness and a good crop, and Nitrate of Soda under the proper conditions and with proper care, will yield just such results. A dressing of Nitrate of Soda alongside the rows in cultivating, in addition to the general fertilizer used, has been most successful. A general fertilizer may be made up as follows :
Nitrate of Soda 400 lbs.
Dried Blood or Cotton Seed Meal 600 lbs.
Superphosphate, high quality 600 lbs.
Sulphate of Potash 200 lbs.
Late Spinach.
3 50 lbs. Nitrate of Soda to the acre, in 2 applications.
No Nitrate
T«he points to be observed in the use of Nitrate of Soda are : Avoid an excess ; make frequent small applications rather than single large ones ; avoid wetting the foliage with solutions of it ; do not sprinkle the wet foliage with dry Ni- trate ; and in general Nitrate must not be allowed to come in contact with the sterns or leaves of plants. Nitrate of Soda is a Nitrated ammoniate, and is immediately available as plant
Food for food. The general fertilizer suggested may be applied Plants at the rate of 1,500 lbs. to the acre, and subsequent appli- 72 cations of Nitrate of Soda may be made at the rate of 100 lbs. to the acre, say two or three weeks apart, during the growing season, and best by placing the Nitrate well mixed with fine dry soil before applying, say % of an ounce to V2 of an ounce to each hill. The general fertilizer may be economized some- what by using a handful in each hill rather than by making a general application. Another formula which has given satis- faction is one in which dried bone meal takes the place of the superphosphate, and a little blood and cotton-seed meal and smaller amounts of potash could be used, including the stated amount of Nitrate, at the rate of from 1,000 to 1,500 lbs. per acre.
Typhoid from the Soil.
Editorial from the New York Evening Sun, August 15, 1902.
Food for Plants
Typhoid fever has run through whole families during the present season, and physicians have often been unable to point out the cause. The water drunk by the victims has been found on analysis to be pure and the milk free from germs. It is true the fever has usually been of a mild type — the peculiarity of it was that it attacked all or most of the members of a household in spite of precautions. The Board of Health in Chicago, where there has been a good deal of typhoid this summer, concludes, after investi- gation, that the origin of the trouble can be traced to the eating of raw vegetables — lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cold- slaw, &c. It was first observed that the greatest number of deaths had occurred in districts where the water supply was above suspicion. The milk was analyzed — it was whole- some in most cases. In what is called the Ghetto district there had been more deaths than elsewhere, and as raw vegetables are eaten in great quantities in that district the Board of Health had a clew at last. The vegetables came originally from the country adjacent to Chicago, which has been half submerged by the heavy rains during the present summer. Contamination, it was proved, bad thus been spread from the barnyards, where no sanitary precautions are taken. By the way, why do not Boards of Health teach the farmer something about hygiene and see that he heeds the lesson ? A chart prepared by the department in Chicago shows that the greatest number of deaths from typhoid in that city have occurred in localities supplied by cheap and dubious farm products. Accordingly the Board has issued this general notice : " Do not eat raw and unclean vegetables ; do not buy cheap dairy products ; sterilize the milk." The warn- ing will serve for other parts of the country. It is easy to avoid drinking cheap milk and eating cheap cheese, but with the best of care we may consume raw vegetables that have come from a vile farm — the typhoid germ may lurk in a bunch of celery that looks clean enough to the eye. The cooked vegetable seems to be above suspicion.
Food for Plants
In the number of the Medical Record for July 26, Dr. M. A. Veeuer, had an article on " Typhoid Fever from Sources Other than Water Supply," the point of which was that infection from the soil was more common than most physicians supposed. The germ may be in vegetables, in dust blown by the wind, and flies are active agents in carry- ing it about. The writer warns those who have care of the sick never to bury the excreta of patients. It is the surest way, he says, of "perpetuating the disease in any locality, keeping it alive for years and causing it to become epidemic." He observes that "there is good evidence that the typhoid bacillus grows to the surface in a mixture of soil and fecal matter, like a fungus in a hot-bed, so that burial is no pro- tection whatever against its spread." Unfortunately, in almost every town or village there are physicians who ignorantly insist on burying typhoid material in the earth as the best way to dispose of it. Safety lies, says Dr. Veeder, in instant disinfection, and it is imperative. He recommends sulphate of copper as the best agent ; carbolic acid is objected to because it is volatile, leaving nothing to prevent reinfection.
•
ALWAYS USE CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS FOR ALL MARKET Food for GARDEN PURPOSES WITHOUT FAIL. Plants
75
How to Use Chemical Fertilizers to Advantage.
ABSTRACT OF LECTURE BY DR. DYER.
How All Crops
Crops grow only in virtue of the food placed at their disposal ; practically, the q"" food of plants consists of certain combi- nations or mixtures of ammonia, phosphoric acid and potash. Not any one, nor any two, but all three. All soils contain this plant food, and many soils contain it in very large quantities. Fortunately for the permanence of agriculture, nature does not permit these natural supplies to be drawn upon freely, and any attempt to overforce the soil by inju- dicious farming is met by a temporary exhaustion.
The so-called "artificial manures" are » , ^
simply chemical or organic substances which . Chemi
contain one or more of the three elements ^ Manur£S> " or plant rood. I here formerly existed a prejudice quite unfounded and absurd against chemical manures, and particularly against Nitrate of Soda. The chemical manures are far more active than refuse manures, and much more certain in their results, and as to the pre- judice against Nitrate of Soda, all forms of ammonia iii all ammoniate fertilizers must be converted into Nitrate before plants can make use of them as food, and in this process of conversion there are always verv considerable losses.
The use of Nitrate of Soda is well known as a top-dressing for small grains. Wheat on strong clay will repay an application of 100 to 1 50 pounds of Nitrate per acre, even if heavily manured. Such dressings are not made in one application, but in two or more of 50 pounds each, at intervals of a few weeks. On light, sandy soils the Ni- trate application is reduced somewhat. Root-crops make
Nitrate as a Top-Dressing for Grains, Grasses, Root- Crops, Pas- tures, Soiling Crops.
Food for even a better response to Nitrate applications than the
ants grainSi ancj acre applications of 300 to 400 pounds are not
unusual; 100 pounds with the seed, and 100 pounds at the
time of singling, the remainder in one or two applications a
month apart. Permanent pastures, unless manured every
year, should have 100 pounds Nitrate per year per acre.
For soiling crops, where the plants are not matured, the
Nitrate application may be largely increased with profit.
For potatoes, Dr. Dyer advises 200 to 300 pounds of acid
phosphate, 300 to 400 pounds of kainit, and 100 pounds
of Nitrate of Soda made in two applications of 50 pounds
each — this on land that has already been heavily treated
with farmyard manures.
j_j M-f r The form of ammonia most active as
r plant food is the Nitrated form, such as
w,u _ r, ammonia exists in Nitrate of Soda. All
Wheat Crops. , . , , .
other ammomates must be converted into
this form before they can be used as food by plants. Sir
John B. Lawes wisely remarks : " When we consider
that the application of a few pounds of ammonia (Nitrogen)
in Nitrate of Soda to a soil which contains several thousand
pounds of ammonia in its organic form, is capable of
increasing the crop from 14 to 40, or even 50 bushels
of wheat per acre, I think it must be apparent to all
that we have very convincing evidence of Nitric acid
being the main source of Nitrogen (ammonia) in plants."
The ammonia of Nitrate of Soda, Nitrated ammonia it
may be called for convenience, is immediately available
as plant food, and should therefore not be applied
until plants are ready to use it. By the ready supply of
available ammoniate plant food, young plants are able to
establish such a vigor of growth that they can much better
resist disease, and the attacks of insects and parasites. The
jyr. p famous experiments of Lawes and Gilbert
, ... at Rothamsted have demonstrated that
pared with .... . ,
c a am cereals utilize more than three times as
rarmyard Ma- , - , -,.. . XT. c c 1
much of the Nitrogen in Nitrate or Soda as nure • •
of the Nitrogen (ammonia) contained in
farmyard manure ; in practice, four and one-half tons of farmyard manure supply only as much actual ammonia plant food as 100 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, so far as making crops is concerned.
|
No Nitrate, 23 bu. |
300 lbs. |
Nitrate, 33.5 bu |
|
I. « 15 '■ |
300 " |
28.0 " |
|
II. « 34 " |
300 " |
" +9-o " |
Wheat. Food for
Plants
From 100 to 200 pounds of Nitrate of ^heat Experi- 7T
Soda per acre should be broadcasted on _„nf„ Jn Pnfr . * . 1 i * mcnio 111 cii^"
wheat, as soon as the new growth snows in j ^
the spring. The results of such treatment
are shown by the following table of experiments made by
three English gentlemen.
Gain 46 p. ct. « 87 " " 44 <<
Another illustration is an experiment rottonsee(j made by the late Dr. Voelcker; 672 pounds Mgal Compar. of cottonseed meal was used in comparison ecj vvith Nitrate with 275 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, with the result that the latter gave a return of 46.75 bushels per acre, a gain over the cottonseed meal of nearly 24 per cent.
Barley.
In an experiment at Woburn, made in behalf of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, by the late Dr. Voelcker, the following results were obtained:
Mineral manures and sulphate ammonia 36.75 bushels per acre.
Nitrate 275 lbs. and minerals 42-5° bushels per acre.
Gain for Nitrate^, 16 per cent.
Both the ammonia salts and the Nitrate used contained the same amount of actual Nitrogen. Compared with cottonseed meal, 124 lbs. of Nitrate of Soda gave 49.5 bushels barley per acre as to 37 bushels from 1,000 pounds cottonseed meal applied the previous year.
Oats.
An authenticated experiment made by Mr. P. Dickson, of Barnhill, Laurencekirk, N. B., gave a return from the use of 1 1 2 pounds of Nitrate of Soda of 64 bushels per acre, while the soil without Nitrate gave a crop of only 36 bushels. Top dressings for oats vary with the soil, ranging from 75 pounds per acre on rich soils to 300 pounds on poor soils ;
Food for it should always be applied some ten days after the young plants Plants /iave hroken ground. Heavy applications are divided into 78 two or three doses, applied in intervals of about ten days.
Mangolds.
Nitrate of Soda pays very well on stock roots, and the best application is from i 50 to 200 pounds per acre, applied in two doses about ten days apart, the first dose not earlier than July. The Essex Agricultural Society found by ex- periment that while 12 tons of farmyard manure and 300 pounds superphosphate gave a crop of nearly ten and one- half tons per acre, when 200 pounds of Nitrate of Soda were
c , , added, the yield was increased to over 1 5
Formulas and J ~,, J
~. . tons per acre. I he season was very un-
Directions. c 1.1 r\ t\ 'a
favorable. Dr. Dyer suggests 400 pounds
of Nitrate on soils well run-down, or 300 pounds if 10 to
12 tons of manure have been used; 100 pounds should be
sown with the seed, 100 pounds top-dressed after singling,
100 pounds top-dressed a month or six weeks later, and at
discretion 25 pounds per month for another period.
Turnips and Swedes.
Nitrate is used for this crop quite in the same manner as for mangolds. Dr. Macadam reported to the Arbroath Farmers' Club a gain of 37 per cent in yield from the use of Nitrate, 336 pounds per acre.
Grass.
Experiments on grass at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, gave a return of nearly 3 1 cwt. hay from the use of acid phosphate alone and 41.75 cwt. when 280 pounds of Nitrate of Soda were used. During March or early in April is the best time to apply Nitrate to grass lands.
Potatoes.
A successful grower in England recommends 150 pounds of Nitrate per acre, and 250 pounds of acid phos- phate (potash not being supposed necessary in England), sown just before seeding, to be followed by a top-dressing of 100 pounds of Nitrate when the plants are well under
way. An experiment conducted by Dr. J. M. H. Munro, Food for or* Downtown Agricultural College, Salisbury, for the p,ants Permanent Nitrate Committee, gave a return of nearly twenty and one-half tons per acre, from an increasecj yield. application of 600 pounds of Nitrate per acre, supplemented by phosphoric acid and potash. The Nitrate was used in three applications. An application of 300 pounds of Nitrate resulted in a yield of thirteen and one-third tons per acre.
Dr. Bernard Dyer recommends catch- Catch-Crops crops, to prevent losses of available plant food after crops are removed ; for this use he recommends Rape, Italian rye grass, Rye, Thousand-headed kale and clovers. All these should be top-dressed with Nitrate ot Soda, from 100 to 200 pounds per acre, depending upon the exhausted condition of the soil. In the remarks on the use of Nitrate in this sketch, we have taken it for granted that our readers fully understand that Nitrate alone is not a complete plant food. In all cases where Nitrate has been recommended, it is also to be understood that phosphoric acid and potash are to be used, unless it is known that the soil contains ample supplies of these elements of plant food.
WHEAT AND OATS, RYE AND BARLEY.
(Bulletin 44, Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station, September, 1899.)
This bulletin gives in detail the results titrate and of experiments on wheat with fertilizers, in rottonseecj which Nitrate of Soda is compared with MeaJ ^Qm cottonseed meal; in all cases the plots were pared on W"heat. liberally supplied with phosphoric acid and potash. An average of four plots each gives an acre yield of wheat for Nitrate of Soda 01*49.4 bushels, for cottonseed meal 40.1 bushels, a gain for Nitrate of Soda of something over 23 per cent. A similar experiment with oats gave a return of 60 bushels for Nitrate of Soda and only 42 bushels for cottonseed meal, a gain of nearly 43 per cent, for Ni- trate. The Bulletin recommends, even when cottonseed meal is used in the complete fertilizer, to use Nitrate of Soda as a top-dressing in the spring.
Food for it should always be applied some ten days after the young plants Plants ^ave broken ground. Heavy applications are divided into 78 two or three doses, applied in intervals of about ten days.
Mangolds.
Nitrate of Soda pays very well on stock roots, and the best application is from i 50 to 200 pounds per acre, applied in two doses about ten days apart, the first dose not earlier than July. The Essex Agricultural Society found by ex- periment that while 12 tons of farmyard manure and 300 pounds superphosphate gave a crop of nearly ten and one- half tons per acre, when 200 pounds of Nitrate of Soda were
c . . added, the yield was increased to over 15
Formulas and t>l
~ . . tons per acre. 1 he season was very un-
favorable. Dr. Dyer suggests 400 pounds of Nitrate on soils well run-down, or 3C0 pounds if 10 to 12 tons of manure have been used; 100 pounds should be sown with the seed, 100 pounds top-dressed after singling, 100 pounds top-dressed a month or six weeks later, and at discretion 25 pounds per month for another period.
Turnips and Swedes.
Nitrate is used for this crop quite in the same manner as for mangolds. Dr. Macadam reported to the Arbroath Farmers' Club a gain of 37 per cent in yield from the use of Nitrate, 336 pounds per acre.
Grass.
Experiments on grass at the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester, gave a return of nearly 3 1 cwt. hay from the use of acid phosphate alone and 41.75 cwt. when 280 pounds of Nitrate of Soda were used. During March or early in April is the best time to apply Nitrate to grass lands.
Potatoes.
A successful grower in England recommends 1 50 pounds of Nitrate per acre, and 250 pounds of acid phos- phate (potash not being supposed necessary in England), sown just before seeding, to be followed by a top-dressing of 100 pounds of Nitrate when the plants are well under
way. An experiment conducted by Dr. J. M. H. Munro, J^J01" of Downtown Agricultural College, Salisbury, for the
• C 1 79
Permanent Nitrate Committee, gave a return or nearly twenty and one-half tons per acre, from an jncreaseci Yield, application of 600 pounds of Nitrate per acre, supplemented by phosphoric acid and potash. The Nitrate was used in three applications. An application of 300 pounds of Nitrate resulted in a yield of thirteen and one-third tons per acre.
Dr. Bernard Dyer recommends catch- Catch-Crops, crops, to prevent losses of available plant food after crops are removed ; for this use he recommends Rape, Italian rye grass, Rye, Thousand-headed kale and clovers. All these should be top-dressed with Nitrate of Soda, from 100 to 200 pounds per acre, depending upon the exhausted condition of the soil. In the remarks on the use of Nitrate in this sketch, we have taken it for granted that our readers fully understand that Nitrate alone is not a complete plant food. In all cases where Nitrate has been recommended, it is also to be understood that phosphoric acid and potash are to be used, unless it is known that the soil contains ample supplies of these elements of plant food.
WHEAT AND OATS, RYE AND BARLEY.
(Bulletin 44, Georgia Agricultural Experiment Station, September, 1899.)
This bulletin gives in detail the results Nitrate and of experiments on wheat with fertilizers, in cottonseecj which Nitrate of Soda is compared with Meal Com_ cottonseed meal; in all cases the plots were parecj on ^heat. liberally supplied with phosphoric acid and potash. xAn average of four plots each gives an acre yield of wheat for Nitrate of Soda of 49.4 bushels, for cottonseed meal 40.1 bushels, a gain for Nitrate of Soda of something over 23 per cent. A similar experiment with oats gave a return of 60 bushels for Nitrate of Soda and only 42 bushels for cottonseed meal, a gain of nearly 43 per cent, for Ni- trate. The Bulletin recommends, even when cottonseed meal is used in the complete fertilizer, to use Nitrate of Soda as a top-dressing in the spring.
Food for FERTILIZERS FOR FRUITS.
(Bulletin 66, Hatch Experiment Station, March, 1900.)
N. .„ , Fertilizers for the Apple : The results
. . show the most improvement where Nitrate
on Apples. c 0 , £ , ^ ,
or Soda was applied, r"or apple trees in
grass the following fertilizer is recommended : Nitrate of
Soda 1 to 5 pounds, Sulphate of potash i to 5 pounds, S.
C. phosphate rock 4 to 10 pounds. The quantity used to
be varied according to the size of the tree.
n . Fertilizers for the Peach : The fertilizer
recommended, depending upon the size of
the trees, is substantially the same as for apples, except that
the phosphate rock is reduced one-half for the earlier stages
of growth, remaining the same as for apples in the later
stages. Nitrate of Soda should not be applied until just
as the trees are beginning to grow.
KT. p c , Fertilizers for other Fruits : For all
Nitrate of Soda . ir . ,, , , , , .
f P . perennial fruits as well as shrubs and plants,
^ „ the fertilizer used should be largely available
Generally. . . c , &
in the early part or the season, as a preven- tative to winter injuries. Nitrate of Soda is the most de- sirable form of ammoniate. The following is a recommended fertilizer: 150 to 300 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, 500 to 1,000 pounds of acid phosphate, and 150 to 300 pounds sulphate of potash, to be used at the rate of 1,000 to 2,000 pounds per acre. The formula is as follows : Nitrogen 3 per cent, available phosphoric acid 7 per cent, and potash 8 to 9 per cent.
r^ 1 c •. '}oo lbs. Nitrate.
General Fruit J 1U A . , D, , t c . coo lbs. Acid Phosphate.
Formula. D ., c , , A K D t ,
200 lbs. Sulphate or Potash.
How Nitrate Benefits the Farmer.
EDITED BY WILLIAM S. MYERS.
Food for Plants
Nitrate of Soda, from the standpoint of What Nitrate
the Agricultural chemist, is a substance Looks Like; Its
tormed bv the union or nitric acid to sodium ^, . «
. . • . , Chemical
oxide. In appearance, it resembles coarse pr0Dert:es
salt. To agriculture and the arts, it is
chiefly valuable for the active Nitrogen (commercially it is
an ammoniate package) contained in the nitric acid part of
the compound ; the Soda acts as a carrier, that the Nitrogen
may exist in such form phvsicallv, and that W7u„* ;, ic. .„ • i u ji j u j- r What it is in
it may be handled by ordinary appliances. Agriculture When pure it contains 16.47 pounds of Nitrogen to the 100 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, that is, 16.47 Per cent Nitrogen. Commercially pure Nitrate carries a Nitrogen percentage of about 15.75, equivalent to 19 per cent, of Ammonia or 380 lbs. to the ton.
Nitrate of Soda in the crude state is Where it is
found mixed with earth in the arid section Found
of northern Chili, from which it is extracted bv treatment with hot water, the Nitrate being soluble in water. The enormous explosive industry of this country could not be conducted without Nitrate of - Uses
Soda, and glass works are dependent upon Nitrate of Soda. In fact, glass works usually have Nitrate for sale, as do powder works.
Nitrate of Soda has a special bearing ^ position jn on the progress or modern agriculture ; in ™odern the first place it is the most nutritious form Affrjcuiture of Nitrogenous or ammoniate plant food, and secondly it is a very important factor in the manufacture of sulphuric acid and acid phosphate. While the action of micro-organisms with certain crops, (leguminosa?), combines and makes effective use of the inert Nitrogen of the atmos- phere, such action is far too slow and uncertain for all the requirements of modern agriculture. The rapid exhaustion of combined Nitrogen has several times been noticed by eminent scientific men, with reference to food famine because of a lack of the needful Nitrogenous plant food. It has
Food for been closely estimated that in the crude
P^nts Wasteful Meth- methods of soil exhaustion in farming the 82 ods bl our Fl°- rich lands of our Western States, for every neer Farmers. pound of Nitrogen actually used to make a wheat crop, four to five pounds are utterly wasted. It is to be hoped that intelligent farmers will realize that it is cheaper to increase the yields of their wheat fields by the judicious use of 150 pounds of Nitrate of Soda per acre, than to continue the present method of slow but certain exhaustion of the soil. In other words, our pioneer agri- culture has proceeded as though the fertility capital could be forever drawn upon.
The agricultural value of Nitrate of Soda untwie^ has had the attention of the foremost agri- "sts thl „0[ cultural and scientific specialists of the world, Wen Ac- indud- such names as Dr Paul Wagner quainted With and pr*fessor Maercker, of Germanv ; Large Uses or Lawe§ and Gilbert> sir William Kookes, Nitrate. Dr Bernard Dyerj Dr. Voelcker and
others, in England; Professors Cassarini, Migneaux, Cadoret, and many others, in France; Professor Bernardo Giner Alino, in Spain; and Drs. Voorhees, Wheeler, Brooks, Thorne, Redding, Scovell, Stubbs, Patterson, Armsby, Jenkins, and others, in this country. The results obtained by these gentlemen may be summarized as follows :
1. Nitrate of Soda acts very beneficially and with great certainty upon all straw-growing plants.
1. It is of special value for forcing the rapid develop- ment and early maturity of most garden crops.
3. It is of great importance in the production of sugar beets, potatoes, hops, fodder crops, fibre plants, and tobacco.
4. It is exceedingly valuable in developing and main- taining meadow grass and pasture lands.
5. In the early stages of development it produces favorable results upon peas, vetches, lupines, and clover.
6. It has been applied with much advantage to various kinds of berries, bush fruits, vineyards, orchards and nursery stock.
7. It provides the means in the hands of the farmer, for stimulating his crops so that they may better withstand the ravages of drought, or the onslaughts of plant diseases or insect pests.
8. It may be used as a surface application to the soil, Food for from time to time, as the plants indicate a need of it by ants their color and growth.
9. It is immediately available, and under favorable conditions its effect upon many crops may be noticed within a few hours after its application.
10. It may be used either as a special fertilizer, as a supplemental fertilizer, or as a mixed fertilizer, in combi- nation with other fertilizer ingredients.
11. The best results are obtained from its application when the soil has been treated with ample supplies ot available phosphoric acid and potash salts, or where these are already present in ample supplies in the soil. It should always be remembered that it furnishes but one element of plant food, namely, Nitrogen.
\i. Its uniform action seems to be to stimulate the capacity of the plant for absorbing water and developing foliage and plant growth. Its action is characterized by imparting to the plant a deep green, healthy appearance, and by causing it to grow rapidly, or to put out numbers of new shoots.
13. The immediate effect of an application of Nitrate of Soda, therefore, is to develop a much larger plant growth, and the skillful application of potash salts and phosphoric acid must be relied upon to act in combination with this effect, to secure the largest yields of fruits and grain.
14. Under favorable conditions of moisture and culti- vation, these effects may be confidently anticipated upon all kinds of soils.
15. All of the plant food contained in Nitrate of Soda is available and existing in a highly soluble form. The farmer should understand that it is not economical to apply more of it than can be utilized by the growing crop ; one of the most valuable qualities of this fertilizer being that it does not lie dormant in the soil from one season to the next.
16. The best results are secured when it is applied during the early growing periods of the plant. If applied later in the development of the plant, it has a tendency to protract its growing period and to delay the ripening of the fruit, as the energies of the plant are immediately concen- trated upon developing its growth, after a liberal application of Nitrate of Soda.
Food for iym The farmer must not expect it to excuse him from
Plants applying proper principles of land drainage, or cultivation 84 of the soil, nor should the Nitrate of Soda be used in ex- cessive quantities too close to the plants that are fertilized with it. For most agricultural crops, an application of ioo to 150 lbs. to the acre is sufficient. Where a highly intensive system of farming is pursued, should it be desirable to apply more Nitrate, it should be done in broken doses of not ex- ceeding 150 lbs. to the acre, at intervals of not less than two weeks between the applications.
18. It may be applied to either agricultural or garden lands in the form of a solution in water, or by sowing it broadcast upon the land, or by means of any fertilizer-dis- tributing machine in use. If applied in the dry state, in order to insure uniform distribution, a convenient method is to mix it with twice its weight of air-slacked lime, land plaster, potash salts, phosphates, or even with sand, before applying it. It can be applied to the surface, and without cultivation will be absorbed by the soil, or it may be culti- vated into the soil by some light agricultural implement, such as a harrow, weeder, cultivator or horse hoe. The capillary movement of the soil waters will distribute it in the soil, but excessive rains immediately after its application may sometimes wash it out of the soil.
. TT r\ u. Accepting the conclusions of these scientific Its Use Ought 1 5 £ xt- c c j •
. t men, the use or Nitrate or Soda in agri-
to Increase. , ' , , . , . & .
culture ought to be increased proportionate
to the dissemination of the knowledge of its usefulness among our farmers. We ought to expect especially an in- crease in the consumption of Nitrate among growers of tobacco, fiber plants, sugar beets, the hop, grape, and small fruit industry generally. The element of plant food first exhausted in soils is Nitrogen, and in many cases a marked increase in crop is obtained through top dressings of Nitrate alone. Commercial fertilizers are generally rather low in ammonia, and Nitrate may be wisely used to supplement them. As it is practically the cheapest form of plant food ammonia, its use in complete fertilizers promises to increase further.
The illustrations beginning on page 102 represent accurately taken photographs of results of fertilizer experi- ments with Nitrate of Soda.
Niter in Fertilizing.
1 Bulletin 24, California State Mining Bureau, May, igo2.
Food for Plants
By Dr. GILBERT E. BAILEY.
All plants require light, air, heat, water, cultivation, and a fertile soil. Every crop removes from the soil a portion of the plant-food contained therein, and continuous crop- ping will, in time, exhaust the richest soil, unless the nutritive elements are restored ; therefore, the truly economical farmer will feed the growing plant or tree with a generous hand. The literature on this subject, while voluminous, is so scattered as to be difficult of access to the general reader, and the following notes are added in order to give some general idea of the value of Nitrate of Soda in fertilizing.
The most important materials used to supply Nitrogen, in the composition of commercial fertilizers, are Nitrate of Soda and sulphate of ammonia. Nitrate of Soda is particu- larly adapted for top-dressing during the growing season, and is the quickest acting of all the Nitrogenous fertil- izers.
Dried blood, tankage, azotine, fish scrap, castor pomace, and cotton-seed meal represent fertilizers where the Nitro- gen is only slowly available, and they must be applied in the fall so as to be decomposed and available for the follow- ing season. Nitrogen in the form of Nitrate of Soda readily leaches through the soil and is at once available during the growing and fruiting season, possessing, therefore, a decided advantage over all other Nitrogen plant-foods.
The following list of materials used as a source of Nitrogen, in making commercial fertilizers, shows the percentage of Nitrogen in each :
Food for Per cent Nitrogen.
Plants Nitrate of Soda 15 to 16
§^ Sulphate of ammonia 19 to 22
Dried blood 10 to 1 4
Tankage 5 to 1 2
Dried fish scrap 9 to 1 1
Cotton-seed meal 6 to 7
Castor pomace 5 to 6
Tobacco stems , . 2 to 3
Bone meal 2 to 4
Peruvian guano 6 to 1 o
Nitrate of potash 13 to 1 4
Manures 0.3 to 1.6
The following table shows the Nitrogen removed in one year from specified :
Wheat 35
Rye 30
Barley 40
Oats 60
Corn 50
Buckwheat 30
Potatoes 200
Sugar beets 15
Mangel-wurzel 22
Meadow hay 2
Timothy 2
Green corn 11
Red clover 2
Lucerne 8
Sugar-cane 20
Sorghum 15
Cotton 750
Hops 600
Tobacco 1 600
Grapes 2
Cabbage 31
Cucumbers 25
Onions 11
Oranges 10
|
number 0 |
f pounds of |
|
one acre |
by the crop |
|
Crop. |
Nitrogen. |
|
bushels. |
59 lbs. |
|
bushels. |
51 lbs. |
|
bushels. |
46 lbs. |
|
bushels. |
55 lbs. |
|
bushels. |
67 lbs. |
|
bushels. |
35 lbs. |
|
bushels. |
46 lbs. |
|
l2 tons. |
69 lbs. |
|
tons. |
1 50 lbs. |
|
y2 tons, dry. |
83 lbs. |
|
tons, dry. |
89 lbs. |
|
Y? tons. |
85 lbs. |
|
tons, dry. |
105 lbs. |
|
tons. |
I 13 lbs. |
|
tons. |
153 lbs. |
|
tons. |
121 lbs. |
|
lbs., seed |
26 lbs. |
|
lbs., seed |
84 lbs. |
|
lbs. |
89 lbs. |
|
tons. |
32 lbs. |
|
tons. |
1 50 lbs. |
|
tons. |
86 lbs: |
|
l/2 tons. |
72 lbs. |
|
tons. |
24 lbs. |
The following table shows the quantity of fertilizer desirable for one acre, with the percentage of Nitrogen in it. The quantities given are for the average soil, under average conditions, the character and amounts of other plant-foods in the fertilizer not being considered here:
|
Fertilizer. |
|
|
Per acre. |
|
|
Artichokes |
600 lb |
|
Asparagus |
500 |
|
Barlev |
500 |
|
Beans |
700 |
|
Beets, garden . . . |
400 |
|
Beets, sugar .... |
1 ,000 |
|
Benne |
5 5° |
|
Blackberrv |
650 |
|
Buckwheat |
300 |
|
Cabbage |
1,500 |
|
Cane, sugar .... |
75° |
|
Carrots |
500 |
|
Cassava |
300 |
|
Celerv |
700 |
|
550 |
|
|
Cotton |
900 |
|
Cranberry |
600 |
|
Cucumbers |
1,200 |
|
Currants |
5 5° |
|
Egg-plant |
2,000 |
|
Flax |
400 800 |
|
Hemp |
|
|
1,000 |
|
|
Horseradish |
600 |
|
Lettuce |
1,000 |
|
Melons |
1,200 |
Nitrogen
in Fertilizer.
Per cent. 3
4-5
1 2
3 6
5
3 3 4
i
3 4
2.5
2
2
3
3
4
3
5-5
3
4
5
3
Mint . . . Mustard Oats . . Onions
Oranges
Fertilizer.
Per acre.
700 lbs. 300 400 1,500
I Per tree. 20 Per acre. 90O
2,000 70O
Nitrogen
Pei ct
4
Food for Plants
Peas
Pineapples. . . . Potatoes, Irish. Potatoes, sweet . . 550
Radishes 800
Ramie 650
Rape ' 600
Raspberry. . . . 700
Rhubarb i,3°°
Rice 450
Spinach. 1,200
Squash . 1,600
Strawberry 1.500
Sunflower 500
Tobacco 600
Tomatoes 1,200
Trees, general. . . 600 Turnips 450
Wheat 400
3
2.5
4
3 3 4 3 2
4
3
3
3
3
4
3
3
3-5
4
3
2.5
3
Artificial fertilizers are used freely by the fruit growers of California, and their use among the farmers is steadily increasing. One reason why they are not used more extensively is due to the fact that they have to be imported into the State. It is also a fact that the total amount used is only a small percentage of the amount that should be used. Every one will admit that the use of fertilizers in this State is small compared with their use in Germany, for in that country they are used more extensively than in any other nation; yet Dr. Maercker, the Director of the Government Agricultural Experiment Station at Halle, Germany, says : "Just think! the consumption of potash (in the fertilizers) alone in Germany must increase 700 per cent before the normal demands of the lands and farms are met and satisfied." (Arbeiter der Deutsches Landwirth- schafts Gesellschaft Zusammengestellt von G. Siemssen, Berlin, 1896.)
Food for Plants
Grass Growing for Profit.
Timothy and related grasses feed heavily on Nitrogen ; they are able to transform it completely into wholesome and digestible animal food. When full rations of plant food are present a good crop of grass will remove nearly the equivalent of the active fertilizer ingredients of 450 pounds of Nitrate of Soda, 300 pounds muriate of potash and 200 pounds of acid phosphate. These amounts are recom- mended to be applied per acre as top dressing for grass lands ; and if wood ashes are available 200 pounds per acre will be very beneficial in addition to the above. Grass lands get sour easily, especially when old, and when they do one ton of lime per acre should be ploughed in before seeding down anew. The seeding must be done before September, and the above-mentioned ration should be used as a top dressing the following spring, as soon as the grass begins to show growth.
If all the conditions are favorable from three to five tons of clean barn-cured grass, free from weeds, may reasonably be expected. When grass crops are heavy and run as high as /\.y2 tons per acre field-cured, it is safe to allow 20 per cent shrinkage in weight for seasoning and drying down to a barn-cured basis. Nitrate of Soda, the chief constituent of the prescribed ration, stimulates the grass early and enables it to get ahead of all weeds, and the crop then feeds economically and fully on the other manurial constituents present in the fertilizer mentioned in the formula and present in the soil.
When Nitrate is around $50.00 per ton and hay at $ 1 6.00 per ton the financial results are very satisfactory. Nitrate can be used alone for a season or two and at very great profit, but a full grass ration is better in the long run for both the soil and crop. Generally speaking, 100 pounds of Nitrate, if used under proper conditions, will produce an increase of from 1,000 to 1,200 pounds of barn-cured, clean timothy hay, the value of which will average from 1 8. 00 to $12.00. The total cost of the 100 pounds of Nitrate is likely to average $2.00 to $2.50. Or, to put it bv the acre, the cost of the necessary 450 pounds of Nitrate
will sum up to from $8. oo to $10.00, and the value of the Food for resulting increased hay crop will vield on an average from Plants £30.00 to $48.00 per acre net profit. It is therefore evident that even with the present increased cost of Nitrate it pays well to use Nitrate liberally on grass lands, and moreover, hay prices now seem likely to advance still further.
A reliable formula for Grass Lands per acre :
300 lbs. Nitrate of Soda.
250 lbs. muriate of potash, or 1,000 pounds of wood ashes. 300 lbs. basic slag or Peruvian guano or acid phosphate. 1 50 lbs. air-slaked lime.
1 ,000 lbs.
A 10-pound sample of Nitrate can be secured free of cost tor trial by any one who will furnish satisfactorv refer- ences, and you may try it for yourself on a plot twenty feet square. This will be sent only on condition that you will weigh the product of this plot and the product of a check plot of the same size by its side and report on the respective weights of the field-cured hay when you harvest the crop. You will find such a trial well worth vour while.
MAKING TWO BLADES OF GRASS GROW.
Grass a Responsive Crop.
To some farmers the idea of a direct application of stable manure or of fertilizers to meadow or pasture is a strange one. " Grass is a natural crop," they say ; " it
* This article is a summary of the experiments and observations recorded in Bulletins 57, 71,82 and 90 of the Agricultural Experiment Station of the Rhode Island College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, and was written by an Experiment Station Official.
Food
Plants
for Th N f grows everywhere and needs no help from
s ^ c it man if nature will only provide moisture." Grass for Hay. ^ . ; K . . „,,
I o a certain extent this is true. 1 he
thousands of fine roots of the grass plants, spreading in every direction through the soil and reaching almost every quarter-inch cube in the upper eight inches of the field on which the grasses grow, can utilize more of the available fertility than can the roots of plants grown in hills or drills, which reach only with difficulty and late in the life of the plant the more remote parts of the soil. Grasses, also, are usually grown in a mixture of species, each of which feeds upon a slightly different combination of elements, so that single ingredients in the soil are not so rapidly exhausted. The grass tops, moreover, shade the soil and check evapo- ration, so that the moisture in the ground nearly all passes through the plants themselves, bringing to them its own freshness and the stores of dissolved food which it helps to render available. Thus the grasses have been able, all through the earlier and middle stages of our agriculture, to utilize the rich supply of fertility locked up in virgin soils, that they might delight the palates of feeding animals with the crisp tenderness of their luxuriant growth, or send up the thick stand of feathered shafts which later were cut down to lie in glistening gray-green swaths, presently to ride in heaped-up stateliness to their resting place in stack or mow.
^ c ^ Here seemed no need of artificial feeding !
Causes of Crop A , , , , c -\ a
p .. , , . And even when the grass began to rail and
n. , u , . yields of hay shrank from three or four Old Methods. { ^ , y _ , ,r . . , .
tons to the acre to hair or one-third the
amount, growers have usually thought they could not afford to feed directly. Pasture grass is not often con- sidered a cash crop; and meadow hay does not, perhaps, bring to the pocketbook, when sold, quite as large a revenue as tilled crops. So farmers have preferred to manure the cultivated crops and to trust that enough fragments would be left over to satisfy the less insistent demands of the grass. Of late, however, more careful study of the situation has led progressive farmers to believe that the advantage lies in a reversal of this process. To give the grass and clover the best of care and to feed them liberally, allowing the neglect in feeding, if there be any, to fall upon the
tilled crops, is far better than it is to starve the grass and Food for put all the added fertility on the " cash " crop. Why? Plan,s Because the very root development and soil shading which M have enabled the grasses to utilize so well the natural food in the soil, also fit them to gather most completely and to use most efficiently the scattered fertility which man dis- tributes upon the fields. With the added growth the grasses make upon the extra supply of food, there comes an increase in the number of roots to fill the soil with vegetable matter, and an increase in the amount of scattered leaves, broken stems and refuse matter on the surface, — all of which is of inestimable advantage to subsequent crops. The soil is thus made fine and porous ; the decay of green vegetable matter forms acids which set free additional plant food from the particles of earth ; and the accumulated humus makes the ground like a sponge to hold moisture for the next crop.
Properly proportioned mineral fertili- zers have a great and profitable effect upon p e ar*
the yield of hay from treated fields, as is »,.ye . Zt
i , , \ , , Mineral Chemi-
most clearly shown by the experiments . p ...
here discussed; and they improve the
quality of the hay, as well. As shown, such a fertilizer for
grasses must contain a liberal amount of a readily soluble
form of Nitrogen. Clover can get along very well without
Nitrogenous fertilizers, as it has the power to draw upon
the store of Nitrogen in the air; but the true grasses lack
this ability, and, though they may be well provided with
phosphoric acid and potash, are not able in the absence of
a supply of readily available Nitrogen to compete with
clover when sown in a mixture with it. In consequence of
this fact, mixed hay is quite likely to be largely clover the
first year after sowing and therefore of less value in the
market than the highly prized "clear timothy." The
addition of Nitrogen in the quickly soluble form of
Nitrate of Soda gives to the grasses a supply of food which
promotes luxuriant growth and thus furnishes just the
impulse they need to keep them abreast of the clover, or
ahead of it, and also to improve the quality of the hay to
a very striking degree.
Food for Conditions of the Experiments.
Plants
92 w/L tt n For many years the Rhode Island Agricul-
What Has Been i c ■ . c .• u • f
~ tural Experiment Station has carried on a
Proven in / i * j .u l l r
~, . T , , series or plat tests; and the behavior or Rhode Island. , , r V c . , r
the hay crop on three or these plats for
four successive years has thrown much light upon the
problem of maintaining the fertility of our pastures and
meadows.
Up to the year 1893 the treatment of these plats, for many years, had been identical. From 1893 to ! 898 the plats received annually the same amounts of phosphoric acid in the form of high-grade phosphate and of potash as muriate. One plat received no Nitrogen during this time and probably had received none for from fifteen to twenty years; the second plat was given annually, early in the spring, an application of Nitrate of Soda at the rate of 150 pounds to the acre; and the third plat received three times as much Nitrate, 450 pounds to the acre.
All the plats were used for the growth of leguminous crops during most of this period. In 1897 all the plats were sown to barley and were treated with air-slaked lime to correct the acidity or " sourness," which is a characteristic of much of the soil of Rhode Island.
On April 23, 1898, the plats were again sown to barley and seeded down with a mixture of seeds, — red clover and red top, Jj4 pounds each, and timothy 15 pounds.
The fertilizer applications were continued as before, — equal quantities of phosphoric acid and potash* on all plats, no Nitrogen on one, l/$ ration of Nitrate of Soda on the next and full ration of Nitrate on the third. These materials were all applied broadcast as a top-dressing early in the spring.
Effect of Nitrate on Yields.
Since all the other fertilizers were alike for the three plats and had been for many years, and since the general
* The amounts of phosphoric acid and potash varied from year to year ; of phosphoric acid the actual weights per acre were 164, 191, 130 and 130 pounds for the successive years $ of potash, 88^, 90^, 100 and 150 pounds.
character of the soil and the treatments the plats had Food for received were uniform, any differences must be ascribed to Plants the influence of the varying quantities of Nitrate of Soda. M These differences, so far as they are shown by the weights of the crops for four years are given in brief below :
Yield of Cured Hay Under Different Rates of Nitrogenous Fertilization.
Yield of Cured Hay.
, „ . ... 1899. 1900. 1901. 1902. Average
Nitrate of Soda applied. ™ ^ ^ ^ ^
None 5»°7S 4,000 3,290 2,950 3,830
1 50 lbs. per acre* ... .6,300 5,600 5,55° 4,850 5,575
450 lbs. per acre *... .6,91 3 8,200 9,390 8,200 8,175
* Amount slightly reduced in 1901 and 1902.
These figures show a uniform, consistent w,, .
and marked advantage from the use of c. c,
XT. , , g. r ■ 1 • Figures Show.
Nitrogen; and the effect or its absence is
shown by the steady decline of the yields on the no- Nitrate
plat from year to year. In each year the use of 150 pounds
of Nitrate gave increased yields over the plat without
Nitrogen, the gain varying from 1,200 to almost 2,300
pounds, an average gain of about seven-eighths of a ton of
hay. Three times this amount of Nitrate did not, of
course, give three times as much hay, but it so materially
increased the yield as to show that it was all used to good
advantage except, perhaps, in the second year. This was
an exceptionally dry year and but one crop could be cut.
The advantage from the Nitrate showed strikingly in the
production of a rapid and luxurious early growth while
moisture was still available. This supply of readily soluble
food comes just when it is most needed, since the natural
change of unavailable forms of Nitrogen in the soil to the
soluble Nitrates proceeds very slowly during the cool, moist
weather of spring. The full ration of Nitrogen, 450 pounds
of Nitrate, more than doubled the yield of hay over that
produced on the no-Nitrate plat in 1900 and in the next
two years it nearly tripled the yield. The average increase
over the 1 50 pound plat was one and three-tenths tons and
over the plat without Nitrogen was two and five-eighths tons.
Effect on Quality of Hay.
How Modern ^lmost as marked, and certainly more Methods surprising and unexpected, was the effect
Improve the oftne Nitrate upon the quality of the hay Quality of the Produced- During the first season the j_l ' clover was, naturally, at its best, and upon
the plat without Nitrogen it made almost all of the hay ; since, as stated, the clover, by means of bacteria dwelling in the nodules on its roots, is able to secure Nitrogen from the air. Consequently it made good growth on this plat where the grasses could secure only a limited supply of food to promote luxuriance. On the other plats, on the contrary, the Nitrate helped the grasses in their competition with the clover. The red top and timothy made up two-thirds of the first cutting of hay on the second plat and one-fourth of the later cutting ; while on the third plat, with the ample supply of Nitrogenous food, the grasses made up nearly all of the hay first cut and three-fourths of the second cutting. In the second season the clover had practically been crowded out of the two Nitrate plats, but it made a scattering growth on the first plat.
The hay from the plats during the first season was of such diverse character that different ton values had to be placed upon it in estimating the profit from the use of fertilizers. That from the no-Nitrate plat, since it con- tained so much clover at both cuttings, was considered worth only $9.00 a ton; the first cutting on the small Nitrogen ration was valued at $12.00 and the second cutting at $ 1 0.00 ; while $ 1 6.00 and $ 1 2.00 were the values given to the first and second cuttings respectively on the plat receiving the full ration of Nitrate. These values show clearly how great was the influence of the Nitrogen in developing the grasses.
But the reduction in the percentage of clover was not the only benefit to the quality of the hay. The Nitrate also decreased the proportion of red top as compared with the finer timothy. This tendency was noticed in the second year, when a count of the stalks on selected equal and typical areas showed 13% of timothy on the 150 pound plat and 44% on the 450 pound plat. In the third year
the percentages of timothy were 39% and 67%, respectively, Food for
and in the fourth vear the differences were even more Plants
marked. ^
Timothy is a grass which will not An Alkaline
tolerate an acid soil and it is probable that ^ Nece
the liming given these plats in 1897 did
not make them as "sweet" as would have been best for
this crop. Now, when Nitrate of Soda is used by plants,
more of the nitric acid is used than of the soda and a certain
portion of the latter, which is an alkali, is „ »,.
left to combine with other free acids of the NT . ,. c ..
.. _,,. ... .. ,. , ., Neutralizes Soil
soil. I his, like lime, neutralizes the acids ... ,
. , '„ , ., C , Acids and
and thus " sweetens the sou tor the c , a .
, 0 , , , Sweetens the
timothy. Ked top, on the contrary, does <> ..
well on soils which are slightly acid, and so
would have the advantage over timothv in a soil not
perfectly sweet. With the assistance of the soda set free
from the Nitrate, the timothy was more than able to hold
its own and thus to make what the market calls a finer,
better hav; and since the market demands timothv and pays
for it, the farmer who sells hay is wise if he meets the
demand.
Financial Profit from Use of Nitrate.
Frequently more plant food is paid for ._. » p and put on the land than the crop can possibly use, the excess being entirely thrown away, or, at best, saved to benefit some subsequent crop. This was far from the case in these trials. Indeed, it was found by analvsis of the hay that more potash was removed by the crops of the first two years than had been added in the muriate used, consequently the amount applied upon each plat was increased in 1901 and in 1902. The Nitrogen requirement of the crops was found to be slightly less than was supplied in 450 pounds of Nitrate and the amount was reduced to 400 pounds in 1901 and to 415 pounds in 1902. The Nitrate on the second plat was also reduced in proportion. The phosphoric acid, however, was probably in considerable excess since liming sets free phosphoric acid already in the soil and so lessens the apparent financial profit ; but not to an excessive degree.
Food for Plants
Quantity of Fertilizer Required for Hay Crop.
As a guide in making up fertilizers for grass, the follow- ing figures based on the analyses made during these experi- ments will be of interest.
Fertilizer Elements in Crop of Grass Hay.
Removed in Crop.
Fertilizers Needed to Replace.
Nitrogen
Phosphoric acid .
Potash
T In crop of
In I ton ,,
9,390 lbs.
Lbs.
I I.67 6.58
54.8
Nitrate of Soda
30.9 :Acid phosphate. (16 per ct.) 32.31 1 5 1.7 Muriate of potash . 64
For crop of
For 1 ton. J 9,390 lbs.
(41-5 tons)
Lbs. Lbs.
74.2 348.4
41. I 193. I
304.2
In calculating the profit from the use of fertilizers only the fertilizer cost of the crop was considered, the labor and the rent of the land being left out of account. The exact cost of the materials used was taken and the hay was rated at a low market value, due regard being paid to quality, as indicated on page 94.
Since only the amount of Nitrogen differed on the three plats it may be well to consider first the gain from its use. This is shown below :
Profit from Use of Nitrate of Soda.
|
Value of crop without Nitrate. |
150 lb. Plat. |
450 lb. Plat. |
|||
|
Year. |
Cost of Nitrate. |
Value of crop. |
Gain. |
Cost of Value of ~ . -,. . Gain. Nitrate. crop. |
|
|
1899 I90O I90I I902 Average |
$18.27 25.60 21.99 20.48 21.58 |
S3-00 3-3° 2.94 3. II 3-°9 |
$29.52 35-85 36.77 32.67 33-70 |
$ 6.25 6.95 II.84 9.08 9.05 |
$9.00 $40.80 $13.53 9.90 52.48 16.98 8.81 59-37 28.57 9.32 55.10 25.30 9.24 51.99 21.17 |
But the Nitrate was efficient not alone by itself, but through the stimulus it gave the plants it caused better utilization of the other elements of plant food. To get, therefore, the full measure of its value, we must consider it as an element in the complete fertilizer and calculate the profit on this basis. These figures show the following gains :
Excess of Value of Hay Over Cost of Fertilizers. Food for
Plants
Nitrate of Soda D .
applied. l899- IO°°- '901- IQ°*- Average. 97
None $ 6.09 $13-42 $12.13 $ 7-44 $ 9-77
150 lbs.* '4-34 20.37 23.97 16.52 18.80
450 lbs.* 19.62 3°-4° 40.70 32.74 30.86
* Slightly reduced in 1901 and 1902.
Practical Conclusions.
From these striking results it must be evident that grass land as well as tilled fields is greatly benefited by fertilizers ; and that it would be to the advantage of most farmers to improve the fertility of their soils by growing good crops of grass, aided thereto by liberal fertilizing.
The application should be in the form T n
of a top dressing, applied very early in the ^ T
• j lu FKu c J u Grass Lands.
spring in order that the first growth may
find readily available material for its support and be carried through the season with no check from partial starvation.
On land which shows any tendency to sourness, a ton to the acre of slaked lime should be used every five or six years. This makes the land sweet and promotes the growth of grass plants of the best kinds.
Lime should be sown upon the furrows and harrowed into the soil. Top dressing with lime after seeding will not answer, and, in the case of very acid soils, the omission of lime at the proper time will necessitate re-seeding to secure a good stand of grass.
All the elements of fertility are essen- p . .
tial so that ordinarily complete fertilizers ", t-. c. , . . 1 j 1 1 .l u -i • l and Profitable
should be used, though on some soils rich ,-,
in phosphoric acid or potash, one or both of these ingredients may be used in smaller quantity than usually recommended. This is particularly true of phos- phoric acid after lime has been applied to the soil, since lime aids to set the phosphoric acid free from its natural combinations in the soil which are insoluble and so useless to plants.
Grass on this soil demands less phosphoric acid than was applied in the test; and it responds with increasing profit to applications of Nitrate of Soda up to at least 350 pounds to the acre.
Food for On such soils as that of these plats the best fertilizer ants combination for annual application appears to be : 98 400 lbs. acid phosphate.
200-250 lbs. muriate of potash. 350 lbs. Nitrate of Soda.
No stable manure is supposed to have been used upon the field under experiment for at least twenty years.
Bulletin No. 46 of the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station, or Farmers' Bulletin No. 77 published by the United States Department of Agriculture, tells how and when to use lime. The details of the experiment here referred to are to be found in Bulletins Nos. 82 and 90, issued by the Rhode Island Agricultural Experiment Station, Kingston, Rhode Island.
MiWafti o .„ It may not be out of place here to men- Nitrate or Soda ,' r , .. „r ,_ „, , r „ TT , . tion the fact that Mr. George M. Clark, of as Used in TT. r, , 5 . ' , Clark's Grass Hlgganum> Conn, whose success mob- Cultivation taming remarkably large yields or hay for a number of years, an average of 9 tons of cured hay per acre for 1 1 years in succession, has been heralded throughout the United States, attributes his suc- cess largely to the liberal dressings of Nitrate of Soda which he invariably applies to his fields early in the spring, and which starts the grass off with such a vigorous growth as to shade and crowd out all noxious weeds before they get fairly started and which results in a large crop of clean and high priced hav.
,t ^ e 1 It is also known that many who have tested How Careful ,. 111 • L r m l- n
r^ , . . his methods have met with failure chiefly
Cultivation , , . , , ,
May Aid in the because they neglected to supply the young Profitable Use grass Plan*s witn a sufficient amount of of Nitrate readily available food for their use early in
the spring when most needed, and before the organic forms of Nitrogen, which exist in the soil only in an insoluble form and which cannot be utilized by the plants as food until converted into soluble forms by the action of bacteria in the soil (and this does not occur to any great extent until the soil warms up to a temperature of about 70 degrees Fahr. ) which is too late in the season to benefit the early spring crops.
It is important that we always bear in mind the fact that our only source of Nitrogen in the soil for all plants
(except the legumes) is the remnants of former crops (roots, Food for
stems, dead leaves, weeds, etc.) in different stages of de- plants
composition, and that in the early spring there is always a scarcity of Nitrogen in the soil in an available form for the reason that the most of that which was converted into soluble forms by the action of the soil bacteria during the warm summer months of the previous summer was either utilized by the plants occupying the ground at that time or has been washed down below the reach of the roots of the young plants by the melting snow and the heavy rains of winter and early spring.
And when we consider the fact that most plants require and take up about 75/ of their total Nitrogen Ammoniate during the earlier stages or vegetative period of their growth and that Nitrogen is the element most largely entering into the building up of the life principle or protoplasm of all plant life, it is plainly to be seen that we cannot afford to jeopardize the chances of our future plant by affording an insufficient supply of immediately available Nitrogen when most needed by the plant.
Food for Plan
°tTs Nitrate of Soda Experiments
At the
North Carolina State Horticultural Society's
Experiment Farm
At
Southern Pines, N. C,
During Years 1898, 1899, 1900.
The Experiment Farm at Southern Pines, North Carolina, was established in 1875. The soil is sandy, con- taining little clay or vegetable matter in the form of humus. It is a typical soil of the long-leaf pine belt, and contains in a natural state very little available plant food. The Experiment Farm is within a short distance of the village of Southern Pines, about sixty-six miles southwest from Raleigh, on the Seaboard Air Line Railway. The Farm is divided into two sections; the Fruit Farm of some 65 acres, and the Vegetable Farm comprising about 50 acres.
The climate is suitable for general fruit culture, the mean temperature being about 60 degrees Fahrenheit ; the spring and autumn means are about 60 degrees, the summer mean 77 and the winter mean 44. Rain occurs frequently in July and August, and the snow fall is very light.
The Fruit Farm comprises seven series of plots, 29 plots to the series, and each plot one-tenth of an acre. The seven series are as follows: I, Small Fruits; II, Grapes; III, Peaches; IV, Plums; V, Pears; VI, Apples ; VII, Chestnuts and Persimmons. Each series extends completely across the farm, that inequalities in the soil may so far as possible be equalized. The general tillage of the plots includes a cultivation every ten to twelve days, level and shallow. Two plots of each series are unfertilized, the remainder being treated with various combinations of ferti- lizers designed to determine the crop-making power of Nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash ; also lime and green manuring as a source of Nitrogen. Cow peas are used in the green manuring experiments.
The Vegetable Farm comprises eight series of plots ot 10 plots each, and each plot one-twentieth of an acre. The cultivation is uniformly such as the best farming practice
gives the crops under investigation. The fertilizer experi- Food for ments are conducted on this farm similarly to those of the Plants Fruit Farm, though less in detail. lul
As the soil was broken for the first time in 189$, the various plantings suffered from the ills natural to a new soil. We review here the results for the years 1898, 1899, and 1900, and in a few cases 1901, treating only of those plots relating to experiments with Nitrate of Soda.
Results on the Fruit Farm.
For the purpose of convenient general comparison of the growth on the various plots, the diameters of the vines and trees were measured at a uniform distance from the ground, the object being to show the growth effect of any particular fertilizer combination by comparing the average diameter of the plants on the unfertilized plot with that of the plants on the plot fertilized. The potash and phos- phoric acid were applied in the spring, the Nitrate of Soda half early in the growing season and the remainder from three to five weeks later.
On the grape series two varieties were planted, Delaware and Niagara. The following table shows the fertilizer applied per acre, and the growth of vines as indicated by the average diameter of the vines in each plot. For convenient comparison these measurements are computed to percentage of increased growth as compared with the growth made on the unfertilized plot.
Grapes — "Delaware."
Plot Fertilizers applied. Per cent gained over unfertilized soil.
No. Nitrate. Acid Phos. Muriate Potash.
15 63 lbs. 400 lbs. 100 lbs.
16 250 " 400 " IOO "
17 375 " +00 " 100 "
22 125 " 400 " 200 "
23 None 400 " 200 " (g.m.)
The letters "G.M." indicate that plot 23 was given the green manure treatment; that is, an extra application of mineral fertilizers was made and cow peas planted between the rows, the object being to determine if legume nitrogen can be utilized to replace Nitrate of Soda. The average gain made by the Nitrate of Soda was ././ per cent, while the green manure reached but 29 per cent. The general
|
1898. |
1899. |
1900 |
Average. |
|
26% |
3i% |
32% |
30% |
|
31 " |
55 " |
38» |
41 " |
|
45 " |
85 « |
63 » |
64 " |
|
40 " |
49 " |
43 " |
44 " |
|
31 " |
27 " |
29 << |
29" |
Food for Plants
(Plot 21.) Grapes. Without fertilizer,
|
*/. _ *, t -^ **.*," ,*• . "v - 1 „ .- ■'. |
| |
|
|
. |
r^^piPnni** " /;•**% |
* ' -,,- |
(Plot 16.) Grapes. Fertilizer — 250 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, +00 lbs. acid phosphate and 100 lbs. muriate of potash.
results show a very considerable gain from the use of Food for
Nitrate of Soda, and also that this gain increased as the Plants Nitrate was increased. The following table gives the similar 103
data for the Niagara grapes :
|
Plots. |
Fertilizers applied |
Per cent gained ov |
er unfertilized soil. |
||||
|
No. |
Nitrate. |
Acid Phos. |
Muriate Potash. |
1898. |
1899. |
1900. |
Average. |
|
'5 |
63 lbs. |
400 lbs. |
IOO lbs. |
8% |
3i% |
32% |
24% |
|
16 |
250 " |
400 " |
IOO " |
35 " |
47 « |
43 " |
42" |
|
»7 |
375 " |
400 " |
IOO " |
67 » |
57 " |
57 " |
60 " |
|
22 |
125 << |
400 " |
200 " |
41 " |
24 » |
43 " |
36 » |
|
23 |
None |
400 " |
200 "(G.M.) |
0 " |
16 " |
29 « |
15 " |
fives
The peach series compared in the same manner gi the figures in the following table, the fertilizer applications remaining the same as in the grapes series :
|
Plots. |
1898. |
1899. |
1900. |
A verage |
|
'5 |
31% |
3i% |
32% |
31% |
|
16 |
44 " |
44 " |
36" |
41 " |
|
17 |
56« |
56" |
48 « |
53 » |
|
22 |
44 " |
44 " |
24 << |
37 " |
|
23 (g.m.) |
28 " |
28 " |
20 " |
25 » |
As in the grapes series, the increasing applications of Nitrate are accompanied by increased growth, also the green manure experiment fails to show values equal to the direct use of Nitrate. In the plum series six varieties were planted, varying so widely in type that no general com- parison can be made with any degree of accuracy. The figures for the pears series are as follows, the fertilizer applications being the same as in the grapes series of plots:
|
Plots. |
1898. |
1S99. |
1900. |
Average |
|
'5 |
36% |
z$% |
17% |
26% |
|
16 |
27 " |
M " |
45 " |
40" |
|
17 |
27 « |
42 » |
57 " |
42 « |
|
22 |
23 « |
33 " |
39 " |
32" |
|
23 (g.m.) |
O " |
8 << |
32 « |
13 " |
Plot 11 received only half the Nitrate application made on plot 16 but twice the potash, the object being to more directly compare plot 11 with plot 23, the latter having the increased potash to provide for the legume, cow peas, and the Nitrogen assimilated from the air by the growth of same. Invariably in these experiments the legume plot falls behind the Nitrate plots, though the Nitrogen supplied by the green manure is probably greater in quantity than
Food for Plants
(Plot 22.) Peaches.
Fertilizer — 125 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 200 lbs. muriate of potash.
(Plot 23.)
Peaches. Fertilizer — 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 200 lbs. r Cow peas were planted as a source of Nitrogen, but the results were unfavorable as compared with Plot 22.
No Nitrate.
Plants
that supplied in the form of Nitrate. The reason may be Food for that the moisture required by the cow peas leaves an insufficiency for the growth of the plants ; however, whatever the cause may be, the facts are that the green manure fails to accom- plish the economic results reached by Nitrate of Soda.
The following table gives the similar results for the apple series, the phosphoric acid and potash applications being omitted from the table, being the same on all the plots, except Nos. 22 and 23, which received 200 pounds instead of 100 pounds as on plots 15, 16 and 17.
Plots. Nitrate of Soda. 1898. 1899. 1900. Average.
15 63 lbs. 46% 36% 46% 43%
16 250 " 36 " 55 " 61 " 51 "
17 375 " 55 «< 73 << 61 - 63 "
22 125 " 45 « 55 » 46 " 49 "
23 (g.m.) 37 " 36 " 46 " 40 "
The regularity with which the increase in the Nitrate fertilizing is accompanied by increases in growth, is very striking. With apples, the green manure seems to have done somewhat less damage than in the series previously given.
The Crop Results.
Among the small fruits, strawberries alone made suffi- ciently even growth to be of value in studying the fertilizer question, and these were replanted in 1899, so tnat we nave data only for 1898, there being no crop in 1900. The results stated in pounds per acre are given in the following table, the acid phosphate being 400 pounds per acre for each plot, and the potash being 100 pounds of muriate for each plot, except plots 22 and 23, which received 200 pounds per acre.
e of Soda. 1898.
lbs. 1,026 lbs.
1,381 "
" 2,060 "
" 2, 1 50 "
1,384 " " (g.m.) 1,091 "
When these figures are arranged for convenient com- parison, the results are more clear. For example, for every ioo pounds of strawberries produced on the unferti-
|
Plots. |
Nitrat |
|
2 I |
O |
|
•5 |
63 |
|
16 |
250 |
|
17 |
37 5 |
|
22 |
125 |
|
23 |
0 |
Food for Plants
(Plot ai.) Apples. No fertilizer.
(Plot 17. Apples. Fertilizer — 375 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 100 lb6. muriate of potash.
lized soil, a fertilizer application of 63 pounds of Nitrate of Food for Soda, 400 pounds of acid phosphate and too pounds of Plants muriate of potash produced 135 pounds of strawberries, a gain due to the fertilizer of 35 per cent. When the Nitrate of Soda application was increased to 250 pounds to the acre the crop gain was 10 1 per cent, and when the Nitrate was increased to 375 pounds the gain was no per cent. The green manuring experiment was unfavorable to the green manure; the fertilizer application containing 125 pounds of Nitrate of Soda per acre produced a crop gain of 37 per cent; when the cow peas were substituted for the Nitrate the gain was only 6 per cent.
The crop returns on the grape plots show considerable unevenness, the yields for 1898 being particularly light, owing to bad weather ; comparatively, however, this does not affect the results as showing the efficiency of the com- binations of fertilizers used. The following tables show the yields of fruit in pounds per acre.
Delaware Grapes.
|
Nitrate |
Acid |
Muriate |
Pounds pe |
r acre. |
|||
|
Plot;- |
Soda. |
Phosphate. |
Potash. |
1898. |
1899. |
1900. |
Average. |
|
21 |
0 lbs. |
O lbs. |
0 lbs. |
1,425 |
7,396 |
6,l8o |
5,000 |
|
15 |
63 « |
400 " |
IOO " |
2,855 |
12,144 |
12,240 |
9,080 |
|
l6 |
250 << |
400 " |
IOO " |
3,920 |
13,372 |
I 2,420 |
9,904 |
|
17 |
375 " |
400 " |
IOO " |
3»735 |
15,652 |
14,320 |
I 1,236 |
|
22 |
125 << |
400 " |
ZOO " |
3,650 |
12,628 |
I 2,280 |
9,519 |
|
23 |
Green manure |
400 " |
200 " Niagara |
3,290 Grapes |
1 1,080 |
10,820 |
8,397 |
|
Plot |
Nitrate |
Acid |
Muriate |
Pounds per |
acre. |
||
|
C J Soda. |
Phosphate. |
Potash. |
1898. |
1899. |
1900. |
Average. |
|
|
21 |
0 lbs. |
0 lbs. |
0 lbs. |
i»995 |
7,492 |
3,980 |
4,490 |
|
'5 |
63 « |
400 " |
IOO " |
2,275 |
13,488 |
4,200 |
6,654 |
|
16 |
250 << |
400 " |
IOO " |
3,650 |
H,363 |
9,260 |
9,091 |
|
l7 |
375 " |
400 '* |
IOO " |
3,975 |
19,204 |
9,120 |
10,766 |
|
22 |
125 << |
400 " |
200 " |
3,610 |
11,956 |
7,500 |
7,689 |
|
23" |
Green manure 4°° " |
200 " |
2,790 |
8,208 |
6,340 |
5,779 |
It will be noticed that there is a considerable difference in the yield of the two varieties of grapes, due largely to maturing periods of the two types. For comparison, the average of the two varieties is taken ; the following table shows the gain over the unfertilized soil due to the different fertilizer combinations :
Food for Plants
(Plot 16.) Pears.
Fertilizer — 250 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 100 lbs. muriate of potash.
|
lots. |
Nitrate. |
Gain |
over unfertilized soil. |
Food for |
|
|
15 |
63 lbs. 250 << |
62 IOO |
per cent. |
Plants |
|
|
16 |
109 |
||||
|
17 |
375 " |
132 |
' ' |
||
|
22 |
125 <« |
8l |
" |
||
|
23 |
Green manure |
49 |
" |
As in the crop results with strawberries, the effect of Nitrate of Soda is to increase crops with considerable uniformity ; also, the green manure fails to give results in proportion to the claims so commonly made for that method of Nitrogen manuring.
The peach series fruited with some uniformity for the first time in 1900, and the crop results as shown by the following table demonstrate the efficiency of Nitrate of Soda. The table shows the yield of fruit in tons per acre.
|
Plots. Nitrate Soda. |
Acid Phos. |
Muriate Potash. |
Yield Fruit. |
Increased Crop. |
|
2 I 0 lbs. |
0 lbs. |
0 lbs. |
1.84 tons. |
. |
|
15 63 " |
400 " |
IOO " |
2.53 " |
69 tons. |
|
16 250 " |
400 " |
IOO " |
3-25 " |
1. 41 << |
|
»7 375 " |
400 " |
IOO " |
4.84 « |
3.00 " |
|
22 125 << |
400 " |
200 " |
4-57 " |
2.73 " |
|
23 Green manure |
400 " |
200 " |
4.91 " |
3.07 " |
(Plot 7.) Peanuts. No fertilizer.
Food for Plants
(Plot 3.) Peanuts. Fertilizer — 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 No Nitrate.
(Plot 4.) Peanuts. Fertilizer — 250 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of potash.
In 1 901 the yields of fruit computed to a full stand, in tons per acre, were as follows :
Plot. Nitrate. Acid Phosphate.
2 1 O lbs. O lbs.
16
63
375
400 400 400
22 125 " 400
23 Green manure 400
|
uriate Potash. |
Yield. |
Gain. |
|
0 lbs. |
2.01 tons. |
|
|
IOO " |
1.28 - |
|
|
IOO " IOO " |
4.56 " 6.67 « |
2. 55 tons 4.66 " |
|
200 " 200 " |
4-54 " 3-!7 " |
2.53 << 1. 16 « |
Food for Plants
The results on plot 1 5 are obviously low from acciden- tal causes. The average vields for 1900 and 1901, in the increased crop over the unfertilized soil, stated in percen- tages, is as follows:
Plot 16, with 250 pounds of Nitrate of Soda per acre, gain 103 per cent.
Plot 17, with 375 pounds of Nitrate of Soda per acre, gain ipS per cent.
Plot 22, with 125 pounds of Nitrate of Soda per acre, gain 126 per cent.
Plot 23, with green manuring substituted for Nitrate, gain no per cent.
(Plot 7.) Sweet Potatoes. No fertilizer, j
Food for Plants
|
m&i i |
fcj |
■' I |
|
|
Bffi p[8{3 §1| |
|||
|
Bp KPSL f |
*&.. *&'&ii?$ |
||
|
' |
(Plot 3.) Sweet Potatoes. Fertilizer potash.
400 lbs. acid phosphate and 1 60 lbs. muriate of No Nitrate of Soda.
(Plot 4.) Sweet Potatoes. Fertilizer — 250 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of potash.
For both years, the yields of plot 16 are disproportion- ately low, as shown by comparison with plots 15 and 17. The cause is probably an inequality of the soil.
In this experiment the green manure makes a very good showing, but the explanation is that plot 23 of this series is located in a low spot in the strip, and undoubtedly receives fertilizer from the adjacent plots.
Of the remaining series of the Fruit Farm, none have fruited with sufficient uniformity to admit of comparison. The plum series alone is sufficiently developed, but this series has suffered so seriously from the ravages of insects that the fruiting has been very irregular.
Food for Plants
Results on the Vegetable Farm.
The effect of a raw, new soil was more severely felt on the Vegetable Farm than on the Fruit Farm, and the results were somewhat irregular. The crops selected for the various series were as follows :
Plot 7.) Sweet Potatoes. No fertilizer.
Food for Plants
(Plot 3.) Sweet Potatoes. Fertilizer — 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of potash. No Nitrate of Soda.
(Plot 4.) Sweet Potatoes. Fertilizer — 250 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of potash.
|
Series. |
1898. |
1899 |
1900. |
Food for |
|
I. |
Peanuts. |
Tobacco. |
Fallow. |
Plants |
|
II. |
Potatoes. |
Corn. |
Fallow. |
115 |
|
III. |
Beans. |
Artichokes. |
Fallow. |
|
|
IV. Y. |
Asparagus. Beets. |
Asparagus. Beans. |
Asparagus. Artichokes. |
|
|
VI. \ II. VIII. |
Sweet potatoes. Tobacco. Corn. |
Peanuts. Sweet potatoes. Potatoes. |
Sweet potatoes. Corn. Peanuts. |
Potatoes were planted in 1898 and 1899, but both crops were a failure from various causes. Beans were planted in 1898 and 1899, but both were crop failures. Asparagus being a permanent crop, was continued on the same series throughout the whole period. The crop returns computed to pounds of stalks per acre, are shown in the following table :
|
lot. |
Nitrate. |
Acid Phos. |
Muriate Potash. |
1898. |
Pounds 1899. |
per |
acre. 1900. |
Average. |
|
7 |
0 lbs. |
0 lbs. |
0 lbs. |
20 |
218 |
23I |
I-J6 |
|
|
3 |
0 " |
400 " |
160 " |
48 |
43 2 |
756 |
412 |
|
|
4 |
250 " |
400 " |
160 «« |
58 |
506 |
877 |
480 |
(Plot 7.) Corn. No fertiliz
Food for Plants
(Plot 3.) Corn. Fertilizer — 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of No Nitrate of Soda.
(Plot 4.) Corn. Fertilizer — 250 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of potash.
The gain from the use of Nitrate is about ij per cent, as compared with the plot not fertilized with Nitrate of Soda. In 1901 the results were 300 pounds per acre for the unfertilized soil, 520 pounds for plot 3, and 980 pounds for plot 4. The average for the four years shows a gain over the unfertilized soil of 204 per cent for plot 3, and 320 per cent for plot 4. Beets were planted in 1898, but were a failure. Sweet Potatoes were planted each of the years under examination, and the crop yields were fair, the soil being naturally suitable to the crop. The following table shows the crop vields in pounds per acre.
|
lot. |
Nitrate. |
Acid Phos. |
Muriate Potash. „ u 189s. |
Pounds 1899. |
per acre, 1900. |
Average. |
|
7 |
0 lbs. |
0 lbs. |
0 lbs. 2,960 |
2,580 |
3»765 |
3, I02 |
|
3 |
O " |
400 " |
160 " 6,280 |
4,980 |
8,260 |
6,507 |
|
4 |
250 " |
400 " |
160 " 13,760 |
10,560 |
10,570 |
I 1,630 |
The gain of plot 3 over the unfertilized soil was very large, and the addition of 250 pounds of Nitrate of Soda increased the crop of plot 3 nearlv 79 per cent.
Food for Plants
(Plot 7.) Corn. No fertil;
Food for Plants
(Plot 3.) Corn. Fertilizer — 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of potash. No Nitrate of Soda.
(Plot 4.) Corn. Fertilizer— 250 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of potash.
In 1 90 1 the sweet potato series gave results as follows:
Plot 7, without fertilization of any kind, per acre, 1,370 lbs. Plot 3, with phosphoric acid and potash, per acre, 3,893 lbs. Plot 4, with Nitrate, phosphoric acid and potash,
per acre 1 0,8 1 o lbs.
Taking the average for the four years, the increase in crops by applying phosphoric acid and potash only was 235 per cent, but when 250 pounds of Nitrate of Soda was added to this the increase amounted to 502 per cent.
Tobacco was planted in 1898 and 1899, but the crop of the latter year was a total failure. The following table shows the yield in 1898, in pounds of green leaf per acre:
Plot.
Food for Plants
Nitrate.
O lbs.
O "
250 <<
Acid Phos.
O lbs. 400 " 400 "
Muriate Potash.
o lbs. 160 " 160 "
700 lbs. 1,980 << 3,600 "
The 250 pounds of Nitrate of Soda increased the crop nearly 82 per cent.
*f&^UMim
(Plot 21.) Cow Peas. No fertilizer.
(Plot 3.) Corn. Fertilizer — 400 lbs. acid phosphate ar No Nitrate of Soda.
ate ot" potash
o lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lb: lbs. muriate of potash.
hosphate and I 60
Corn was planted each year, but the reports fail to account for a crop in 1899. The yields in pounds per acre, total crop, were as follows :
Plot. Nitrate.
o lbs. ? o "
Acid Phos.
O lbs. 400 " 400 **
Muriate Potash. 0 „ 1890.
o lbs. 840 lbs
160 " 1,800 "
160 " 4,030 "
Pounds pei at 1900.
1,059 Iks. 1,631 " 4»5Z3 "
Average. 950 lbs. 1,706 " 4,302 "
The increased yield, due to the Nitrate of Soda added to plot 4 over 3, which received only phosphoric acid and potash, was 2,596 pounds, a gain of 15a per cent.
For 1 901 the results were 30 pounds corn for the unfertilized plot, 100 pounds for plot 3 and 880 pounds for plot 4. Plot 18, which received a double application of Nitrate of Soda, gave a yield per acre of 1,640 pounds. The season seems to have been unfavorable for the crop.
Food for Plants
(Plot 7.) Corn. No fertilizer.
Food for Plants
(Plot 18.) Cow Peas. Fertilizer — 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 200 lbs. muriate of potash. No Nitrate of Soda applied.
(Plot 17.) Cow Peas. Fertilizer— 375 lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 100 lbs. muriate of potash.
Artichokes were planted in 1899 and 1900, but the crop of the latter year is not reported. Plot 7, unfertilized soil, made a crop of 2,640 pounds tubers per acre, while the plot with no Nitrate, No. 3, gave a crop of 5,140 pounds. Adding to the fertilizer used on plot 3, 250 pounds of Nitrate of Soda for plot 4, increased the crop on said plot 4 to 9,120 pounds, or nearly 100 per cent.
Food for Plants 128
(Plot 7.) Artichokes. No fertili
Food for Plants
(Plot 3.) Artichokes. Fertilizer — 400 lbs. acid phosphate and 160 lbs. muriate of potasl No Nitrate of Soda.
(Plot 4.) Artichokes. Fertilizer — 2<o lbs. Nitrate of Soda, 400 lbs. acid phosphate anc 160 lbs. muriate of potash.
THE MARYLAND AGRICULTURAL Food for
Plants
EXPERIMENT STATION.
Reprinted from Bulletin No. 67.
June, 1900.
The Culture and Handling of Tobacco in Maryland.
B\ H. |. PATTERSON, Director and Chemist. Page 140.
The following materials are well adapted T ,
for use in making fertilizers for tobacco :
Dissolved South Carolina rock, dissolved bone, dried fish, bone-tankage, cotton-seed meal, Nitrate of Soda, sulphate of ammonia, high-grade sulphate of potash, car- bonate of potash and magnesia, and cottonseed-hull ashes. As a rule, in mixing fertilizers there is not as much Nitro- gen and potash used as would be beneficial and profitable. By the use of crimson clover and cow-peas for adding humus to the soils the amount of Nitrogen or ammonia furnished by commercial fertilizer could be either kept low or reduced. Farmers should generally aim to mix their own fertilizers, as by this means they are sure of what goes into the fertilizer, and, as a rule, they get the plant food cheaper than by purchasing it in ready mixed goods. The mixing of fertilizer can be easily and cheaply done on the barn floor, by the aid of a hoe, shovel and sand screen.
The following figures give the approximate per cent- age which each 100 pounds of the various ingredients will represent when they are added to a mixture and the whole made up to a ton or 1,000 pounds.
Each 100 pounds of dissolved South Carolina rock represents 7-10 per cent of phosphoric acid in a ton mixture.
Each 100 pounds of standard dried fish or tankage will represent l/2 per cent of ammonia and 4-10 per cent of total phosphoric acid in a ton mixture.
Fach 100 pounds of Nitrate of Soda will represent about one ( 1 ) per cent of ammonia when made up in a ton mixture.
Each ioo pounds of high-grade sulphate of potash will represent about iyi per cent of potash when made up into a ton mixture.
For illustration, a fertilizer which has been used with good results on the Station farm for tobacco was made up as follows :
Dissolved South Carolina rock Ij3°o lbs.
Tankage ( I c per cent) 400 lbs.
Nitrate of Soda 100 lbs.
High-grade sulphate of potash 200 lbs.
Total 2,000 lbs.
This contained approximately :
Phosphoric acid (P.^O.) 9 to 10 per cent.
Potash (KgO) 5
Ammonia 3 "
Sulphate of ammonia and Nitrate of Soda are particu- larly valuable for use on the plant beds for growing strong and early plants. For this purpose they are applied at the rate of about 100 pounds per acre, sown broadcast over the land, in which case they are mixed with rock, plaster, or dry earth in order to facilitate application. They are also sometimes applied in solution at the time of watering the plants, in which case they are added to the water at the rate of one ounce of material for every four or five gallons of water.
SUMMARY OF BULLETIN No. 150.
Value of Different Forms of Ammoniates.
. . IT In 1898 the New Jersey Agricultural
Losses in Use . . -
P ^ ,. Experiment Station commenced a series of
A . _ experiments to determine the practical use-
Ammoniates r,r c ,.~ c cc K..
y. , fulness or different forms of fertilizer ammo-
niates, including farmyard manures. A special study was made of farmyard manures, and the losses of ammonia through improper handling or careless- ness was determined. These losses averaged over one- third of the ammonia, over one-half the phosphoric acid, and nearly one-half the potash. To illustrate practically, one ton of the average farmyard manure as experimented with contained 10 pounds of ammonia, 6 pounds of phos-
phoric acid, and 8 pounds of potash. The losses by the £°°* for
treatment given manures on the average farm, where at _*"
least some pretense is made to care properly for same, was 4 pounds of ammonia, 3 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 4 pounds of potash. As compared with pure chemi- cal fertilizers the plant food lost amounted to about 85 cents. However, in actual farming it has been long since known that the plant food elements in the form of farm- yard manure are not nearly so valuable as the same elements in the form of pure fertilizer chemicals. We have no absolutely exact way of fixing this difference in figures; but it is very probable that all things considered, plant food in farmyard manures is worth about half as much as the same quantity in the form of the pure farm chemicals. Under these conditions the actual value of the plant food saved by a very carefully carried out system of preserving farm- yard manures would not amount to more than 45 cents per ton, which probably would scarcely pay for the work of saving it.
The value to the farmer of manures Crop-Producing and fertilizers depends upon the crop power 0f Njtrate making power of same; that is, the Compared with power of the manure or fertilizer to Qtner Ammo- make a greater growth than would have nJates been the case had no manure or fertilizer been used. Plant food ammonia is a definite substance, but unquestionably it has a greater crop making power in some forms than in others. All the fertilizer ammoniates vary in practical usefulness, ranging from the Nitrated Ammoniate, Nitrate of Soda, which is the form of highest value to the farmer, to the animal form in leather scrap, which is of very little agricultural value. This variation in the crop making values of different forms of ammoniates has been specially studied by the Experiment Station, making use of the plot system. The experiment plots were treated with an abundance of phosphoric acid and potash, and given ammonia at the rate of 60 pounds per acre — 320 pounds of Nitrate of Soda. The results averaged for three years (corn, oats, oats) were as follows, comparison made with a plot receiving phosphoric acid and potash, but no Nitrate :
Food for Yield dry matter. Gain per cent.
Plants Phosphoric acid, potash only i 54- °
— Phosphoric acid, potash and Nitrate of Soda. . . . 240.5 83.70
Phosphoric acid, potash and sulphate of ammonia. 224. 1 61.40
Phosphoric acid, potash and dried blood 206.0 55. 10
w The details of the experiment are too
. 1C . . much at length to give in full here, and we Ammoniate is ,• & & , . ,• f
M v 1 ki must limit our remarks to a discussion or
Most Valuable. thg resuks> From the percentage of gain
it is evident that if the ammonia in the form of Nitrate of Soda is worth 1 2 cents per pound, as sulphate of ammonia it is worth only 9 cents, and as dried blood, it is worth only 8 cents. That is, if dried blood ammonia costs 8 cents per pound, ammonia from the sulphate of ammonia is cheaper if it can be purchased anywhere under 9 cents per pound, or ammonia from Nitrate of Soda is cheaper if it can be purchased under 12 cents per pound. In like manner comparison was made with farmyard manures with results based on a price of 1 2 cents per pound of the Nitrated ammonia or Nitrate of Soda, as follows :
Per pound.
Fresh solid manure 1.7 cents.
Fresh solid and liquid manure 5.8 cents.
Leached solid manure 2.0 cents.
Leached solid and liquid manure 3.8 cents.
Farmyard manure is commonly valued at $2.50 per ton; as it contains 10 pounds of ammonia, and presumably phosphoric acid and potash together of equal value, the 10 pounds of ammonia are worth $1.25 or 12.5 cents per pound. This is very near the actual cost of ammonia in Nitrate of Soda, but ammonia in the Nitrated form is of much greater value than in the organic form, such as farmyard manure; a fact well shown by the above table. If the ammonia of farmyard manure is worth 12.5 cents per pound these experiments show that ammonia in the other forms under examination is worth per pound as follows :
Solid fresh manure 12.5 cents.
Solid and liquid fresh manure 42.6 cents.
Solid leached manure i<±-7 cents.
Solid and liquid leached manure 27.9 cents.
Dried blood 60. 5 cents.
Sulphate of ammonia 67.4 cents.
Nitrate of Soda 91.9 cents-
It is claimed that farmyard manure has a D ,,..„. « Food for
• , n- i-iii i Reliability or plants
mechanical effect which adds to its value M. nt s c .
. , . , c , Nitrate of Soda. ,.>Q .
much more than the mere plant food con- UH
tained in same. There seems to be no very clear under- standing as to the exact nature of this mechanical usefulness, but it is to be presumed that farmyard manure has sufficient value to justify a more or less careful saving of same ; as to the price to be paid for it commercially, that is quite another matter. The after effect of farmyard manure was found to be much greater than from the fertilizer chemicals, but as the farmyard manure plot received three times the ammonia applied to the fertilizer chemical plots, it is reasonable to expect a marked difference in after effect. As a matter of fact, however, after effect in modern agriculture is of doubtful utility; to place any dependence upon same is to take the risk of crop failure and the loss of a year in time as well as all the work done. In this experiment 50 pounds of ammonia as Nitrate of Soda produced an increase of nearly 84 per cent over the plot not treated with ammonia; the most successful form of farmyard manure, using three times the quantity of ammonia, produced in crop, and in the after crop 158 per cent over the plot not treated with ammonia. Deducting the 84 per cent as the average results with 50 pounds of Nitrate of Soda ammoniate we have a gain of 74 per cent, representing 100 pounds of farmyard manure ammonia. It would have been better therefore to have used Nitrate each year, supposing, of course, the ammonia had cost the same in both cases.
Terms Used in Discussing Fertilizers.
Complete fertilizer is one which contains the three essential fertilizing constituents, in available fine form ; for example. Nitrate of Soda, Ground Bone, and Soluble Potash and as Muriate or Wood Ashes.
Nitrogen may exist in three distinct forms, viz., as Nitrates, as Nitrogenous organic matter, as ammonia salts.
Nitrates furnish the most readily available forms of Nitrogen. The most common is Nitrate of Soda.
Nitration, or nitrification, is the process by which the highly available Nitrates are formed from the less active
Plants
Food for Nitrogen of organic matter and ammonia salts. It is due to the action of microscopic organisms, and all Nitrogenous manures undergo this process before plants use it.
Phosphoric acid, one of the essential fertilizing ingre- dients, is derived from materials called phosphates. It does not exist alone, but in combination, most commonly as phosphate of lime in the form of bones, rock phosphate, and phosphatic slag. Phosphoric acid occurs in fertilizers in three forms— soluble, reverted, and insoluble phosphoric acid.
Superphosphate. — In natural or untreated phosphates the phosphoric acid is insoluble in water and not readily available to plants. Superphosphate is prepared from these by grinding and treating with sulphuric acid, which makes the phosphoric acid more available. Superphosphates are sometimes called acid-phosphates.
Potash, as a constituent of fertilizers, exists in a num- ber of forms, but chiefly as sulphate and muriate. All forms are believed to be nearly, if not quite, equally available. The chief sources of potash are the potash salts from Germany — kainit, sylvinit, muriate of potash, sulphate of potash and magnesia. Canada wood ashes and cotton-hull ashes are also sources of potash.
Ammoniates.
Per cent Lbs. Ammonia
ammonia. per ton.
Nitrate of Soda 19 380
Dried blood 14.5 295
Tankage 13.3 266
Dry fish scrap . 10 200
Cotton seed meal 8.5 1 70
Barnyard manure 0.6 12
Phosphates.
Per cent Lbs. Phosphoric
phosphoric acid. Acid per ton.
Superphosphate 15 300
Ground bone 22 440
Bone tankage 12 240
Thomas slag 16 320
Barnyard manure 0.32 6.40
Potashes.
Per cent actual potash.
Nitrate of Soda i to 3
Muriate potash 5°
Sulphate potash 52
Canada wood ashes °
Cotton seed hull ashes 25
Waste from gunpowder works . 1 8
Corn cob ashes 23
Maryland marls x • 25
Peruvian guano 2.61
Castor pumace ' • 5
Tobacco stems 6-5
Barnyard manure °-43
Sodas.
Per cent actual soda.
Carbonate of Soda 5°
Sulphate of Soda 43
Nitrate of Soda 3 5
Food for Plants
Lbs. Potash
per ton.
20 to 60
IOOO
1040
I20
400
360
460
25 52.2
3° 130
8.6
Lbs. Soda per ton.
IOOO
860
700
SOUTH CAROLINA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.
Reprinted from Bulletin No. 56.
October, 1900.
Clemson Agricultural College.
S. C. A. & M. COLLEGE.
Wheat.
/. Comparison of Varieties.
II. Quantity of Seed per Acre.
III. Experiment with Nitrogen.
IV. Home Manures.
V. VI.
Commercial Fertilizers. Tillage.
Page 5.
If wheat is sown upon land deficient in Fertilizers,
organic matter, it is wise to use a complete fertilizer, containing Nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash.
Food for if it follows a legume, such as peas or clover, the Ni-
Plants trogen may be omitted, and if the soil contains much clay 132 potash may not be needed.
AH fertilizers applied to wheat should be sown broad- cast during the preparation of the soil and very thoroughly incorporated with it. Excessive use of Nitrogen is injurious, causing too succulent growth resulting in rust or lodging, or both.
u ~ . This ferments verv actively when mixed How Organic ^ mojst goil jf the seed come intQ
horms o contact with it during such fermentation the
Nitrogen are germ wU1 be injured> It should) therefore, hermented. bg appiied iong enough before sowing the
wheat to allow this fermentation to pass its most active stage.
If wheat shows an unhealthy appearance in early springs especially upon sandy lands, an application of seventy-five pounds of Nitrate of Soda will prove beneficial provided there is enough phosphoric acid in the soil to co-operate with it to make the grain.
Page 9.
Experiment with Nitrogen.
To compare effects of Nitrogen from ,ect" cotton seed meal and Nitrate of Soda and
the latter applied with the seed and as a top dressing.
The intention was to use on each plot a constant quan- tity of phosphoric acid and potash as the equivalent of these ingredients in 200 pounds of cotton seed meal. The first plot received cotton seed meal
alone, yield 1 7-5 hus-
The second phosphoric acid and potash and Nitrate of Soda all applied with
the seed, yield 20.8 bus.
The third received only phosphoric acid
and potash, yield i7-6 bus-
The fourth received in addition to phos- phoric acid and potash applied with the seed, Nitrate of Soda as a top dress, vield ]9-4 bus.
UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA Food for
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. Plants
183
Timely Hints for Farmers, No. 31.
April, 1901. W. W. SKINNER.
A fertilizer of about the composition given below has frequently been advised by the Station for fertilizing orange orchards, and is believed to be in every way suited to the purpose. It should be applied at the rate of from 500 to 1,500 pounds to the acre, according to age of trees and quality of soil, and " plowed in deeply at the edge of the branches, about the beginning of the growing season." Formula.
6 per cent Nitrogen, from organic material.
1 per cent Nitrogen, from Nitrate of Soda.
1 y^ per cent potash, from sulphate of potash.
6^ per cent available phosphoric acid.
which in certain cases can be compounded with economy by the farmer himself from the following materials :
Pounds.
Bone tankage, (10 per cent ammonia) iooo
Nitrate of Soda 140
Sulphate of potash 60
Dissolved bone (16 per cent available phosphoric acid) 800
PURDUE UNIVERSITY,
INDIANA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT
STATION.
LAFAYETTE, IND.
C. S. PLUMB, Director.
Bulletin No. 84.
September, 1900.
Growing Lettuce With Chemical Fertilizers.
By WILLIAM STUART.
The subject of lettuce culture with chemical fertilizers was undertaken by the writer some years ago, and has been continued as circumstances permitted up to the present
Food for time. The investigation has been carried out as part of
Plants the work of the Botanical Department of the Station and
134 under the supervision of Dr. Arthur, the Station Botanist,
to whom the writer is much indebted for assistance.
The initial experiments on lettuce were reported in
Bulletin 66 of this Station, and a brief account of some
later ones is contained in an article by the writer, entitled
" Plant Growing with Chemical Fertilizers,"* which was
read before the State Horticultural Society in December,
1898. Subsequent experiments to the ones already reported
as mentioned, confirm the results previously obtained and
contain much additional information concerning the effects
of various forms of fertilizers.
^ . Among some of the more important
Questions . s. . . L , , . ,r- .1 •
, . questions investigated and reported in this
Investigated. J* .. . urn
bulletin are the following :
1. The determination of the relative effects of phosphoric acid, Nitrogen and potash upon the plants, either when used separately or in combination with each other.
1. The relative efficiency of phosphoric acid, Nitrogen and potash when derived from different sources.
3. The comparative efficiency of chemical fertilizers and stable manure.
4. Relative availability of liquid chemicals when applied to the surface of the soil or from below.
5. A comparison of surface versus sub-watering.
Page 134.
. .... f In the first crop the Nitrate of Soda,
vai a 1 lty 0 wnereVer comparable conditions obtained, ltrogen. ve slightly better results than the dried
blood, the increase varying from 4.5 to 15 per cent. The results of the second crop showed a slight gain in favor of Nitrate of Soda in one instance, and in two others a gain in favor of the dried blood. In one of these, VIII (a), the gain over VIII was large on account of the fact that the product from the latter was much less than it should have been, and owing to this, no definite conclusion can be derived from the second crop. It is safe to infer, however, from the results of the first harvest, that for any quick
* Transactions of the Indiana Horticultural Society, 105-114, December, 1898.
growing crops, or where an application of Nitrogen is desirable Food for
in the maturing of a crop, the Nitrate of Soda is preferable to
dried blood. m
The results obtained from the several c
, ... Summary,
experiments enumerated seem to invite the
following conclusions:
1. That in order to study the action of the three essen- tial elements of plant food, Nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, a soil must be used that is fairly deficient in plant food.
2. That potash when used in any considerable amount, either alone or in connection with Nitrate of Soda, pro- duced conditions unsuitable to plant growth.
3. When phosphoric acid was used alone or in con- nection with Nitrate of Soda or muriate of potash, even in large amounts, a marked increase in the growth of the plants was obtained.
4. The muriate of potash proved somewhat superior to the sulphate, the increase in each case being but slight.
5. But little difference seems to obtain in the efficiency of different forms of available phosphoric acid.
6. In each instance chemical fertilizers proved slightly superior to stable manures.
7. The application of liquid fertilizers from below by the sub-watering method proved perfectly feasible and gave satisfactory results.
8. Nitrate of Soda gave quicker returns than did dried blood, and seems best adapted to lettuce culture.
9. The sub-watered plants made a better growth than the surface watered ones.
Food for u. S.fDEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
Plants
~^~ EXPERIMENT STATION WORK, XII.
Washington, D. C.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 105.
EDITOR W. H. BEAL.
Prepared in the Office of Experiment Stations.
A. C. TRUE, Director.
^ ... „ Since 1892 the Massachusetts Hatch
Fertilizers ror 0 . / , , r
„ j ^ Station has been conducting series or
Garden Crops. ...... „u 1 *• / r
experiments to test the relative value of
Nitrate of Soda, sulphate of ammonia, and dried blood, as sources of Nitrogen for different garden crops ; and, at the same time, to make a comparison of muriate with sulphate of potash, when used with each of the three Nitrogenous fertilizers for the same class of crops. Dissolved bone-black was applied equally to all plats from the first. These experiments were continued unvaried until 1897. Sulphate of potash in connection with Nitrate of Soda generally gave the best crop ; in cases where it did not, it gave one but slightly inferior to the best except in the case of one crop, sweet corn, a plant which makes much of its growth in the latter part of the season. Nitrate of Soda in almost every instance proved the most valuable source of Nitrogen, whether used with muriate or sulphate of potash. Sulphate of ammonia and muriate of potash when used together gave the poorest yield in every instance. This result was apparently due to a chemical reaction between these two substances in the soil, resulting in the formation of ammo- nium chlorid, a substance which is injurious to plant growth. Up to 1897, as has been already stated, only chemical fertilizers were used, but in 1898 a change was made in the plan of the experiment. In view of the fact that market gardeners, in whose interest chiefly these experiments were carried out, almost invariably use large quantities of stable manure, and employ commercial fertilizers, if at all, simply to supplement the manure, it was decided to apply equal amounts of thoroughly mixed stable manure to each plat and to use in addition the same fertilizers as before. Further, in order to have the best data for determining
whether the fertilizers should prove in any degree useful, Food for another plat was added to which manure alone was applied. nts A number of different garden crops were grown, including 137 spinach, lettuce, table beets, tomatoes, and cabbage ; and, as a second crop, turnips.
Spinach gave by far the best results with Sninach
Nitrate of Soda. On sulphate of ammonia plats it was almost an absolute failure, many plants dying soon after germination and most of the others becoming yellow and sickly. Sulphate of potash gave somewhat better returns than did the muriate. Very similar results were obtained with beets. Most of the plants on the sulphate of ammonia plats became weak and sickly and many died ; but the few that survived until about July gradually recovered their vigor and grew very rapidly. The results with tomatoes were also in part similar. Sulphate of potash gave somewhat better returns than the muriate, and Nitrate of Soda gave the best yield of any of the sources of Nitrogen ; but the differences were far less pro- nounced than in the cases of spinach and beets. Contrary to the results in these cases, however, the sulphate of ammonia did not appear to have injuriously affected the crop. This is thought to be due to the fact that the tomato is not set until about the first of June, and makes most of its growth when the season is well advanced. By this time the injurious compounds formed by the sulphate of ammonia have been washed away by rain or destroyed by further chemical changes. The crops that were injured by the sulphate of ammonia, spinach and beets, are sown early and make most of their growth before the season is far advanced.
Lettuce yielded better on barnyard manure alone than on the plats to which fertilizers were also applied. The result is exactly in line with the results obtained at the New York State Station, an account of which appeared in an earlier bulletin of this series,1 where it was found that "after the soil has received a heavy application of stable manure, any further addition of chemical fertilizers is only thrown away." Here, as before, sulphate of ammonia was found to be highly injurious, especially when used with muriate of potash.
Cabbage appeared to be somewhat benefited bv the addition of fertilizers to barnyard manure. The difference
Food for in tne effect 0f tne different fertilizers was not very marked. __ Nitrate of Soda appeared to be the best source of Nitrogen.
The plats from which the beets, lettuce and spinach had been harvested were plowed and sowed to turnips without further fertilizing. In this case the crop was decidedly better on the plats which had received fertilizers in addition to manure. Not much difference was observed in the effect of the two potash salts, and the plats which had received sulphate of ammonia gave a much better crop than those which had received the other Nitrogenous fertilizers. This result, apparently so much at variance with those reported above, is thus accounted for: "(i) The plats to which the sulphate of ammonia had been applied had pro- duced but very small crops [of beets, lettuce and spinach] while the others had yielded heavily; and (2) the turnips made their growth so late in the season that the injurious compounds often formed by this salt had become dissipated or destroyed by further chemical changes." — v. a. clark.
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 122.
EXPERIMENT STATION WORK, XVI.
Washington, D. C. Page 6.
In all cases liming increased the total yield to a marked extent, in many instances to over three times that of the unlimed plats. The liming also resulted in a decided decrease in the proportions of weeds (mainly sheep sorrel) in the hay. It is claimed that sorrel thrives best on an acid soil. The application of lime, by neutralizing this acid, renders the conditions unfavorable to the growth of this weed and improves the soil for the growth of the more valuable grasses. It was also noted that the yield of grass was greater and the proportion of weeds [sorrel) smaller on the plats fertilized with Nitrate of Soda, in addition to the lime, than on those fertilized with sulphate of ammonia or dried blood. This may be accounted for "chiefly by the fact that the residual soda of the Nitrate of Soda had
IMMMMmmmiimmMBm
doubtless gradually reduced the acidity of the soil to such Food for an extent as to make it more favorable to grass, and, con- s
sequently, less favorable to common sorrel than where full 139 rations of dried blood or of sulphate of ammonia had been applied." The decomposition of the latter substances in the soil tend to increase its acidity and thus favor the growth of sorrel.
Of the three grasses which grew on the plats, orchard grass and awnless broome grass were most benefited by liming, and meadow oat grass least. The latter was bene- fited somewhat by lime in all except two cases, but it appears to be much less dependent upon its presence than are the other two grasses.
Timothy was not sown on the plats, but appeared in nearly every instance on the limed sections and but twice on the unlimed sections, indicating the value of neutral or slightly alkaline soils for this plant. Redtop appeared in but four instances, three of which were upon unlimed soil. This is in accord with previous observations at the Station to the effect that redtop can succeed in a soil too acid for the successful growth of either blue grass or timothy. Clover was found upon every one of the limed plats, but was whollv absent from the unlimed sections, and the best clover was found upon the plats which had received potash and phosphoric acid, but no Nitrogen. — the editor
AND C. B. SMITH.
EXPERIMENT STATION WORK, XIII. Washington, D. C.
Farmers' Bulletin No. 107.
Editor : W. H. BEAL.
Prepared in the Office of Experiment Stations.
A. C. TRUE, Director.
Page 7.
" Under existing conditions farmers are advised to purchase fertilizer materials and to make their own mixtures rather than to purchase mixed or complete special fertilizers. This course is believed to be advisable for two reasons: First,
140
Food for because the ' specials ' are not properly compounded, and second^ ts because the needed plant food can be thus procured at lower cost."*
Taking into consideration the March, 1899, market prices of fertilizers, and the results of the above experiments, the following mixtures are recommended in the bulletin above referred to. The quantities given are designed for one acre.
Corn.
1. For corn on sod land in fair condition :
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda .... 1 00
Dry ground fish 200
Acid phosphate 250
Muriate of potash (or high-grade sulphate) 220
These materials furnish about : Nitrogen, 30 pounds ; phosphoric acid, 40 pounds, and potash, 1 10 pounds.
2. For corn on land rather poor in organic matter.
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda 200
Dry ground fish 200
Tankage 1 00
Acid phosphate 200
Muriate of potash (or high-grade sulphate) 250
These materials furnish about : Nitrogen, 42 pounds ; phosphoric acid, 50 pounds, and potash, 125 pounds.
3. For corn in connection with farm manure:
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda 50
Dry ground fish 1 00
Acid phosphate 1 00
Muriate of potash (or high-grade sulphate) 100
These materials furnish about : Nitrogen, 14^ pounds; phosphoric acid, 21 14 pounds, and potash, 50 pounds.
Oats.
4. For oats on land in good condition :
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda 125
Acid phosphate 1 00
Muriate of potash (or high-grade sulphate) 50
* U. S. Department Agricultural, Farmers' Bulletin, 65 and 84 (Experiment Station Work, II, page 27 ; VII, page 5).
Plants 141
These materials furnish: Nitrogen, 20 pounds ; phos- F phoric acid, 14 pounds, and potash, 25 pounds.
5. For oats on land in low condition :
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda ... 1 75
Dried blood IO°
Acid phosphate 2°°
Muriate of potash (or high-grade sulphate) 9°
These materials will furnish about: Nitrogen, 37 pounds ; phosphoric acid, 27 pounds, and potash, 45 pounds.
Grass.
6. For mixed grasses or timothy :
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda * 50
Tankage l2S
Acid phosphate ,
Muriate of potash (or high-grade sulphate) 25
These materials will furnish about : Nitrogen, 32 pounds; phosphoric acid, 15 pounds, and potash, 13 pounds.
Clover.
7. For mowings with considerable clover:
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda l0°
Acid phosphate 3°°
Muriate of potash (or high-grade sulphate) 160
These materials furnish about: Nitrogen, 16 pounds; phosphoric acid, 40 pounds, and potash, 80 pounds.
Rye. 8. For rye :
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda 125
Acid phosphate l 5°
Muriate of potash (or high-grade sulphate) 125
These materials furnish : Nitrogen, 19 pounds; phos- phoric acid, 20 pounds, and potash, 63 pounds.
Food for Cabbage.
Plants &
1^ 9. For cabbages or Swedish turnips :
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda 1 50
Dried blood 200
Dry ground fish 400
Bone meal 200
Acid phosphate , 500
Sulphate of potash (high-grade) 250
Furnishing Nitrogen, 70 pounds ; phosphoric acid, 141 pounds, and potash, 125 pounds.
Soy Beans.
10. For soy beans:
Pounds.
Nitrate of Soda 1 00
Dry ground fish , 150
Acid phosphate 300
Sulphate of potash (high-grade) 200
Furnishing Nitrogen, 27 pounds ; phosphoric acid, 52 pounds, and potash, 100 pounds.
The continuous use of muriate of potash may so far deplete the soil of lime that an occasional application of this material may be required in case of such use. The sulphate of potash may be a safer material to use where a growth of clover is desired than the muriate, and therefore it may often be wise to use the sulphate in such formulas as are given above where muriate is specified. The high- grade sulphate should be selected.
These materials should as a rule be mixed just before use, and applied broadcast (after plowing) and harrowed in just before planting the seed. Where Nitrate of Soda is to be used in quantities in excess of 1 50 pounds per acre, one-half the amount of this salt may be withheld until the crop is 3 or 4 inches high, when it may be evenly scattered near the plants. It is unnecessary to cover this, though it may prove more promptly effective in absence of rain if cultivated in.
The quantities recommended are in most cases moderate. On soils of good physical character it will often prove profitable to use about one and one-half times the amounts given.
THE EDITOR.
SUMMARY OF INCREASED YIELDS Food for
Plants
From Application of ioo Pounds per Acre of — ^ — Nitrate of Soda.
It should be pointed out that in the recorded experiments with Nitrate of Soda on Money *ise in ^rice of Crops heretofore published in Experiment Station Reports and Bulletins, farm Products were much lower in price. The prices of agricultural Products have risen to a high water mark, and in certain cases, notably corn, the advance has been to extreme figures, and all Farm Commodities are now higher than they have been for some years. Our statements heretofore published, showing the profit resulting from the Crop increases due to the use of Nitrate of Soda, Margin of Profit if re-arranged on a basis of to-day's values for Crops, would show more Profit than before. It should also be remarked that the prices of other Ammoniates have risen higher than Nitrate of Soda, and it is Other Ammoniates yet the cheapest of all Ammoniates in the market.
Economists of authority tell us that the cost of living is to remain for a considerable time on the Pro0fbFba1remSValues high basis recently established, so that it is to be expected that the prices of Agricultural Products will remain at a high level.
In this connection your attention is called to many experiments with Fertilizers in which Good R"U^?t£Ue Nitrate of Soda is said to have been used in order to produce results to be exploited as due to materials other than this Standard Money Crop Producer.
Further, one may add, that when Nitrate is used at the rate of -200 pounds per acre, the Result— Slight
, , . . "V r.. r ' Added Cost per
actual cash increase in fertilizer cost per acre is . , _T
,, . . . . 1 . , , Acre and per Ton
very srrfall, and in mixed goods it cheapens the of Fertilizer
cost per ton of the Fertilizer.
The highest agricultural authorities have established by careful experimentation that 100 W£at N,trat£ Has pounds of Nitrate of Soda applied to the crops ' °P *
quoted below will produce increased yields as tabulated hereunder :
rain, rain.
WHEAT 300 pounds of g
OATS 400 pounds of g
RYE 300 pounds of grain
BARLEY 400 pounds of grain
POTATOES 3,600 pounds of tubers
HAY 1,000 pounds, barn-cured
Food for Plants
Table Showing Prices of Nitrate of Soda on the Ammoniate Basis.
Figured on Basis 380 lbs. Ammonia in One Ton of Nitrate of Soda.
|
Price per Cwt. of Nitrate |
Price per Ton of Nitrate |
Price Ammonia per lb. as Nitrate |
Equivalent Price Ammonia per Ton unit |
Equivalent Cost of Nitrogen per lb. |
|
$1.80 |
$36.00 |
$0,095 |
$1.89 |
$0,115 |
|
1.85 |
37.00 |
0.09T |
1.95 |
0.118 |
|
1.90 |
38.00 |
0.100 |
2.00 |
0.122 |
|
1.95 |
39.00 |
0.103 |
2.05 |
0.125 |
|
2.00 |
40.00 |
0.105 |
2.10 |
0.128 |
|
2,05 |
41.00 |
0.108 |
2.16 |
0.131 |
|
2.10 |
42.00 |
0.111 |
2.21 |
0.134 |
|
2.15 |
43.00 |
0.113 |
2.26 |
0.137 |
|
2.20 |
44.00 |
0.116 |
2.31 |
0.140 |
|
2.25 |
45.00 |
0.118 |
2.37 |
0.144 |
|
2.30 |
46.00 |
0.121 |
2.42 |
0.147 |
|
2.35 |
47.00 |
0.124 |
2.47 |
0.150 |
|
2.40 |
48.00 |
0.126 |
2.53 |
0.153 |
|
2.45 |
49.00 |
0.129 |
2.58 |
0.156 |
|
2.50 |
50.00 |
0.132 |
2.63 |
0.159 |
|
2.55 |
51.00 |
0.134 |
2.68 |
0.162 |
|
2.60 |
52.00 |
0.13T |
2.73 |
0.165 |
|
2.65 |
53.00 |
0.140 |
2.78 |
0.168 |
|
2.70 |
54.00 |
0.143 |
2.83 |
0.173 |
This table enables one to compare commercial quotations on Ammoniate with accuracy.
Some Practical Hints Regarding Nitrate.
It is the quickest acting plant food known.
It is immediately available for the use of plants as soon as it goes into solution.
It does all its work in one season. More must not be expected of it, as it gives quick returns and large profits when properly applied.
When applied broadcast it should be evenly distributed. In applying ioo pounds to an acre, one pound has to be evenly spread over 48 square yards, and this requires care and skill.
It is well to mix it with sand, marl, ashes, land plaster or some other finely divided material of about the same weight in order to secure a more even distribution.
Where plants are grown in hills or drills it should be applied near the growing plants and thoroughly mixed with the soil.
It does not matter whether it is sown in dry or wet weather except that when applied broadcast to crops like cabbage, which have a large leaf surface, it should be done when the leaves are not wet from rain or dew.
It does not blow away, and dews are almost sufficient to dissolve it. It is not necessary to wait for rain.
It should be sown early in the spring for cereals, just as they are starting to make their first spray growth ; for roots, after they are transplanted or set out.
Autumn sowing is generally not advisable except as an extra top dressing for Danish or winter cabbage just as they are starting to head, which is practiced very profitably by large cabbage growers.
It enables the plant to make use of the necessary mineral elements in the soil to the best advantage.
There are no unknown conditions that enter in, ir reference to the availabilitv of Nitrate of Soda.
Food for Plants
Food for jt should be remembered that plants take up most of
their Nitrogen during the early period of their growth.
146
// is now known that there is not as much danger of it being leached out of the soil by the rains during the growing season as has been generally believed, since the rains seldom reach lower than the bottom of the furrow, and the movement of the soil moisture is up instead of down.
Nitrate of Soda looks somewhat like common dairy salt, and horses, cows and sheep, if they can get to it, may eat it to a very injurious extent.
The emptied bags, especially in damp weather, have more or less Nitrate adhering to them. After emptying, it is a good plan to soak in water, which will make an excellent liquid manure, say one empty bag to a barrel of water.
If lumpy, the Nitrate should be broken up fine, which is easily done by pounding it on the barn floor with the back of a spade.
If the Nitrate is to be mixed with superphosphate or other fertilizers, put the desired quantity of each in a heap on the floor and turn it over until it is uniformly mixed.
Nitrate of Soda, unlike sulphate of ammonia, dried blood and other complete mixed fertilizers, can be mixed with lime or ashes without loss of Nitrogen. Basic slag and potash salts may also be mixed with Nitrate of Soda.
COMMUNICATIONS received from farmers and prospective consumers interested in the use of Nitrate of Soda, who are unable to secure it in their immediate vicinity, will be referred to reliable dealers who will furnish them with this special fertilizer. Formulas and valuable information sent free.
Below will be found a list of Pamphlets relating to the use of Nitrate of Soda as a Fertilizer, which will be furnished gratis to persons desiring information concerning the subjects named.
How Money Crops Feed.
Fertilization of Orange Trees.
Field Experiments on Market Garden Crops.
Food for Plants.
Nitrate for Money Crops.
Sugar Beets for Profit.
Olive Culture.
A Review of the Present Knowledge of Sodium
Nitrate, together with the Origin, Production and
Destruction of Nitrates in the Soil. Market Gardening with Nitrate. The Cultivation of the Sugar Cane, Coffee Planting.
WILLIAM S. MYERS, F. C. S., Director
Chilean Nitrate Propaganda
12-16 John Street, New York
YC 20964