1876 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
371 
which is fully described and illustrated in the January 
No. of the present volume of this paper. 
“Why do apiarians put combs If inch apart, when 
the bees naturally build them but If inch One inch 
and one half apart from center to center, including 
space between combs, is found to be nearest accurate. 
“ Should bees be housed during winter, or left on their 
summer stands ?”—To answer tbis question fully, would 
require an entire article. If all the necessary require¬ 
ments are complied with, I am emphatically in favor of 
in-door wintering. 
-— 1C. —■- 
Science Applied to Farming—XXII, 
by risor. w. o. atwater. 
More about Scientific Investigations—Ger¬ 
man Potash Salts. 
I sometimes wonder what some of my good con¬ 
servative farmer friends, who are satisfied with the 
old ways of tilling, breeding, and feeding that our 
great-grandfathers tried and proved, and take no 
stock in new-fangled notions and scientific theories, 
would think if they were to see how the experi¬ 
ments are made in the German and other Euro¬ 
pean Stations, the labor, patience, and money 
they cost, and the ways their results are applied. 
The accounts of the experimental investigations on 
the subject of Animal Nutrition that have been 
published during the last fifteen years in the Ger¬ 
man language alone, would make what most people 
would call a good-sized library. The experiments 
thus described are numbered by hundreds and even 
thousands, each one of which has cost the labor of 
days, weeks, and even months. They have called 
in requisition the services of the ablest scientific 
men and the most successful farmers. They have 
involved an incalculable amount of thought, care, 
and toil, in the laboratory, the stable, and the study. 
The labor, much of it of a menial sort, has been 
performed willingly, even enthusiastically, by those 
to whom it has brought not wealth, but only 
meagre support. And it has at length come to be 
appreciated by the public. The first Agricultural 
Experiment Station was started in Germany some 
twenty-five years ago. There are now over seven¬ 
ty on the Continent of Europe, and are increasing 
more and more rapidly year by year, and many of 
them were founded by the farmers themselves, 
who contribute largely to their support. 
Many will say : “ Well, what real practical good 
do plain farmers get from all this scientific experi¬ 
menting and book-writing?” These investigations 
have done a vast deal to settle the questions about 
stock-feeding, that occupjf so much space in the 
papers, and are perplexing as they are important to 
millions of farmers'off both sides of the Atlantic. 
Combined with the results of daily farm experience, 
they have shown for what purposes different kinds of 
fodder materials are best fitted, and how much each 
is worth ; they have taught the farmers how to make 
valuable fodder out of poor hay and straw, how to 
employ lucerne, seradella, clover, and other forage 
crops to the best advantage; how to utilize waste 
products like flax-seed and cotton-seed and the oil¬ 
cake made from them, like the refuse from the 
manufacture of sugar from beets and of alcoholic 
spirits and starch from potatoes and grains ; they 
have shown in what proportions these and scores 
of other fodder materials should, be mixed and 
used, so as to get the greatest benefit from the 
least cost. And much as has been accomplished in 
the matter of feeding, still more has been learned 
about the nature and use of manures, and the cul¬ 
tivation of crops. 
Correspondents frequently ask “ Why not trans¬ 
late into English that German Farmer’s Diary, you 
occasionally speak of as giving fodder and manure 
tables, and so much other condensed and practical 
information for farmer’s use ? ” Well, that is a re¬ 
markable little book, and there are a number of 
others that, like it, are brimming full of just the 
plain, concise, practical information that every 
farmer most urgently needs, and nothing but the 
most costly research, combined with the longest 
and best experienee can supply. But these books 
.are prepared, not for American, but for European 
farmers, and if put into English, would not be 
quite adapted for use here. In the matter of cattle 
feeding, for instance, many of the fodder materials 
most common in Germany, are but little known here, 
and vice versa. The German fodder mixtures are 
full of such articles as lucerne, seradella, rye-grass, 
bean-straw, rape-cake, beet-cake, and potato slump, 
while Indian corn and meal have not been experi¬ 
mented with to any extent there. We need tables 
and directions based on investigations of our 
home products. With what has been done on the 
other side of the water, these researches will be 
comparatively easy, but they must be made before 
we can have the results adapted to our use, as the 
German farmers have them. 
Those who read these articles will perhaps be 
inclined to think that some of them are, at the 
bottom, less attempts to give practical informa¬ 
tion to farmers, than arguments for scientific 
experiments. Well, that is exactly what I in¬ 
tend them to be, and if I were to speak my mind 
freely, I should say a good deal more in the same 
direction. The fact is that the time is coming, in¬ 
deed it has come in our older States, when we must 
better understand how to manage our soils, our 
fertilizers, our crops, our feeding materials, and 
our stock, or fail in our farming. And this definite 
knowledge of the principles that underlie the right 
practice of farming, is not useful simply for the 
better crops and larger profit it will bring. Like 
other knowledge it has a worth of its own, which 
can not be reckoned in dollars and cents. 
German Potash Salts as Fertilizers 
is a subject about which I receive a great many in¬ 
quiries. In the German farmers’ books spoken of 
above, most of these inquiries are plainly and con¬ 
cisely answered. But, as nothing of the sort is 
easily attainable in English, I will try to reply 
briefly to some of the most important ones. 
The potash salts from the mines at Stassfurt in 
North Germany, are at present the most important 
source of potash for agriculture. It is a compara¬ 
tively few years since the deposits were discovered, 
but the products have come into very general use 
in Germany and other parts of Europe, and are be¬ 
ing imported quite largely into this country. When 
rightly used on soils deficient in potash, they are 
very profitable fertilizers. A vast amount of ex¬ 
perimenting has been done with them, more in 
Germany than anywhere else. The results indicate 
that the usefulness of these salts as fertilizers de¬ 
pends not only upon the character of the salts 
themselves, of which there are various grades, but 
also on the kind of soil, the method of application, 
and the kind of crop. 
The potash salts as taken from the mines con¬ 
tain only small proportions of potash compounds, 
the bulk consisting of other materials which have 
comparatively little agricultural value and are 
sometimes positively injurious. In the early his¬ 
tory of the Stassfurt potash industry, many experi¬ 
ments were made with these crude salts, but, with 
the exception of the “Kainit,” their use has been 
attended perhaps oftener by failure than by suc¬ 
cess. It has been found necessary to subject 
them to chemical treatment, by which the potash 
compounds are more or less completely purified. 
This is done at factories near the mines, where 
immense quantities of the potash salts are manu¬ 
factured for technical and agricultural uses. As 
prepared for market, the potash fertilizers contain 
potassium in the form of either chloride of potas¬ 
sium or sulphate of potash, and, along with these, 
chloride of sodium, chloride of magnesium, sul¬ 
phate of soda, and sulphate of magnesia.* The 
kinds and amounts of the potash and other com¬ 
pounds, varies with the different brands. The 
chloride of sodium (common salt) is sometimes 
beneficial to .crops, and sometimes otherwise. The 
sulphate of magnesia is often very useful. But 
the chloride of magnesium, when present in con¬ 
siderable quantities, is apt to be positively harmful. 
* For explanation of these chemical terms, and further 
accounts of their composition, value, and use, see “ Sci¬ 
ence Applied to Farming Correspondence,” on page !J95, 
High and Low Grade Potash Salts—Sul¬ 
phates and Chlorides, (Muriates). 
Besides these concentrated salts, a number of 
articles of lower grade, either waste products from 
the purifying processes, or in their original form 
as dug from the mines, are sold for fertilizers. As 
stated above, in some of these salts the potassium 
occurs as sulphate of potash, in others as chloride 
of potassium, or, as called by dealers, muriate of 
potash. They are accordingly known either as 
Sulphates, or Chlorides, {Muriates.) It is cus¬ 
tomary to reckon the potassium in all as “actual 
potash.” Bythis isunderstood theamountof pure 
potash or potassa, which is either present as such 
in the salt, or would be if all the potassium present 
were in that form. The amount of actual potash 
varies in the different grades, from 7 or 8 per cent 
in the lowest, to 50 per cent or more in the highest. 
Unfortunately a large part of the German potash 
salts imported into this country, are of the lower 
grades. The disadvantage in purchasing these 
poorer articles, is a double one. They furnish very 
little potash, the bulk being made up of other and 
inferior or injurious compounds, and the purchaser 
has to pay the cost of freight and handling this ex¬ 
tra material from the mines in Germany to his farm. 
Use of tile German Potash Salts.—Kinds 
to Select. 
It is clear that for this side of the Atlantic the 
high grades must be the most economical as potash 
fertilizers. The sulphates are, on the whole, pre¬ 
ferable, but the potassium in these is more costly 
than in the chlorides. The chlorides sometimes 
injure the burning quality of the leaf of tobacco, 
decrease the amount of starch in potatoes, and make 
them less “mealy ” than is desirable, and decrease 
likewise the amount of sugar in sugar-beets. The 
sulphates, on the other hand, are always safe. They 
increase the quantity of the crops as much as the 
chlorides, without injuring, indeed often improving 
the quality. For buckwheat, corn, wheat, oats, and 
other grains, for grasses, and for wet soils, the 
chlorides are very highly recommended, and be¬ 
cause of their cheapness, often to be preferred to 
the sulphates. To the lower grades, which con¬ 
tain -large quantities of chloride of sodium, and 
sometimes of chloride of magnesium, the same ob¬ 
jection would obtain as to the chlorides of potas¬ 
sium, but in greater degree. Generally speaking, 
the most desirable grades for our American farmers 
will probably be: 
For Sulphates ; either the highest grades, which 
contain from 75 to 90 per cent, or more, of sulphate 
of potash, corresponding to from 40 to 50 per cent 
of actual potash; or the sulphate of potash and 
magnesia, which contains 54 to 57 per cent of sul¬ 
phate of potash, and 34 to 3S per cent of sulphate 
of magnesia. 
For Chlorides: the “ muriate ” with 80 to 85 per 
cent of chloride of potassium, corresponding to 50 
-52 per cent of potash. 
None of these 6alts have any considerable 
amount of chloride of sodium or magnesium. 
There is a grade of so-called “Prepared Kainit,” 
which contains some 29-33 per cent of sulphate of 
potash, which may also be recommended. 
Where and How to Apply Potash Salts. 
Whether a given soil is deficient in potash or not, 
is a matter that can best be learned by actual trial 
of potassic fertilizers. A great deal of care is neces¬ 
sary with these manures. Many failures result 
from misapplication. One cardinal point to be ob¬ 
served is the necessity of having the potash evenly 
and deeply distributed through the soil. To this 
end the potash fertilizers should be applied as long 
as possible before the seed is put in, either in very 
early spring, or, still better, in the previous autumn, 
for a spring or summer crop. It is an excellent 
plan to compost or mix them with earth before 
using. They should be either plowed or harrowed 
in. Potash salts are generally most useful when 
applied with phosphates and nitrogenous manures. 
In Germany, where the potash salts have come into 
general use, quantities corresponding to 200 to 500 
pounds of the higher grades, and from 300 to 600 
pounds of the lower grades to the acre are recom¬ 
mended. They have been found particularly good 
