1870. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



79 



ing them have increased in larger proportion. 

 What other class in the community are able 

 to meet their increased expenses, and have as 

 many dollars "to boot" as the fanner, or who 

 can iook into the dubious future with less fear 

 than he ? 



H the prices of what he raises are reduced, 

 80 are the prices of those articles he is obliged 

 to buy. One dollar will buy as much sugar 

 and many other groceries as two dollars would 

 during the war. Still many of us grumble 

 and complain until we actually come to think 

 that in no time in the past was our condition 

 £0 deplorable as in the unfortunate present. 



Others may look on the dark side of things 

 till dispair is daguerreotj ped on their very 

 countenances ; but for one, I am determined 

 to look upon the bright side as long as I can. 



Springcale, Me., Dec, 1869. Zen. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 EXPERIMENTS WITH SUPERPHOS- 

 PHATES AND OTHER MANURES. 



Does it pay to use superphosphate ? is a 

 question we frequently hear asked, but the an- 

 swer is generally unsatisfactory. Some think 

 it does, others think it does not. Some, high 

 in authority, tell us it is all a cheat and a hum- 

 bug, and that the farmers of the country 

 would be better off if the whole lot were 

 dumped into the dock, and advise us to spend 

 our money in digging muck and making com- 

 po.st. 



Oihers, whose testimony is equally as good, 

 tell us it does net pay to dig and cart bog wa- 

 ter and sand, for the small amount of vegeta- 

 ble matter it may contain, but tell us to buy 

 pure Hour of bone, and make our own super- 

 phosphate. 



The manufacturers tell us we can't do it, 

 that it implies so nice a combination of the 

 several parts as to require the skill of a prac- 

 tical chemist to do it. Each one tells us that 

 bis is the best in the maiket, and produces 

 thou-ands of certilicates to prove it. 



Now, under these circum.^tances, what are 

 we poor farmers to do ? Do as that good old 

 farmer Levi Bartlett, of this town, advised 

 me and thousands of others to do. He said, 

 '■be } our own judges, by making a fair, im- 

 partial and comparative trial of the dilFercmt 

 fertilizers, both home-made and commercial. 

 Use the steelyards, note the result and keep 

 a true account. Then if any fertilizer fails to 

 give sal i.- faction, you may come to the conclu- 

 bion that that manure is a humbug and a cheat, 

 or tli;tt your land is already rich enough in that 

 particular kind oi fertilizer." 



1 have been making these experiments for 

 the L: t three years tor my own satisfaction, 

 anil ihey have always proved satisfactory. 

 La-r spring 1 procured several brands of su- 

 pcrpliusph.ite, also a barrel i f Pure Flour of 

 lione, from tbe liosion Milling Company, 

 which I taw advertised in the Niivv Ejsglajsd 



Farmer. I made two barrels of Phosphate 

 by using equal parts of bone and ashes, after 

 the recommendation of Dr. J. R. Nichols. I 

 also made a small quantity with acid, using 

 sixteen pounds bone, six pounds sulphuric acid. 

 I dried off the paste fit for handling with ten 

 pounds plaster; this I call m^ phosphate. I also 

 used equal parts of hen manure and rich loam, 

 tha' had received ih ■ wash of the barn-yard. 

 The following table will show the result: — 



Noihini? . . . . 

 Glasgow . . . . 

 Bone and Ashts 

 Lob^t^^•Chum , 

 Uradli'.^'s . . . 

 WilBon'a . . . . 

 My Phosphate . 

 Hen Manure Com 

 Croasdale . . . 

 E. F. Coe'8 . . . 



190 

 145 

 92 

 200 

 150 

 212 

 'in 



V40 



In making up this table, I allow eighty p»ourda to the 

 biithel. I plant my corn one pace each way ; this gives 

 4000 hills to the acre, which require 400 pounds thos- 

 phate. 



The ground on which this trial was made 

 is a ridge of dry land, broken up last year. 

 It had been mown four year and produced 

 about one ton of hay to the acre last year. 

 The soil was uniform in character throughout, 

 and I conducted the experiment in a fair and 

 impartial manner, doing the work myself. 



Bradley's and E. F. Coe's Superpho^^phate I 

 bought at the stores in this town ; WiLon's I 

 had of G. Walker, Concord, N. H. ; Croasdale's 

 I obtained of S. H. Hobbins, Portland, Me. ; 

 Glasgow of Duncan & McKellar, N. Y., and I 

 have no doubt that they were fair samples of 

 what is put into the market. 



I have used considerable muck, but never 

 received any beneficial results from it, except 

 as an absorbent in the hovel and hog pen. 



It seems to me, that a series of experiments 

 conducted in the manner I have these, must 

 show conclusively, whether it pays to use com- 

 mercial fertilizers or not. fily experiments 

 certainly show that they are not all "humbugs 

 and cheats." In all of these experiments, 

 some of the superpho.-pbate3 have given bet- 

 ter results than tithcr of the home-made kinds. 

 Take, for in-tance, hen manure, which is gen- 

 erally considered to be the best concentrated 

 fertilizer we have on the farm, and E. F. Coe's 

 Superphosphate, and compare the results. I 

 was offered §1.12^ for the one and one-half 

 bushels of hen manure used. 'J'his made 

 ninety-one pounds of corn, worth $1 4:i, 

 which gives me twenty-six per cent, on the in- 

 vestment. The sixty cents worth of phos- 

 phate made ninety-six pounds corn, worth 

 $Lf;0; this pays 11)0 per cent. In none of 

 the three experiments has it paid me less than 

 this. A little more figuring will shov/ that the 

 hen manure, compared with the phosphate is 

 relatively worth olh cents per bushel, allow- 

 ing noihiiig for labor of composting. It is a 



