fHE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Qups. 2. —Analvses show quite closelv the 
commercial value of fertilizers. But this par¬ 
ticular farmer may not need that particular 
fertilize on his kiud of land. Dried blood 
contnins some 14 per cent, of ammonia, worth, 
at 161^ cents per nouud, $46.20 per ton. But 
farmer A. with much or prairie soil, may not 
need ammonia at. all. The chemist can tell 
how much of quinine, strychnine, and iron 
this solution of the druggist contains. The 
doctor must study his patient to know wheth¬ 
er he needs those medicines and in those pro¬ 
portions. The farmer needs intelligence to 
know what, his lands need. As a rough “rule 
of thumb,” black soils with much humus 
(vegetable mold' do not, need ammonia; while 
thin clnv and sand do need it. The clay soils, 
as a rule, in Ohio do not need potash; while 
sandy, and gravelly, and muckv soils usually 
do. Phosphoric acid is more likely to be lack¬ 
ing. and hence rtpeded, in all soils. 
Q, irg _ 4 —The plant- ford in commercial fer¬ 
tilizer? is more condensed than in stable man¬ 
ures: but as truly food They ere as trnly 
plant, food as condensed milk and beef extract 
are human food, and not mere stimulants. 
Qups. 6 Decidedly no, as a general rule. 
It tokps more knowledge and greater facili¬ 
ties than most farmers posse??, and big manu¬ 
facturers con do it more oheaplv. 
Q a o S . —The Ohio scale of valuation is 
based on the actual average selling price per 
ton to oomsumers. It tells farmers how each 
fertilizer compares with ihe average price. If 
the selliug price of any brand, to him, is much 
more than oar valuation of it from analysis, 
the Ohio farmer has coma to know that he 
had better buy some other brand. Open com¬ 
petition regulates the matter of profits. Our 
work is simply to show the cousnmer what 
each brand contnius.and how much it is worth 
at average prices in Ohio, 
Ques. 10 Too many to name here. The 
two chief ones are that they are complete fer¬ 
tilizers. restoring just, the elements and the 
porportions removal by average cropping: 
and. second, their bulk gives good mpchsni- 
cal effects, loosening the soil and making it 
porous, and retentive of proper moisture. 
Ques. 11. Because they either do not. need 
the particular elements they contain, or will 
not retain them in so -olnble a form till used 
by the plants. This last is sometimes the 
trouble with loose, saudy, gravelly, washed 
soils. 
Ques. 12. Buy them already redu-ed. This 
is the day of division of labor and cheapened 
manufacture. The large manufacturer, near 
the great sources of supply, can grind the 
bones and rock phosphates and acidulate 
them, if necessary, cheaper than the indivi¬ 
dual farmer. We do not grind our own flour, 
weave our own cloth, tan our own leather, 
cast our own plow-shares, or make our own 
agricultural machinery nowadays. 
Ques. 14. It seems impossible to tell. On 
the whole, probably not materially. 
Ques. 15—The soluble and reverted phos¬ 
phoric acid in S. C. rock phosphate seems to 
have the same value agriculturally as the 
same arnouut in animal bone treated with 
sulphuric acid. But pure animal bone un¬ 
treated contains, on the average, about 4)£ per 
cent, of ammonia. which is worth, at present 
Ohio valuation, about $15,00 In each ton of 
bone, and this is not found in S. C. rock. 
Pure bone contains much more phosphoric 
acid per ton than S, t’. rock. This is less 
rapidly available tbuu that iu rock treated 
with sulphuric acid ; but more available by far 
than that not so treated. 
Ques. 16,—Yes, that seems to be the cheap¬ 
est means of rendering its phosDhoric acid 
readily available as plant food, 
Franklin Co., Ohio. 
THE BEST FERTILIZER—BONE DUST, 
ASHES, PERUVIAN GUANO, CHEM¬ 
ICALS, POUDRETTE. 
BEN. PFRLEY POORE. 
The best fertilizer for producing vegetable 
or animal food for maukind— so far as my 
observation extends—is unquestionably well- 
rotted barn-yard manure. A man can live on 
vegetables, but his teeth demonstrate that, bis 
Creator intended that flesh should constitute 
a considerable portiou of his food. The ani¬ 
mals whose flesh man eat?, have been fed upon 
vegetable matter, and their excrements never 
fail to fertih'z * and to renovate soils, whether 
they are sandy or clayey, alike in wet and in 
dry seasons. “Old Reliable” barn-yard man¬ 
ure, especially wheu the auituals who have 
made it have been generously fed, contaius 
whut the chemists call urine or humus . which 
appears to be the vital cause of fertility. 
Peaty earths, rich molds, and decaved leaves 
or other vegetable matter, when thoroughly 
mixed with the excrements of horses aud 
cattle by the nctive sneuts of busy hogs (those 
admirable irixtrs aid dtctujcsers) aud kept 
tolerably moist without leaching, form a 
barn yard manure which is emphatically 
Number Onet 
Bone dust is the next best fertilizer to barn¬ 
yard manure. The farmers of England have 
bad bones brought for their us\ during the 
past 50 years, from all parts of the world, in¬ 
cluding thousands of tons from the T T nited 
States. If bone dust is mixed with five times 
its weight of sifted loam or decayed vegetable 
mold dampened, and permitted to partially 
ferment before it is sown, its value is in¬ 
creased. If a qaart of very coarse bone dust is 
mixed with the earth and placed about the roots 
of a tree when planted, it will have a decided 
effect after the first year. My experiments 
with commercial fertilizers used in this way. 
have never shown that they promoted the 
growth of the tree any more than the same 
quantity of saw-dust or coal ashes would have 
done. 
I have found unleached wood-ashes, brought 
from Canada, valuable for restoring to loDg- 
cropped grass lands the necessary ingredients 
of which they bad been gradually deprived. 
I use two tons to the acre, aDd when I have 
added a bountiful supply of barn-yard man¬ 
ure, I have obtained a large crop of winter 
rye, with a good stand of Herd Grass and R«d 
Top, sown in the Fall with tbe rye. How 
long the land will produce good crops of grass 
1 cannot yet say. Leached ashes are deprived 
of nearly all their potash and soda, and of all 
their acids, except tbe phosphoric. Thev 
should never be used on a damp soil, and I 
place no great value on them. Peruvian gnano 
has a magical effect upon root crops, vines, 
or vegetables, when judiciously applied. But 
its effects are like those of a glass of old 
Jamaica rum on a tired man—bracing him up 
for a time, and then leaving him enervated 
and played out. 
Then we come to the chemicals. I have no 
doubt that a skillful agricultural chemist 
could prescribe for the improvement of the 
soil in a field (as a physician would prescribe 
for a patient) by analyzing specimens of the 
soil before the crop was sown or planted, 
analyzing other specimens of it again after 
tbe crop was harvested, and then analyzing 
the crop itself. But for tbe practical farmer, 
ignorant of chemistry, to undertake to follow 
newspaper formulas, and to compound chem¬ 
ical acids and salts for his land, is like season¬ 
ing his food with saltpetre instead of table 
salt, or making his haying-time lemonade 
with oil-of-vitriol instead of tartaric acid. 
Some of the chemicals are fertilizing on some 
soils aud powerless on others; some require 
wet seasons to dissolve them, and others are 
beneficial only in dry spells. Chemicals, like 
gunpowder, must be handled carefully and 
understanding! v. 
Then we have the commercial fertilizers, of 
all grade?, descriptions aud prices, trumpeted 
by printers ' 1 ink praises, and recommended by 
certificates which read liketho 3 e of proprietary 
nostrums. Tbe first fertilizer in the market 
was tbe “ooudrette,” which was made in the 
meadows between New York and Newark. N 
J., 50 years since, by the “Lodi Company,” of 
which a New York lawyer named Anthony 
Dey, was the President. It was simply the 
dried cleanings from tbe New York privy- 
vaults, ground and mixed with ground dried 
p?at. Ground peat and fight soil form, if I 
mistake uot the basis of some of the commer¬ 
cial fertilizer# of to day, with the addition of 
a little guano to give them an impressive odor. 
There are chemical compounds, however, of 
value. A spoonful in each bill gives the corn 
a quick start, and they are useful in a garden 
to give the vegetables and vines a lift before 
tbe summer droughts. Bat for field land, es¬ 
pecially for grass. I have never tried anv com¬ 
mercial fertiliz«rthat am-mused to much, and 
I have tried a dozen different binds. 
Mv great objection to fertilizers is that 
thev promote laziness. Instead of keeping a 
stock of cattle through the Winter, so that, he 
canbav * a large manure heap to haul out iu 
the Spring, the voting farmer is tempted to 
dispense with cattle, sell his hay, aud buy fer¬ 
tilizers . A dozeu years of such farming and 
th Q Farm will have to be sold. 
Indian Hill Farm, '-ear Newburyport, Mass. 
THE BEST FORMULAS FOR POTATOES, 
CORN, WHEAT. RTE. OATS. MAN¬ 
GLES. TURNIPS. FRUITS, ETC. 
W. H. BOWKKR. 
There is much discussion as to what are 
the best formulae for these crops, and the 
matter is not entirely settled, and will not be 
until we have more light. No doubt, for 
potatoes a fertilizer containing a liberal 
amount of ammonia (a portion being iu the 
form of chemicals), a moderate amount of 
phosphoric acid (all of which is available), 
and a large amount of potash (preferably in 
the form of sulphate, although many contend 
that muriate is equally good), is the eombiua- 
tion.~ Whether sulphate or muriate of potash 
is best, is a point to be worked out ny experi¬ 
ment. In my judgment, a sulphate is more 
Iik« 1 y to produce a better quality of potato, 
although excellent tubers have been, and are 
raised by muriate. For corn, wheat, rye, and 
oats, a fertilizer can. no doubt, contain less 
ammonia than the potato fertilizer but there 
should be more phosphoric acid and less potash. 
The ammonia In a grain fertilizer can be entire¬ 
ly in the form of animal matter.and tbe potash 
in tbe form of muriate. The obospboric acid 
should also be largely available for these 
crops, especially if the fertilizer is applied iu 
the Spring. For mangels and turnips, the 
fertilizers should be made like that for pota¬ 
toes. but with less ammonia and more phos¬ 
phoric acid, which would also be available. 
The potash for mangels should be iu tbe form 
of muriate; but for turnips. I am inclined to 
think it should be in the form of sulphate, 
especially if they are raised for table purposes. 
The fertilizers for all the foregoing crops 
should be in a form quickly available, as these 
crops make the better part of their growth iu- 
sideoffiO davs; especially should this be the 
case in fertilizers for potatoes and turnips; if 
these crops do not grow quickly, they will 
certainly be a failure as to quality, if not in 
quantity. 
Fertilizers for fruits should at least be di¬ 
vided into two classes, one for small fruits, 
like strawberries, raspberries, etc.; aud one 
for fruit trees, like the peach, pear and apple. 
The fertilizer for small fruits should contain a 
liberal amount of ammonia, some of it in the 
form of ehem eal«. and a liberal amonnt of 
potash, and if the latter is in the form of 
douhle sulphate of potash and magnesia, it 
will be better than in the form of muriate, for 
1 believe it is a well established fact that the 
sulphate produces a sweeter berry than the 
muriate. There should also be a large amount 
of phosphoric acid, of which at least 50 per 
cent, should be available. The fertilizer for 
fruit trees need not be bo available as those 
for other crops, and should contain liberal 
amounts of phosphoric acid aud potash, aud 
the latter ingredient mav he in the form of 
muriate, although for peach tree?, the sul¬ 
phate of potash aud sulphate of magn°sia are 
highly recommended. I should add hut little, 
if anv, ammonia to the fruit tree fertilizer. 
The formula recommended by Dr. C A. 
G oessmauu for peach trees as a preventive of 
“yellows.” is. no doubt, an excellent fertilizer 
for the peach crop. 
IS IT ECONOMY TO DISSOLVE SOUTH CAROLINA 
ROCK IN SULPHURIC ACID ? 
Yes, most assuredly. I believe that South 
Carolina phosphate, no matter how finely 
ground, is almost valueless until treated with 
sulphuric add. I have vet to learn of any 
successful results with finely ground South 
Carolina rock on any crop. There has been a 
great deal of talk about “float?,” or South 
Carolina rock so finely ground that it will 
float iu the air; but I have b«eu informed by 
several leading experimenters who have tri°d 
these “floats,” that thev could not see any 
appreciable results. It is possible that in the 
course of years, finely ground South Carolina 
rock might become av-liable, hut I do not 
think that farmers can afford to wait for the 
action of *u?b fertilizers. Fertilizers are more 
or less expensive, and one should get his re¬ 
turn from them as soon as possible. Where 
is the economy iu plautiug oroos in which 
every condition is right except that of the 
fertilizer which is iu a slow and inert form 1 
In nine cas a s out o f ten. the cron will be a 
failure, and the farmer not onlv loses bis time 
and labor aud cost of seed, but the Interest on 
the money invested in the slowly-acting ferti¬ 
lizer and also nponthe laud under cultivation. 
WILL COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS BE CHEAP¬ 
ER OR DEARER IN PRICE? 
The answer to this question will deoeud 
noon sunply and d tt muud. Fertilizing mate¬ 
rials have been cheaper the past vear than 
for s>me time previous, but this has been 
due to the foreign market, and to an unusual 
condition of affairs iu Chili, which has been 
flooding the ^orej-m ns well a? the home mar¬ 
ket, with enormous quantities of nitrate of 
soda. This, taken in connection with the 
poor farming prosneotsin foreign countries, 
especially in England and Germany, ha? kept 
those markets more than sunnliel with fertil 
izing material. It is said that the producers 
of nitrate of soda in Chill, have h«en sending 
it forward at a much lower price than they 
can afford to; at, anv rate, the price has al¬ 
ready advanced 15 nor cent , and if the pros¬ 
pects in fo-o'gn agriculture shou'd improve, 
there will be more or less demand for fertili¬ 
zing material from this countrv. and tbe re¬ 
sult will be that higher prices will generally 
result. For the past, two or three venrs. the 
supply has seemed to be greater thnu the de¬ 
mand. and consequently low prices have ruled, 
and profit? have been exceedingly small. 
Boston, Mass. 
COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 
WALDO F. BROWN. 
It is but a few years since our farmers of 
the central belt began using commercial fer¬ 
tilizers. I have spent all mv mature life in 
the Great Miami Valley, having settled here 
in 1838 . and I have seen onr agriculture nass 
through several stages as touching the qu°stiou 
of fertilizers. Th° first stage was one in which 
no thought or care was given to the matter; 
for there was a virgin soil in which wa 3 
stored the accumulated plant food which had 
been deposited for ages bv the d?ray of vege¬ 
table growth, and the ax and torch would soon 
clear a new field when an o’der one began to 
show oovprty of soil, During this stage the 
farmer built his log stable near a creek or 
ravine if pos-ible, so as to throw the manure 
where it would be carried away by the rains 
and save him the trouble of carting it away. 
Finally the forest a-ea was reduced so that 
on most farms no more new fields could be 
cleared, and our mo?t, intelligent farmers 
began to save and apply their stable manure, 
aud it is now but a few years since commercial 
fertilizers began to b» used, and I estimate 
that less than ten per cent, of our farmers 
have ever tried auv of them I have been 
using small quantities of commercial fertil¬ 
izers for ten rears past iu order to ascertain 
their relative value as compared with stable 
manure, and rov experience leads me to place 
a higher value than formerly on stable ma¬ 
nure. and it has not been encouraging to the 
use of commercial fertilizers. It is a singular 
fact that many farmers who have been amoug 
the first to buy commercial fertilizers, are 
those who do not use half the sources of fer¬ 
tility on their farms. 
The advantage of stable manure i?, that it 
contains all the elements needed by the plant, 
and we can count with certainty an its effects; 
while we are often disappointed in using com¬ 
mercial mannres. If our barn yard manure 
is managed intelligently, it will be far more 
valuable than it is as ordinarily used On 
manv farms the larger part of it is ordinari¬ 
ly wasted. On manv farms the larger part of 
the nrine is wasted; while careful analysis and 
experiment have shown that a given weight 
of urine from the horse is worth six times as 
ranch as the same weight of solid exc-ement; 
from the cow nearly four times as mu-h, and 
from the sh°ep about seven times as much. I 
should lay it down as a rule that the farmer 
should uot invest in commercial manure 
while allowing his stable manure to go to 
waste. 
I also helieve that on manv farms it would 
be more profitable to spend a given amount 
of money in “fining” and mixing the barn¬ 
yard manure and in protecting it from loss 
than in buying commercial manures. 
It is a fact which I thhik most farmers who 
have use! commercial fertilizers can testify to, 
that their action is not as certain and uniform 
as that of stable manure. Why this is so is 
not an easy question to auswer; for we have 
not. made sufficient progress in scientific agri¬ 
culture to answer all questions and account 
for all failures. It was thought at one time 
that an analvsis of the soil would show just 
what was lacking, and enable ns to supply it; 
but. practical v. difficulties were found which 
prevented the expected benefit from this. 
Then it was announced that an analysis of the 
plant would show just, what the farmer should 
furnish to the soil u order to insure a maxi¬ 
mum yield. This has been of helD to the far¬ 
mer iu determining what brand of fertilizers 
to buv: but. after all. there has often been no 
perceptible increase of crop from the applica¬ 
tion. I am not sure that, I can explain the 
cause of this failure, hut mv theory is that 
therp ar? often elements iu the soil which neu¬ 
tralize or render unavailable the food elements 
in the fertilizer; or that in some seasons there 
are climatic agencies ichi’h render the plant 
food unavailable lYhatever the can-es.it is a 
fact that fertilize-? from firms of gooi reputa- 
v 
tion. and which have stood the test of chemi¬ 
cal analysis, sometimes prove a dead loss to 
the farmer who us«s them. Perhaps the safest 
fertilizer for the farmer to use is pure bone 
thoroughly pulverized. I have not had suffic- 
ient. experience to sav what is the hest wav for 
him to pulverise them: but should prefer the 
slow method of composting rather than the 
use of acids. The bones should be first broken 
with a sledge or in anv wav most convenient, 
and then built up with fresh manure in lavers, 
alternating bones and manure. Tbe pile 
shou'd then bo k«pt moist, hut shou d never 
b» flooded with water. An examination of 
the heap will show th« p-ogress of decompo¬ 
sition and when the larger part of the bones 
will crumble, it can be forked over, and those 
still remaining hard can be worked into the 
next heap 
It is doubtful if tbe prices of the best brands 
of fertilizers will be much lower in the future 
(Continued on page 619.) 
I 
