1879. 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



25 



a man would travel from Philatlflpliia to 

 Pittsburg iu twelve hours, and would hv able 

 to communic'at<^ with kiiius and queens iu all 

 parts of the civilizi'il p;lolic in a few hours' 

 time, ho would have beiii voted a luiuilic and 

 treated aceordiugly ; or |)redicted the exteu- 

 sive use of ice, or the springing ii|i an hun- 

 dred tobacco warehouses in L:iue:isUT cDUutv 

 to handle the large crop tliat is annually raised 

 ill said county, reaching :!ii,fi(i() to •10,1)00 

 cases ; and segar manufactories that use from 

 60 to 100 cases per annum, each, and in the 

 aggregate consume S,000 to 10,000 cases in 

 the countv |)er annum, making it no incredi- 

 ble theorV that in a frw vears Lancaster 

 county will manufactun' all the tobacco it at 

 present raises, and send the same to all parts 

 of the world. IIow are we progressing ?— 

 Henry Kurtz. 



For The r.ANCAfiTKn Farmki*. 

 FERTILIZERS AND FORMULAS. 



The season is coming again when the ground 

 needs to be prepard for the summer croi)s, 

 and the farmer faces the question : Have I 

 enough manure, and if not, can I use fertili- 

 zers to advantage V 



In December number of TnE Fahmeu a 

 number of formulas were given for the different 

 kinds of crops, which we will proceed to ex- 

 amine in such cases as would likely to be of 

 interest to the readers of thi.s journal. 'We 

 will have, however, to go over some old 

 ground flrst and see what the requirements of 

 plants are, so we may know what our manure 

 or fertilizer should coutain in order to be of 

 bcnellt in raising crops. 



That plants may arrive to perfection it is 

 necessary that the'soil contains certain snb- 

 stiinces as materials for plant food, but wc 

 are interested only in those that may, from 

 cropping or other causes, become exhausted 

 or reduced below the amount necessary for 

 healthy and prolitablc plant growth. We 

 have, therefore, only to consider nitrogen, 

 potash, phosphoric acid, lime and sulphuric 

 acid. 



The quantity of lime taken up by a crop, as 

 plant food, is very small, indeed. A crop of 

 20 bushels of wheat, and the straw, contains 

 less than nine pounds ; a ton of clover hay 

 about forty po\inds ; a ton of timothy hay 

 about nine pounds ; and a ton of tobacco 

 leaves, cured, about one hundred and twenty- 

 five pounds— less than two bushels. The 

 large quantities of lime usually applied are 

 not needed by the plant as plant-food, but is 

 intended to prejiare or make more available 

 other plant-foods that may be iu the soil, just 

 the same as when sulphuric acid is added to 

 bones. As lime only hastens what would, in 

 time occur naturally, we might say lime is 

 time, and as "time is money," so lime must 

 be money. Sulpliuric acid is taken up by the 

 j)lant in still smaller quantities than lime, and 

 is most elieaply supplied in the form of gyp- 

 sum, (sulphate of lime.) one linndred to two 

 liundred pounds of the ground article being 

 usually suHicient, and containing' more of the 

 acid than would be needed by the crops 

 grown for some years. 



Both of the above sukstances, lime and sul- 

 phuric acid, are very easily washed out of the 

 soil, and it is more"for tliis than any other 

 reason that the application should be made at 

 short intervals, and in somewhat greater 

 quantities than the wauls of the plant would 

 seem to call for. 



Potash and phosphoric acid generally re- 

 main in the soil until removed by the crops 

 taken off, and it is for this reason that tlieir 

 effect is to be seen for so much longer a time 

 than that of other applications. In all good 

 chemical fertilizers phosphoric acid is very 

 soluble, being readily dissolved by water; 

 contact with lime destroys this .solubility and 

 renders it inert as plant-food until, by some 

 chemical action in the soil the lime" enters 

 into some other combination, leaving the 

 phosphoric acid soluble as before. It is for 

 this purpose that "dissolved bones," "phos- 

 phates," Ac, should not be applied to land 

 recently limed, nor should lime be applied 



until a few years after the application of such 

 fertilizer. 



Nitrogen is useful to plants only in the form 

 of nitrates, such as nitrate of soda, potash, 

 &c. ; or as salts of ammonia, the ammonia 

 itself being a compound of nitrogen and 

 hydrogen. The only salts of ainnionia used 

 to anv extent is the snlphali' of annn.iuia. 

 Nitrogen should never be applied in greater 

 quantity than f(ir the needs of the crop to 

 which it is applied, as it is very liable to 

 escape from the soil into the air as free nitrogen. 



Prof. Villo, of France, says that for wheat 

 only one-half as much nitro;;cn need b(^ ap- 

 plied as the cmii contains, that the iiniporli„n 

 needed by dilTcrent crops varies.lieing in clover, 

 peas and beans (leguminous iilants generally,) 

 only about one-sixteenth of the amount found 

 in the matured crop ; but that potash and 

 phosphoric acid should be aiiplied in some- 

 what greater (luanlities than the crop con- 

 tain.s. Thai the plants lak« \ip nitro^'cu from 

 the air, as advocated by Prof. Ville, is doubted 

 and denied by many of Cqually high authority; 

 and it is not our province to enter into the 

 merits of the case, but it is of interest for us 

 to know that they all state that nitrogen has 

 very little effect on clover, &c., and that the 

 eflects on the different crops does not corre- 

 spond with the amount of nitrogen contained 

 in such croi)s. 



Knowing the needs of the idant, with re- 

 gard to kin<l and ainnunt, we should be able 

 in some measure t(i furui an intelligent idea 

 of the fitness of a certain formula for the croj) 

 intended. For this purpose we give two tables 

 below. 



In table Ko. 1, is given the crop for which 

 the formula was made ; the increased yield, it 

 is assumed, the application will make ; cost 

 of ingredients in formula ; number of pounds 

 of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid the 

 materials contain ; the last column gives the 

 increased yield in tons of straw, fodder or 

 offal— the value of which each must calculate 

 for himself, and deduct from the cost of the 

 application to find what will be the cost of the 

 wheat, &c. Extra labor from handling extra 

 crops must, of course, be considered. 



In table No. 2 is given the number of pounds 

 of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid con- 

 tained in the crops of table No. 1, and the 

 amount of nitrogen assumed by Prof. A^'ille as 

 needed for the growing crop. The calcula- 

 tion is, of course, made for everything, i. c, 

 grain, straw, &c. 



Hy com])aring the column, "nitrogen," 

 table Xo. 1, with that of " nitrogen assumed" 

 iu table Xo. 2, it will be seen that the amount 

 of nitrogen furnished by the formulas is 

 greatly in excess of what Prof. Ville claims 

 as needful. If convinced of the truth of these 

 claims, wc ciiuld verv nialeriallv riMluce the 

 (•cist.,flhesrrnrniuhisl,vlakiliL.'sMiallrr,pKinti- 



thc 



By comparing the columns of "potash" and 

 "phosphoric acid" of the tables, it will be 

 seen that these amounts are, in most cases, 

 somewhat greater than in the formulas than 

 in the crops, and this is as it should be. 



If the teachings of agricultural cheniists be 

 true that soda and magnesia are present in 

 comparatively inexhaustible quantities, the 

 sulphates of these miuht be omitted iu the 

 f.-nuulas ; and als., as the oil of vitriol (sul- 

 phuric acid) ii^cd iu re<luciiig the bones, and 

 the sul|ilmri( aiid containe<r in the sulphate 

 of aninionia fuinishes this acid in larger 

 (luantily than the crop needs, the land plaster 

 (gypsum) might also be omitted, there being 

 very few soils that would be benefited any by 

 the small quantity of lime contained in the 

 jilaster. Omilling the above would make a 

 further saving of ()."> cents to .?1.00 j.cr acre. 



By laying aside dillerences of opinion as to 

 what is needed and what is not needed, and 

 taking the formulas as they are, purchasing 

 the materials from reliable parties, I believe 

 that they are decidedly better than the ma- 

 jority of "phosphates," "superphosphates" 

 and fertilizers with high-sounding and fancy 

 titles. 



Farmers may wish to apply only one of the 

 elements of plant-tnod, but we are at a loss as 

 to what materials will furnish it at the lowest 

 price. For this purpose we give the prices of 

 the materials furnishing such elements : 

 Sulphate of ammouia, 25 per cent., - 4^4C. per Ih. 

 Nitrate of Bod.i, - - - . 4'^c. " 

 Dried blood, - - - - - 'Jc. " 



Nitrate of potasli, 80 per cent., - 2c. " 



.Sulphate of potash, 2.5 per cent., - 512 00 per Ion. 

 Dissolved boiie.s, - - . - 3.3 00 " 



Ground bones, - - - - - 32 50 " 



In theabove thenitrogen will cost 28ct8. per 

 pound in nitrate of soda ; 23 cents in sulphate 

 of ammonia ; and 183 cents in dried blood. 



The pota.sh will cost 4.{ cents per pound in 

 sulphate of potash, and 4 cents in the muriate 



The phosphoric will vary in price accord 

 ingly as we value the nitrogen contained in 

 the bones. Iu ground bones, if we value the 

 nitrogen at 2.'i ci'uts per punnd, then the phos- 

 phoric acid will cost only :i_l cents per pound :, 

 nitrogeu at 18^ cents woultl make the phos- 

 phoric acid 4cents. In dissolved bones, valuing 

 nitrogen as before, we woidd have the phos- 

 phoric acid 0} and 7j cents respectively. 



In dissolved lii>nes the phosphoric acid come.s ^ 

 somewhat hi;;lier, but it is in better .shape ' 

 than when the bones are only ground, being 

 much iiore available to the wants of the 

 plant.— yl. B. K. 



State Societies. 



STATE FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY. 

 The twentieth annual meeting of the Penn- 

 sylvania Fruit Growers' .Society was calicd to 

 order at two o'clock on Wedne.cday afternoon, 

 January 18th, 187'.l, in Adier Hall, corner of 

 Sixth anil Court streets. Reading, by Hon. 

 Henry M. Kngle, of Marietta, Lancaster 

 county, A'ice President of the Association. 

 Vice President Enule. in taking the chair, ex- 

 pressed his regret that the President of the 

 society, .losiah Hoopes. of Westchester, Pa., 

 was unavoidably absent in consequence of ill 

 health. He stated that as he was the only 

 Vice President present he would not .shrink 

 from the dutv devolving.' npf)U him. 



Col. ,T. L. Slichter, in behalf of the Berks 

 County .Agricultural ami Horticultural So- 

 ciety, then delivered an address of welcome, 

 •as follows: 



Mr. Prmidcnt and Gcntlcnten of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Fruit Grotrrrs^ Society: 

 In behalf of the Berks County Agricultural 

 and Ilorticulluial Society, I have the pleas- 

 ure to welcome you to the city of Heading, 

 and to assure you that this county has not 

 been unmindful of the importance of fruit 

 culture. In the eighteenth century the 



