LIBRARY 

 COLLEGE OF 

 AGRICULTURE 



' THEIR KINDS AND USES. 47 



' 'For chlorides: the ' muriate ' with eighty to eighty-five 

 per cent, of chloride of potassium, corresponding to 

 fifty to fifty-three per cent, of potash. 



"By the above table, the amount of actual potash in 

 the low grade salts, varies from nine to eighteen per cent. 

 Some of the salts sold in this country have yielded as low 

 as seven to eight per cent. The disadvantage in purchas- 

 ing these poorer articles is a double one. Not only do 

 they furnish very little potash, the bulk being made up 

 of other and inferior or injurious compounds; but the 

 purchaser has to pay the cost of freight and handling of 

 this extra material between the mines in Germany and 

 his farm. 



" The method of applying potash salts is of great im- 

 portance. Cases are common, I have known several 

 myself, where crops were injured or destroyed." 



Professor Atwater proceeds to recommend that the salt 

 be uniformly diffused through the soil, and not concen- 

 trated in single spots, that it be applied in the fall for the 

 next season's crop, so that the rains may have an oppor- 

 tunity to distribute it through the soil; or that it be com- 

 posted with muck, farm refuse, or earth. Doubtless the 

 chloride of magnesium could thus be rendered harmless. 



In another volume of the "American Agriculturist," 

 Prof. Atwater says: "Analyses of potash salts by Prof. 

 Johnson, chemist of the Connecticut Board of Agricul- 

 ture, and by Prof. Goessmann, State Inspector of Fer- 

 tilizers in Massachusetts, agree entirely with Prof. Stor- 

 er's, and ours, in showing that a large amount of the 

 German potash salts imported into this country are of 

 the poorer grades. This is a ' serious evil, which needs 

 to be known and to be corrected.' As long as farmers 

 will buy low-priced potash salts, and other fertilizers, 

 because they are ' cheap,' and pay no regard to the 

 actual quality, they must expect to get poor wares at dear 

 rates, and have poor success in using them." 



