Plant Food

Its Sources, Conservation,
Preparation and Application

PLANT FOOD

Its Sources, Conservation, Prepa-
ration and Application

By William H. Bowker

Copyright, 1909

Boston, Mass.

Second Edition, November, 1909

SYNOPSIS.

PAGES

The Needs of Modern Farming 1-5

Available Plant Food The Key; Analysis of Soil No Guide;
What Plants Need; The Inorganic Elements.

The Essential Elements of Plant Food 6-13

Nitrogen the First Element; Sources and Need of; Phosphoric
Acid the Second Element; Sources and Need of; Composition of
Bone; What is a "Catalyzer"; Four Forms of Phosphate;
Ground Phosphates; Basic Slag Phosphates; Potash the Third
Element; Sources and Need of; Lime, Occasionally Needed for
• Sour Soils; How and When to Apply.

The "Bulk" In Fertilizers 14-17

What Makes up a Ton; The Bulk in Manure; Dryers and "Con-
ditioners"; How to Secure Value in Fertilizers; Contract of
Sellers.

Chemically Mixed Fertilizers vs. "Dry Mixed" and "Home Mixed" 18-21
Chemical Blending; Why Fertilizers are Bought; Availability and
Mechanical Condition; Balanced and Specialized Fertilizers;
What to Avoid; Crop Insurance.

The "Yeast of the Soil" or Soil Bacteria 22-27

How One Order of Life Helps Another; Nitrifying and Denitrify-
ing Organisms; The Modern Explanation of Composting, Drain-
age and Cultivation; The Sap of the Soil; How Enriched; Poten-
tial Fertility; Amount of Plant Food in Soil; The Little Balance.

Stable Manure and Commercial Fertilizers Compared 28-29

Weight and Composition of Manure; Value of Humus; Manure-
sick Land; Count Cost before Buying Manure.

Intensive Farming 30-32

What They are Doing in Europe; What We are Doing at
Home; Plant Food Supply.

The Application of Fertilizers 33-35

Best Results on Well-Prepared Land; Value of Weeds; Cultiva-
tion Enriches Soil; Reduce Acreage and Intensify Treatment;
Reduce Unit Cost.

General Directions 36-38

Broadcast; Part Broadcast and Part in Hill or Drill; Hill and
Drill Application; Frequent Apphcations; Where to Use Manure
and Where to Use Fertilizers.

Specific Directions 39-49

For Potatoes; Corn, Small Grains; Top Dressing; Seeding Down:
Roots; Onions; Cabbage; Celery; Vines; Tomatoes; Asparagus;
Peas and Beans; Small Fruits; Tobacco: Trees; Lawns; Kitchen
Gardens and Special Crops.

Commercial "Valuations" of Fertilizers 50-52

What Official Inspectors Say: GoverDment Regulation Absolute-
ly Essential.

10AM rACK

GIFT

The Needs of

Modern Farming

KA^/^

AN ACRE OF TILLAGE LAND eight inches deep weighs
2,000,000 pounds (1,000 tons). In the East the average
dressing of concentrated fertiHzer is 1,000 pounds per
acre where no manure or "cover crop" or "catch crop" is plowed
in. To the Western farmer who uses from 400 to 800 pounds
per acre, 1000 pounds seems large, but it gives only one pound
of mixed fertilizer to every ton of soil, or less than a grain
of actual plant food to each pound of soil. This infinitesimal
amount combined with the "natural yield of the land" has
been known to produce under favorable weather conditions 400
bushels of potatoes, 100 bushels of shelled corn, or 30 to 40 tons
of ensilage per acre; to produce profit in place of loss; to turn
failure into success, and still leave the soil no poorer, hut in most
cases much richer.

It seems almost a miracle of nature, but these results have
been produced so often, in so many places and for so many years,
that they are no longer unusual. They are realities to be
depended upon as surely as seed-time and harvest return.

Successful crop growth rests, as we all know, primarily on
a rich soil — that is, available fertility or available plant food.
When the available plant food is exhausted, then it must be
supplied in one way or another in order to secure satisfactory
returns. It is a case of give and take. The crop says in effect,
"Feed me and I will feed you," and while it is very exacting
in its demands, yet it is generous in its returns. Supplied with
less than half a grain of actual plant food to each pound

1

Results
from
Small
Applica-
tions

Available
Plant Food
the Key

158

What the

Sciences

Contribute

of soil, it will return a million or ten million-fold in food for man
and beast. Thus it is obvious that living, growing crops, like
living, growing animals, must be supplied with food, either
from natural sources or by the skill of man.

To aid in supplying the need of "plant food" is the reason
for the existence of the fertilizer industry — an industry which
is based on all the sciences that relate to soil and crop problems ;
on geology, which tells of the formation and composition of
soils; on chemistry, which shows the needs of crops and how
they can be supplied; on botany, which tells of the structure
of crops and habits of growth, and, finally, on bacteriology, a
comparatively new science, which tells of the soil bacteria, or
"yeast of the soil" — the 4ower orders of life, without which
crops cannot thrive. This latter science, which we are just
beginning to develop and understand, is completely overturn-
ing our preconceived notions of drainage, tillage and the rela-
tions of plant food ingredients to crops and soils.

Thus it will be seen that the man who is carrying on the fer-
tilizer industry today and the farmer who is more or less depend-
ent on that industry for a part or all of his plant food must
each be more or less familiar with these subjects to meet the
needs of modern and successful farming.

Analysis
of Soil
no Guide

The Modern Idea of Plant Feeding

It is admitted that fertility is the corner-stone of agricul-
ture, as agriculture is the corner-stone of all other industries.
Fertility — that is, available plant food — is what nature or man
prepares for plants which are now grown as food crops for the
support of humanity.

Formerly the practice was to manure the soil in order to
restore lost fertility and to supply, by guesswork, deficiencies
in the soil, as ascertained by a chemical or a crop analysis of
the soil. This method is not now regarded as a practical solu-
tion of the problem, for neither chemical analysis nor the grow-
ing of crops can be relied upon as a true guide to its enrichment.
The chemical analysis of the soil discloses too much that is
misleading, and the growing, or even the matured crop, too
little that is conclusive.

Modern practice teaches that it is not the soil, but the crop,
that we should first consider. In a word, we have turned from

to
Study

the soil which cannot positively answer, full though it is of
life, to the living crop which can; so today we feed the crop ^^**^
rather than the soil. In the modern sense, therefore, the farmer ^^^ ^^^ '
is a manufacturer and the soil is his machine, into which he soil
puts plant food and out of which, by the aid of nature, includ-
ing the bacteria and other seen and unseen forces, combined
with his own efforts, he takes his product at harvest time. If
the soil machine is a good one — that is, of the right texture and
retentive of plant food, full of active nitrifying bacteria or
''yeast" — so much the better. If it has a balance of crop-pro-
ducing power to its credit, we seek to preserve that balance
for an emergency, as the prudent man preserves a balance in
the bank in case of need.

In stock feeding we chiefly concern ourselves with a study
of the animal and its needs. So in plant feeding we must What
make an intelligent study of the needs of the living crop, and
in the study of this problem we must also study the soil, its
latent or potential fertility, its physical and chemical charac-
teristics, and particularly the lower orders of life which it con-
tains, the bacteria and other unseen forces, to the end that we
may know what each contributes to the upbuilding not alone
of the soil, but of the crop life above the soil, upon which all
higher forms of life and activity depend.

Our problem then is not only to conserve, but to supply the
balance of ready plant food required by the growing crop, as
milk or prepared food is supplied to the growing child.

What Plants Need

Without going into an elaborate analysis of plants, let us
come immediately to consider their chief needs and the chief
deficiencies of all soils that have been farmed for some time. To
ascertain what plants need, we must first know what they are
composed of. Professor Brooks aptly illustrates the matter in this
way: 100 lbs. of green grass, thoroughly dried in the sun, will
shrink to about 25 lbs., the loss of 75 lbs. being water. If the
25 lbs. is put in an oven and heated to 212° (boiling point of water),
we can drive off from 12 to 14 lbs. more, or from 86 to 88 lbs. of
water in all. The perfectly dry, remaining portion is called
by the chemist '* organic matter." If these 12 or 14 lbs.
of organic matter are burned, there will be left from 1 to 3 lbs. of

3

Nitrogen
Abundant
but not
Available

ashes, which the chemists call "ash," or worganic matter. Gener-
ally speaking, therefore, we find that 100 lbs. of green crops con-
sist of:

Water 85 to 90 lbs.

Organic Matter . . . 10 to 15 lbs.

Which consists of:
Carbon
Hydrogen
Oxygen
Nitrogen

Inorganic Matter (Ashes) . 2 to 3 lbs.

Which consists of:
Phosphorus
Sulphur
Potassium
Calcium
Magnesium
Iron
Sodium
Chlorin
Silicon (Sand)

It would appear from the foregoing table that water is the
largest factor in growing all crops, but unfortunately, in general
farm practice, the farmer is dependent upon the rains to supply
it. It is a factor beyond his control except by irrigation. It
is known that thorough tillage will conserve moisture in the
soil and is absolutely essential in dry seasons, hence constant
and thorough cultivation is the basis of successful "dry farming"
in arid regions where water is not obtainable.

The organic matter we observe is composed of carbon, hydro-
gen, oxygen and nitrogen. Now the first three are supplied in
abundant quantities through the air and water by the aid of sun-
shine, which in nature's laboratory converts these elements into
the structure of the plant, which we know as stalk, leaf or straw;
also as starch in the potato and grain, or sugar in the fruit. It
is a curious fact of nature, however, that while nitrogen is the
largest constituent of air, being four-fifths of its volume (equal to
35,000 tons over every acre of soil), yet it is not directly available to
general farm crops. It is not positively known that any crop
can extract nitrogen from the air except the clover family,
which, through nodules on the roots, absorbs nitrogen from the
air in the soil.

Man inhales air, composed principally of nitrogen and
oxygen, and exhales nitrogen and carbonic gas, the latter of
which contains carbon. Plants absorb the carbonic acid gas
from the air, retain the carbon and exhale oxygen, but
they have no power of appropriating through the leaves
any part of the abundant supply of nitrogen which surrounds
them in the atmosphere. The nitrogen which they require
must be obtained, except in the clover family, from decayed
or decaying organic matter in the soil — which contains nitro-
gen, as we have seen, — the accumulation of decayed roots and
leaves in virgin soils for ages and which is often designated as
humus. When the available nitrogen from these virgin or
natural sources is exhausted, it must be obtained from artificial
sources or by plowing in green crops.

The inorganic matter, or ash group, we find to consist of a
number of minerals, all of which are present in available forms in
most soils, excepting phosphorus (phosphate of lime), potassium
(potash), and calcium (lime). Experience shows that if we supply
the phosphorus in the shape of phosphate of Hme, the character-
istic and predominating element of bone, and potash in the form
of ashes or in the form of potash salts fovmd in nature, and some-
times a little lime to sweeten the soil and occasionally some sand
in the case of peat soils, we are supplying the important constitu-
ents, or the "Httle balance," that is necessary for successful crop
production. Therefore, to sum up the problem, through analyses
of crops, analyses of soils, and experiments, also through prac-
tical farm operations conducted for more than half a century,
it has been observed that the three essential things to be
supplied in all commercial manures are nitrogen, phosphoric acid
and potash.

Carbon

and

Oxygen

The

Little
Balance

The Three Essential
Elements of Plant Food

What

NH,

Means

Sources

of

Nitrogen

Nitrogen, the First Element

Of the three essential elements of crops (nitrogen, phos-
phorus and potash) which the farmer must supply, we place
nitrogen first in the group, not because it is the most im-
portant, but because it is relatively the least abundant in
an available form and therefore the most costly. As we
know, there is an inexhaustible supply of nitrogen over every
acre of soil, and why nature arranged that it should not be
available to the great family of plants is an interesting question
for scientific speculation and investigation.

Nitrogen (N being its symbol in chemistry) is known in the
trade as ammonia, the terms being used interchangeably. As a
matter of fact, ammonia is a combination of nitrogen and hydro-
gen (NH3), that is, one part nitrogen to three parts hydrogen,
100 lbs. of ammonia containing 82 lbs. of nitrogen. The form
of ammonia that is best known is hartshorn, which is water
and ammonia combined.

Nitrogen is a gas without color, odor or taste. As plants can-
not absorb it directly from the atmosphere, it must be added in
the manure or fertilizer applied. Except in the air it always exists
in combination with some other element, and yet it is always
hastening back to the state of single-blessedness, to the pure
nitrogen of the atmosphere through the process of nitrification
or decay.

The sources of nitrogen are the humus of the soil, animal ma-
nures, and what are known as organic ammoniates, such as packing-
house refuse, tankage, dried blood, and fish waste or scrap,
also the seeds of plants such as cotton-seed or linseed. Then
there are chemical sources, chiefly nitrate of soda (a natural
deposit found in South America), and sulphate of ammonia,
a chemical by-product made by gas and coke works. Some soft

6

coals contain as much as 30 lbs. of nitrogen to the ton, and if
it could all be extracted, such coals would be worth more for
their nitrogen than for use as coal.

Nitrogen is needed in the plant to form the protein of the
plant and seeds or grains ; and these in turn, when eaten by ani-
mals, form the protein of the meat, muscles and tendons, steak and
chops, the white of eggs, etc. Nitrogen also imparts a green color
to the leaf, makes it larger, richer and more luxuriant in appear-
ance. An excess of nitrogen will produce a soft, pulpy growth
which will fall down, while the lack of it is shown in a spindling,
sickly, yellow growth.

Nitrogen is sometimes described as the alcohol of fertilizers,
the stimulating property, but as there is no food stimulant known
to plants in the sense that alcohol is a stimulant to man, this
assumption is erroneous. It forces growth because it is usually
applied in v/ater-soluble or very available forms like nitrate of
soda, sulphate of ammonia, or in the form of acidulated organic
matter like dried blood, tankage, fish, etc. Untreated horn shav-
ings, although rich in nitrogen, will not force growth, nor will nitro-
gen in any form do it unless there are present in the soil nitri-
fying bacteria to convert the organic matter into nitric acid which
the plant can then absorb. Neither will nitrogen force growth
unless soil conditions are right and there are also present the
phosphates and potash to keep it company.

When crops "lodge" or "fall down," it is often the result
of over-feeding of nitrogen, which forces the growth faster than
the plant can obtain or assimilate the silicates, especially silicate
of potash, necessary for stamina. This often happens on rich
muck soils, and it is on such soils that an application of potash
and sand is essential to correct this condition.

One can put coal in a stove, but unless air containing
oxygen is admitted, it will not bum. Air depleted of its oxygen
and admitted to a stove would put out whatever fire was started;
so nitrogen will not work in the soil unless the conditions are right
for it to be oxidized, so to speak, and converted into available form.
Coal will not bum in a chimney which is stopped up. A soil stopped
up with water or baked from lack of cultivation or insufificient
humus (organic matter) will not grow a crop, no matter how much
nitrogen or other plant food ingredients are applied.

7

Why
It Is

Needed

Why

It Forces

Growth

When
Nitrogen
Won't
Work

Nitrogen is no more important in the chain "than the
weakest link thereof," and yet it is so rare an article, the com-
mercial sources of it being so few, that he who will discover a cheap
commercial process for obtaining it from the atmosphere and
combining it in a form that will be sendceable in crop produc-
tion, not only will be a great benefactor and inventor, but will
change the economy of living on this earth.

Phosphoric Acid, the Second Element

,y^jj^^ Phosphoric Acid (P2O5) is the characteristic element of bone.

Is Its office in plant feeding is primarily to furnish phosphorus to

P2O5 plants, especially to their grains and seeds. No gr^in or

seed could be formed without it, although it is found in the
stalks and leaves. As we know, the skeleton, or framework,
of men and of animals is bone, in which there is 13 per cent
of phosphorus. As grains and seeds constitute in some cases the
chief food of animals and of men, nature has provided that phos-
phorus shall be one of their important constituents. In other words,
as we trace back the structure of animals to plants, and of plants
to plant food ingredients, we find those ingredients to predominate
in virgin soils which are necessary for, and which predomi-
nate in, the structure of animals or men.
^jj^^ In addition to supplying phosphorus, soluble and available

It phosphoric acid seems to have a stimulating influence on the

Does feeding capacity of plants and on the soil. It seems to be a

"mixer" and a promoter of plant assimilation and digestion. On
that account it hastens maturity in many cases. For example,
soluble phosphate of lime is almost a specific for certain root
crops like turnips and beets, and yet phosphorus does not enter
largely into the composition of these crops. Besides supplying
phosphorus to the kernel of com, soluble phosphates of lime are
absolutely essential in the hastening of the maturity of the com
crop. Phosphoric acid in the form of phosphate of lime also con-
stitutes a splendid base upon which to bmld a complete fertilizer.
In the form of acid phosphate (phosphates of lime dissolved in
sulphuric acid), it constitutes in many cases the "bulk" of
commercial fertilizers, which is referred to elsewhere.

We do not find phosphorus or phosphoric acid in an uncom-
bined form in nature, but always united with some base or
alkali, chiefly with lime in the form of phosphate of lime.

8

The mother source of phosphate of lime is supposed to be
the mineral known as apatite and found in various parts of the
world. Other mineral sources of phosphate of lime have been
found, more particularly in South Carolina, Florida and Ten-
nessee. All soils contain an abundant supply of phosphate of
lime, but as we have exhausted the available part, we must
supply it in some form or other.

The original commercial source was bone, which is composed
of about 65% of phosphate of lime, the other 35% of the bone
being cartilage, fat, marrow, glue, water, etc. After the demand
for fertilizer had exhausted the supply of bone, the mineral
deposits of phosphate of lime were taken up, and it was found
that by grinding them fine and dissolving them in oil of vitriol
(sulphuric acid), the phosphate of lime was rendered available to
plants, and thus it helped to supply the "little balance" of this
ingredient necessary for crop production. The sources of phos-
phorus (phosphoric acid) and phosphate of lime are therefore
the bones from packing-houses, fisheries and market places
and the mineral deposits of phosphates in all parts of the world.

It is believed that phosphoric acid is the most important
of the three principal elements of plant food, not because it is
the most required, for in the composition of the plant it is least
needed, but because it is a "catalyzer" as v/ell as a fertilizer.
In chemistry, a catalyzer is an element which assists in the
union of other elements without becoming a part of the union —
a sort of "go-between"; that is, besides furnishing the needed
phosphoric acid, it assists in the diffusion and assimilation of
other plant food ingredients. If phosphoric acid exercises a cata-
lytic action in the soil (and there is no doubt of it), the experi-
ments of Lawes and Gilbert, as well as results in practical crop
growing, indicate that it is the soluble phosphoric acid which
possesses this quality, and that the insoluble phosphoric acid does
not possess it at all. This in part explains v/hy superphosphates
(dissolved bone, dissolved bone black and acid phosphate) are
much superior to undissolved phosphates.

Four Forms of Phosphate

There are four forms of phosphate of lime, as follows:
4-lime phosphate — Tetra-Calcic — A by-product of steel manufacture.
3 -lime phosphate — Tri-Calcic — Mineral phosphates and bone.
2-lime phosphate — Di-Calcic — Reverted phosphoric acid.
1-lime phosphate — Mono-Calcic — Water soluble phosphoric acid.

9

Source
of

Phosphoric
Acid

Bone,
Composi-
tion of

What
Is a
* Catalyzer'

Liebig's
Discovery

Insoluble
Phosphates
of Little
Value

The last two phosphates, 1-lime and 2-hme, are what
constitute the "available" phosphoric acid in acid phosphate,
dissolved bone black and in chemically prepared fertilizers.

Liebig, the founder of agricultural chemistry and the father
of the chemical fertilizer industry, discovered that if we treated
bone, a 3-Hme phosphate, with sulphuric acid, we robbed it
of two parts of its lime and that the remaining one part was
soluble in water, in which form plants could readily absorb it,
and in which form, for some reason unknown at the time, it
was found to hasten maturity. On this discovery was based,
and is still based, the chemical fertilizer industry, which in
seventy years has grown to enormous proportions all over the
world.

Professor Chester, of the Delaware Agricultural College,
states* that an average of forty-nine analyses of soils shows
enough potential phosphoric acid to produce fourteen bushels of
wheat per acre per year for five hundred years. The question
then arises, "Should the commercial farmer, who is dependent
upon quick crops for quick returns, apply unavailable fertili-
zers, and especially insoluble phosphates, which neither supply
the needed available phosphoric acid nor have any catalytic
influence in the soil? In a word, shall he in this latitude, where
the growing season is limited practically to 120 days, and
where there is often a short supply of water, apply insoluble
and unavailable plant food, while the soluble and available can
be obtained at a relatively small cost over the insoluble?"

Ground Phosphates or ''Floats"

Ground mineral phosphates, sometimes called "floats," are
being recommended as absorbents under cattle and horses.
They are, no doubt, a good absorbent, but no better than fine,
dry earth. It is contended that in the manure pile, by the action
of decomposition and nitrification of the manure, a certain part
of the phosphoric acid will be rendered available, but how much
will be rendered available is unknown. No prudent commer-
cial farmer Vv^ill depend upon it as a source of available phos-
phoric acid for hoed crops. He might as well depend entirely
on hay for milch cows.

♦See also page 27.

10

It is also urged that ground mineral phosphates, undis-
solved, should be applied directly to the soil. But why add more
insoluble phosphoric acid when there is already in the soil a
supply for many centuries? The phosphoric acid which is
taken off in crops should be returned, but in a soluble, diffusible
form, not only to feed the growing crop, but by its catalytic
action to help in the diffusion and assimilation of other plant foods
and so hasten maturity, for time is everything in this latitude.

Basic Slag Phosphates

These are, no doubt, valuable in their place, but they have
their limitations. According to the official methods of analysis
in this country, slag phosphates contain no soluble phosphoric
acid. Therefore, when one applies them, he is only adding to
the sum total of phosphoric acid in the soil, of which the soil, as
we have seen, contains enough for centuries. Slag phosphates,
however, are made up of about one-fourth free lime, and are
valuable where the soil is acid. Probably a considerable part,
if not all, of the efficiency of slag phosphates is due more to the
free lime than to the phosphoric acid which they contain. If
one needs to use lime to sweeten his soil (and he frequently
does) and at the same time desires to apply additional phos-
phoric acid in an inexpensive form, we recommend a mixture
of 1,500 pounds of high grade superphosphate and 500 pounds
of agricultural lime. This will give a ton which will contain
as much active lime and practically as much phosphoric acid
as slags contain, and will cost less per ton than slags. It will also
have the advantage that the phosphoric acid will all be quickly
available and since available phosphoric acid (soluble and re-
verted) is absolutely essential in the growth of quick crops, the
application of acid phosphate and lime, applied separately or
combined in a mixture as suggested, will be found far more
efficient than basic slag phosphates, as well as less expensive.

Potash, the Third Element

Viewed from the standpoint of their chemical analyses,
potash (K2O) plays an important part in the structure of plants.
It is absolutely essential in the formation of the woody fibre of the
stalk and in the sugar and starch contained therein, and espe-
cially in tubers and roots like potatoes and beets.

11

Soluble

and

Diffusible

Value
Chiefly
Due to
Lime

A New
Mixture

What

Potash

Does

Nitrate

of

Potash

Sources

of

Potash

It is never found in nature pure, but invariably in com-
bination with some acid. One of its best known combinations
is with carbonic acid, forming carbonate of potash, which is
the common form in which we find it in ashes. It is the
carbonate of potash which is leached out of ashes and which
is used in the manufacture of soap. The exact form in
which the potash exists in plants is not well understood, but
it, in connection with silicic acid, is believed to aid in giving
the stiff quaUty to the stalk and also to the hull of the seed.
When a plant is burned, we always find potash in the ashes in
the form of carbonate.

We also find it in nature in combination with nitric acid,
forming nitrate of potash — a chemical which enters largely
into the manufacture of gunpowder and is also used exten-
sively in brines for pickling meats. This form of potash can
be leached out of certain soils in which there is a large amount
of organic matter or out of horse manure. It also appears
in nature in the form of chloride of potash, which in chemical
composition is a salt similar to chloride of soda (common salt).

The original and chief agricultural source of potash was
the ashes from burned wood, and in this form it exists largely
as carbonate and silicate of potash; but ashes afforded only
a small supply of potash, and it became necessary to find some
natural supply. This was found in Germany, so that today the
world turns to that country for its source of artificial potash.
The sources of potash, then, are the German potash salts,
nitrate of potash, and, finally, wood ashes, chiefly from Canada.

Lime, Occasionally Needed

Sour
Soils

Lime has been used as a fertiUzer from time immemorial,
but in later years it has been neglected because it has been
overshadowed by the great trio, nitrogen, phosphoric acid and
potash, and because it has been assumed that most soils con-
tain enough available lime, which is no doubt true. Lime
is an important ingredient of all plant structures, and of
this, most soils have an abundant available supply. We have
learned, however, that while soils do contain an abundant supply
in available form, yet that it is necessary to apply it occasionally
in a caustic form to correct "soiu*" soils.

12

Lime exists in nature as lime rock, which is carbonic acid
and calcium combined, and is practically insoluble in water.
Burning it drives off the water of crystallization, breaks down
its structure, and leaves it in what is known as a caustic con-
dition— that is, in a condition to combine easily and quickly How
with all acids, particularly with the weak organic acids of ^^™®

£k c c j Qf ft

the soil, — and it is in this form that lime is of very great assist- ^^^
ance in neutralizing the excess of soil acids and leaving the soil Growth
in a neutral or slightly alkaline condition. It is known that
farm crops thrive best on a soil which is slightly alkaline, alka-
linity being necessary for the growth of the nitrifying bacteria
which must exist and thrive in all soils that support the higher
orders of vegetation, such as farm crops.

Burnt lime is also exceedingly valuable on soils which
have been over-manured, or on muck soils, — that is, soils which
are rich in organic matter (humus) — in order to assist in breaking
them down and rendering the plant food available, and also
to aid in the formation of silicates of lime, which are necessary
for stiffness or stamina in the stalk. Unfortunately, burnt
lime (quicklime) cannot be introduced into mixed commercial
manures, because it will set up a chemical action that causes
the nitrogen which is present in the form of meat, blood and
tankage, to be set free as ammonia, which passes off into the
atmosphere as a gas, to the great detriment of the fertilizer.

Therefore lime must be supplied to the soil in its clear
state. Usually an application of about a ton to the acre once How
in two or three years will correct the acidity of the soil. This Much
is an important thing to accomplish, as we shall see when we
consider on another page the soil bacteria, or "yeast" of the soil.

To Use

13

The "Bulk" in Fertilizers

The
Bulk
in
Manure

Plant
Foods
Always
Exist in
Combina-
tions

Consumers often wonder what is the "bulk" of a ton of
fertilizer over and above the percentage of plant food. Thus^
in a ton of high-grade fertilizer, only 400 lbs. of actual plant
food is supplied. For example:

4 per cent of Ammonia equal to

jQ «4 « ,i Phosphoric Acid " "
6 " *' " Potash

80 lbs. in a ton
200 " "
120 " ••

Balance or "bulk" of the ton

400 lbs.
1,600 ••

Total

2,000 lbs.

What is this 1,600 lbs. composed of? A part of it is really
plant food, but not in the sense that the ammonia, phosphoric
acid and potash are plant foods. It is plant food, chiefly
humus, that is not charged for in the price. We will not go
into a scientific analysis of this material, but every pound of
it can be properly accounted for without the addition of any
"filler" or make-weight. A cord of stable manure weighs about
4,000 lbs., but it contains not over 50 lbs. of actual plant food.
What is the "bulk" or "filler" of manure?

Pure nitrogen, as we have seen, is a colorless gas, and in
that condition it cannot be used as food for either plants or ani-
mals. Potash and phosphoric acid do not exist in an uncom-
bined pure state in nature, and even if they did, such strong and
caustic elements would be dangerous to handle and absolutely
unfit for the tender rootlets to feed upon ; so we obtain or com-
bine them in forms suitable for agricultural uses. -^

The active content of meat is protein, but the stomach
could not digest protein in its pure state. We take it in beef-
steak, which is 85% water and fibre. Milk consists of from 11
to 15% soHds, composed of fats, sugar and cheese materials; the
balance is water, but we cannot extract the water and use only
the solids. The bulk of an apple, after the essential juice or
cider is extracted, is pomace, or fibre, which possesses little
or no value as food, but makes the "bulk" of the apple. Cer-
tain other things hold or carry plant food and constitute the

14

Make

"bulk" of most fertilizers. The most concentrated forms of
plant food are the following:

100 lbs. of Sulphate of Ammonia contain 25 lbs. of Ammonia and 75 lbs.
of Sulphuric Acid.

100 lbs. of Nitrate of Soda contain Nitrogen equal to 20 lbs. of Ammo-
nia and 80 lbs. of Soda, water and some impurities.

100 lbs. of Commercial Muriate of Potash (80% strength) contain 50
lbs. of Potash and 50 lbs. of Muriatic Acid, water and some
slight impurities.

100 lbs. of the highest grade of Mineral Phosphates contain 40 lbs. Phos-
phoric Acid (P2O5), and the balance, 60 lbs., is lime, water and
some slight impurities.

100 lbs. Dried Blood contains 15 lbs. of Ammonia; the remainder, 85 lbs.,
is organic matter or meat fibre.

Anyone who has made ** home-mixed" fertiHzers from pre-
pared materials Hke acid phosphate, dried blood, tankage „
nitrate of soda, etc., knows what "bulk' ' is, and knows also that No
these materials, when mixed together, give a color which re-

Weight

sembles earth, but he knows that no earth was added, and further ^^^\

' Added

that there was no room to add it v/ithout increasing the weight
to more than 2 ,000 lbs. and correspondingly reducing the grade.

"Dryers" or "Conditioners"

We have tried to show in the preceding paragraphs what
is the "bulk " in fertilizers and that dryers are rarely used. Occa-
sionally, however, dryers are necessary in order to make the
goods " dry and drillable". The scarcity of labor on farms, and
especially its poor quaHty, has increased the use of farm machin-
ery. Machines which apply fertiUzers require that the goods Fertilizers
shall be in a granular condition. Farmers who do not use _^ ...
machines also require that their fertilizers shall come to them ^Veil
in a mealy, uncaked condition. They have no time to stop
to pound up lumpy goods in the spring of the year, when farm
work presses ; hence they demand perfect mechanical condition.

The chemicals which are used in mixed fertilizers, as we
have seen, are concentrated forms of plant food. Like common
salt, they have a tendency to absorb moisture in moist weather
and to cake up in dry weather. Therefore, to make fertiHzers
dry and drillable, it is often necessary to use a dryer that
will keep the materials, especially/ the chemicals, apart and from
caking, as cornstarch is sometimes added to table salt to keep

IS

The Work
of the
Manufac-
turer

Farmers'

Stock

Rations

How to
Secure
Value in
Fertilizers

it from caking. Understand, these dryers do not reduce the
amount of the plant food guaranteed in a ton, for that is a
known, fixed quantity which the manufacturer must state,
guarantee and supply, or be liable to prosecution. These dryers
rarely make up bulk, for they usually contain plant food them-
selves, such as phosphate and carbonate of lime. Some of the
best known dryers are the "soft guanos" which come from the
islands in the southern seas.

As manufacturers of fertilizers are expected to gather and
make available all sorts and conditions of materials which
contain plant food, in the interest of economic agriculture, they
cannot pick and choose, but must utilize everything; hence
"all things are fish which come to their net." To assemble them,
to prepare them, and to put them in available form and perfect
mechanical condition for easy distribution and quick field
results, is the work of the manufacturer. It is no small work,
and it requires well-equipped plants, comprising powerful mills
as well as complicated chemical apparatus.

The prudent manufacturer endeavors so to balance his
materials that no dryers are necessary, for everything which
goes into a mixture, if it does not carry its share of nitrogen
or potash or phosphoric acid, is just so much additional material
to provide for and prepare; hence dryers are not used from
•choice, but only from necessity. A farmer does not feed all
liay or all grain from choice, but a proper proportion of each;
and if he is out of corn meal and shorts to mix with his gluten
meal, which is very concentrated, he feeds a larger amount of
hay. The result is practically the same, provided he supplies
the same required amount of digestible food.

* 'To state what one sells and to sell what one states " should
be the underlying principle of all business transactions. As the
fertilizer industry and all the fertilizer inspection laws are now
based on this principle, the farmer can feel reasonably sure of
getting what he buys as to the quantity of plant food in a ton
of fertilizer. Unfortunately, official inspection, which is rigidly
enforced in every state, while it reveals the quantity of plant
food in a ton, does not and cannot, in the present state of chemi-
cal knowledge, reveal the quality, that is, the degree oi availability.
For the quality the buyer must still rely upon the integrity of
the firm with whom he deals. Touching this point, the remarks

16

of the late Professor Johnson of Connecticut, the pioneer official
fertilizer inspector, hold good. Referring to quality, he said:

"The only security of purchasers of fertilizers is in dealing with firms
which have the highest reputation *** and in avoiding 'cheap goods'
offered by irresponsible parties,"

The manufacturer is called upon to state and guarantee a
given amount of plant food in each ton, in certain 'forms, and
when he has done that, whether the goods are high grade and
sell for $40 per ton, or low grade and sell for $20 per ton, he has
performed his part of the contract. If he is a wise and pro-
gressive manufacturer, he will go further and make it a point
to furnish the required plant food in soluble, active forms,
properly balanced for the crops to be grown and in perfect me-
chanical condition, and which will continue so until used.

Some day the farmer, like the fertilizer manufacturer, will sell
many of his products on a guaranteed basis and should receive
credit and pay accordingly. For example: if he produces a
rich milk which he guarantees to contain 15% solids with 5%
fat, he should receive a higher price than for a grade which con-
tains only 12% solids with 3% fat. Both grades may be abso-
lutely pure milk, but the first grade is worth 2 5 % more than the
second grade as an article of food, and costs more to produce.

Contract

of

Seller

The

Farmers'

Guaranty

17

Chemically Mixed
Fertilizers

vs.

"Dry Mixed" and "Home Mixed"

Many people have the idea that the mixing of fertilizers is
a simple process ; that a laborer with a shovel and a screen can
do it ; and so he can. But should we be satisfied with that sort
of goods? The actual putting of the ingredients together is but
the last step in a long process. Before they are mixed, the
materials must be assembled, all of them ground and screened,
and most of them should be chemically treated; many of them,
also, should be thoroughly rendered of their grease, for grease
is bad in a fertilizer for two reasons: it furnishes no plant food,
and it causes the goods to be sticky, undrillable, and oftentimes
to burn.

All these steps require a complicated chemical plant for this

Chemical preliminary work without which no "home mixing" or **dry

Blending mixing" would be possible. A cook can take flour, butter,

sugar and eggs, and make cake, but somebody has had to make

in advance the flour, sugar and butter; and the baking process

must follow the mixing process.

The chemical process of mixing fertilizers is one in which
practically all of the materials except the chemical salts are sub-
jected to chemical treatment in large revolving mixers, the con-
tents of v/hich are discharged into dens holding from 100 to 400
tons, and there allowed to mingle and compost in the presence
of a high degree of heat, which has been generated by the splitting
up and recombination of the chemical elements in the materials
used.

In this complex chemical process, the insoluble phosphate

of lime in bone or mineral phosphates is rendered water-soluble

What and available, and at the same time the organic materials, such

It Does as tankage, fish, etc., will have been converted, a part into

chemical nitrogen, and the remainder into an available form.

18

"Dry mixed" or shovel-mixed goods are those which are
prepared by mixing the crude ingredients together — for ex-
ample, the mixing of ground bone, ground phosphate rock or
dry acid phosphate with tankages, etc. Such a mixture is
purely a mechanical union in which no chemical action takes
place. We can make a dry mixture of lime and sand, but the
moment we add water, chemical action sets in and we have
mortar, which is quite another material. Flour and water and
a little salt could be mixed up and served as food, but it would
not be bread. It is simply dough, not cooked bread which
is palatable and digestible. Chemically made fertilizers, like
properly made bread, are the prepared food or bread of
plants, and are as superior to "dry mixed" or shovel-mixed
fertiUzers as bread is superior to the crude grains from which it
is made. Now the chemical process of making fertilizers is
the outcome of long experience in the chemical fertilizer in-
dustry, which seeks to render, and actually does render, prac-
tically all the plant food available for plants, as the cooking of
meats and vegetables renders them available for man.

Processes vary in treating by-products which contain plant
food. In some cases the processes are so conducted as to take
out all the grease and leave the by-products in a hard, unavail-
able condition. In other cases they are so conducted that,
while most of the grease is extracted, the product is left
in a soft, available condition. It depends largely upon the
apparatus used and the temperature employed. Everyone
knows that beefsteak can be cooked in a way that will leave it
very indigestible, or it can be served tender and juicy and easily
digestible.

There are forms of nitrogen in the market which are more
or less inert, including many so-called tankages or bloods, which
are dried and ground, either separately or mixed with good tank-
age or dried blood, and sold to dry mixers or home mixers as
tankages, much as a little cream used to be mixed with oleo-
margarine to give it the aroma and taste of butter. These, if
only "dry mixed," while giving goods that may show up well
in the laboratory, do not show up well in the field, for they have
not been properly cooked, as it were; and after all, it is the field
test which tells the story. The practical farmer who is growing
quick crops for quick returns wants goods that will act during

19

Mechanical
Not a
Chemical
Union

Difference

in

Processes

Good and
Poor
Forms of
Nitrogen

Why
Fertilizers
Are
Bought

the current season. He considers the following season when
he gets to it.

Therefore, in deciding between chemically prepared goods
and "dry mixed" or "home-mixed" goods, there are two points
to be considered:

First: Fertilizers are purchased and used, not for their
crude plant food, but for their available plant food. They are
bought to supplement the crude manure on the farm, to start
crops as well as to carry them through to maturity, to produce
results in dry seasons as well as in wet seasons. Will "dry
mixed" or shovel-mixed goods which have not been sub-
jected to chemical treatment give the same results as chemically
mixed goods? Will they be as soluble, as active and as sure?

Second: Will "dry mixed" or shovel-mixed goods be
as thoroughly mixed and blended as chemically prepared goods?
Will each pound of soil get its half-grain or grain of fertiHzer?
It must be remembered that when we apply as large a quantity
as a ton to the acre of concentrated fertilizer, we are giving each
pound of soil less than a grain of plant food. For this infin-
itesimal quantity to be thoroughly and evenly distributed, the
goods must be dry and drillable as well as soluble and available.
Finally, we must remember that in this latitude the growing
season for most crops is limited to 120 days. Will crudely
mixed fertilizers insure crops to the same extent that chemically
prepared goods will insure them? Judging by the enormous
increase in the consumption of chemically mixed fertilizers, the
practical farmer has decided in the negative.

The Availability of Fertilizers

Availability
and

Mechanical
Condition

It must be borne in mind that commercial manures are
applied chiefly to hoed crops, many of which have small root
systems, mature in from sixty to one hundred and twenty days,
and are often put to it to find sufficient moisture. Theoreti-
cally and practically the commercial farmer, for best results,
wants every seed to germinate, every plant to mature, and hence
every pound of the soil to be enriched with its fraction of a
grain of available plant food. Therefore availability , diffusi-
hility and fine, dry condition for even distribution are of para-
mount importance to the man who is growing quick crops for
quick returns in this latitude. Will "home-mixed" or "dry

20

mixed" goods, which any farm laborer with a spade can pre-
pare, insure him the same results as chemically prepared or
predigested goods? A stunted crop, like a stunted calf, rarely
amounts to anything.

Balanced and Specialized Fertilizers

Well-balanced, specialized fertilizers, containing the right
amounts of available nitrogen, in both chemical and organic
forms, with an excess of soluble and reverted phosphoric acid,
both for fertilizing and catalyzing effects, and the proper amount
and right form of potash, all thoroughly blended together and
in forms that will not cake, but remain in a drillable condition,
and which will act not only in the beginning, but throughout
the season (fertilizers based upon the needs of the crop and
market requirements), are what the practical farmer should
rely upon in growing commercial crops. Above all things, he
should avoid unbalanced and improper mixtures that have the
defect of one element being insoluble and another element too
soluble for successful plant growth.

Professor Voorhees, of New Jersey, an authority on the sub-
ject, recommends applying an abundance of a well-balanced,
available fertiHzer, as much as 1,500 or 2,000 pounds to certain
hoed crops where no manure or "cover crop" is plowed in. The
late Professor Stockbridge emphasized the importance of adapt-
ing the fertilizer to the crop, and especially that the fertilizer
used should contain the dominant element which that crop
required. The expert potato growers of Maine, the market
gardeners of Long Island and New Jersey, all follow this practice
and are making money.

The sanest, shrewdest farmers apply ample dressings of
well-made, specialized, available fertilizers to insure profitable
crop growth, for, after all, it is crop insurance that the practical
farmer is after. He takes long chances with the weather,
but he takes no chances with the kind of fertilizer he applies,
for he knows that an extra dollar expended for the right kind
will make just the difference between success and failure.

What to
Avoid

Crop
Insurance

21

The "Yeast of the Soil"

or Soil Bacteria

How One

Order of
Life Helps
Another

Why a
Soil Is
Cold

How

Yeast
Works

"The yeast of the soil," as we shall consider it, is not plant
food, but low organisms of life which exist in the soil and but
for which ctiltivated soils would be practically barren. "The
yeast of the soil" is what is scientifically known as bacteria —
organisms which thrive in the soil and by means of which
unavailable plant food, especially nitrogen in the form of organic
matter, such as stable manure (leaves, stalks, etc.), is rendered
available. The great discoveries of Hellreigel, the leading
investigator along this line, demonstrate that higher orders of
plant life are dependent upon lower orders of life. We could
not profitably grow a corn or potato crop unless these organisms
were growing at the same time in the soil, or had previously
existed there and done their work.

We speak of a soil as being cold and non-productive. It
may be cold from an excess of water, or because it is too com-
pact and heavy, but the moment we drain it or lighten it by
cultivation, it becomes productive. The real reason it be-
comes productive is that we admit air and warmth, which are
necessary to develop the crop and also the "yeast plants"
(bacteria), which, in turn, attack the stable manure or other
organic matter (humus), and break it down, rendering it avail-
able to plants. Farmers say that they can hear corn grow on
warm days and hot nights, which is almost literally true. It
is because the weather is favorable to the growth of the nitri-
fying plants (bacteria of the soil), Vv^hich convert the unavail-
able nitrogen into available and soluble forms.

It is a well-known fact that the yeast used in making bread
and the "mother" used in making vinegar are nothing but an
aggregation of bacteria, "yeast plants," as it were. When the
yeast is added to bread under warm, favorable conditions, it
begins to grow, and in its growth liberates carbonic acid gas,
which causes the bread to rise and become light and porous. In
the case of vinegar a ferment, or "yeast plant," attacks the sugar
of the cider and converts it into alcohol; then the "mother" of

22

vinegar (another kind of bacteria) attacks the alcohol and
converts it into an acid which we call vinegar.

Similar forms of Hfe are at work, under warm, favorable
conditions, in the soil, preparing plant food for assimilation.
Not only are warmth and the right proportion of moisture nec-
essary for their growth, but the soil must be neutral or slightly
alkaline for their highest development. In order to produce
this condition, an application of quicklime or unleached wood
ashes is frequently necessary to correct any acidity of the soil
resulting from organic acids which are produced under certain
soil conditions.

All organic matter or substances which have been at some
time organized into plants by the life force, such as leaves,
roots, stems, etc., must decay before they can nourish, that is,
before they can be absorbed and reorganized again into growing
crops. Stable manure contains a small amount of soluble salts
which are immediately ready to feed the crop, but the bulk of the
manure must rot down through the influence of bacterial action
before it becomes food; and the process of decay, or rot, is largely
the result of the growth of lower forms of life, or "yeast plants,"
in the manure or in the soil, which, as we have seen, are depen-
dent upon certain favorable conditions.

There are several known forms of nitrogen organisms in
the soil, two that are well defined, the de-nitrifying and the
nitrifying — the destructive and the constructive. Touching
the various organisms. Professor Stone, of the Massachusetts
Agricultural College, writes:

"The de-nitrifying organisms are those which convert nitrates
into nitrites and ammonia. The nitrifying organisms are those which
convert ammonia into nitrites and nitrates. The latter are exceedingly
beneficial, while the former are not considered so, as plant food must
be in the form of nitrates. We never find nitrites in plants. There is
another type of organism known as nitrogen fixation organisms, and which
are represented by the organisms in legume nodules; also by many free
organisms which exist in the soil. We do not know much about these
organisms, but we do know that there are quite a number of them. Some
of them appear to work better when living with other organisms than
when isolated by themselves. There is evidence to show that a large
number of organisms have the power of fixing nitrogen in the soil; for
example, besides the species of clover bacteria, there is evidence to show
that many of the algae which live in the soil and certain molds will do the
same thing. In our work here, we find the largest percentage of nitro-
gen in those solutions which are contaminated with the blue bread mold

23

Lime
Helps

Decaying

Organic

Matter

Nitrifying
and

De-nitrify-
ing
Organisms

Forcing

Early

Growth

Compost
Passing
Out

(Pencillum), showing that it is a nitrogen-fixer. I think it will be shown
later on that quite a little nitrogen is fixed in the soil by this type of
organism, exclusive of those on the nodules of the legumes. The denitrify-
ing organisms are often found in manure piles and are responsible for the
liberation of ammonia and, as such, we would not consider them favorable."

In the spring of the year, when the weather conditions are
usually unfavorable for the propagation and rapid multiplica-
tion of these soil "yeast plants," commercial manures are
found of great assistance in forcing an early growth by supply-
ing forms of plant food which have been rendered soluble by
chemical treatment or are, so to speak, predigested, and ready
for the crop to feed upon immediately. Since most of our
cultivated crops make their chief growth in from sixty to ninety
days, it will be clear that we must have plant food in the soil
that will feed the plant from beginning to end, especially in
the beginning of the season, when the bacteria of the soil, owing
to weather conditions, are not active.

The Modern Explanation of Composting,
Drainage and Cultivation

The discovery of soil bacteria, which also exist in stable
manure, explains the advantage of composting and cultivation
for forcing early growth. In the majority of cases, it is no
doubt cheaper, if not better, to apply stable manure in its
crude state directly to the soil, to cultivate it into the soil and
allow the bacteria to attack it there; in short, to compost it
in the soil rather than beforehand. In many cases it is desir-
able to use some thoroughly composted stable manure — manure
which has been subjected to the bacterial process, broken down,
and a considerable part of its crude plant food co;iverted into
available forms. This, however, was deemed more necessary
years ago, before commercial manures were introduced. Now
that concentrated available plant food can be bought, the
necessity of composting manure in advance is passing out.
It is not only a slow process, but more or less wasteful and
expensive, for in the process of nitrification through the bacterial
action a considerable amount of ammonia may be set free
and wasted into the atmosphere. This always takes place
when the manure or compost pile is allowed to "fire fang" and

turn white.

24

It is urged, however, by some experimenters that com-
posting is desirable in order to raise the temperature of the
manure pile to a point that will destroy the foul weed seeds,
but is not this an expensive way to destroy weed seeds, as
obviously it must expose the compost to loss of ammonia while
also consuming time and labor? Except where a very fine
seed bed is desired, with considerable humus present, it is be-
lieved the compost heap will go out and commercial manures
will be used in its place for forcing purposes.

In the matter of drainage, the old theory obtained that we
wanted to draw off the water from the soil in order to admit
air and warmth, and also afford a better chance for the
roots to permeate through the soil. This is all true today,
but we have found that this is only a small part of the advantage
of drainage. The paramount object of drainage is to promote
the growth of bacteria in the soil — a life which cannot exist
where there is an excess of water, where the soil is too compact,
or where the proper amount of air and warmth does not per-
meate. Hence drainage assists in the growth of a crop of "yeast
plants" below the surface of the soil, which are as essential to
the growth of the crop above the soil as water and sunshine.

In the matter of fine cultivation, the old theory of cultiva-
tion was to kill not only the weeds, but to make the soil Hght
and friable, to admit the air, to encourage the circulation of
moisture through the soil, and to make it an acceptable medium
for the roots of the crop. The modern theory includes the old
and also recognizes the necessity of making the conditions as
favorable as possible for the growth of soil bacteria. Thorough
cultivation also conserves the moisture of the soil by means of
a fine mulch on the surface, which prevents the moisture from
evaporating into the atmosphere.

In the West, where they carry on "dry farming" — that is,
farming without irrigation — ^where there is little rainfall —
they have been successful in raising large crops by continuous
cultivation, keeping the surface Hke a dust heap, thus retain-
ing the moisture which, by means of capillary action, has
been drawn up from lower levels. Mr. Hale, the celebrated
peach grower of Connecticut, keeps horse cultivators going
practically all the time in his orchards, during the growing
. season, not only to keep down weeds, but to conserve moisture.
He calls it "horse leg irrigation." Thus the modem farmer

25

Object of
Drainage

Object of
Cultivation

Horse

Leg

Irrigation

cultivates not solely to kill weeds and admit warmth and air into
the soil, but to encourage the growth of bacteria, as well as
the distribution and conservation of soil moisture.

"The Sap of the Soir'

We frequently hear farmers speak of the "sap of the soil" —
a phrase which expresses a great deal. All cultivated plants
take up their food in dilute solution. The sap of a tree or
plant circulates throughout its system of trunk, branches and
leaves, carrying with it the nourishment necessary for its up-
building, as does the blood in animals. This sap has been
absorbed from the soil through the roots of the plant, and is
charged more or less with plant food ingredients which were
either appHed in a soluble form or were rendered soluble through
bacterial action in the soil, or through the digestive process
which takes place in contact with the roots of plants. Manure
or commercial fertilizers enrich the sap of the soil by supplying
additional quantities of available plant food. Bacteria, as we
have seen, help to break down the organic forms of plant food
and render them soluble for the sap of the soil to absorb.

Potential Fertility

Plant
Food
Locked Up

Chemistry teaches us that plants are composed of certain
fixed elements which are supplied by the soil and the air. It
further teaches that while there is an abundant supply, yet
we have exhausted the three leading elements, nitrogen, phos-
phoric acid and potash in available forms; that so-called
barren or unproductive soils may be rich in plant food elements,
but that these elements are so locked up as to be of little value
to the commercial farmer, whose chief concern is quick crops for
quick returns. In other words the available plant food (nitro-
gen, phosphoric acid and potash) has been exhausted, leaving
only the unavailable or what is known as the potential fertility,
which, by the slow processes of nature, is yielded up too slowly
to be depended upon by the commercial farmer.

It has been known for a long time that practically all
tillable soils are rich in all plant food elements, and yet many
of them are barren and most of them will not produce profit-

26

able crops without the aid of manure or fertihzer. Prof. Fred-
erick D. Chester, of the Delaware Agricultural College, states:

"An average of the results of 49 analyses of the typical soils of the
United States showed per acre for the first eight inches of surface, 2,600
lbs. of nitrogen, 4,800 lbs. of phosphoric acid and 13,400 lbs. of potash.
The average yield of wheat in the United States is 14 bushels per acre.
Such a crop will remove 29.7 lbs. of nitrogen, 9.5 lbs. of phosphoric acid
and 13.7 lbs. of potash.

"Now, if all the potential nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash
could be rendered available, there is present in such an average soil,
in the first eight inches, enough nitrogen to last 90 years, enough phos-
phoric acid for 500 years and enough potash for 1000 years.

"This is what is meant by potential soil fertility, and yet such a
soil possessing this same high potential fertility may, under certain con-
ditions, be so actually barren of results to the farmer as to lead him to
believe it absolutely devoid of plant food."

In a word, potential fertility represents plant food which
is so tightly locked up that it is not available for present needs,
and becomes available only through the process of decay and
disintegration, which is too uncertain to meet the require-
ments of modern, intensive farming.

^*The Little Balance'*

Amount
of Plant
Food in
Soil

Therefore, in modem practice, instead of asking the soil
how much of the potential fertility can be depended upon for
each crop, or what the "natural yield will be" (a question
which will never be satisfactorily answered), we now apply
what we beheve to be necessary to produce the maximum yield
over and above the natural yield of the land. In all cases we
find that the actual requirements of plant food for various crops
are very small indeed, in many cases less than a grain of
available plant food to each pound of soil — so little to pro-
duce so much, and yet if it is absent, the crop will be a
failure. It is this little, essential balance of available plant
food which stands between success and failure and which con-
cerns the modern farmer today.

Fertilize
for

Maximum
Yield

27

Stable Manure

and

Commercial Fertilizers

Weight and
Composi-
tion of
Manure

Its Chief

Value

Comes

from

Humus

Best
When
Used with
Fertilizers

It is estimated that a cord of stable manure, weighing 4,000
lbs., contains, on the average, 50 lbs. of plant food, worth about
$3, the remainder (3,950 lbs.) being water, straw and organic
matter. For the 50 lbs. of plant food to be rendered available,
we are dependent very largely upon bacterial action in the
manure and in the soil. In the old days, with cheap labor, we
composted manure in advance in order to hasten the process
of decomposition and increase its availabiUty. Now, as a
rule, depending upon commercial manures for active avail-
able plant food, we apply the manure on the soil directly as we
produce it or receive it from city stables.

While there are only SO lbs. of actual plant food (nitrogen,
phosphoric acid and potash) in a cord of manure, yet we must
not overlook the value of the organic matter, straw, etc., not
only for the humus which is added to the soil by means of the
manure, but also for the improved physical condition which
it imparts to the soil. This humus no commercial manure
supplies, and in this respect stable manure is superior to com-
mercial manures; but the value of this excessive amount of
humus in stable manure, as a source of plant food, depends,
as we have seen, not only upon a thorough distribution of the
manure in the soil, but chiefly on normal conditions of warmth
and moisture, in order that bacterial action may be induced
and by means of which it is rendered available. Thus, when
we rely solely on stable manure, we are more dependent on
weather conditions than when we apply predigested fertilizers,
or part fertilizer and part manure.

Stable manure, as a by-product of the farm, will be a favorite
source of fertiHty, partly because of its plant food and chiefly be-
cause of the humus it supplies, but in market gardening and in gen-
eral farm practice the best results will be obtained when
it is used in connection with chemical manures. On the other
hand, chemical manures not only supply in a concentrated
way needed plant food, but supply it in forms that anticipate,

28

supplement and in some cases promote bacterial action,
without which stable manure, and even the organic portion
of the fertilizer, would be barren in results. The progressive
farmer, therefore, supplements and improves his stable manure
by the use of concentrated fertilizers in the same way that he
supplements and improves his hay with the use of concentrated
grain foods in feeding his stock.

While it is absolutely true that stable manure is a good
source of fertility, yet it is by no means the cheapest if one has
to buy it, neither is it absolutely essential in the growing of
many farm crops. This is shown by the enormous and rapidly
increasing areas which are planted annually to com, cotton,
tobacco, wheat, potatoes and vegetables on commercial fer-
tilizers as the sole dependence in the matter of plant food. In
fact, the best potatoes and vegetables are now grown on com-
mercial fertilizers as a rule.

Incidentally, it should be noted that twenty years ago
manure sold in city stables at about $10 a cord. Today,
unless a stable is very advantageously located, farmers and
gardeners are getting manure at a nominal price, and, in many
cases, for the hauling. The introduction of commercial manures
has been one of the causes of the reduction in the price of stable
manure, for which the farmers should be thankful.

The Germans have a phrase which signifies "manure sick
land." With cheap stable manure we are likely to have such a
condition around large cities. On such land commercial ma-
nures should be applied, and occasionally lime or wood ashes,
in order to promote the slightly alkaline condition of the
soil which is necessary for satisfactory crop growth.

Finally, the question as between the purchase of stable
manure ' and commercial fertilizers resolves itself into two
parts: First: Do one's soil and the character of the
crops to be grown reqmre the excessive humus of stable
manure for the most profitable returns? Second: How much
can one afford to pay for this humus, knowing that it can often
be obtained, or all that is needed, by a rotation of crops or by
plowing in stubble or green crops ? Assuming that the actual
plant food in a cord of stable manure is worth, on a fertilizer
basis, $3 per cord, what is the humus, the remainder of the
cord, worth, and how much will it cost to haul or freight it and
apply it to one's own soil and crop requirements?

29

Manure
Not

Cheapest
Source

Manure-
Sick
Land

Count the

Cost

before

Buying

Manure

Intensive Farming

Abnormal

Crops

Require

Special

Feeding

Barren
Heath
Made
Fruitful

Progressive farmers and market gardeners are carrying on
''intensive agriculture." They produce abnormal crops and there-
fore require intensive methods of cultivation and feeding. A
potato plant left to itself and in the state of nature produces
potato balls. Man, by modern methods of cultivation and selection
of seed, has changed the nature of the plant to produce tubers.
A cabbage left to itself would run to a seed stalk, but we cul-
tivate it for its head alone, which is an aggregation of leaves
that are very palatable as a food for man, but quite exhaustive
of the soil. As we have changed the nature of most of our
cultivated crops, so we must change our methods of cultiva-
tion and especially our methods of feeding them. The old
method of relying wholly on stable manure, raw or composted
— waiting on the slow processes of nature to render it available —
must give way to quicker and surer methods for the commercial
farmer and gardener of today.

What They Are Doing in Europe

"About the middle of the last century a lighthouse, known
as Dunston Pillar, was built on Lincoln Heath, -in Lincolnshire,
England. It was erected to guide travelers over a trackless,
barren waste, a very desert, almost in the heart of England,
and long it served its useful purpose. The pillar, no longer a
lighthouse, now stands in the midst of a rich and fertile farm-
ing region, where all the land is in high cultivation. For many
years, no barren heath has been visible even from its top."
Such is the story told by the veteran agricultural chemist, the late
Professor Johnson, of Connecticut, to which the late Professor
Atwater adds: "Had not chemists busied themselves to find out
what makes plants grow, and had practical farmers not been
ready to use their discoveries, Lincoln Heath would still
remain a waste. What is true of this bit of English soil is true
in greater or less degree of wide areas of our own and other
lands."

Prince Kropotkin of France, a Russian exile, in an article
on "The Coming Reign of Plenty," writes:

30

"If we want, however, to know, what agriculture can be and what
can be grown on a given amount of soil, we must apply for information
to the market-gardening culture in the neighborhoods of Paris, Amiens
and other large cities in France and in Holland. There we shall learn
that each hundred acres, under proper cultivation, yield food, not for
forty human beings, as they do on our best farms, but for 200 and 300
persons; not for 60 milch cows, as they do in the Island of Jersey, but for
200 cows and more if necessary. They (the gardeners) have created a
totally new agriculture. They smile when we boast about the rotation
system having permitted us to take from the field one crop every year,
or four crops every three years, because their ambition is to have six and
nine crops from the very same plot of land during the twelve months.
They do not understand our talk about good and bad soils, because they
make the soils themselves. They aim at cropping not five or six tons of
grass on the acre, as we do, but fifty to one hundred tons of various
vegetables on the same space; not $25 worth of hay, but $500 worth of
vegetables of the plainest description, cabbage and carrots. That is
where agriculture is going now."

Prince Kropotkin adds: "In the hands of men, there are
no unfertile soils. The most fertile soils are not in the prairies
of America, nor in the Russian steppes; they are in the peat-
bogs of Ireland, on the sand-downs of the northern seacoast,
on the craggy mountains of the Rhine, where they have been
made by man's hands."

A French scientist once longed for two degrees less of
latitude, that, among other things, he could have the luxuries
of the season. The market gardener in the neighborhood of
Paris has practically eliminated the matter of climate. In
fact, he defies climate. By his wall culture, glass houses, cold
frames, etc., he has made a rich southern garden from which
he supplies the city of Paris "with mountains of grapes and
fruit in any season, and in spring he inundates and perfumes
it with flowers" — in addition to an abundance of plain vege-
tables. In no city are the products of the garden and green-
house cheaper or better.

What We Are Doing at Home

But we need not go to France or Holland to find intensive
farming. Within a few miles of our largest cities we are, in a
measure, duplicating the results about Paris — perhaps not so
intensively, because market conditions do not require it, but
certainly quite as scientifically and profitably. We have our
intensive farmers who are not satisfied with a return of $100

31

Five

Hundred
Dollars
per Acre

Culture
Defies
Climate

per acre, but demand and actually receive $500, $1,000 and, if
covered with glass, fully $10,000 net per acre. These pro-
gressive men, like the Paris gardener, also defy climate and soil.
We will not attempt to detail the steps which have led up
to this satisfactory condition for both producer and consumer.
Suffice it to say that it is due partly to intensive methods which
have been worked out by practical, hard-headed men, and
partly to scientific research. It is a splendid example of Science
and Practice going hand in hand — of the selection and breeding
of seeds and plants, of successfully combating plant diseases
and insects, of conserving and distributing the needed moisture,
and, finally, of utilizing all the sources and forces of fertility.

Plant Food Supply

Many

New

Sources

New
Discoveries

As manufacturers, studying ways and means of supplying
the plant food which is required by intensive methods in some
sections and by wasteful methods in other sections, we are
often asked where it is all coming from, and if we can keep up
with the demand Knowing what science has done and is
capable of doing, we have no fear but that so far as plant food is
concerned we shall find the needed supply. Just now our chief
concern is for nitrogen and potash. Discoveries will render the
nitrogen of the air available — in fact, discoveries which are
claimed to be a commercial success have already been made. The
bacteriologist, through his study of Hfe of the soil, will also
help us in this direction. We are now, through the efforts of
the chemist, also utilizing numerous by-products of our in-
dustries which a few years ago were thrown away, while new and
extensive discoveries of phosphoric acid, in the shape of mineral
phosphates, are being made. It only remains now to find
some native source of potash, hke that in North Germany,
or some feasible way of rendering avail able the potash in
feldspar rocks. Then we shall have rounded out the circle
in America.

32

The Application of
Fertilizers

Almost as much depends upon the proper use of fertiUzers
as upon their composition. We must remember that chemi-
cally prepared fertilizers are prepared plant foods; that for
best results they should be applied to a properly prepared seed
bed or field. To feed highly concentrated foods to an old,
winded horse or a sickly cow exposed to the cold and wet, is
usually money and labor thrown away; so it is money and
labor poorly expended to buy commercial manures and apply
them to sour, wet, half-baked land, or to land half plowed and
poorly prepared.

Again, it is money poorly expended to apply chemical
manures to land where poor seed is used, or where, after the
crop has come up, it is neglected. Weeds, as well as cultivated
crops, thrive on fertilizers. The only merit which weeds possess
(if they possess any merit at all) is that they sometimes do for
the farmer what he has neglected to do for himself. If he
neglects to cultivate and protect the original crop which it is
good for him and the soil to grow, provided it is properly grown,
weeds step in and cover the ground, protecting it and, when
plowed • in, supply a certain amount of plant food and humus
that is good for the soil.

Nature abhors a bare spot, so she sets to work to cover
up bare spots with some sort of growth, even if it be only nox-
ious weeds. In this sense they are a sort of catch or "cover"
crop, occupying the land until a better crop takes their place.
If there is any comfort in this view of the weed question, the
shiftless farmer is welcome to it; but we do not recommend
fertilizers to grow weeds even as catch or cover crops. Fer-
tilizers are too costly for that purpose. Dirt is described as
matter out of place ; a weed is a growth which is out of place.
Do not tolerate it anywhere, and certainly not on land which has
been enriched with chemical manures for which one has paid
good money. (See Note, p. 34.)

33

Weeds
Thrive on
Fertilizers

Value of
Weeds

The

Object of
Cultivation

Cultivation

Enriches

Soil

The modern farmer keeps the horse cultivator going almost
constantly. He does not wait until the weeds have come up^
but he nips them before or as soon as they have germinated,
thus not only destroying the seed or the weed itself, but before
it has got a footing, and long before it can go to seed to repro-
duce itself in the same field another year. In fact, the modern
farmer cultivates not to destroy half-grown or full-grown weeds,
but for the good of cultivation itself — to keep the surface of
the soil in a fine, friable condition, to form a mulch on the sur-
face which is known to conserve the moisture of the soil and
thus to offset the effect of drouth; also to thoroughly mix the
fertilizer or manure with the soil in order that each pound of
soil may have its grain of plant food, and in order that the
little rootlets may have an easier and better place in which to
feed. Finally, he cultivates to admit the air and warmth in
order to promote a crop of bacteria in the soil, without which
the crop above the soil will not thrive.

The modern farmer, therefore, cultivates to enrich his
soil, for that is what he really does when he conserves moisture
and encourages the growth of bacteria. The killing of weeds
is only incidental. In fact, if he has been thorough in his pre-
vious treatment of the soil, he practically has no weeds to kill,
for they have been cultivated to extinction, except in case of
frequent applications of stable manure.

To thousands of practical farmers in the East, and to
many "dry farmers" in the West, weeds and ordinary drouth
are no terror, they do not enter into their calculations;
but these advanced farmers cultivate, and cultivate, and still
cultivate. Thus their crops thrive and they thrive with them.

Reduce Acreage and Intensify Treatment

Use
High
Grade
Fertilizers

This leads us to recommend a reduction in the amount of
land cultivated, and to apply the same quantity or even more
fertilizer per acre to the reduced area. We also recommend
that high-grade fertilizers be used, for in the end they are
cheapest. The overhead or general expenses which must be

Note. — Since writing the above (page 33) about weeds, the author has heard, at a
public meeting, a successful market gardener state that he favored a growth of weeds
after the chief crop was matured or harvested, in order to catch and hold any soluble
plant food which might be left over in the soil; the weeds to be plowed under in late fall
or early spring.

34

It Pays

added on to a ton that sells for $30 or $40 are no greater in
amount than must be added on to a ton that sells for $15.
Thecostof preparation, bags, freight, etc., is the same in each case.

We make this recommendation not so much to increase
our sales as to increase your profits. There are farmers who
apply from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. of high-grade fertilizer to an acre
of potatoes — fertilizer that is twice or three times as rich as
that used in some other sections of the country. As a result,
coupled with thorough cultivation, they grow 300 bushels of
potatoes to the acre. Is not the unit cost of a bushel of pota-
toes much less when 300 bushels are grown on one acre than
when they are grown on three or six acres?

Successful manufacturers seek to reduce unit cost, and
to that end they seek by modern methods and machinery to
increase the production of their factories. We believe it would
pay farmers, in order to reduce the unit cost of a bushel of
potatoes or a bushel of wheat, to cover less land and to culti-
vate it better, using not only more fertilizer per acre, but a Reduce
higher quality. The average yield of wheat in the United ""Jnit Cos*
States is 14 bushels per acre, and yet there are farmers getting
30 and 35 bushels per acre. The average yield of corn is less
than 30 bushels per acre, and yet there are farmers in the East
vs'ho, on what w^ould be regarded in the West as barren land,
by the application of 1,000 lbs. of high-grade fertilizer and good
cultivation, are harvesting 75 and 100 bushels of shelled corn
per acre. It is obvious that where w^e intensify the treatment,
that is, enrich and cultivate better, we can materially reduce
the labor cost as well as increase production.

35

General Directions

How to
Broadcast

A Good

Start

Helps

Hill or
Drill
Applica-
tion for
Small Root
Systems

Broadcast: Where fertilizers are used liberally, say from
1,500 to 2,000 lbs. per acre, and without stable manure,
a broadcast application is usually safest. It should not
be plowed in or applied much in advance of seeding. It
should be worked in with a wheel harrow or horse cultivator,
and thoroughly mingled with the top surface of the soil.
Unless one has a broadcast sower, it is well to apply one-half
walking in one direction (north and south) , and the remainder
in the opposite direction (east and west). One who can sow
a few bushels of grass seed over an acre can easily broadcast
fertilizer.

Some farmers mix the fertilizer with a quantity of dry
earth in order to increase the bulk. Still others mix it with
several loads of fine stable manure and then put it through an
ordinary manure spreader, the point being to get it applied
as evenly and cheaply as possible.

Part broadcast and part in hill or drill: Where fertilizers are
used extensively and exclusively, probably more is used part
broadcast and the remainder in the hill or drill than in any other
way. This method gives the crop something to feed upon at the
start before it has developed an extensive root system. This
custom is quite generally followed in the case of Indian corn,
potatoes and some vegetables. Where part manure is applied
and part fertilizer, the manure is rarely composted, but is spread
broadcast as it comes from the yard, cellar or pit, and wheel-
harrowed into the soil, while the fertilizer is applied in the hill
or drill.

Hill and drill application: The old way was to apply all
the fertilizer in the hill or drill, and this is still a good way if
it is being used on crops with small root systems such as the
small grains and some root crops possess, but care should be
exercised not to place it in contact with the seed or young roots.
A good fertilizer will burn unless it is mixed with the soil, and
if it did not burn, the expert user would condemn it with
some reason.

The modern drills or planters are so fitted as to distribute

36

and cover fertilizer in advance of the seed. Where the machine
does this thoroughly, it is one of the cheapest and best ways
to apply fertilizer for many crops. Some farmers furrow their
land and then sow the fertilizer along the furrows and kick
earth over it where the seed is dropped. When it is applied
directly in the hill, it should never be thrown in handfuls in
one spot, but scattered over the ground where the hill is to
be, and earth kicked over it before the seed is dropped.
After a little practice one gets the knack of successfully apply-
ing fertilizer by hand or with machines.

Frequent applications: Where fertilizers are used in heavy
doses and exclusively, farmers frequently apply a portion at
seeding time and the remainder between the rows or drills as
the crop is cultivated. This is particularly recommended for
many hoed crops and especially on light soils with a tendency
to leaching. "Feed the crop a little at a time and often" is
not a bad motto, especially when it can be done without much
extra cost for labor. This course is being followed in many
sections when the crop is backward or when it needs to be
forced in the middle of the season. More and more fertilizer
is being used in this way.

Caution

Apply
More
Than
Once

Where to Use Manure and Where to
Use Fertilizers

As a rule, it will not pay to buy and haul manure to the
farm, but what is produced on the farm as a by-product should
be used about as follows:

First: As manure is bulky and heavy for the plant food
which it contains (not over 50 lbs. in a cord, weighing not less
than two tons), it is best to use it near the barn or on fields
easily accessible, and fertilizers on fields which are some dis-
tance off or hard to reach. It is difficult to compare fertiHzers
and manure, but, generally speaking, one bag of good fertilizer
contains more plant food than a big cartload of manure.

Second: As the bulk of manure is humus, organic matter
(hay and straw), it is also good practice to use it in larger
quantities on heavy soils which need Hghtening and warming
up, and also on light, gravelly soils which need the humus
of the manure to improve texture and to retain moisture. Ma-

37

Don't Cart
Manure
Too Far

Use

Manure to
Lighten
Soil

Manure
for Slow-
Growing
Crops

Fertilizers
for Quick-
Growing
Crops

Best for
Grains

nure used on such fields, and especially in connection with chemi-
cal fertilizers, will prove best in the long run.

Third: As manure is slower in its action than chemically
prepared fertilizers, it is usually better practice to use it in
large quantities in seeding dovrn land to grass or on crops
which take the longest period to mature, and to use fertilizers
on hoed crops, and especially on crops which mature in from
60 to 90 days, such as potatoes, vegetables and corn. In fact,
the best potatoes are now grown on fertilizer alone, since they
are more mealy and less scabby than when grown on maniire.

Therefore, generally speaking, quick-growing, hoed crops
should be planted on fertilizers, and grass on manure, using
the manure for seeding down in much larger quantities than
formerly. Fertilizers can be relied upon as the sole and cheapest
source of plant food for all crops and on all soils. Remember
that a one-horse[load\ of Jertilizer will fertilize from one to four
acres that would require from twenty to forty two-horse loads
of manure.

Fertilizers are also good for all grain crops, especially wheat,
sown broadcast or drilled in with the seed, to insure a good
catch, stiffen the straw, increase the yield, and to give a plump,
handsome kernel and strong, healthy roots which will stand
the winter and the attacks of insects.

38

Specific Directions

It is difficult to give specific directions for the application
of fertilizers, which will apply alike to all localities. In all
cases the amount of fertilizer used is dependent on its strength,
the character of the soil to which it is applied, and the amount
of manure or other dressing used in connection with the ferti-
lizer; also the character of the previous crop and the previous
treatment of the soil, such as the plowing in of green crops, etc.

The method of application is also influenced by the nature
of the crop. Crops, like corn or tobacco, with extensive root
systems thrive best when a large part of the fertilizer is sowed
broadcast or drilled in before planting, while crops with small
root systems, such as small grains possess, do best when the
fertilizer is applied in drills or furrows. We give below the
usual practice in localities where fertilizers have been used
longest and in largest quantities.

Consider
Nature of
the Crop

Potatoes

Aroostook Method: As the best potatoes are now grown
invariably on fertilizers exclusively, and as the farmers in
Maine are among the most successful growers in the country,
we think it will be interesting to our patrons to give a brief
account of potato growing in that State. The following state-
ment is from a grower and one of the best observers in Maine:

''Preparation of Land: We turn over the sod, usually
clover, as soon after haying as is convenient, but if the
clover is growing luxuriantly, we wait till about the time
the frost would take it. In the spring the turned-over sod
is harrowed until fine and mellow. Then, between the 10th
and 20th of May, the potatoes are planted with a two-horse
planter which opens the rows, distributes the fertilizer,
mixes and covers it with dirt, and then drops and covers
the seed, also marking the next row — ^all done at one opera-
tion. The rows are usually set thirty-six inches apart, as
being the best distance for two-horse cultivation.

39

Potatoes

Follow

Clover

Close
Planting
for Table
Size

Protection

from

Frost

Spraying

Keeps

Crop

Growing

Longer

*' Seeding: The seed (consisting of small potatoes about
the size of hen's eggs) is cut usually with two eyes to each
piece and dropped from 10 to 14 inches apart in the furrows.
The tendency is, however, to reduce the distance between
the rows, to plant the seed thicker, and to use a little more
fertilizer in order to encourage a larger growth of table-size
potatoes. The seed is covered from 2 to 4 inches deep,
and it takes about 15 bushels per acre.

''Amount of Fertilizer: The quantity of fertilizer
applied per acre will vary with its strength, but the usual
practice is to apply in the rows from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds
per acre, of a grade that averages to test 4 to 5% of ammo-
nia, 6 to 8% of available phosphoric acid, and 7 to 10% of
potash. Some farmers favor the higher percentage of ammo-
nia to force growth in our northern latitude, and the higher
percentage of potash to benefit the clover crop which follows
in rotation. The usual practice in this section is to apply
all the fertilizer at time of planting.

''Cultivation: As soon as the potato tops begin to
show, they are covered from 2 to 3 inches deep with dirt
with a two-horse hoe. This is called 'covering,' and
protects them from frost. Besides the potatoes seem to
come up stronger than where it is not done. When the
covering is finished, we begin to cultivate deeply between
the rows; and when the vines are about 3 inches high, we
ridge the earth up with a two-horse hoe. This is called
'hilling.' About a week or ten days later, we hill again,
piHng more earth around the stalks. We keep the culti-
vator going between each hilling, and finally, when the tops
are too high for a two-horse hoe, we use a one-horse spade
plow which throws the dirt both ways; and this ends the
cultivation.

"Spraying: We begin to spray when the potatoes are 6
to 8 inches high, using Bordeaux Mixture, and continue it
during the season, — ^in all, about six or seven times. During
the first two or three sprayings, we add poison to kill the
potato bugs. If well sprayed, the tops keep green and
growing until the frost kills them, which is about the 20th
of September.

"Harvesting: The potatoes are dug with a two- horse
digger, beginning about the 1st of September. They are

40

picked up by hand, but those smaller than hens' eggs
are left on the ground and afterwards taken to starch
factories. The marketable potatoes are stored in potato
houses built for the purpose, and during the winter are
sorted and hauled to market."

It should be added that the above practice will probably
not be applicable to all sections of the country. In many sec-
tions it is found best not to apply all the fertilizer in one way,
but about one-half broadcast and the remainder in the furrows.

Potatoes

Usual Method: A large potato crop absorbs a large amount
of plant food. As potatoes make the best part of their growth
in sixty days, the manure or fertilizer must be in an available
condition, especially when the tubers are forming. For that
reason fertilizers are found better for potatoes than stable
manure. As a rule, a properly made fertilizer for potatoes will
produce tubers that are fair, smooth and mealy.

If the soil is naturally rich or has been made so by pre-
vious use of manure or a green crop plowed under, 800 to 1,200
lbs. of a high-grade potato manure will be sufficient for an acre,
applied in the furrows and mixed thoroughly with the soil
before the seed is dropped. If no manure is applied, or green
crop plowed in, apply from 1,200 to 1,500 lbs. per acre. If
the potatoes are planted in hills, a small handful should be
sprinkled (not dropped) in each hill, mixed and covered with
soil. Many potato growers find it profitable to use from 1,500
to 2,000 lbs. per acre, depending on the quality of the fertiUzer,
character of soil and previous treatment, one-half applied
broadcast and the remainder strewn along the furrows.

Indian Corn, Sweet Corn and Ensilage

It Pays
to be
Generous
with the
Potato Crop

Corn is both a grain and a forage crop. It rarely fails if it
has sufficient plant food It possesses an extensive root system
and is no doubt a nitrogen gatherer, for it thrives best in hot
weather when bacterial action is greatest in the soil, but before
the hot weather sets in, and later when the crop is maturing,
it must be nourished with active plant food.

41

Corn a

Nitrogen

Gatherer

If grown exclusively on fertilizers, apply from 800 to 1,600
lbs. per acre, depending on the strength of fertilizer, soil, etc.
Sow three-fourths broadcast and harrow it into the soil, apply-
ing one-fourth in the hills or drills and thoroughly mix and cover
with soil. Or all of it may be applied with a modern farm drill
if all the tubes are left open. If the soil is poor or run out, a
larger quantity should be used. When planting on green-
sward, 600 lbs. per acre will be sufficient, especially if the sod
is a heavy one and was turned over in the spring.

Fertilizer for corn should be used in the same way as manure^
— ^that is, a larger quantity on a poor field and a smaller quantity
on a rich field. If manure is used in connection with fertilizer,
spread the manure broadcast before plowing and wheel-harrow
or plow it in, applying the fertilizer in the furrows or drills,
thoroughly mixing it with the soil. If the corn does not come
forward for any cause, like a cold, wet spring, 200 or 300 lbs.
may be hoed or cultivated in at the first or second hoeing.

Small Grains (Wheat, Rye, Oats,
Barley and Buckwheat)

Grains are

Shallow

Feeders

Apply from 400 to 600 lbs. per acre, depending on the
strength of fertilizer, character of soil, etc. As small grains
are shallow feeders, we recommend that the fertilizer be drilled
in with the seed, allowing the fertilizer to run in all the tubes,
provided the drill sows the fertilizer in advance and covers or
mixes it with earth so that the seed does not come in contact
with clear fertilizer. If the grain is sown broadcast, then sow
the fertilizer broadcast in advance of seeding.

Top Dressing Grass and Other Crops

Soluble
Fertilizers
for Surface
Dressing

Chemically prepared fertilizers, those which are soluble and
available, are no doubt better for a surface dressing than stable
manure, because they dissolve with the first rains or heavy
dews and immediately enter the soil and begin to nourish the
crop, whereas manure applied on the surface is exposed to
wast'e. Grass takes from the soil a large amount of plant food,
which is usually applied in the spring months, although it is
often put on after haying for the rowen crop. Apply from

42

400 to 600 lbs. per acre, sown broadcast. The true principle
of manuring mowing lands and pastures, especially on light
leachy soils, is to apply a little at a time and often; that is, to
top dress with a moderate quantity at least twice during the
season.

Top Dressing Winter Grains

In the spring, after a particularly hard winter, it is often
necessary to apply something to bring the crop along. The soluble
best thing for this purpose is a soluble, active fertilizer. It Fertilizer
will promote vigorous, early maturity and often turn expected
failure into success. Apply from 200 to 400 lbs. broadcast
when the leaves are dry.

Seeding or Stocking Down Land

There is no doubt that stable manure is an excellent kind
of fertilizer for stocking down land, chiefly because it adds
humus to the soil and is slower in its effects. For that
reason, we recommend using stable manure liberally for seed-
ing down, and fertilizers on hoed crops. It is best, how-
ever, to use a little quick-acting fertilizer with the manure in catch
order to insure a good catch, — ^in other words, to feed the young
grass roots, which are shallow feeders, before the manure is
decomposed and ready to nourish. For this purpose apply
from 200 to 400 lbs., sown broadcast and lightly harrowed or
brushed into the soil before the seed is sown. If no manure is
applied, use from 600 to 1,000 lbs. per acre.

Fodder Crops (Hungarian, Millet, Peas,
Oats, Barley, etc.)

Used for Soiling or to be Cured: Apply from 400 to 600
lbs. per acre, broadcast, harrowed into the soil just before the
seed is sown.

Roots

It is true, although not usually believed, that 90% of
roots, like beets, etc., is water. Growth of this kind is in fact
concentrated leaf growth underground and requires a large

43

Insure the

Larger

Roots

Need

More

Fertilizer

amount of fertility in active form to supply the needed
plant food for best development. Most roots, although having
a comparatively small root system, are quick growers, hence
fertilizers are especially successful on roots. Apply from 600
to 2,000 lbs. per acre, depending on the kind grown, the
character of the soil and the fertilizer used. Small roots like
turnips and carrots do not require as much fertilizer as large
roots, like mangolds and rutabagas. The fertilizer is generally
sown broadcast, although for roots which are grown in drills
the fertilizer should be strewn along the furrows and back-
furrowed before the seed is sown; or it can be applied at the
same time the seed is sown, if it is thoroughly covered and
mixed with the soil so that the seed does not come in contact
with it. If it is drilled in with machines which do not mix
and cover the fertilizer, it must be diluted with twice as much
dry earth or plaster before using, for the seeds of root crops
are very tender.

Onions

No Weed
S&eds

If there is any crop which needs an active fertilizer, it
is the onion crop, for if it does not grow vigorously it is
likely to be strong in flavor and tough in texture. The
onion is a bulb with small feeding roots — ^an aggregation of
leaves which grow underground — and requires a great deal of
quickly available nourishment. If no manure is applied, use
from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. per acre, sown broadcast and harrowed
into the soil, the quantity of course depending on the character
of the soil and the strength of the fertilizer. As onions are
difficult to weed, and as fertilizer contains no weed seeds, it
is a favorite dressing for onions as well as for most market
garden crops, or wherever clean culture is necessary.

Cabbage and Cauliflower

Gross
Feeders

These crops are gross feeders and quick growers ; they also
have a good root system; therefore they need an abundance of
available plant food. For cabbage, apply from 1,800 to 2,500 lbs.
per acre; for cauHflower, from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. One-half of the
fertilizer may be sown broadcast and harrowed into the soil, and
the remaining half strewn where the plants are set, or it may

44

be hoed in about the plants after they have been set. -If some
stable manure is used, the quantity of fertilizer can be reduced.
The manure should be applied broadcast and harrowed into the
soil, and the fertilizer applied about the plants.

Celery and Lettuce

There is no question but that commercial fertilizers improve
the quality of celery and lettuce. To be tender and crisp, these
crops must grow quickly. It is conceded that the most tender
and succulent growths are those which are rapid and continuous,
and this is what well-made fertilizers will produce under right
conditions. For lettuce, apply at the rate of from 400 to 600 lbs.
per acre to the seed bed a little time before the seed is sown.
When the plants are transplanted or pricked out, apply from
1,000 to 1,500 lbs. per acre, a portion broadcast and a portion
around the plants at hoeing time. For celery, apply (if no
manure is used) from 1,200 to 2,000 lbs. per acre, one-half when
the plants are transplanted, along the furrows, and the remainder
when the celery is banked up.

Vines (Squashes, Melons, Cucumbers, etc.)

Nearly all crops which produce large, pulpy growth need
rich and forcing manures. They are frequently grown on com-
posted manure or night soil, but without these, commer-
cial fertilizers are found equally as good. If any manure is used,
apply from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. per acre, two-thirds broadcast,
worked into the soil three or four inches deep, and one- third
sprinkled in the hills, about one pint to each hill, thoroughly
mixed with the soil before the seed is dropped. If stable ma-
nure is used, apply it broadcast, and sprinkle the fertilizer in
the hills.

Tomatoes

Tender,
Crisp
Growth
Required

The tomato belongs to the same family as the potato,
and, like the potato, requires a rich soil or a rich fertilizer. If
no manure is used, apply from 1,500 to 2,000 lbs. per acre, one-
half sown broadcast and worked into the soil and the remainder
in the hills thoroughly mixed with the soil before setting the

45

Rich

Fertilizer

Required

plants. That which is sown broadcast should be cultivated
into the soil at least three inches deep.

Asparagus

The Weed
Growth

Less

Nitrogen

Required

for

Legumes

"The American Agriculturist'' states:

"New Jersey growers of asparagus have found out what
Southern growers were long ago compelled to put into
practice, — that commercial fertilizers are far better for
asparagus than stable manure ; not that stable manure will
not make fine asparagus, but because of the impossibility
of keeping down the weed growth when manure is used."

Asparagus needs active, forcing plant food, which manure
does not supply unless it has been composted. Probably nine-
tenths of the asparagus is grown on commercial manures which
produce the succulent, tender growth desired. In starting new
plants or making new asparagus fields, apply from 600 to 800
lbs. per acre in the drills or furrows, very thoroughly mixed
with the soil. To old fields apply, early in the spring, from
1,200 to 2,000 lbs. per acre between the rows and cultivate it
in.

Peas and Beans

Peas and beans belong to the clover family (legumes), and
do not require as much fertihzer, or at least a fertiHzer as rich
in nitrogen, as do most other crops. Therefore, an application
of 500 to 1,000 lbs. of fertilizer rich in phosphoric acid and pot-
ash, sown broadcast and harrowed into the soil, is usually
sufficient for peas and beans. These crops have an extensive root
system and will gather plant food in every part of the soil and
especially deep in the soil. It is known that alfalfa, which belongs
to this family, will send down a root 20 or 30 feet for water,
putting out lateral feeders at upper levels. For this reason peas
and beans, the clovers and alfalfa are great "catch" or "cover"
crops, and are valuable in rotation.

Strawberries and Small Fruits

Stable manure is a pretty good thing with which to start a
strawberry bed, but after it is started, active fertiHzers are
needed to encourage a rapid growth. The strawberry is an

46

aggregation of innumerable seeds gathered into a cluster or pulp
which is composed chiefly of water and sugar. Nevertheless, a
good deal of nourishment is required to produce the root and leaf
growth and small seeds essential to fruiting. When the strawberry
bed is prepared, apply broadcast from 500 to 1,000 lbs. per acre;
then in the spring, between the rows, apply broadcast 500 to
1,000 lbs. more, taking care to keep it off the vines. This appli-
ation should be cultivated or hoed in if possible.

For grapes and currants, apply (if no manure is used) from
1,000 to 1,500 lbs. per acre between the rows, cultivated into
the soil. For raspberries and blackberries, apply from 600 to
800 lbs. per acre, cultivated deeply into the soil.

Grapes,

Currants,

etc.

Tobacco

Tobacco is probably the most exhaustive crop that is grown.
It is a ravenous feeder. It will thrive on anything that furnishes
plant food. Stable manure, animal tankage, or fish scrap will
produce a large, coarse leaf growth, but it has been found that
chemically prepared fertilizers, especially if adapted to the crop,
will produce not only a good yield, but a leaf of finer texture
and color. It is a crop reqmring special fertilizers and special
methods of cultivation.

If no manure or ashes are applied, we recommend from
1,500 to 2,500 lbs. of fertilizer per acre, one-half applied at the
time when the plants are set out, and the remainder between
the rows at hoeing time, taking care that none of the fertilizer
gets upon the leaves. If not convenient to do this, then apply
all of the fertilizer just before the plants are set out, working
it into the soil with a wheel harrow. If part stable manure is
applied, then use the fertihzer along the drills where the plants
are set out, to force the growth of the plants, applying from
500 to 1,000 lbs. per acre, depending on the amount of manure
and the strength of the fertilizer used. Even if manure is used,
some fertilizer is essential to hasten maturity.

The Form
of Plant
Food is
Important

Fruit Trees and Shade Trees

A fertilizer for orchards, as is now well known, should be rich
in nitrogen as well as in potash and phosphoric acid, for the skin

47

and the seed of fruits are more exhaustive than was formerly sup-
posed. Besides, the tree has to grow and mature a large amount
Fruit Trees of new wood each year. It therefore pays to manure orchards
Need Plant generously with a well-balanced fertiHzer. For fruit trees,
Food as do g^^j^ g^g apples, pears, peaches, and plums apply early in the
oe rops gpj-jjjg g^^ ^j^g j.g^g or 5 to 25 lbs. to each tree, according to size,
broadcast around the trees, extending out as far as the branches
reach. If possible, cultivate it deeply into the soil. If grass
is growing under and between the trees, an additional quantity
should be applied to supply what the grass will necessarily
absorb. Apply about 5 lbs. to trees that are three or four
inches in diameter, increasing the quantity up to 25 lbs. for
trees that are ten, fifteen and twenty years from setting. For
shade trees apply in the same manner as for fruit trees. For
hardy shrubs, apply from one pint to a quart to each shrub,
or at the rate of 10 lbs. to 200 square feet of border, worked
into the soil evenly and thoroughly.

Lawns, Flower Beds and Kitchen Gardens

Flower
Beds

Kitchen
Gardens

As fertilizers are free from weed seeds, there is nothing so
good for seeding down a lawn or for top-dressing a lawn as a
well-made, well-balanced fertilizer. In preparing a new lawn,
apply from 1,000 to 1,500 lbs. per acre sown broadcast and
cultivated into the soil, before the seed is sown. For top dress-
ing an old lawn, apply from 400 to 800 lbs. per acre broadcast.
To get it on evenly, it is advisable to apply one-half walking
north and south and the remainder east and west. For flower
beds, apply it at the rate of about 10 lbs. to 400 square feet,
mix thoroughly with the soil, or cultivate it carefully around
the plants, care being taken not to get it in contact with the
leaves or young roots.

There is nothing equal to a well-balanced, complete com-
mercial manure for a kitchen garden. It produces the quick,
tender, juicy growth which is desirable in garden vegetables;
but a kitchen garden should contain sufficient humus to retain
moisture and promote that fine tilth so desirable in a garden.
For that reason stable manure should be applied once in three
or four years, although it will add weed seeds to the garden,
which is avoided in the use of fertilizers. We recommend for
kitchen gardens an application at the rate of one ton to the acre

48

when no manure is applied. When manure is used, we recom-
mend from 400 to 600 lbs. per acre applied in the hill or drill.

Caution: Fertilizer should never be dropped in its clear
state in contact with seed, young roots, or green leaves.

Special Crops

We have not included directions for use on special crops,
such as Cotton, Rice, Peanuts, Citrus Fruits, Pineapples,
Sugar Cane, etc., as these crops are specialized and cultivated
only in sections where soil and climatic conditions are favorable.
Broadly, it may be said that the same general principles apply
in the fertilization of these crops as in those crops treated in
detail in this book. To those crops which make a large, quick
growth of foliage and fruit, with large root systems, apply a
generous quantity of fertilizer, broadcast or drilled in advance
of planting. For those crops with small root systems and which
are less exhaustive, a smaller quantity of fertilizer may be used
and all of it may be applied in the hill or drill.

General

Principles

Apply

49

Commercial "Valuations"

and

Government Regulation

What

Directors

Say

Connecticut

Massa-
chusetts

Vernniont

We are often asked why the commercial valuations of fer-
tilizers do not equal the selling prices. Perhaps the best way
to answer this question is to quote from the State officials who
make these valuations.

Director Jenkins of the Connecticut Experiment Station
writes:

"The 'Valuation' only aims to show the actual cost at
freight centers of the plant food in the goods, and not at
all the fair price at retail of the mixed and ground goods.
This fair retail price must in all but exceptional cases be
considerably higher than the valuation. The 'valuation'
excludes all of the manufacturer's expensesjfor interest,
depreciation, mixing, bagging, freight, commissions and
bad debts, — expenses which make the profit of the manu-
facturer in few cases unreasonable and in some cases a
minus quantity. It is an abuse of figures to use our valu-
ations in any other sense than as above explained."

In the Massachusetts Bulletin on "Commercial Ferti-
lizers" (1908), we find the following statement with reference
to valuations:

"This (difference), commonly called 'overhead charges,'
represents the cost in storing, grinding, mixing, bagging,
hauling and freighting the goods, as well as commissions to
agents, long credits, depreciation of factory plant, and
profits. It is not surprising, therefore, that valuations
fall below the retail cash prices."

In the Vermont Bulletin on "Commercial Fertilizers"
(1909), Director Hills writes:

"Some buyers construe this sum (the difference between
valuation and selling price) to be the manufacturer's profit.
Such a construction is utterly unwarranted and only
explicable on the assumption that in no way whatsoever

50

have they made the slightest effort to grasp the funda-
mental idea of the valuation system. Only a fraction of
this sum represents profit. Its main items are freight
rates, and factory and sales charges. It were quite as
logical to assume that the difference between the retail
cost of a pair of shoes and the raw leather from which
they were made were all profit. Selling prices always exceed
valuations, since the latter show only the seaboard values
of the unmixed ingredients and do not include the many
other necessary and legitimate charges which accompany
the manufacture and sale of mixed goods."

We could quote from many other State fertilizer reports,
explaining in the same way the difference between the official
valuation of fertilizers and the selling price. In a word, the
difference between the cost of the raw materials at the sea-
board and the delivered selling price for the finished goods in
the country covers certain fixed expenses which must be met
before profits can be considered. These expenses are for assem-
bling the materials, grinding, chemically treating them, shrink-
age, interest (90% of the goods are sold on "crop time"), bags,
freight, wear and tear (which is heavy in a chemical plant),
commissions to agents and finally interest on capital employed.
The unit cost of a quart of milk may not be over two cents for the
grain and hay consumed by the cow, but every farmer knows
that he could not afford to peddle milk at two cents a quart. He
must have something to cover the cost of labor, loss of animals,
wear and tear of team in delivering milk, bad debts, etc.

Several States which formerly employed the "valuation sys-
tem" have abandoned it as being not only unsound, but mislead-
ing, because usually misconstrued. For example: Many farmers
construe valuations as representing not only commercial value
in the country, but agricultural or crop-producing value, which
is far from right in either case. According to the inspector's
report, two fertilizers may value approximately alike, but one
may be worth very much more as a crop producer than the other.
The reason for this is, that while the analysis of the fertilizer
shows the quantity, it does not reveal the quality or crop value
of the plant food which it contains, and on that account no
valuation can represent either the true commercial or the agri-
cultural worth. Two cows standing side by side in a bam may

51

Cost of
Selling
Fertilizers
and Milk
Compared

Quantity
and

Quality
Considered

Difference
beyond
Control
of Manu-
facturer

be worth approximately the same money for beef, but the
milk from one may be much richer than the milk from the
other and greater in quantity. No basis of commercial valu-
ation is sound that does not take into consideration all the
factors that influence it.

Furthermore, as the "difference" between value and selling
price is more or less dependent upon local conditions, such as
cost of freight, hauling from station, storing, etc., and as this
difference may be further modified by the profit charged by
the local agent, it seems unfair to subject the manufac-
turer to criticism for the difference, since it is absolutely be-
yond his advice or control. To go further and make these
"differences," without knowing all the factors, the basis for
Government comparison, we believe is likely to be misleading
to the consumer as well as unjust to the manufacturer, thus
defeating the object of the law, which in language and in exe-
cution should aim to protect all interests.

Finally, our own view is, that even if all the factors influenc-
ing value could be determined, "commercial valuations" would
still be wrong in principle, for the reason that the principle
was early established that the Government would assume to
value merchandise only for purposes of taxation, never for com-
parison in commercial transactions. If, however, the principle
is right, why should it not be applied to all lines of business?
Why should not milk, butter, cheese, hay, grain, woolen cloth
and rubber goods be "valued" by State inspectors for purposes
of comparison?

We want it understood that we are strongly in favor of
fertilizer laws, of official sampling, analysis, and publication
Government ^^ results, — in a word, of the most thorough Government inspec-
tion. It is a great safeguard to the business, it protects the
honest manufacturer as well as the consumer; but Government
regulation should begin and end with inspection, as in other
lines of business.

Regulation

52

mm<