No. 4.] COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 43 



broadcast, and then put in a couple of handfuls to the hill. 

 They would mature quicker and have a more vigorous 

 growth than they would on manure. But with potatoes, 

 for instance, we should apply from 2,000 to 2,500 pounds 

 to the acre, and apply it about the 1st of May around 

 the potatoes ; but you must bear in mind that unless there 

 is moisture, to make the fertilizer soluble and effective, it 

 will not have as good results. It is much better to have 

 its application followed immediately l)y rain. For instance, 

 we have perhaps half an acre of rhubarb, and last spring, 

 just as the plants were starting above ground, we applied 

 a dressing of nitrate of soda and potash. From that half 

 acre we sold the past year four tons. The market 

 dropped down so low that we ceased to market it. I 

 think we could have sold half as much more. Now, that 

 fertilizer is for the production of leaf and stalk. But there 

 are some crops where you desire to produce a head or an 

 ear of corn rather than a stalk; then you need phosphoric 

 acid with the nitrogen and potash. When we apply 2,500 

 pounds of fertilizer for potatoes we always expect to follow 



this. One is, to use the soluble acid as found in dissolved South Carolina phosphate, 

 or dissolved bone-black, at an increased cost each year of some 45 cents ; or another, 

 which I prefer, is, to apply the first year, say, 160 pounds of floats in place of 40, and 

 afterwards the amount given in the formula. This will add to the cost the first year 

 $1.33, but will furnish a sufficient and continuous amount of phosphoric acid as 

 required. My preference is given to floats because it is the cheapest source of phos- 

 phoric acid, and its fineness makes it approach in value in my experience the 

 reverted acid, which is priced by the chemists the same as the soluble. 



"I am not aware that a prepared fertilizer having the relative composition indi- 

 cated by analysis of hay is offered for sale, and I feel obliged, therefore, to purchase 

 the ingredients and mix them myself. Compounds for this purpose have an unnec- 

 essary and what seems to me an unwarrantable excess of phosphoric acid as com- 

 pared with the potash and nitrogen, which latter are thus deficient. I have used 

 essentially this formula annually for many seasons, and some of mj' grass land has 

 not Ijeen ploughed for more than twenty years, while the jield has been, as near as 

 could be estimated, two tons of hay to the acre as a first crop. 



" If the hay is intended for home consumption and it is desired to largely en- 

 courage the growth of clover, I would substitute for the muriate of potash the same 

 weight of high-grade sulphate, at a cost of 25 cents extra, or six or eight bushels of 

 ashes of good qualit.y. The extra cost in this case could perhaps be more than saved 

 by reducing the amount of one of the nitrogen-furnishing ingredients, the clover 

 plant acting as an efficient substitute. 



" It is very important in commencing the use of any fertilizer to have the sward 

 made up of those grass-es the growth of which it is intended to encourage. All the 

 fertility imaginal^le, in the absence of plant or seed, could not originate plant-life. 

 If the grasses wanted are not present, re-seeding is essential. If they are to be 

 found, but unthrifty from a deprivation of fertility, then the way open is clear." 



