THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
applied, and the judiciousness with which it 
is used, the character of the season—whether 
wet or dry—and the condition of the crops 
when times of wetness or dryness prevailed. 
In a wet season the cheaper phosphoric acid 
in bone meal might give as good a crop as the 
more costly soluble acid of a superphosphate, 
Dr the cheaper organic nitrogen do better 
than the more costly nitrogen of a nitrate. 
Iudeed it is in some respects unfortunate 
that thi3 phrase “estimated value,” was ever 
used, as it is in the Experiment Station re¬ 
ports or elsewhere; it does not mean "esti¬ 
mated value” of the fertilizer to anybody, 
but rather the estimated reasonable cost of 
the fertilizer. The analysis has shown that it 
contains so much nitrogen, phosphoric acid 
and potash, of such and such degrees of solu¬ 
bility; and in the markets one can buy so 
much nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash 
of the same degrees of solubility or availabil¬ 
ity in the raw materials which manufacturers 
use in mixing up their several brands, and 
which the farmer can buy in the same mar¬ 
kets; and if bought for cash at the retail 
prices which he would have to pay, and mixed 
by himself, the cost of the fertilizer to him 
should be very near to what is given as its 
estimated value, to which, howev r, be may 
have to add something for freight charges on 
the raw materials, if he is distant from the 
markets where they are purchased. Thus it is 
evident that the phrase “estimated value,” as 
used, is misleading. 
Sometimes the estimated value of a fertil¬ 
izer is given as higher thau the selling price; 
the question is then naturally asked, how can 
it be profitable to manufacture and sell such 
a fertilizer; and the question is still more 
pertinent when the correct meaning of the 
the phrase “estimated value” is taken as above 
explained. Such a manufacture and trade 
cannot be continued at a profit with any con¬ 
siderable excess of estimated value over sell¬ 
ing price, and it never is so continued. A 
manufacturer may start out with a new 
brand ou such a basis: and when its sale has 
run for a time, and it has become well estab 
lished on the strength of analyses at some 
experiment station, and its estimated value is 
very high, he may lower its cost to him by 
putting in much less nitrogen or phosphoric 
acid in soluble forms, and go on selling it for 
a considerable time before the change in its 
quality is exposed by some new analysis. 
Gross fraud may be perpetrated in this way, 
and it has been. A wise farmer will beware 
^of extraordinarily low prices. On the other 
hand, a moderate excess of estimated value 
over selling price may be honestly carried out, 
when a manufacturer may have made unus¬ 
ually good bargains in the raw materials, and 
can sell for the usual price a better article 
than his competitors can. Or, since these 
“estimated values,” as calculated for a whole 
year, are based on the retail market prices of 
tde raw materials at the beginning of the 
year, it may', and does, happen that these 
prices fall off to a considerable extent at one 
time or another during the year, as the prices 
of all commodities fluctuate; and any reput¬ 
able manufacturers can afford to sell fertil¬ 
izers, atone time or another, at apparently 
less thau cost. 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
CLAY vs. LIGHT SOILS.—ARE COMMER¬ 
CIAL FERTILIZERS STIMULANTS? 
PROP. W. H. JORDAN. 
1. Are fertilizers more profitable ou clay 
than ltght soils, and if so, why? 
2. Is the plaut food in chemical fertilizers 
to be considered more as a stimulant than that 
of farm mauuref 
. It is a matter of common observation 
that farm manures generally have a some¬ 
what limited effect on light soils, both as to 
amount and length of time. The farmer who 
has a sandy, or light gravelly spot on his 
farm, is well aware that if he succeeds in 
making it produce good crops, bis applications 
of manure must be abundant and frequent, 
while this is not the case with the more clayey 
portions of his farm. What is true of farm 
manures, is also true of commercial manures. 
In neither case do we see the sume extent of 
effect ou our light soils that we do ou those 
containing quite a percentage of clay. This 
is even true of ashes. 
There is more than one very plausible ex¬ 
planation of the above facts. In the first 
Place, the absorbtive powers of the average 
light soils are deiieient. Light soils are often 
called “leachy.” Scientific investigation has 
given o "soil absorbtiou” a very definite aud 
important meaning. When a fertilizer con¬ 
taining soluble ingredients is applied to ordin¬ 
ary soils, with one exception (the nitrates), 
these logredients enter into forms insoluble 
iu water, hut which can he brought into solu¬ 
tion by the oots of plants. These iugredi- 
euts are simply held for use, and this is un¬ 
doubtedly accomplished by certain silicates 
which are found more or less abundantly in 
clay soils,but in which light soils are generally 
quite deficient. Hence drainage rapidly ex¬ 
hausts a light, leachy soil, and the effect of the 
fertilizer continues for only a short time. 
Again, in a light soil the fertilizer is not well 
“backed up,” The soil itself generally furnishes 
much less from its own resources than a clay 
soil; in other words, it is not so strong, and so 
gives the fertilizer less assistance. The phy¬ 
sical conditions of a light soil, especially those 
that control the water supply, are often bad, 
and the growth of the crop is limited by other 
factors than the amount or kind of fertilizer. 
By proper cultivation, a clayey loam is pat 
into condition to endure a severe drought, 
but in a dry season a fertilizer works "against 
odds” on a light soil. 
2. Many believe that commercial fertilizers 
are only stimulants. Nothing can be more 
absurd than such a notion. Commercial fer¬ 
tilizers furnish true plant food just as surely 
as does the best yarn manure ever hauled into 
the field. There are some obvious reasons 
why this statement can be confidently made. 
(a.) The compounds in farm manures, that 
feed plants, are the same compounds that 
commercial fertilizers furnish to the soil. 
Does it make any difference to the plant 
whether it gets phosphate of lime from a com¬ 
mercial fertilizer or from stable manure? 
(b) Plants have beeu grown to perfection in 
water solutions, and in the most barren quartz 
sand, by the use of the compounds that enter 
into commercial fertilizers, these compounds 
being the only sources of food the plants had. 
Lan a child grow on alcohol alone, aud can a 
plant feed on that which is only a stimulant 
to the soil? 
(c) Still further, the analysis of plant tissue 
shows that a complete commercial fertilizer 
is capable of furnishing all the more import¬ 
ant substances found there, excepting what 
the plant takes from the air. 
The idea that commercial fertilizers are 
stimulants may have come from the use of 
partial fertilizers, but this cannot be explain¬ 
ed here. 
State Experiment Station, Orono, Me. 
♦ ♦♦-. 
CLAY SOIL BEST FOR COMMERCIAL 
FERTILIZERS. 
PROS'. L. B. ARNOLD. 
It is a matter of common observation that 
commercial fertilizers of the same make, ap¬ 
plied to crops of the same kind at the same 
time, but upon different farms, do not always 
produce equal results either immediate or re¬ 
mote. In all such cases, it is evident that the 
difference in effect is due to some difference 
in the soil. The use of a special fertilizer pre¬ 
supposes that the soil is lacking in what the 
fertilizer furnishes, which may be true with 
some soils but not with others. If the earth is 
always supplied with what the added manure 
contains, it cannot he expected to show uny 
immediate effect: but if some of the constit¬ 
uents of plant food are wanting, or are in 
scant supply, and the manure employed furn¬ 
ishes wholly, or in part, what is wanting, the 
immediate efiect will be distinct in proportion 
to the completeness with which the deficiency 
is tilled. No crop cau be expected to wholly 
exhaust an application of manure, whether 
large or small, in a single season. There will 
always be a part left uuused, the disposition 
of which will have an important bearing upon 
the profitableness of the application. 
The difference in the remote effects from an 
application of any kind of manure, depends 
principally upon the power of the soil for re¬ 
taining any soluble plant food which may 
exist in it in excess of what a crop muy use. 
Soils differ iu this respect, chiefly in propor¬ 
tion to the quantity aud condition of the clay 
they contain. While clay itself is not used as 
food for plauts, its presence iu a soil is one of 
the most important essentials to production. 
Pulverized clay Is one of the most puwerful 
absorbents known. It takes up all sorts of 
gases and liquids aud miuute solids as they 
filter through it On account of its peculiar 
ellicacy in this direction, it becomes exceed¬ 
ingly useful as a store-house of plant food. Re¬ 
move clay from a soil entirely, and all that is 
soluble iu manure would run dowu through it 
into the subsoil and away with the drainage 
as readily as lye through a leach. 
An excess of clay in a compact condition, 
forms a hard pan which is not desirable; but 
the more clay in a state of miuute division 
mingled with other earthy matters a soil con¬ 
tains, the more retentive will it be. If manure 
in excess of what a growing crop cau use is 
applied to such lund as would be called a 
strong clay loam, the loam will take it up, 
and hold it for the use of future crops. Even 
nitrogen, which Is the most evauescent of 
plaut foods, escapes but slowly from such a 
soil. I have personal kuowledge of a field of 
this kind containing the site of a log house 
occupied some 20 years, and torn dowu some 
i0 odd years ago. The field has been constant-- 
y cropped ever since; but the site still shows 
in every crop a marked difference from the 
rest of the field, on account of the richness 
that accumulated in the space occupied a 3 a 
door-yard and garden. Upon soils of this re¬ 
tentive power, manure of any sort—com¬ 
mercial or home-made—may be even lavishly 
used without material waste. The earth will 
conserve what is given to it, but upon more 
open, porous and sandy soils that leach or 
lack the power of retention, it is unsafe to 
apply more of any manure than the current 
crop can take up, and in such an application 
even, it is better to use only such as will dis¬ 
solve slowly in order that the supply may hold 
out through the lifetime of the crop. Hence, 
the conclusion that the usefulness of commer¬ 
cial manures, as well as of those made ou the 
farm, depends not alone upon the plant food 
they may contain, but largely upon the ability 
of the soil to retain any unused surplus, 
and that a soil with a large admixture of clay 
is best. 
Monroe Co., N. Y. 
SPECIAL VIEWS. 
PROF. I. P. ROBERTS. 
1. “Are fertilizers more profitable on clay 
than on light soils? Why?” 
A es; first, because there is less waste by 
leaching. Second, because there is usually 
present in clay soils moisture enough to dis¬ 
solve or make available for the use of the 
plaut, the chemical fertilizers. In light soils 
it is often the lack of water to convey the 
fertilizer into the circulation and not a lack 
of fertilizers, that dwarfs the plant. Third, 
because most fertilizers abstract moisture 
from the soil wheu first applied, and the re¬ 
sult is, in many cases, that the seed is left to 
perish. This may, and does, sometimes happen 
in dry clay soils. It is more likely to occur 
in light soils because they are more likely to 
be dry, or to quickly become so. 
2. ‘ ‘The food iu chemical fertilizers Is no more 
to be considered as stimulants than that in 
farm yard manure.” 
Correct; but as the plaut food in chemical 
fertilizers is, or should be, far more soluble 
than that in farm manure, it frequently hap¬ 
pens that land unfertilized, capable of produc¬ 
ing ten bushels per acre, may be made to 
produce 20 bushels per acre by the addition of 
plant food equal to that in five bushels. The 
plaut being well sustained by the fertilizer, 
makes large root growth and is thus euabled 
to feed from a larger area than it otherwise 
could. By this method the land becomes 
poorer year by year, and the farmer says that 
the fertilizers are stimulants and have 
“burned out” his land. They have neither 
stimulated nor burned out the land; only en¬ 
abled him to carry off a little more plant food 
from the soil in less time, without giving an 
equivalent. 
3. “Will it pay the farmer to purchase fer¬ 
tilizer ingredients at wholesale and mix his 
own fertilizers!” 
Yes: because he saves freight and is more 
likely te get what he pays for. 
8, 'Should nitrogenous fertilizers be sown 
broadcast or in the hill or drill ?” 
All fertilizers should be sown broadcast 
when the roots of the plauts occupying the 
ground, fully permeate all the soil soon after 
the fertilizers are applied. Melons, squashes, 
etc., aud young orchards are about the only 
exceptions, 
9. “Why are high-grade fertilizers cheaper 
than low grade ?” 
Because the farmer, if he purchase plant- 
food at all.wauts that which is readily soluble. 
He has already iu the soil an abundance 
which is very slowly soluble, and he can 
cheaply procure or produce on the farm large 
quantities which are moderately soluble. 
What he wants is a little good food that the 
baby plants cau reach and assimilate easily. 
11. “Why are crops iu some soils not bene¬ 
fited by the use of chemical fertilizers f” 
I can conceive of no soil, unless one superla¬ 
tively rich, that would uot be benefited by 
chemical fertilizers, if sufficient water be pres 
enc to enable the plant to take them up. A high, 
dry, poor, gravelly soil with little vegetable 
matter aud a great abundance of lime in it, 
may not respond at all to fertilizers the first 
year. Add a little vegetable matter, give 
good culture and repeat the dose every year 
and good results are certain to follow, though 
it may not give satisfactory profit. 
12. "\\ hat is the best way for the farmer 
to reduce whole bones to bone-meal or flour?” 
Combine with his neighbors aud purchase a 
mill for grinding them, aud hire a portable 
thrashing engine to furnish the power: or 
form a stock company and locate the mill in 
the village. (A portable engine can be hired 
when thrashing is over cheaper thau it cau be 
owned). One of the villagers should ruu the 
mill, aud charge a given amount per 100 pounds 
of bone grouud. 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 
FERTILIZERS. 
MAJOR IIENRY K. ALVORD, 
It seems to me that, as a rule, we are buy¬ 
ing too much mauure, especially in the East¬ 
ern States, and that it would be far better for 
us to carry more live stock, being habitually 
and intentionally “overstocked;” then buy 
grain food and make at home the best “com¬ 
plete manure,” namely that from the animals 
of the farm. Baying food is a good deal 
safer than buying fertilizers, and I believe 
unquestionably cheaper, provided, of course, 
that good animals are kept, that they are fed 
with judgment, and that the manure from 
them is properly managed. It is not difficult 
to make such combinations in feeding as will 
measurably give barn-yard manure of the 
different proportions desired as regards its 
elements of plant food. If the home-made 
supply of mauure proves insufficient, how¬ 
ever, I think it a good deal safer to purchase 
commercial fertilizers than to buy stable 
manure from the cities. Where even a 
moderate supply of barn-yard manure is to 
be supplemented with fertilizers, I would 
leave out the expensive element of nitrogen. 
There is certainly no need of buying so much 
of these expensive ammoniated manures. If 
there is absolutely no source of ammonia at 
home (except air and water) the land being 
severely cropped aud the sales such as to rob 
it of its nitrogen, then this element must be 
replaced by purchase. 
In most cases, however, the two things that 
are needed, and which, if generously supplied, 
will give satisfactory results, are potash and 
phosphates. I believe it far cheaper to buy 
both of these iu some of thei r crude forms than 
to purchase the compounds of even our best 
fertilizer manufacturers. There are places 
where the cheapest and best form of potash is 
in wood ashes; but my experience has given 
preference to the mineral salts, muriate of 
potash, kainit and krugit. For phosphoric 
acid, I like the South Carolina phospbutic 
rock, and now we are promised an evsn 
higher grade of these natural fertilizers from 
Canada. If quick action is desired, it doubt¬ 
less pays to buy the Carolina phosphate dis¬ 
solved, but otherwise, I believe it a good deal 
cheaper to use it in its natural state, ground, 
but not treated with acid. We have been 
well pleased at Houghcon Farm with a “phos- 
phatic lime” obtained from North Carolina. 
It is rock, quarried in nodular form, calcined 
aud ground, with a large percentage of both 
lime and phosphoric acid. Tne price in New 
York is low enough to make it economical, 
compared with other mineral manures. Aud 
this natural combination seems to act fast 
enough ou most soils, for a general restora¬ 
tive, especially when a little potash salt is 
added. It does not answer as a stimulant for 
a special crop. 
Houghton Farm, Mountainville, N. Y. 
LIME IN AGRIC ULTURE. 
John a. woodward, Ag. Ed. Farm Journal: 
The utility of lime in agriculture few, per¬ 
haps none, doubt; exactly how, wheu, where 
and why. its best effects are realized, few, 
perhaps none, know. I do not; I do uot know 
any one who does. 
It is present in varying quantities in all 
soils, aud is demanded by all crops taken 
from the soil.ia quantities of from 10 pounds, 
or less, per acre, to 10 times 10, or more. To 
the extent of this requirement, as a direct 
plant-food, or constituent part of the plant, it 
probably exists in all soils; yet most will re¬ 
spond promptly and satisfactorily,^ increased 
yield, to a liberal application of it. It is safe 
to say that uo land which any experienced 
farmer would judge fit to sow to wheat, con¬ 
tains less than the Id to 14 pounds of lime per 
acre, which au average crop of wheat actually 
absorbs; but 1 have seen the wheat crop 
nearly doubled by its use. Probably one 
bushel per acre is a liberal estimate of the 
average amount which enters directly into 
the plaut-growch year after year on regular- 
larly cropped laud. In liming districts, 50 
bushels per acre are considered a moderate ap¬ 
plication, UX) bushels are more commonly used, 
and I have known 200 to be applied with 
seemingly good results. 
The chief office of Che excess above the 
ueeds of the crop grown (and if the above be 
true, all that we apply would appear to be 
excess), seems to be that of a solvent of the 
mineral matters, aud an aid to the decom¬ 
position of the vegetable matter already in 
Che soil. Its power iu hastening the decompo¬ 
sition of orgauic matter is wonderful. A due 
consideration of these apparent facts should 
lead to a more intelligent use of this valuable 
aid to agriculture than we sometimes see. Let 
us marshal the facts; 
It is a constituent part of all crops. 
It naturally exists in all (most) soils in 
quantities sufficient to supply their need. 
It is a solvent of the miueml constituents of 
all crops which exist iu the soil. 
