23:i. STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



FERTILIZER ANALYSES. 



FLOYP W. EOBISON. 



Bulletin No. 210. 



The sole use of commercial fertilizers is to supply the soil with food 

 available to the growing plants. This object can also be attaiaed by 

 rendering move available the natural resources of the soil or by return- 

 ing to the soil the natural manures produced on the farm. To each 

 farmer comes the question whether he can afford to use commercial fer- 

 tilizers. His first thought should be as to the natural resources of his 

 soil. If his soil has an abundance of the fertilizing ingredients, it is not 

 economy and is manifestly poor fanning to add material which can be 

 of no use, and may be of some harm and which, being subject to the leach- 

 ing action of rain, is speedily lost. He should resort to commercial fer- 

 tilizers only when the natural manures on his farm fail to supply the 

 desired fertilizing ingredients. It is not economy to pay for fertilizing 

 materials which the soil or the farm manure pile may themselves yield; 

 but it is economy to use commercial fertilizers when the soil and the 

 natural farm manures fail to return the equivalent of what is removed by 

 the farm crops. It is not economy to supply fertilizers indiscriminately 

 because they are called fertilizers, and many times in our own State has 

 the righteous cause of the artificial fertilization of the soil been repudi- 

 ated simply because the farmer who "tried it" did not take the pains to 

 ascertain if the particular fertilizer he was using was the one adapted 

 to his land. One could not expect to receive good returns for his invest- 

 ment if he applied a nitrogenous fertilizer to a soil already rich in 

 nitrogen, nor could he expect a soil that had been liberally dressed with 

 wood ashes for years to be much benefited by an application of a fertilizer 

 high in potash. A fertilizer containing a high percentage of potash is 

 needed on that soil in ivhich potash is deficient. A consideration of the 

 proper kind of fertilizer to be used depends also on the crop to be raised, 

 for plants differ widely with respect to the particular ingredients upon 

 which they draw heaviest in the soil. 



AVAILABILITY OF FERTILIZERS. 



In selecting a fertilizer two things should be kept in mind : first, the 

 total amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash present, and 

 second, the amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash available. 

 Farmers always will seek and it is right that they should an immediate 

 effect of the fertilizer used. With a soil that is normal in fertilizing con- 

 stituents all that is necessary is to add in fertilizing material each year 



