COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 205 



taken from the census for 1880, and these figures were combined with the known 

 composition, to calculate the quantities of phosphoric acid and potash thus re- 

 moved from the soil. In like manner, from the total number of horses, cattle, 

 swine and sheep, with usual feeding standards, an estimate was formed of the min- 

 eral constituents consunjed in the food of these animals. The analytical data, etc., 

 were taken from Wolff's tables in Johnson's " How Crops Grow," and fr^m Armsby's 

 " Manual of CaJ;tle Feeding." The results are given in the following 



COMPARATIVE TABLE: 



Phosphoric Acid. Potash, 



Drawn from the soil by field crops 35,268 tons 34,689 tons 



Consumed in feed of live stock 52,131 " 87,813 " 



Furnished in commercial fertilizers 1,051 " 6.5 



It must not be understood that these large amounts are lost to the State, for the 

 mineral constituents undergo a constant rotation from the soil through the plant 

 and animal back to the soil again ; the wheat, corn, hay, etc., are very largely c»n- 

 sumed at home, and animals in pasture leave the undigested constituents of their 

 food upon the ground. In view of the inevitable loss by export and by drainage, 

 we may note the following points : 



1. The present supply of plant food, as furnished to the State in commercial 

 fertilizers, is insignificant as compared with the amount i-emoved from the soil in 

 field crops. It is probably but a small fraction of that which is exported in grain. 



2. The artificial supply is likewise a very small part of that which is con- 

 sumed by live stock. 



3. The potash sold in fertilizers is utterly inadequate to maintain the fertility 

 of our soils. In the eager demand for ground bones, the value of potassium com- 

 pounds has been almost overlooked. The total annual supply is scarcely one-third 

 of the amount clipped with the wool. 



4. The greatest care should be taken to return all barnyard manure to the fields, 

 not allowing the liquid portion to drain off into the streams. A. waste of two per 

 cent, of the matter discharged by our live stock, would represent all the phosphoric 

 acid and thirty times all the potash sold in the State for fertilizing purposes, worth 

 some two million dollars. The actual waste is more likely to reacli ten or twenty 

 million dollars annually. 



5. Considerable importations of salts from the German potash mines will prob- 

 ably be needful within a few years, and may prove advantageous at once. In the 

 meanwhile, wood ashes should be applied to worn fields, and when dry leaves are 

 burned, the ashes are particularly valuable, and should not be wasted. 



Very respectfully, 



EoBT. B. Warder, 



State Chemist. 



