IQO 



TJie Country Gentleman' s Magazine 



THE SUPPLY OF CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS. 



^■^HERE are certain fertilizers which are 

 strictly chemical, being the result of 

 chemical processes ; there are others not 

 usually so termed which should be ihus 

 designated because they act chemically in 

 the soil — that is, they are inert and thus 

 valueless unless some substance for which 

 they have an affinity exists, or is placed in 

 the soil together with them. To the first 

 . class, says the Neta York World, belong the 

 various salts of ammonia ; to the second, 

 plaster and common lime ; while in both 

 classes may be placed sulphates of soda and 

 potash. However and whenever we use any 

 of the ammonia salts, they are of value in 

 themselves, but plaster and lime and salt are 

 little if any value in themselves ; yet if the 

 soil has in it any decaying vegetable or 

 animal matter, and if, it be desired to set 

 free the silica, then these substances work 

 actively and are of great value. We cannot 

 see that sulphate of soda is of much greater 

 actual value, except for cotton, than plaster, 

 while it is much more costly. Sulphate and 

 muriate of potash are of far greater value, as 

 when their acid constituents are given up to 

 fix any free ammonia their potash is freed, 

 and is an element available and useful to 

 almost every crop. 



The multiplication of chemical Avorks in 

 our country has caused the production of 

 many of these elements as waste products, 

 and hence chemical fertilizers, once very 

 costly, have now come down to a compara- 

 tively low rate. We know one concern, which 

 does a large business in these manures, which 

 was directly forced into it to get rid of the 

 vast accumulation of waste material. The 

 supply created a use, and good results from 

 use made a constant demand. And as there 

 is an increasing demand, every day adds some 

 new source of supply. There is now through- 

 out this country millions of dollars' worth of 

 material going into apparent waste which might 

 be caught up and made to do service for the 

 present generation. The sewage of hun- 



dreds of cities, the ammoniacal waters from 

 as many gas works, the excreta from thou- 

 sands of privies in towns, villages, and coun- 

 try homes : these are but part ; the waters 

 of the East and North Rivers, of the Merri- 

 mack and the Delaware, and numerous other 

 streams, all float off material, called refuse, 

 which contains the great elements of fertiliz- 

 ing- 

 Chemical fertilizers are usually rapid in 

 their action ; the farmer who invests in them 

 gets a prompt return for his money. Manuring 

 for generations yet to come is good sound 

 theory, but is an idea not appreciated in this 

 fast age ; it has been almost universally 

 abandoned in England, where the chemical 

 or concentrated manures are largely used and 

 highly recommended by men of high reputa- 

 tion, both farmers and scientists. We are 

 not yet v/illing to advise farmers to abandon 

 the bam yard and compost heap, which has 

 done such good service, but there is an 

 evident want of some more active direct 

 fertilizer, or some elements to be combined 

 with those bulky matters to add to their 

 value or develop more rapidly the useful con- 

 stituents they contain. 



We have not alluded to the prepared 

 superphosphates and poudrettes, which might 

 be classed as chemical fertilizers, as they are 

 passed through a chemical process in their 

 manufacture ; they are more the result of 

 object than the residue of a chemical process j 

 nor have we spoken of the various fertihzers, 

 derived from the earth, which are identical with 

 certain chemicals ; they are more fit to be 

 classed as mineral fertilizers. We believe 

 that the settlement^ of our great Western 

 plains and mountains will develop there such 

 masses of these substances as will amply 

 make up to the farmers of the Western States 

 their distance from the sources of fertilizers 

 of that character from abroad, or the lack of 

 vast chemical works whose waste materials 

 afford the base of most of the strictly chemical 

 fertilizers. 



