MO 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



May, 1914 



Commercial 



Prof. E. M. 



WHEN are all the people to disre- 

 gard the size of the fertilizer bag 

 and the color and perfume of the 

 contents? These matters need not con- 

 demn them for they have nothing to do 

 with values; but the analysis printed 

 on the bag — printed there for the pro- 

 tection of the grower — cannot afford to 

 l)c neglected. One hundred pounds of 

 fertilizer may be good value at one dol- 

 lar, and it may be good value at two 

 dollars. It (lepends upon the amount 

 and form of the plant food present. 



It is of primary importance that the 

 grower should know, that what are sup- 

 plied in the fertilizer, is complete, is 

 potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen — 

 the three plant foods which become ex- 

 hausted in soils. He must also know 

 that these elemental substances exist in 

 the fertilizer in the form of compounds, 

 that the potassium will be stated in terms 

 of potash, the phosphorus in terms of 

 phosphoric acid, and the total nitrogen 

 may be present partly as a nitrate and 

 partly as ammonia, or other form stat- 

 ed in terms of ammonia. All this is very 

 confusing. 



The grower will not have proceeded 

 far when he will conclude that the 

 amounts of essential food exist in the 

 bag in very small amounts, and he will 

 wonder why he cannot purchase them in 

 a pure state, and apply them directly to 

 the soil. He will find that a few pounds 

 of plant food and no more, are contain- 

 ed in one hundred of the mixed and 

 complete fertilizer. He will find that the 

 attempt to apply plant food as elements 

 would be far from practical, and would 

 never pay. Nitrogen is abundant, but a 

 gas. As such it would be found exceed- 

 ing difficult to purchase and harder to 

 apply. 



The form in wh-ch the food is found in 

 the fertilizer is second in importance to 

 the food itself. Plants take up their 

 food from the soil in solution, so that 

 if the chemicals applied are insoluble 

 they are not used. For example, the 

 phosphorus present may be stated as 

 (first) phosphates soluble in water; (sec- 

 ond) reverted phosphates; (third) insolu 

 ble phosphates; and (fourth) total phos- 

 phorus, which would be the sum of the 

 other three. Reverted phosphates are 

 soluble in a solution of ammonium cit- 

 rate, and are sometimes referred to as 

 ''citrate-soluble phosphates." Ammon- 

 ium citrate, to a certain extent, exerts 

 a solvent power upon the reverted phos- 

 phate comparable with that exhibited by 

 the roots of plants. Such phosphates 

 are less valuable than those soluble in 

 water. To make the total phosphorus 



Fertilizers 



straight 



appear large the insoluble part is added 

 10 the soluble and reverted, but it is only 

 fair that the grower should know this. 



The materials used as sources of nitro- 

 gen by the fertilizer manufacturer are 

 quite varied. One of the commonest 

 forms is nitrate of soda, commonly called 

 Chili saltpetre. This important sub- 

 stance is found in large deposits, occur- 

 ing in the rainless regions of Chili and 

 Peru. The commercial article is about 

 ninety five per cent, pure, and contains 

 about fifteen or sixteen per cent, of nit- 

 rogen. ■Sulphate of ammonia is a by- 

 product of the local gas works. It con- 

 tains about twenty p>er cent, of nitrogen. 



Calcium jyanide is a new com- 

 pound containing nitrogen, which prom- 

 ises well. The inexhaustible supply of 

 nitrogen in the air is drawn up)on in its 

 making. Dried blood is a by-product 

 from the slaughter houses, extensively 

 used. It contains about thirteen per 

 cent, of nitrogen. Tankage is a by- 

 product from the slaughter houses, of 

 various composition. Bone, hair, skin, 

 blood and complete animals, condemned 

 for other purp>oses, are boiled, and the 

 fat removed. The dried product is then 

 ground and offered for sale as tankage. 

 The amounts of nitrogen contained in 

 tankage depend upon the materials enter- 

 ing into the composition. 



Ground bone is one of the chief sources 

 of phosphoric acid. It is a very slow 

 acting substance, however, so slow that 

 for many purposes it is of little immedi- 

 ate value. - When acted upon by sul- 

 phuric acid it becomes immediately avail- 

 able for plant life. This material is 

 known as superphosphate. On account 

 of the limited amount of bone, phosphatic 

 rock has been used for the same pur- 

 pose. In many cases this dissolved 

 rock, or acid phosphate as it is com- 

 monly called, has given good results. 

 In other cases results have not been 

 striking. 



Basic slag is a by-product of the 

 Bessemer steel manufacture. The slag 

 is ground to a fine powder. It contains 



When the various amounts of plant 

 food are known, as stated on the bag, 

 it is an casv matter to compute what 

 should be paid per hundred, if the com- 

 mercial values of the fertilizer constitu- 

 ents are known. The.se values vary 

 from year to year, so that the commer- 

 cial prices are no indication that the 

 price is on a par with what the grower 

 can afford to pay. This must be deter- 

 mined by comparing price with increase 

 in crop, and what it sold for 



Commercial prices not long since were 

 something as follows: 



Nitrogen in nitrates 16 cents 



Nitrogen in dried blood and tankage . . 



15 to 20 cents 

 Phosphorus in water-soluble phosphates. 



10 cents 

 Phosphorus in ammonium-citrate soluble 



phosphates 9 cents 



Phosphorus, insoluble in ammonia citrate 



4 1-2 cents 

 Potassium 5 to 6 cents 



MIXING FKRTIUZER8 



The mixing of fertilizers is not a dif- 

 ficult matter, and may be performed by 

 any grower if a barn floor and shovel 

 are available. A sand sieve is also an 

 aid in getting rid of lumps and in bring- 

 ing the mixture to a uniform mass. 

 There is a saving in the home mixing 

 of fertilizers. The amount of the saving 

 will depend somewhat upon the quanti- 

 ties of chemicals purchased, wholesale 

 or retail. 



Sulphate of ammonia should not he 

 mixed with wood ashes or lime. Bone 

 meal should not be mixed with lime. 

 Barnyard manure should not be mixed 

 with lime or nitrate of soda. Thomas 

 slag should not be mixed with nitrate of 

 soda, kainite or muriate of potash. If 

 some fertilizing constituents are mixed, 

 valuable plant food may be lost in the 

 air, or hard, lumpy masses obtained. 

 The common fertilizers, other than those 

 mentioned, may be mixed with safety. 



It is an easy matter to determine the 

 required amount of each material with 

 which to make a fertilizer of a given for- 

 mula. Suppose we desire to mix a fer- 

 tilizer containing four per cent, nitro- 

 gen, eight per cent, phosphoric acid and 





about twelve per cent, of phosphoric ten per cent, potash, and that we have 

 acid. 



One of the best potash fertilizers is 

 the muriate of potash, a salt mined in 

 Germany. ■ It contains about fifty per 

 cent, of potash. Kainit is a low-grade 

 pota.sh salt, varying somewhat in compo^ 



on hand nitrate of soda, acid phosphate, 

 and muriate of potash. Nitrate of soda 

 contains about sixteen per cent, of nit- 

 rogen. Every one hundred pounds of 

 fertilizer must contain four per cent., or 

 four [x>unds of nitrogen. It is seen at 



sition but averaging about twelve per o"*^^ ^^at we must have four times twen- 

 ty or eighty jjounds of nitrogen to meet 

 this formula, and as each one hundred 

 pounds of nitrate of soda contains six- 

 teen pounds of nitrogen, we must have 

 five times this quantity, or five hundred 

 pounds of nitrate of soda. 



cent, potash. 



Wood ashes is a valuable source of 

 potash, which also contains lime. Much 

 more of it should be used in New Bruns- 

 wick, as it is a cheap source of supply- 

 ing potash. 



