50 
[February, 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
animals may vary greatly in their utilization of a 
given food, that is, in the amount of production 
therefrom, even though they may digest the same 
amounts. For instance, it is a familiar fact that 
cows or sheep of different breeds, or different in¬ 
dividuals of the same breed, will yield widely 
varying amounts of milk from the same amount of 
fodder. This may be due, not so much to the dif¬ 
ference in the quantity they digest, as to the differ¬ 
ence in their utilizing of the digested material. 
Note to Correspondents.— I must beg the pardon 
for long delays in answering a number of letters. The 
fact is, they sometimes come faster than I can attend to 
them. I hope to be up soon, however, and the letters 
are always welcome.—W. O. A. 
A Talk about Artificial Fertilizers. 
Why needed—What they are—Good and 
bad—Explanations. 
The following from a letter by Mr. E. N. Phelps, 
of Chittenden Co.,Vt., puts into words the thoughts 
of thousands of farmers in all parts of the country. 
“We farmers in Vermont are often troubled by 
early and late frosts, which often injure our crops. 
Many of us have let our land run down until it is 
hardly worth cultivating. Now we want something 
that will quicken the growth of our crops, and in¬ 
crease them to the point of profitable production. 
We cannot produce on our farms all the manure we 
need, nor can we all afford to buy and haul bulky 
manure from the towns. We hear a good deal 
about guanos, superphosphates, bone-dust, and 
other artificial manures, and believe that if we 
could be sure of getting the genuine article at fair 
prices, it would pay many of us to use them. Some 
have had such poor success with them, that we are 
afraid to invest. Stin we must have something 
which we can handle and apply easily, and be sure 
of getting a return. What shall we do ? ”—Mr. P. 
gives expression to the general complaint of the 
poor quality of the commercial fertilizers in the 
market, and the frequent inquiry as to how to get 
good ones at reasonable prices. This cor plaint is 
only too well founded. Yet there is less fraud in 
the trade in fertilizers than many farmers think. 
And the best ones are often wrongly used and 
bring small returns. 
Wliat Constitutes a good Fertilizer 1 
No ordinary cultivated plant can thrive without a 
sufficient supply of each of a number of substances 
needed for its food. With an abundance of all of 
these, in forms in which the plant can use them, and 
with other circumstances favorable, the plant will 
flourish and the yield will be large. But if the 
available supply of any one of them be too small, 
a light yield is inevitable.—Every ordinary soil con¬ 
tains all of the ingredients of plant-food. In “worn- 
out ” soils the available supply of one or more of 
these is generally insufficient. 
Fertilizers supply tlie plant with food which the 
soil lacks. Barnyard manure not only does this, 
but also improves the soil as a living place for 
plants. Lime and plaster (sulphate of lime) are 
necessary as plant-food, but, as fertilizers, they are 
chiefly valuable iu rendering other plant food avail¬ 
able to crops. The ingredients of plant-food gen¬ 
erally most lacking in our cultivated soils, are nitro¬ 
gen, phosphoric acid, and potash. The usefulness 
of guanos, superphosphates, bone manures, pou- 
drettes, potash-salts, and other similar fertilizers, 
depends mainly upon these ingredients. Such fer¬ 
tilizers are generally more or less valuable in pro¬ 
portion as they contain larger or smaller per¬ 
centages of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, and 
as those are in a form more or less available to the 
plant. If all the other conditions for a profitable 
crop of corn or turnips are fulfilled in a soil, ex¬ 
cept that phosphoric acid is deficient, then phos¬ 
phoric acid must be supplied. This may be done 
with bone, which contains a large percentage of 
phosphoric acid, combined with lime as “ phos¬ 
phate of lime.” 
Phosphates and Superphosphates. 
But the action of bone, in its natural state, un¬ 
less ground to extreme fineness, is very slow. The 
food of the plant must be dissolved before it can 
be absorbed by the roots, and the phosphate of 
lime in the bone is comparatively insoluble, and 
becomes very slowly available to the plant. By 
treating bones with sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol), 
the insoluble “bone phosphate ” is converted into 
a “ superphosphate,” which is readily soluble, and 
can he used by the plant at once. Superphosphates of 
lime are usually prepared in this manner. Chemical 
analysis shows a great difference in the superphos¬ 
phates of our markets. Some contain as little as 7 
or 8 per cent of phosphoric acid, of which 2 or 3 
per cent is soluble. Indeed, some have been found 
to contain no soluble phosphoric acid, and are not 
“ super-phosphates ” at all. Other samples contain 
12, 15, or 20 per cent of soluble phosphoric acid. 
An English superphosphate lately sent to our Ex¬ 
periment Station for analysis, contained 26.4 per 
cent of soluble phosphoric acid. A fertilizer with 
2 per cent, (2 lbs. per 100), of soluble acid, would 
furnish only 40 lbs. to the ton of 2,000 lbs. A ton 
of this last would contain some 528 lbs. ! 
Nitrogen is another important constituent of arti¬ 
ficial fertilizers. Some of the higher grades of 
nitrogenous fertilizers sold contain 10 or 12 per 
cent, or even more of nitrogen, while the lower 
grades often contain less than 2 per cent! Among 
the nitrogenous fertilizers, sulphate of ammonia,' 
which consists of ammonia and sulphuric acid, and 
nitrate of soda, composed of nitric acid and soda, 
are very rapid in their action. Peruvian guano, 
which is rich in nitrogen, is likewise very active ; 
while dried blood, slaughter-house refuse, and fish 
scrap are somewhat, and raw bones, hair, etc., con¬ 
siderably less active, though they all contain con¬ 
siderable nitrogen. 
Potasli.—TUc “German Potash Salts,” 
from the mines at Stassfurt, are at present the most 
important source of potash for agriculture. There 
are various grades of these, characterized by the 
amounts of potash and other ingredients they con¬ 
tain. The poorest grades contain as low as 7 or 8 
per cent of potash (potassium oxide). Besides the 
compounds of potash, they contain common salt, 
and other materials of little agricultural value, in¬ 
cluding more or less chloride of magnesium, which 
may be positively injurious to crops. The higher 
grades have little or no chloride of magnesium, 
little common salt, and potassium compounds cor¬ 
responding to 20 to 50 per cent of potash. In some 
of the German salts the potash is present as sul¬ 
phate of potash, and in others as chloride of potas¬ 
sium, or what is called by dealers “ muriate of pot¬ 
ash.” The “ sulphates ” are, on the whole, prefer¬ 
able, but the potash in these is more costly than in 
the “ muriates. ’ ’ The muriates (properly chlorides) 
sometimes injure the burning quality of the leaf of 
tobacco, and decrease the amount of starch in po¬ 
tatoes, and of sugar iu sugar-beets, while the sul¬ 
phates are always safe; but for grains, grass, and 
other fodder-crops, and for wet soils, the muriates 
are highly recommended. The potash in all these 
salts is soluble. 
All crops need potash as much as they do phos¬ 
phoric acid or nitrogen, and its usefulness in ashes 
is well known. It is often deficient in soils, and 
its use as a fertilizer must increase. For American 
farmers the high rather than the lower grades of 
German potash salts must be advisable. 
The table below shows the 
Composition of Some of the Fertilizers Ordi¬ 
narily Sold in tile Northern and Eastern 
States. Tlie Analyses are, with one Excep¬ 
tion, fallen from late Reports by Prof. S. 
IV. Johnson, Chemist of the Connecticut 
Board of Agriculture. 
Essential In¬ 
gredients. 
1 
2 
S 
4 
5 
6 
7 
8 
per 
cent . 
per 
cent. 
per 
cent. 
per 
cent. 
per 
cent 
per 
cent. 
per 
cent. 
per 
cent. 
fSoluble.... 
■Srg ! Reverted*. 
gJS i Insoluble.. 
9.9 
8.4 
0.8 
1.1 
3.7 
3.2 
2.3 
0.3 
[Total.. 
Nitrogen. 
17.2 
8.5 
3.1 
13.3 
3.6 
7.4 
2.3 
21.5 
3.7 
13.0 
2.8 
G.3 
2.1 
11.3 
6.2 
2.2 
1.5 
Retail price, ton 
$73 
$50 
$50 
$47 
$45 
$82 
$45 
$25 
1. Gnanape Guano.—2 and 3. “ Ammoniated Superphos¬ 
phates.”—4. Pure Ground Bone.—5. “ Bone Meal ”—G. “ Bone 
Dust.”—7. “Animal Dust.”—8. “Double Refined Pou- 
dvette,” contained of sand, fragments of brick, coal, etc., 
63.1 per cent, or 1,262 lbs. to tlie ton. * The terms “ reverted,” 
“ reduced,” “ precipitated,'’ are applied to phosphoric acid 
existing iu a state of line division, and ranking in solubility 
midway between “ soluble ” and “ insoluble.” 
Some of the “ phosphates ” sold in our markets 
contain small percentages of potash. The value of 
most of them, however, is based upon their phos¬ 
phoric acid and nitrogen. _How these vary may be 
seen in the above figures. No. 2, for instance, eon- 
teflns nearly twice as much o£ these valuable ingre¬ 
dients as No. 3, and yet both have been sold at the 
same price. Though so few illustrations can not 
give a full exhibit of the state of our fertilizer mar¬ 
ket, they nevertheless show the need of definite 
knowledge of the composition of fertilizers, and 
that the best are generally the cheapest. 
Composition of Ordinary Fertilizers. 
These—nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potasli— 
being the constituents most needed, the majority 
of our commercial fertilizers contain two, and 
some of them all three of the above named ingre¬ 
dients, as is illustrated in the table above. The 
figures are taken from actual analyses of the ferti¬ 
lizers commonly sold in the northern and eastern 
markets. 
Wliat Fertilizers to Use. 
Now Mr. Phelps, like his brother farmers, will 
wish to know what fertilizers to select. To de¬ 
cide, he must first learn what his soil lacks, and 
then see where he can obtain the needed in¬ 
gredients in the best form, and at the lowest 
cost. Whether his land needs nitrogen or phos¬ 
phoric acid, or potash, or all of these, he can 
best learn, unless ho has the experience of himself 
or others to guide him, by actual experiments, on 
a small scale, with high-grade phosphates, nitroge¬ 
nous fertilizers, or potash salts. 
If he desires simply to enrich his land, and is in 
no special hurry for a return, let him select those 
which furnish the largest amount of nitrogen or 
phosphoric acid, or potash, for his money. But if, 
as he says, he wants a fertilizer to act quickly, and 
bring his crops forward, so as to keep them out of 
the way of frost, or prepare them for an early mar¬ 
ket, let him select superphosphates with a good 
precentage of soluble phosphoric acid; and ni¬ 
trogenous manures, with the nitrogen in a readily 
available form, as nitrate of soda, or sulphate of 
ammonia, or Peruvian guano ; or if these are not 
easily to he had, dried-blood, fish-scrap, or finely 
pulverized, steamed done-dust. There is, prac¬ 
tically, but one way that farmers can make sure of 
Getting Good Fertilizers at Reasonable 
Prices. 
That consists in knowing the composition of 
the wares they buy, and in choosing those which 
contain the needed ingredients in the best form, 
and at the lowest price per pound. The great dif¬ 
ficulty here, is in learning what the fertilizers actu¬ 
ally are. To obviate this, let every farmer insist 
that there shall be established in every state, as 
there is now in Connecticut, an Agricultural SEx- 
pei'iment Station , where they can have their ferti¬ 
lizers analyzed, at small cost, or for nothing, and a 
deal of other work done for them besides. 
W. O. Atwater. 
Ogden Farm Papers—No. 72. 
BY GEORGE E. WARING, JR., 
If the Commissioner of Agriculture, when he sets 
about defending any branch of American stock- 
breeding' from injurious statements, as to the im¬ 
portation of foreign cattle, would give himself the 
trouble to consult statistics, which must be easily 
accessible to his office, he would not lessen the use¬ 
fulness of his department. Tlie facts are as fol¬ 
lows, some time ago a cattle-breeder in Maine made 
the gushing announcement that 3,000 cattle are an¬ 
nually sent from the Island of Jersey to the United 
States. He reasons therefrom that as the American 
Jersey Cattle Club records the pedigrees of im¬ 
ported animals, and their descendants, their record 
is necessarily a humbug, because Jersey cannot fur¬ 
nish so many animals. The Agricultural Society in 
Jersey takes the matter up, and says that if such 
