THE BUBAL «£W-¥ ©BiEf? 
AU6, U 
condition of fertility. They act, too, as a 
mulch in some sort, and keep the soil from 
“binding.” It is to he remembered, withal 
that besides its power of holding water, the 
presence of mere humus msy be advantageous 
in other ways in some situations. 
There is yet another highly important item 
to be mentioned in respect to composts, 
namely, that when kept for some little time iu 
heaps, or mixed with the soil in which crops 
are growing, or spread upon grass land, they 
become true “niter-bids” in which saltpeter 
and other nitrates are formed from the nitro¬ 
gen of the peat which In its natural state and 
but for the composting would, with some rare 
exceptions, have had little it any value in this 
sense. The discovery a few years ago that 
nitrification is, in its turn, a peculiar kind of 
fermentation, due to the presence of living 
organisms, has thrown a flood of light upon 
the action of organic manures in general, and 
of compOBts in particular, and has shown very 
clearly why old composts were formerly so 
much esteemed. In the (lays when the use of 
active nitrogenous manures like guano, nitrate 
of soda and sulphate of ammonia, was un¬ 
known in agriculture and horticulture some of 
the effects now obtained by means of these 
chemicals were got by the use of compost so 
thoroughly rotted that it was really a weak 
saltpeter earth. The old custom of frequently 
forking over the heaps was justified by the 
end in view, aud it is a point still to be deter¬ 
mined whether the heaps bad not better be 
made of different sizes at the two stages of 
putrefaction. For the nitrification stage more 
ready access of air may be needed than would 
suffice for the earlier fermentation. Since a 
fair supply of moisture is needed at both 
stages, it is well to establish compost heaps in 
places where the materials will not dry off too 
rapidly. Moisture and warmth are essential 
conditions of nitrification, as well as an abun¬ 
dance of air. 
Nowadays it is probably more rational not 
to keep compost long, but to use it as soon as 
the early or putrifactive fermentation has 
been carried far enough to thoroughly ' ‘ cure ” 
the peat and disorganize the materials 60 that 
they shall be. mechanically speaking, fit for 
use. The subsequent nitric fermentation will 
then go on in the fields, after the compost has 
been applied to the soil. By proceeding in this 
way the peat may be made to supply to the 
crops the best kind of nitrogenous lood gradu¬ 
ally aud continuously throughout the growing 
season. 8ince warmth is known to be favora¬ 
ble to nitrification, it will he of interest to 
inquire whether composts had not better be 
applied by preference to hot weather crops, 
such as Indian corn, for example. It is known 
already, for that matter, that corn does pros¬ 
per upon, and readily put to use, the nitro¬ 
genous food that is supplied by good humus. 
An old compost heap that has been well cared 
for must be filled with the organisms Avhich 
cause nitrification, in the same way tnat the 
poudrette formerly made outside Paris and 
other cities was filled with them. It is but a 
few years since the reproach was made, as 
against the chemist, that a small quantity of 
poudrette placed iu a hill of com made the 
crop show a color and vigor of growth which 
no chemical analysis of the material had ac¬ 
counted for. But the seeming mystery has 
lately been made plaiD, and we now have 
every reason to believe that the chief merit of 
the poudrette depended upon the living thingB 
within it, which caused the nitrification of the 
humus of the soil, and so fed the crop. 
The merit of composts for top-dressing grass 
lands is another point to be kept iu view wheD 
contrasting them with commeicial fertilizers. 
There are probably many situations where it 
will profit the farmer to use compost upon his 
hay-fields, although the application of com¬ 
mercial fertilizers is, economically speaking, 
quite inadmissible. There are several rea¬ 
sons, besides the comparative cheapness of the 
compost, why tbis fact should be true. The 
compost covers the ground sufficiently to 
smother moss, and its particles fall into the 
spaces between the grass plants in such wise 
that they do good considered as mere earth. 
It has often been noticed that many grass fields, 
and particularly those which are mossy, do 
profit considerably by applications of mere 
dirt, such as road-dust or the like. But the 
earth of a well-prepared compost is true hu¬ 
mus, and as such is specially well fitted for 
the use now in question. The significance of 
the earthy compost considered as a mulch, has 
already been alluded to, and so has the slow 
but continuous nitrification of the compost 
earth which is most advantageous for the 
grass. Iu the case of composts prepared with 
lime or marl, a specially beneficial action is 
often noticed, due to the correction of a cer¬ 
tain acidity in the land which hinders the 
growth of the better kinds of grasses and 
favors the introduction of inferior vegetation. 
One important circumstance which has been 
lately noticed should be kept in view when 
considering the nitrification of composts, viz.: 
that the nitrifying ferment needs a large quan¬ 
tity of carbonaceous food in order that it may 
prosper. (See page 172 of the Rural, for 
March 13.) Here probably 1 b one of the rea¬ 
sons why peat and humus in general are so well 
suited for making composts. From this point 
of view it may be seen that even those kinds 
of peat which are not particularly rich in 
nitrogen may still be fairly useful in compost 
making, when the heap is to be carried to the 
nitrification stage, or so used that nitrification 
may result from its use in the fields. < he use 
of sawdust for composting may be considered 
under this head, and there are some facts of 
experience which justify us in so considering 
it. Excellent results have been obtained in 
Germany by composting bone-meal with saw¬ 
dust and allowing the moistened mixture to 
ferment before applying it to the land ; and 
comparative field experiments have shown not 
only that the bone-meal thus composted gave 
better crops than the plain meal, but that the 
compost could justly be regarded as a cheap 
source of nitrogenous lood. It may be said, it 
is true, that the sawdust acts beneficially in 
the first hot fermentation—either to procure 
or to mitigate it—and that the carbonic acid 
which results from the oxidation of the saw¬ 
dust works to dissolve the bone earth ; but 
there is room for believing that the sawdust is 
useful also iu the nitrification stage, The 
question is well worth studying whether saw¬ 
dust and peats poor iu nitrogen may not per¬ 
haps be as well suited as tbe richer peats for 
composting with bone-meal and with highly 
nitrogenous matters, such as fish, flesh, and 
slaughter-house refuse. It is not impossible 
that when thrown directly into the barnyard, 
t. e., when “ used as absorbents,” the carbona¬ 
ceous character of the materials may be as 
important as the pioportionof nitrogen con¬ 
tained in them. In this view of the matter the 
esteem in which sawdust is held as bedding 
for milch cows may depend, in some part, upon 
the character of the resulting manure, aud not 
alone, upon the cleanliness of the animals 
bedded with it, as has sometimes beeu sup¬ 
posed.—[To be continued. 
-- 
MANUFACTURE OF PHOSPHATES. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
The great hindrance to a eeneral and much 
more extensive use of manufactured fertilizers 
is unquestionably their high cost compared 
with the return. 8o long as Eastern farmers 
are compelled to compete with the unmanured 
products of the Western virgin soils, they must 
have cheap fertilizers if they are to use them 
at a profit. We may be assured that they 
neither will nor cau long use artificial plant 
food upon their crops at a loss or without 
profit. And yet the manufacturer, too, must 
make a liviug profit. How cau these two in¬ 
terests be reconciled ? Being obliged, in my 
own fanning operations, to depend mainly 
upon purchased fertilizers, I have studied the 
subject with a lively interest for a dozen years 
or more. I have experimented much in the 
making of fertilizers, and have visited some 
of the largest manufacturing establishments, 
aud conversed freely with the proprietors on 
this matter, i got very little satisfaction out 
of tbe study anu inquiry, but settled down to 
the U6e of pure grouud bone, mixed with three 
or four times its bulk of unleached hard¬ 
wood ashes, made pretty wet in tight casks or 
boxes for a month before using. More lately, 
dissatisfied with the high cost aud uncertain 
purity of ground law bone, I have resorted 
to the use of fine bone-ash, made on my own 
premises, and mixed with dry ashes, using 
sulphate of ammonia in the mixture or sep¬ 
arately as the nitrogenous element. I am 
satisfied that for myBelf either of these methods 
is cheaper than the purchase of commercial 
fertilizers, whether superphosphates or for¬ 
mula mauures. But I do not like the 
“bother” of this home manufacture, and 
would gladly pay a reasonable price to have 
tbe work done for me by those who make a 
specialty of the business. 
There is one point connected with the manu¬ 
facture of fertilizers in which I thiuk a great 
mistake has been made. I refer to the relative 
values attached, in analyses and estimates, to 
the different forms of pbosphatic material. 
Thus, in the report of the Connecticut Experi¬ 
ment Station for 1878, page 19, we have the 
following table of “ Trade Values ” : 
Cents per pound. 
Phosphoric acid soluble in water.hi^ 
" ■'roverUid”audinPeruviauKiiauo y 
“ “ inHolubie iu Hue bone ami lish 
guano. 7 
“ in line medium bone. B 
“ “ in coaree medium bone. .... b}^ 
“ “ in coarse bone, bone ash and bone 
black.... ... 5 
“ in fine ground rock phusphate..3J* 
Practical experience has taught me that no 
such difference in agricultural value exists be¬ 
tween these different sources of phosphoric 
acid as is here set down. I regard the phos¬ 
phoric acid of reverted superphosphate as in 
no degree less effective upon crops than the 
phosphates bo manufactured as to be soluble 
in water. Ground bone, after being treated 
with ashes as above alluded to, is also equally 
effective with the soluble superphosphate, used 
with an equal quantity of ashes on the crop. 
This opinion is the result of many careful ex¬ 
periments, varied in method, and upon various 
crops, for a series of years. Bone ash, finely 
ground, is also nearly as effective as soluble 
Phosphate, and I should not estimate its value 
(rating the soluble form at 12^ cents for its 
phosphoric acid) below 9 cents for the phos¬ 
phoric acid it contains. The South Carolina 
phosphate I have not experimented with ; bnt 
I see no reason why it should not, when very 
finely ground, be pretty nearly equal to bone 
ash. 
The objection made to the less soluble phos¬ 
phates is that they are not so uniformly dis¬ 
tributed through the soil, and are not so 
Immediately available as plant food. The 
difference in cost, as above estimated, is, how¬ 
ever, much greater than the difference in value 
on this account, while there is serious objec¬ 
tion to the very soluble form of the fertilizer 
in the fact that its acidity makes it injurious 
to the plant in its early stages of growth, while 
on light soils such extreme solubility renders 
the phosphoric acid liable to be carried too 
deeply into the soil. But there are other 
weighty considerations. Iu very high culture, 
and especially where there is constant succes¬ 
sion of tillage crops only, immediately avail¬ 
able plant food in liberal quantity Is required. 
But when we come to look at the needs of the 
average farmer of the Eastern States, whose 
objective point is almost uniformly grass, and 
whose tillage crops are preparatory and sub¬ 
ordinate to the grass crop, we see that extreme 
solubility m a fertilizer is objectionable. 
I take up, for instance, a piece of mowing 
or pasture on which the grass has ceased to 
give a profit, and put it through a rotation, 
say of corn, potatoes, and wheat, seeding it 
agaiu to grass with the last crop. The decay¬ 
ing sod, with a moderate application of an 
ammoniated superphosphate in the hill, will 
usually give a pretty good crop of corn. If 
the soil is light and the sod very thiu, a dress¬ 
ing of ashes may be needed. Next year I 
plant the field to potatoes, uslug a liberal 
quantity of a “ potato fertilizer” containing a 
good allowance of soluble phosphoric acid and 
German potash salts, with some nitrogenous 
materia!. Next year 1 seed to grass with 
wheat, using a “ wheat fertilizer ” composed 
of a soluble phosphate and a liberal supply of 
nitrogenous material, with a little salt aud 
potash. I have a good crop of wheat, but 
what have I left in the grouud for the succeed¬ 
ing years of grass from which I mainly expect 
to derive my profit? Almost nothing. The 
land iB not bettered at all by the three years' 
course of tillage. It gets a fresh seeding, and 
may, for one or two years, give me more 
grass than when it was broken up, but that is 
the end of it. 
Now, going by the Connecticut “Table of 
Values,” let me apply an equal cost of phos¬ 
phoric acid iu fine ground bone, bone ash, 
or South Carolina phosphate, together with 
the same amounts of potash and nitrogen, to 
my corn, potatoes, and wheat. These three 
crops, according to my own experience, will 
be equally good, and the grass will be more 
than four times better. On a light soil I 
should steal 25 per cent, from the cost of the 
pbosphatic material and spend it for ashes or 
potash salts. Under this treatment we shall 
apply more than double the quantity of phos¬ 
phoric acid to the field, one-half of which 
would be taken by the tillage crops and the 
rest be left for the grass, while the expense 
would be the same. 
Jarra Sopirs. 
WESTERN FARMING.—XI. 
W. I. CHAMBERLAIN. 
Colorado Agriculture. 
Some enthusiastic Colorado professor of ag¬ 
riculture wrote lately, if I remember, to one of 
our Eastern agricultural papers that if Eastern 
farmers could Bee the wheat growu in Colora¬ 
do by irrigation, they would never want, to raise 
wheat in any other way. Such, at least, was 
the impression left on my imncl. There have 
been reports, too, of 70 bushels or more of 
wheat per acre raised by irrigation. And Color¬ 
ado farmers, more enthusiastic than reverent, 
have declared that with a good irrigating 
ditch they were not particularly dependent on 
the Almighty for good crops. Apparently the 
Lord heard the remark, for there was neither 
rain nor snow in a large part of Colorado from 
last August till late in May of this year. The 
result was that the grouud was too dry to 
sprout the seeds iu Spring, and when farmers 
and even gardeners tried to sprout and bring 
them up artificially, they wholly or partially 
failed. The newly plowed ground, when flood¬ 
ed from the irrigating ditches, became too wet, 
and then, from its strong alkaline nature, 
baked in the sun and crusted over, so that 
even the robuster kinds of seeds partially fail¬ 
ed, and the more tender kinds failed entirely. 
A friend of mine in Denver, for example, lost 
all the labor on five acres of onions, because 
the tender seeds could not be made to come up 
by irrigation, even by the most patient and 
skillful labor, f visited many farms and mar¬ 
ket gardens near Denver, Colorado Springs, 
Pueblo, Canon City, Fort Collins and Greeley, 
and cannot report enthusiastically on Color¬ 
ado agriculture aud horticulture. It is, of 
course, an unfavorable year, for the fact is 
farmers need, and till this year have usually 
had, enough moisture in the soil in Spring to 
bring the crops well above ground before arti¬ 
ficial irrigation is begun. This they now frank¬ 
ly admit; and I heard a man (more noted for 
his shrewdness and good sense than for any 
abnormal development of the bump of rever¬ 
ence) remark: “ If the Almighty would treat 
us only half-way decently in the Winter aud 
Spring, so as to get the crops above ground, 
we would be much obliged, and get along 
through the Summer alone!” 
But, after all, Irrigation is a slow aud expen¬ 
sive mode of raisiug crops, and the soils of 
Colorado are uot rich except in alkaline mat¬ 
ter. They are the newest soils In our land, and 
hardly half-decomposed from the primitive 
rock, as yonr own eyeB show you everywhere 
you go here. There is little rain and little 
natural growth and, of course, little veget¬ 
able mold. And to attempt to put Colorado 
in comparison agriculturally with the rich 
and abundantly-watered plains and prairies 
of Illinois, Iowa aud Eastern Kansas and Ne¬ 
braska, is obviously unjust. Tbe wonder is 
that any crops al all can be raised on this 
soil aud with this climate. There is a cen¬ 
sus enumerator out West who 6ome years 
ago had both arms shot away, the stump being 
then amputated near tbe shoulders. He learn¬ 
ed to write by noldiug the pencil between his 
teeth, and took the census well, though not so 
rapidly as some who had both hands. But it 
was a wonder he could do it at all. Just so, 
Colorado agriculture seems to me to be robbed 
of both its arms—the rainfall and the veget¬ 
able mold formed by ages of growth and de¬ 
composition ; and to attempt to make Colorado 
surpass Illiuois in agriculture is claiming far 
too much. 
Then, too, the area of possible agriculture in 
Colorado is small. The total area of the State 
is 6(1,000,000 acres, and of this vast area only 
4,000,000 acres, or one-fifteenth part, are such 
as to render agriculture at all possible on it. A 
part of this consists of mountain valleys natu¬ 
rally watered ; but the most of it should be ir¬ 
rigated from mountain streams; aud the latter 
are only sufficient for the area named. Then, 
too, tbe Rocky Mountain locusts, or grasshop¬ 
pers, make their ravaging descent about once 
iu two years on the average, so that perhaps it 
is not strauge that only 200,000 acres, or one- 
three-hund>-ed(h part of the area of Colorado is 
now under actual tillage. I do not include the 
vast areas on which the stunted Buffalo grass 
grows almost without moisture, aud which are 
grazed by great herds of cattle. But those 
Colorado steers are lauk and bony so far as I 
saw them, and do not compare favorably with 
the well-fed cattle of fertile Illinois. Some 
large cattle figures are glveu, however. For 
example, a certain Denver lady whose name I 
canuot recall (though I remember to have 
heard her called the princess of Colorado graz¬ 
iers) is said to have sold last year $170,000 
worth of cattle aud still maintained, by in¬ 
crease and growth, the size of her herd. If she 
did, she must have a great many thousands of 
steers, aud graze a great many tens of thou¬ 
sands of acres of laud. My informant said her 
ranches were all irrigated. 
High local prices favor agriculture aud hor¬ 
ticulture proper. Raspberries aud blackber¬ 
ries were from 40 to 60 cents per quart aud 
new potatoes eight ceu ts per pound and other 
vegetables in proportion. Even hay, grain 
aud other heavy products of agriculture are 
exceedingly high. This is partly due to the 
great influx of mining population to Lead- 
ville and the Gunnison and other mining re¬ 
gions, and partly to the heavy rates charged 
by the railways for long, local west-bound 
freights. Whether these high Heights are for 
the present necessary or wise I do not feel 
called on to offer an opinion. They are, how¬ 
ever, like the tariff to manufactures iu a new 
countrj f , the very life of young agriculture. 
But I venture the prediction that in timo a 
wholesome competition will bring down the 
rates of railway freights, and, of course, agri¬ 
cultural products will pour in from the richer 
plains and better watered climates, aud Col¬ 
orado agriculture aud horticulture will then 
be chiefly confined to the production of arti¬ 
cles not easily transported either on account 
of their bulk, difficulty in handling, or their 
perishable nature. 
But, considering the great obstacles to be 
overcome, the progress made in agriculture iu 
Colorado is exceedingly creditable, and if she 
could be cut off from communication from the 
gentile world as long as Utah was, her agri¬ 
culture by Irrigation would doubtless arrive at 
the same stage of advancement. But such iso¬ 
lation in this age is neither possible nor wise. 
Denver, Colorado. 
