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THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
“What, then, is the difference between fertilizer and 
manure ? ” 
“Ilumus or vegetable matter which we consider very 
needful. I do not think there is any other difference 
worth considering.” 
“Suppose you could get no stable manure, would 
you give up gardening ? ” 
“ Not at all. As I have said, there is now humus 
enough in our soil to run us for years with nothing 
but fertilizer, and when more is needed we can get it 
by plowing under green crops. Spinach or turnips 
could be sown as a second crop to be plowed in, or rye 
or barley for the same purpose as late crops. As a 
matter of fact, a heavy second year’s sod, with fer¬ 
tilizer, can’t be beaten as a manure. A system of green 
cropping, however, would be bad for us, for we need 
to get two cash crops on all our land each year in order 
to pay interest. A green crop for plowing under 
would not bring us in any money.” 
“ Yes, but it would save the cost of manure—is not 
that your heaviest expense ? ” 
“ Yes, that and labor. Daring the busy season we 
have to keep a man for each 13^ acre, which is a heavy 
expense at $40 a month. While wages are about the 
same as ever, it now takes 10 men to do the work done 
by six 35 years ago. It was considered honorable then 
A Cabbage Chop Grown by J. Purington & Sons on Fertilizer Alone. Fig. 35. 
IMPORTED PLANT FOOD. 
WHAT PACKAGE SHALL WE USE FOR IT? 
Part II. 
Fertilizers Sized Up With Manure. 
“ Do you use any fertilizers ?” 
“Certainly; I have carefully tested them for some 
years.” 
“ Well, whai can you say for them ?” 
“ In the first place, actual plant food in the fertilizer 
is cheaper. I find that a ton of high grade fertilizer is 
fully equal to eight cords of composted manure. At 
$8 a cord tbe manure costs $04 while the fertilizer can 
be bought for about $40. Another thing is that you 
don’t Duy any weed seeds when you buy fertilizers. 
The stablemen sweep all the grass seeds right into the 
manure and there are no worse pests in market gar¬ 
dening than clover and grass. I can certainly get as 
good results with fertilizers alone if the land is in 
good heart.” 
“ If the land is in good heart! What do you mean 
by that ?” 
“ Well, my idea is that in market gardening there 
must be more or less humus in the soil to act with the 
fertilizer. Here are farms that have been manured 
very heavily for years and years. They are conse¬ 
quently full of 
vegetable mat¬ 
ter and do not 
need any more. 
We know that 
manure is not 
well balanced— 
it contains some 
elements out of 
proportion t o 
others.” [Too 
much nitrogen 
as compared 
with phos- 
phoric acid and 
potash.—E D s ] 
“ Now if you 
keep on throw¬ 
ing in manure, 
any one can see 
that you do it at 
a loss because 
you keep on ad¬ 
ding to the sur¬ 
plus already in 
the soil in order 
to supply the 
lacking ele¬ 
ment. It is easy 
to see that a fer¬ 
tilizer, strong 
where the man¬ 
ure was weak, 
would make use 
of and bring 
out the manure 
left in the soil.” 
“ Then farm¬ 
ers here could 
get along witn 
less manure ?” 
“ No doubt of 
it. On our rich 
land we could 
get as good re¬ 
sults for a term of years with fertilizers alone. The 
humus is all there—we do not need to add it every 
year. For using fertilizers on market garden crops, I 
would call an acre of ground full of humus worth 
$1,000 where one deficient ’n humus was worth $300. 
On ordinary land I would prefer to use some manure 
with the fertilizers, although when our farmers lease 
a piece of land for a short term of years they always 
use fertilizers on it.” 
“ Why is that ?” 
“ Because they know the fertilizer to be more avail¬ 
able—that is, they get a larger crop on it the first 
year, as the plant gets hold of it quicker.” 
“ How much fertilizer do you use ?” 
“ Never less than a ton to the acre. There would be 
no sense in using a lighter dose.” 
What Is the Exact Difference ? 
“ What difference in effect do you find between the 
fertilizer and manure ? ” 
“ Certain plants, like radishes, grow straight and 
better with fertilizers. The fertilizers are warmer 
than manure; that is, in wet or backward springs, 
the manure keeps the ground cold so the seeds will 
not start so well. Fertilizers also hasten maturity, 
pushing along all crops by several days ahead of those 
on stable manure. We always broadcast all our fer¬ 
tilizer and harrow it in. Only one application is made 
in the spring.” 
to work on a farm. Now we get only the ‘ tail end’ of 
all races, and they work 10 hours instead of all day. 
In spite of the reduction in the cost of growing crops, 
it was much easier to make $1,000 30 years ago than 
now. A single load of produce in those days might 
bring $300. To-day competition has cut that figure 
away down until we hardly know what to save on. 
Still More Expensive Stable Manure. 
At Winchester I met Mr. J. Purington, whose farm¬ 
ing is conducted on a somjwhat different basis from 
that of Mr. Frost, although he grows about the same 
crops. Mr. Purington, with his sou, farms 70 acres, a 
portion of which is leased. He is also some distance 
farther from the city than Mr. Frost, so that stable 
manure costs more. In fact, Mr. Purington said that 
he estimated that every cord of manure cost him $10. 
He bought last year between 200 and 300 cords of ma¬ 
nure and 12 tons of Bradleys fertilizer. A good deal of 
the latter is used on leased land that may pass out of 
his hands in a year or two. The reason for this is that 
Mr. Purington, like others who have used both, finds 
the fertilizer n ore available and quicker acting than 
the manure. They, therefore, expect to get quicker 
returns from the fertilizers, so that if they were forced 
to give up the land, they would receive greater returns 
for their outlay than if they had used manure. But a 
single crop does not use all the fertilizer, for Mr. 
Purington says that he has noticed the effect of fertil¬ 
izers in the crops of several years. Asparagus is a 
crop that responds well to the use of fertilizers. Man¬ 
ure is used on it when first set out, but afterwards 
yearly applications of fertilizers keep it thriving with¬ 
out any more manuring. 
A splendid illustration of the possibilities of fertiliz¬ 
ing without any manure is seen in the photograph of 
a crop of cabbage grown by Mr. J. Purington, repro¬ 
duced on this page. On this field nothing but the fer¬ 
tilizer was used, and yet notice what a perfect stand 
has been obtained and how uniform in size and shape 
the heads are. 
Mr. P. estimates the cost of manure at $10 a cord. 
His experiments show that ton of fertilizer will 
grow as large a crop as 10 cords of manure. In other 
words $60 worth of fertilizer gives as good results as 
$100 worth of manure. This proves that either the 
plant-food in the manure costs altogether too much or 
the extra $40 is paid for the humus or vegetable mat¬ 
ter. Mr. P. has had occasion to plow up an old pas¬ 
ture or meadow sod and use fertilizer with it. Tnisis 
found equal to manure and, of course, much less ex¬ 
pensive but, like Mr. Frost, he thinks it would not pay 
to substitute a green manure crop for a cash crop on 
his high-priced land. He thinks the manure gives 
him cheaper humus. To put it in another way, he 
thinks it cheap¬ 
er to let the 
hay and straw 
farms provide 
the humus for 
him than to 
give plants the 
space and time 
required to take 
it out of the air 
above his own 
farm. As to the 
avaiUxbllity o f 
fertilizers, they 
are evidently 
the best thing 
for immediate 
returns. When a 
man invests 
money in other 
enterprises, he 
wants it to turn 
over at once 
and draw im¬ 
mediate inter¬ 
est. An invest¬ 
ment in stable 
manure seems 
to be made on 
an exactly op¬ 
posite principle 
With that a 
man purposely 
pays more for 
his plant food, 
and is content 
to wait longer 
for returns. 
As might be 
expected from 
what has been 
said, Mr. Pur¬ 
ington uses the 
fertilizers heav¬ 
ily on quick 
growing crops, where early maturity would count. For 
example, the first native melons—or those grown near 
Boston—always sell for a high price. One year he 
grew 300 hills of melons, started under glass in the 
field, with Bradley’s fertilizer alone. They were the 
first in the market, and 100 of them sold for $100. On 
an acre, he grew melons, started under glass and 
transplanted June 10, with celerf between the rows of 
melons. No stable manure at all was used on this 
crop. He sold from the acre $1,000 worth of melons 
and $500 worth of celery. He also says that for peas 
and beans fertilizers are much better than manure. 
Mr. P is another man who says it would be folly to 
think of using less than a ton of fertilizer to the acre 
for market gardening. 
How Sod Saves the Manure Bill. 
Mr. Frost and Mr. Purington have not yet been 
forced to seek a substitute for manure. With them, 
fertilizer is like the oats in a horse’s ration, while the 
manure is like the hay. Some four miles from Mr. 
Purington lives Mr. F B Ham, of Burlington, whose 
farming presents another curious problem. Mr. Ham 
lives in a town where a large proportion of the farmers 
grow vegetables and keep dairies to provide manure. 
Still they use Urge quantities of ferfcil z irs—in fact, 
Mr. Ham says, that for five months in the year he can 
get all the manure he wants for the hauling, whereas 
20 years ago it coat from $5 to $7 a cord. This is cow 
