SEPT 12 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
of chlorine. The water, silica (sand), iron, 
soda and chlorine, and perhaps lime, are not 
needed at all. The nitrogen, phosphoric acid 
and potash are the valuable ingredients. It 
may easily be estimated, therefore, what an 
immense quantity of useless material the 
farmer must handle in order to feed his crops 
with farm yard manure.... 
Just as. the apothecary store, in its neat 
jars and phials, supplies all that is really val¬ 
uable in a mass of medicinal herbs that in 
their natural state would fill his shop solidly 
full many times over, so, in commercial fer¬ 
tilizers, we find concentrated all that is valu¬ 
able as plant food in a mass of farm manure, 
a hundred times as bulky.... 
The trouble with the humus of mucky soils 
is that when dry it takes up water slowly and 
it takes a good deal of rain to moisten it— 
while, on the other hand, when wet, it keeps 
wet and cold too long for the health of vege¬ 
tation. Without draining, manure is a waste 
on such soils. Humus holds a great store of 
carbonic acid, which decomposes the minerals 
in the soil, setting free potash and phosphoric 
acid. It holds lateut nitrogen, sometimes as 
high as three per cent., which is six times as 
much as there is in average stable manure. 
It is made available by the application of 
lime or carbonate of potash. While the best 
argument for the use of baru manure in pre¬ 
ference to commercial fertilizers, is that it 
forms humus, the same end may be gained by 
turning under a grass or clover sod, or cow- 
peas, and these can be raised with commercial 
fertilizers..,. 
Mb Gregory mentions that the great ar¬ 
gument for the use of farm manure in prefer¬ 
ence to commercial fertilizers is that it forms 
humus, which is dead animal and vegetable 
matter in the process of decay. Carbonic 
acid is thns developed, which sets free latent 
plant-food in the soil. The humus acta a3 a 
sponge to absorb and hold moisture.... 
The one of the three elements—nitrogen, 
potash or phosphoric acid—of which the soil 
has the least, will always be the measure of 
the crop. For instance, if your land needs 
potash more than anything else, bone will not 
help the crops materially until potash is sup¬ 
plied .... 
Mb. J. J. H. Gregory sums up the matter 
of economy in the use of chemical fertilizers, 
as compared with manure, in this way: 1. 
As a rule, they cost considerably less to pro¬ 
duce the same crop results. 2. They are 
much more cheaply transported; aud contain¬ 
ing the fertilizing elements in so condensed a 
form, the whole handling of them is much 
cheaper. 3. They supply plaut-food in num¬ 
berless instances where it could not otherwise 
be obtained, and so enable the farmer to cul¬ 
tivate much larger areas. 4. They ripen 
crops earlier, and so practically prolong the 
season, making the raising of some varieties 
possible, when before their use they could not 
wisely be risked. 5. They improve the qual¬ 
ity of potatoes and grain. 6. They virtually 
bring outlying fields nearer to the farm. 7. 
They have iudireetly raised farmers to a 
higher intellectual level by stimulating them 
to acquire more information and a clearer in¬ 
sight into the laws which govern plant- 
growth. 8. They lessen our crop of weeds, as, 
unlike barn manure, they carry with them no 
weed-seed into the soil.... 
As potash was made in iron pots from 
ashes, it was called pot ash.... 
The Rural New-Yorker of October 18, 
1884, contained the following note, which may 
be repeated here: “We are not advocating 
the use of fertilizers at all—neither are we 
discussing the question as to whether, at their 
present price, we can afford to use them. We 
merely wish to show that they do furnish the 
constituents of food to plants the same as 
stable or farm tnauure, or composts of leaves, 
muck, straw, or any ocher substance furnish 
them, and that we have but to supply the ele¬ 
ments which our soil needs to render it 
fertile”.... 
Western readers of the Rural, save this 
number for your children, if you do not care 
to read and study it yourselves.... 
Unless you desire to throw money away, 
do not buy special fertilizers, unless by actual 
experiment, you know just what your soil 
needs.... 
Save and make all the home manure possi¬ 
ble. Do not buy commercial fertilizers if ypu 
can make all you need at home.... 
Good kaiuit contains about 3(1 per cent, of 
sulphate of potash. This is equivalent to 
about 14 per cent, of actual potash. It also 
contains 85 per cent, of common salt (chloride 
of sodium) and about 10 per cent, of sulphate 
of magnesia. A high grade of muriate of 
potash contains about 80 per cent, of mariate 
of potash or 50 per cent, of actual potash. 
Sulphate of potash contains about 50 per cent, 
of sulphate of potash or 25 per cent, of actual 
potash and about 80 per cent, of sulphate of 
magnesia or 10 per cent, of magnesia. When 
80 per cent, of muriate of potash, or 50 per 
cent, of sulphate are guaranteed, farmers 
may consider this the pure potash. It would 
be better if analyses on bags or tickets gave 
merely the actual phosphoric acid, potash and 
nitrogen.... 
Sulphate of potash has less salt than mur¬ 
iate, and for this reason sells at a relatively 
higher price.... 
Mr. Gregory has found it dangerous to 
use kaiuit iu the hill where small seeds are to 
be sown, because of the heavy per cent, of 
salt which it contains.... 
Dr. T. H. Hopkins is making experiments 
in the use of “floats” phosphate rock in com¬ 
petition with the same rock dissolved with acid, 
which is then called a plain superphosphate. 
Many such experiments are needed.... 
It is said that kaiuit, if sprinkled in stables 
or mixed through manure heaps both fixes 
aud absorbs ammonia. Carbonate of am¬ 
monia is volatile, and it is this which gives a 
pungent odor. Sulphate of ammonia is uot 
volatile. The carbonic acid of ammonia com¬ 
bines with the magnesia of kainit, while the 
sulphuric acid of the magnesia combines with 
the ammonia of the manure, thus forming 
sulphate of am nonia aud carbonate of mag¬ 
nesia .... 
Wool-waste containing seven percent, of 
nitrogen, increased the yield of wheat five 
bushels per acre over nnmanured land at the 
N. J. Ex. Statiou Farm,... 
USEkainitin the Pall. Lime, especially upon 
low lands to be reclaimed, should be used 
with it.... 
Kikserite is impure sulphate of magnesia 
or Epsom salts, one of the by products of the 
saltmines of Stassfurt, Germany. Ttcontains 
about 50 per cent, of the sulphate of magnesia. 
Prof. S. W. Johnson says that if we mix 
lime iutimalely with manures containing 
ammonia salts, the ammonia is set free as a 
gas, and escapes in the air. If we mix lime 
with a fertilizer containing phosphoric odd, 
or phosphates soluble in water, there is formed 
so-called reverted phosphoric acid, e., phos¬ 
phate of lime which is insoluble in water; 
from which it may be inferred that lime 
should not be mixed with fertilizers contain¬ 
ing either ammonia salts or soluble phosphoric 
acid.... 
If, however, lime and fertilizers containing 
ammonia salts are mixed together in tbe soil, 
little loss is occasioned, because the soil, bv 
itsvegetable matter (humus), is ready to take 
up at once the liberated ammonia.... 
To mix together lime and a soluble phos¬ 
phate (one containing soluble phosphoric acid) 
at first sight would appear to be a grievous 
error, because the soluble phosphate is ob¬ 
tained by acting on an insoluble phosphate 
with oil of vitriol, at such au expense that one 
pound of soluble phosphoric acid costs as much 
as three or four pounds of insoluble ... 
To mix the soluble phosphate with lime, is 
said to undo what was done by the oil of 
vitriol, and this is true in a seme, and to a 
degre3. But the original insoluble phosphate, 
whether South Carolina rock phosphate. 
Canadian apatite, bone black, or whatever 
else, is a very different thing from the precip¬ 
itated phosphate which results from tbe action 
of lime on soluble phosphoric acid. The 
former is coarse, dense, and very insoluble, 
and under ordinary circumstances without 
immediate sensible effect on crops. The latter 
is an efficient fertilizer, quite similar in nature, 
or at least in effects, to the phosphates of the 
fertile soil, being excessively fine in its 
division, and no doubt readily taken up by the 
roots of plants ... 
Prof. Storer has found that there is only 
a trifling fertilizer value in apple pomace. 
Messrs CbozteR & Henderson in their 
book entitled “How the Farm pays,” say that 
refuse hops from breweries form an excellent 
fertilizer, at least one-hslf more valuable, 
bulk for bulk, than stable manure. In an¬ 
other part, the statement is made that pure 
bone dust, or well-rotted stable manure, 
answers for all crops. This is true, of course, 
as to the latter, but bone dust contains no 
potash, and will serve a poor purpose if used 
alone on land which needs potash.... 
Mr. Henderson says that special fertilizers 
for special crops are gradually increasing in 
number, so that some dealers now offer 50 
kinds, different kinds being offered for plants 
belonging to the same family. There is an 
ignorant assumption iu this, he says, and any 
cultivator of ordinary intelligence caunot 
fail to see that the motive iu so doing is to 
strike as broad a swarth as possible, so that a 
larger number of customers may be reached. 
Leather chips contain usually, according 
to Prof. Johnson, from five to eight per cent, 
of nitrogen; but this nitrogen is totally una¬ 
vailable to vegetation unless the leather is 
brought into a state of decay, and>enoe\vben 
leather is brought into the soil, it is very 
slow to help vegetation. Fine division would 
help it, but there is no cheap way of finely pul¬ 
verizing so tough a substance. It may be 
rendered brittle by roasting at a moderate 
heat, when it may be ground to powder. Even 
then it shows very little nourishing value, 
according to our respected friend and contri¬ 
butor Prof. E. H. Storer..... 
Sir J. B. Law Essays that leguminous crops 
grown too frequently on the same land seem 
to be peculiarly subject to disease, which no 
conditions of manuring that he has hitherto 
tried seems to obviate. 
W. F. Massey expresses the belief, in the 
Weekly Press, that stable manure can be 
dispensed with in growing vegetables, chemi¬ 
cal fertilizer being alone used. But he is 
satisfied that a rotation of crops and green 
manuring must take the place of the stable 
manure.... 
Chemists tell us that phosphoric acid (bones) 
and potash (unleached ashes, kainit. sulphate 
or muriate) will remain iu the soil until taken 
up by plants. Nitrogen, however, readily 
passes through the soil iu a single season. 
We tell you farmers that a “cheap” fertil¬ 
izer means one that supplies a low percentage 
of plant food, or, else it means a special or 
comparatively worthless fertilizer, like ground 
leather, hair, wool or S. C. rock.... 
Coal ashes are of little value except for 
mucky soils, or for mulches about fruit trees, 
currant bushes, etc. Thoir effect is to lighten 
up heavy soils. Whatever of potash there is 
in coal ashes comes from the wood burut and 
mixed with them. 
The ashes from a plant necessarily contain 
all the mineral plant food which it needs. 
Ashes need but nitrogen to make them a com¬ 
plete fertilizer.... 
One bushel (45 pounds) of average un¬ 
leached Canada ashes is worth about 80 cents. 
Leached ashes contain about 1.40 per cent, 
of potash aud 1.35 of phosphoric acid. The 
loss by leaching is mostly the potash. There 
are many reports that leached ashea give even 
better results than unleached. Such land 
probably contains an abundance of potash. 
The percentage of lime l>y leaching is in¬ 
creased ... - 
Jonathan Talcott, (Rome, N. Y.) writes 
us that he has used chemical fertilizers but 
little, and, so far as he could see, with very 
little effect.... 
Arrange alternate layers of unleached 
ashes and small bones in any suitable vessel. 
Give water enough to keep the mass moist. 
In three months the mixture may be applied 
to the land. The bones must be small..... 
A member of the Ontario Fruit Growers’ 
Association speaks favorably of using old 
pork barrels, filling them with bones and ad¬ 
ding sulphuric acid. When dissolved, mix 
earth to absorb the moisture. This is liked 
better than purchased superphosphates. One 
gallon of acid is diluted with two of water... 
Give small fruits 15 bushels of wood ashes 
to the acre. 
I&isccllaneous. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
David Landueth & Sons, Philadelphia, 
Pa.—An illustrated circular of the Landreth 
Wheat. This is the wheat which, under the 
name of Armstrong, we have cultivated for 
five years or more, and we have used it either 
as the male or female parent in making our 
crosses, more than auy other of the hundreds 
of kinds tested at the Rural Grounds. The 
grain is large, quite hard and of au amber 
color. It is extremely hardy and productive. 
Johnson & Stokes, Philadelphia, Pa.—An 
illustrated catalogue of wheats, which may 
well be examined by all who have wheat to 
sow. The Diehl-Meditorrauean, Martin Am¬ 
ber, Golden Prolific, Tasmaniau Red, Red 
Russian, Lovett’s White, Oster’s Now Hybrid, 
Red Mediterranean, Michigan Brouze, Dela¬ 
ware Amber are among the kinds offered. 
The new rye, “Thousand-fold,” seut out iu 
the Ruiial’s Seed Distribution of several 
years ago, is highly, and as we believe, justly 
praised. A large plot of it at the Long Island 
Rural farm, gave us, the past season, the 
largest yield we have ever had. Catalogue 
free to our readers. Apply to Johusou & 
Stokes. 
Higgin’s Eureka Salt Co. (of Liverpool^ 
England), 116 Reade Street, New York City. 
—This circular is a beautiful souvenir of the 
World’s Exposition at New Orleans, contain¬ 
ing a colored lithograph of the famous Jersey 
cow, Mary Auue of St. Lambert 9770, and 
Information of interest to all who use (and 
who does not?) dairy or table salt. It will be 
sent free to all applicants who mention the 
name of thojRuuAL New-Yorker. 
Domestic Cccmoim^ 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY MAPLE. 
NOTES. 
Courtesy costs us nothing, and it goes a 
great way toward making home happy. 
When a large fish is to be fried, cut it into three 
or four pieces; it will be easier to manage in 
turning, and the pieces nicely browned will 
usually present a better appearance than the 
fish would if cooked whole. 
During a recent “outing” we were pained to 
see a fifteen-month-old youngster fed upon 
cakes, candy, and nuts! The mother, au in¬ 
telligent-looking woman eeraed to think such 
a diet health giving; while at the same time 
she was lamenting the child’s crossness. To 
our mind, it was not strange that the poor 
little outraged bit of humanity habitually 
cried and fretted away the early morning 
hours. 
■ «♦«-- 
KITCHEN TALKS. 
ANNIE L. JACK. 
I was talking to a friend the other day about 
different flavors in sponge cake, and she gave 
me the recipe I give below. It is really extra 
nice;—Three eggs beaten together, one cup of 
sugar, ono cup of flour, ouo teaspoouful of 
eream-of-tartar in the flour, half a teaspoon¬ 
ful of soda iu three teaspoonfuls of warm 
water. Add a tablespoonful of vinegar. Stir 
well and bake in buttered tins. 
A filling for cake, that is very delicious, is 
made of one cup of finely chopped raisins, one- 
half cup of finely chopped walnuts, yolks of 
three eggs, a piueh of salt, and a teaspoonful 
of vanilla. 8tir together aud turn into a 
sirup made by boiling a cupful of dissolved 
sugar in as little water as possible. When 
clear, turn on to the mixture and stir till cool. 
Tbe whites can be used for frosting. 
A caramel cake that is a great favorite, is 
made of a cup of white sugar, one-half cup of 
butter, three-fourths of a cup of sweet milk, 
whites of four eggs, two cups of flour, two tea¬ 
spoonfuls of baking powder. Tbe filling is 
two-and-one-half cups of white sugar, and 
one-half cup of boiling water. Boil together 
until it hairs; then add the whites of three 
eggs, beaten to a stiff froth; flavor when cool. 
There is so much in flavoring cake, and so 
much depeuds on keeping the quantities accu¬ 
rate. 
Now that the season of pickling is upon us, 
some one may fancy a trial of Indian chut¬ 
ney, that is really a treat with cold meat for 
those who like a spiced condiment. Boil to¬ 
gether one and-one half dozen apples (the 
P&ftwUaiwottiSf gulmtij&ittg, 
To thoroughly 
cleanse and purify 
garments without 
injury, they must 
be boiled to dis¬ 
solve the oily ex¬ 
udations of the 
skin, and loosen 
the dirt, when 
both can easily be 
removed by using 
a mild but effective 
soap, like the 
“Ivory” (99AV% 
pure). Washing 
Compounds and 
Soap recommend¬ 
ed to be used in 
cold water, to save 
labor, fuel, etc., are 
highly chemical- 
led, and are so 
strong that they 
attack and destroy 
any fabric they are 
used on. 
Free of charge. A full size cake of Ivory Soap 
will be seut to any one who can not set it of their 
grocer, 1 f six two-cent stamps, to pay postage, are 
sent to Procter & Gamble, Cincinnati. 1 lease 
mention Uls paper. 
