63:8 
SEPT 32 
SUPPLEMENT TO THE RUSAL «£W-YORK£R. 
verized and tbe older fields soon need the ma¬ 
terial for fresh humus for mechanical effect 
in soil loosening, and, many of us believe, to 
hold near the surface the abundant, supply of 
nitric acid furnished by our summer showers. 
Hence for tbe present we rely on barn yard 
manures and clover for the restoring of lost 
fertility. 
Story Co , la. 
INFERIOR TO BARN-YARD MANURE. 
I have used a half dczen brands of commer¬ 
cial fertilizers, but with such inferior success 
compared to that received from barn-yard 
manure and ashes, that I not only overstock 
my place in order to make yard manure, but 
I buy all that I can get within a reaionable 
distance. Coal ashe6 and hen manure com¬ 
posted and broadcasted over clay soil 1 find 
excellent for grass. The commercial fertilizers 
have served me best when put into hills under 
com and potatoes, and lightly covered with 
soil. Broadcasted over meadows, I have 
gained from them very indeterminate result?. 
My impression is that we do not use liquid 
manure as we should. A vast amount is al¬ 
lowed to run to waste. The liquid is by far 
the best form in which to apply manure in 
vineyards and gardens. It should, when ap¬ 
plied, be at once lightly covered with loose 
SOil. E. F. POWELL. 
Oneida Co., N. Y. 
ARE FERTILIZERS STIMULANTS? 
The plant foods obtained in commercial 
fertilizers are no more to be considered as 
stimulants than those existing in farm man¬ 
ure. Nothing ba3 ever yet "been discovered 
which can be termed a stimulant to plants in 
the same sense that alcohol or whisky are 
stimulants to tuft u Fertilizers containing nitro¬ 
gen, potash and phosphoric acid, are food for 
plants, for these elements enter into and con¬ 
stitute a part of all growing substances and 
therefore cannot be termed stimulants. The 
reason they appear to be stimulants is because 
they promote a rapid and early growth, and 
Ibis is due to tbe fact that when they are sup¬ 
plied in the form of a commercial fertilizer- 
they are usually in a condition immediately 
available; that Is, the fertilizer containing 
these three ingredients, is so compounded that 
they are quickly taken up, digested aud as¬ 
similated by plants. Commercial fertilizers 
hold the same relation to growing plants that 
milk does to young animals. Milk is food 
easily and quickly digested, aud promotes 
healthy animal growth; fertilizers are foods 
easily aud quickly taken up, and promote 
healthy aud rapid vegetable growth. Farm 
manure contains essentially the same elements 
as commercial fertilizers, but in a more inert 
form, which requires lime to develop and 
make ready for the plants, hence manure is 
slower in its action than commercial fertilizers. 
w. H. B. 
NO USE FOR TP EM. 
With commercial fertilizers 1 have no prac¬ 
tical fairn acquaintance. The soil of Minne¬ 
sota has not yet been dosed with commercial 
fertilizers. Barn yard manure has sufficed 
for our purposes thus far, and with a hundred 
or two pounds of salt to the acre on our 
wheat, to strengthen tbe straw aud stimulate, 
the growth, and perhaps 100 pounds of gyp¬ 
sum on our clover (neither of them fertilizers), 
we will, I hope, have no occasion to patron¬ 
ize manufacturers of chemical fertilizers, 
concerning whom an able chemist employed 
by a very large manufacturing establishment 
once said to me, “People who make these 
sulphuric acid fertilizers ought to be impris¬ 
oned if they cannot otherwise be stopped 
from manufacturing and selling these things.” 
“Your company, toot” 1 asked. 
“Ye?, my company with tbe others. The 
people who buy and use these things don’t 
know any better, and so they go on stimulat¬ 
ing the land and robbing it of its natural 
fertility, and taking the bread from their 
children’s mouths. wm. g. le duc. 
Dakota Co., Minn. 
tie value ci the rest is urine, and this 
largely goes to waste. Of the remainder, per¬ 
haps, over lalf is washed out by the dripping 
laius from the tavis of sheds or other places. 
Why buy commercial fertilizers when it 
would be cheaper to make tbe manures by rais¬ 
ing live stock? Why- buy, when it would be 
cheaper to double or treble the value of what 
we uow make, by adopting better methods? 
About the stables, out house?, slaughter¬ 
houses and factories of many Western towus 
there is an abundance of valuable manure 
worse than going to waste, which should be 
saved. w. *J. beal. 
Ingham Co., Mich. 
MAKING SUPERPHOSPHATE. 
The farmer who habitually draws to mar¬ 
ket the coarse products of his farm, is 
trenching upon bis capital—the fertility of 
his soil. It is an axiom in agriculture that all 
tbe coarse products should be consumed upon 
the farm. The farmer who sells any of the 
products of the farm is also impoverishing his 
farm. Every pound of butter, cheese, beef, 
poik or gram removed from the farm, takes a 
certain portion of the fertility of the soil. 
Good farmers reduce this impoverishing pro¬ 
cess to a minimum rate, and some even go so 
far as to increase the fertility of the soil each 
year it is cultivated. This is done by the aid 
of purchased manures—commercial, livery- 
stable and others. I would suggest to farm¬ 
ers about to make purchases of commercial 
manure?, aud to farmers who will not pur¬ 
chase such manures on account of possible 
frauds that may be practiced upon them, that 
it is possible to make such manures at home 
on the farm. Every farmer is well aware 
what a nuisance the hones that accumu¬ 
late upon the farm become in a very short 
time. Every farmer ie familiar with the feet 
that these bones contain fertilizing properties. 
Let some small boy—or indeed any one, for 
tbe task is one that will pay a man’s wages— 
gather these bones from time to time and put 
them in some potash kettle or iron hooped 
cask. They may be reduced very quickly and 
at slight expense by using sulphuric acid, 
which may be purchased by the carboy at a 
low cost. When tbe bones have been softened 
by the acid, the acid may be drained off or 
the bones may be lifted out with a shovel, 
fork or other tool, and the acid may be used 
on a fresh lot of bones. The bones that have 
been subject to the acid will be found in a 
semi plastic condition,and may be very readily 
mashed up with a spade and mixed with loam 
or ashes. This method of using the bones that 
may he found upon the farm, is a valuable 
way of increasing the quality of the compost 
heap. Try it. forrest k. moueland. 
St Lawrence Co , N. Y. 
'COMING TO IT.” 
THE FERTILIZER QUESTION. 
I am not a chemist, a farmer, or a horticul¬ 
turist, but a Professor of Botany and Forestry ; 
still I am interested in this great question. 
Born and brought up in a new, fertile 
country, 1 have not become so familiar with 
commercial fertilizers as those who live in 
older parts of the United States. 
At our Farmers’ Institutes, most of those 
taking part in the programmes arc incapable 
of discussing tbe value of potash, phosphor¬ 
us and nitrogen. In the East it iB very differ, 
ent; but the West is tending that wuy quite 
rapidly. As I look at it, for our Western 
people, the first great thing for them to learn 
is how to save and .use economically the ma¬ 
nure already at hand. The mass of people do 
not realize that an animal appropriates only 
about ten per cent., orjesf, of the ingredient,, 
which are most valuable es a fertilizer. Half 
We have not got along far enough in im¬ 
poverishing our soil to make us feel the 
nccessitj of working this matter of commercial 
fertilizers down so fine as tbe farmers of the 
East, who have been stealing longer from the 
rich heritage of a virgin soil. We expect to 
come to it. We are tending that way, aud 
feel grateful to you for gathering the infor¬ 
mation we shull soon need. We shall not 
hesitate to “gobble” it up, and will have to 
repay in some otl er coin. c. w. Garfield. 
Kent Co., Mich. 
FROM THE STORRS HARRISON CO. 
We havo used considerable Lone meal and 
some phosphates in our nursery operations; 
but are not able to speak of their value as com¬ 
pared with that of barn yard manure; but we 
are strong believers in the potency of the lat¬ 
ter, and could it be procured in sufficient 
quantities would be content. 
Lake Co., Ohio. 
ASHES. 
Large quantities of ashes are exported each 
year from Canada to the United States. It 
would be hard to give the exact number of 
bushels, but one cau form an idea as to the 
amount when I say that one person in the 
“States” imported last season 32,000 bushels 
from the Dominion. Tbe greater portion of 
these ashes has been subjected to the process 
of leuebittg, by which most of their strength 
has been taken out, for tbe manufacture of 
potash; still leuebed ashes are considered u 
good fertilizer here, and are used to a great 
extent. Some very prominent farmers tell 
some very marvelous stories about the results 
of experiments they have made with them, 
All who have over used ashes ns u fertilizer 
testify highly as to their merits. 
The exportation of uuleached ashes is in¬ 
creasing each year, and they aregrowing in 
popularity with the American farmer. They 
are far superior to leached, as all the strength 
remains in them, and the desired effect is pro¬ 
duced by a much smaller application of them; 
as they are much more powerful agents of 
plant growth. lhan._the_lcached_sort. The 
nurserymen of the Genesee Valley, New York, 
are using them extensively around small 
trees and vines. I collect my ashes as follows: 
—I keep my men and teams traveling around 
the country to farmers’ houses; the farmers 
all save their ashes for me, and they get a 
ticket for each bushel, and when they preseut 
their tickets at my office, they are paid for 
them either in cash or trade. I live iu a good, 
hard-wood country, and always have good 
ashes, aud use the greatest care in keeping 
them dry and in good order. F. R. lalor. 
Moulton Parish, Onfc., Canada. 
answers to several questions. 
No. 2.—If samples are carefully taken from 
well-prepared fertilizers, analysis should show 
very nearly their true value. 
No. 3.—Compared with stablo mauure, I do 
not consider fertilizers as valuable on clay as 
on light soil, as it is well known that the effect 
of stable manure on clay soil is to make it 
more friable, aud hence more easily culti¬ 
vated. 
No. 5.—In mauy cases a complete manure 
w ill be found beneficial w hen a special might 
not contain the ingredients the orop or soil 
required. 
No. 6.—It will, in some cases, pay to buy 
the ingredients and mix one's own fertilizers, 
especially if several tons are wanted at one 
time. Several parties here having combined; 
we bought nearly 100 tons of the ingredients 
last Spring, guaranteed to analyze to a cer¬ 
tain standard, thus saving several dollars per 
ton in the cost of the same valuable ingredients 
in standard fertilizers, 
No. 8.—I would apply, not strictly in the 
bill, but partially broadcast. 
No. 9.—Being more concentrated it costs 
less to apply them, and, moreover, low grades 
generally contain comparatively less value. 
No. 11.—It must be because the soil contains 
enough of those ingredients. 
No. 12.—Bones may be reduced—softened so 
as to crumble—even without being removed 
from tbe dead animal, by placing them in a 
compost of heating stable manure. 
No. 13.—For fruit trees and small fruits gen¬ 
erally, I would use ground bone, either raw, or 
dissolved, or acidulated; S. G. rock for phos¬ 
phoric acid, aud kainit or muriate of potash, 
for potash For potatoes, corn, wheat and 
other crops, it pays in some cases to add a 
small percentage of nitrate of soda. 
No. 14 .—1 suppose commercial fertilizers 
as well as most other products are now at 
bottom prices. 
No. 15 & 16.—Unless S. C. rock is very finely 
ground, it would be too slow in action to be 
used without being first acidulated, alter 
which (if this has been properly done) the sell¬ 
ing price (about one half) ia perhaps a fair 
indication of its value compared with that of 
ground bone, tither dissolved or raw. 
Burlington Co., N. J. John s. collins. 
cotton-seed meal. 
Cotton seed meal is very largely used by 
nearly all fertilizer manufacturers in the 
South as a source of ammonia, instead of the 
fish scrap.dried blood, tankage, etc., so largely 
employed by Northern manufacturers. This 
mode of ullllziug the product is being adopted 
quite largely by the cotton seed oil companies 
as a meau6 of getting rid of it. 1 he profit iu 
the business may be seen by the following 
estimates, which are not far out of the way, 
at present prices: 
Acid phosphate, 1000 lbs. at $1.10 per h. d....$11.00 
Cotton-seed meal 800 lbs. ut 1.10 “ “ .... 8.81) 
Kulnlt 200 lbs. at LOO “ “ 2.00 
Cost of lugredlents per ton ..$.1,80 
This gives an ammoniateil superphosphate, 
which sells in Mississippi for from $30 to $40 
per ton, according to terms of purchase, the 
dealers charging at out the former- price for 
cash, and a bale of cotton for credit. The 
farmer can luy the raw materials and mix 
them at heme for about $22 per ton. 
john a. myers, State Chemist. 
Starkville, Miss. 
. — ... - 
BONE BLACK. 
When bones are tubjected to ft red heat in a 
closed iron retort, the volatile parte, including 
the aintuoniacal vapors, are driven off, and the 
fixed products which constitute animal char¬ 
coal or bone-black remain. Of these.phosphate 
of lime amounts to 78.8 per cent .;carbonate of 
lime to b. 1)8. and phosphate of magnesia to 1 S: 
carbon to 9.0 together with very small propor¬ 
tions of tulpbatu of lime, chloride of soldium, 
silicate und sand, protoxide of iron, alkalies 
and sulphur. The substai.ee resembles ordina¬ 
ry vegetable charcoal: but is more dense and 
less combustible. When fiuely ground it is 
used for refining sugar and other economic 
purposes. Afterwards the refuse bone black 
is largely used for the manufacture of super¬ 
phosphate by being treated with sulphuric 
acid and water, as for ruw bones. It differs 
from ordinary superphosphate, however, iu 
containing no ammonia. 
SPECIAL. 
THE 
RURAL 1IIW-Y0MER 
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