1903 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
89 
Hope Farm Notes. 
High-Grade: Fertilizers.— -The following 
question from a good farmer ought to make 
some of our agricultural teachers thought¬ 
ful; 
“What is meant by a high-grade fertl- 
izer?” 
That question is a.sked at least 50 times 
each Spring by good farmers who have 
used fertilizers freely. This is one of the 
cases where our scientific friends assume 
that people know because they ought to. 
1 appreciate the fact that an educated man, 
who is a student, may readily become im¬ 
patient at people who ought to know what 
he has told them. The Bud and I were 
walking througli the snow recently. 1 
didn’t want her to get her feet wet, so 1 
went ahead and told her to step in iny 
tracks. The little girl tried hard to follow 
my stride, but pretty soon 1 heard a child¬ 
ish voice piping up: ‘'Please take short 
steps, Father!” My tracks did her little 
good until 1 measured my stride with hers. 
When 1 did tliat she walked safely in the 
path I made. Of course, some people were 
amused to see a good-sized man mincing 
along in this way, but 1 was not walking 
to please them, but to help the child. Some 
of our scientilic friends might take this 
idea home. They should not always talk 
in step with other scientists, but with 
words so short and meaning so clear that 
common folks may step in tlieir tracks and 
safely follow them. 
A high-grade fertilizer is “high-grade” 
in tlie same sense that a cow, a pig, a 
barrel of apples or a liired man is put In 
iliat class. it possesses what we call 
"cliaracLer”—qualities separate from size, 
weight or bulk. 
you mean that it gives a higher analysis 
Ilian the low-grade goods? 
Not entirely that. 1 can imagine a fer¬ 
tilizer made of ground leatlier, phosphate 
rock and kainit showing a high analysis, 
and yet ranking as low grade, while an¬ 
other with less nitrogen and phosphoric 
acid might be high grade. Take two hired 
men; they may be equal in weight, activity 
and experience, botli lionest and industri¬ 
ous. John will get up in the night to care 
for a sick horse or watch the incubator, 
wliile Henry would have to be told to do 
it. John is a hlgli-grade workman because 
he is with the work all the time, and the 
farmer knows that he will be ready for 
every want of the crops or the stock. 
Hick may be stronger than John and yet 
rank as a low-grade liired man because he 
is a shirk and too slow and careless to be 
reliable. 
in one way the high-grade fertilizer is 
put together in imitation of the high-grade 
hired man. It is calculated to stay by the 
crop from the first sprout until the har¬ 
vest with a constant supply of available 
plant food. Its chief character is found in 
the nitrogen it contains. As we have often 
pointed out there are three chief forms of 
nitrogen—the nitrates are immediately 
available, the ammonia less so because it 
must be made into nitrates before the plant 
can eat it, and the organic nitrogen less 
available still because it must be disorgan¬ 
ized before it can even take the form of 
ammonia. 
To make this clear I will mention the 
different forms of beefsteak. Suppose we 
have a good sirloin all cooked and put on 
tlie table before us. That represents to us 
what the nitrates do to the growing crop. 
A butcher has in his Icebox some miles 
away a carcass of beef. In time he will cut 
it up, bring us a piece of steak and we 
may cook it. That distant carcass repre¬ 
sents to us what ammonia does to the 
plant. Unless it is cut up and brought to 
us and cooked we might starve for lack of 
it. There are live cattle in barns and pas¬ 
tures all the way from one mile to 2,000 
miles away from us which the butcher ex¬ 
pects in the future to kill, dress and cut 
up so as to supply us with steak. These 
cattle mean to us what the organic nitrogen 
means to the plant. Some of them are 
easier of access than others. For example, 
if tlie butcher had a fat steer in his own 
barn we would be surer of our steak than 
if he depended on some animal running 
on tlie plains as wild as a hawk. 
Tlie nitrogen in a low-grade fertilizer is 
usually the cheapest and crudest form, and 
hence the slow’est to become available for 
tlie plant. To feed a plant on such stuff is 
about like sending a man out in the woods 
to hunt game before he can have any din¬ 
ner. You wouldn’t expect such a person 
to be a model citizen or an expert work¬ 
man. You are not likely to pay off a mort¬ 
gage on crops produced from such nitro¬ 
gen! The high-grade fertilizer has three 
or more forms of nitrogen—the idea being 
to provide the crop with a constant supply. 
Nitrate of soda represents the cooked 
steak, sulphate of ammonia the carcass In 
the butcher’s shop, dried blood the steer 
in the butcher’s barn and ground bone the 
western steer preparing for the slaughter 
house. The nitrate will nourish the tiny 
plant, the sulphate of ammonia follows 
quickly, and the others decay and become 
tit as the ground grows warmer. At every 
stage of its growth the plant has its full 
meal of "steak.” 
'I'his is, in the main, the theory of a high- 
graue fertilizer—a high analysis of nitrogen 
in these different forms. The phosphoric 
acid does not matter so much provided 
there is plenty of it, yet I would always 
prefer a part of this in the form of bone. 
A high-grade fertilizer consists of these 
three forms of nitrogen in various sub¬ 
stances, phosphoric acid in very line bone 
and acid phosphate or dissoived bone black 
and sulphate of potash, it is very line 
and dry. The low-grade fertilizer is usually 
a small quantity of tankage or fish scrap, 
a good deai of acid phosphate and a little 
kainit—wliich is the coarsest form of pot¬ 
ash. The low-grade fertilizer is usually 
sticky, coarse and sour. You wili never 
lind nitrate of soda in a low-grade fer¬ 
tilizer. 
'i'he low-grade fertilizers are worthless, 
then? 
Not at all. They are very useful in many 
situations. With our crops and soiis, I 
think it would be nonsense to use them. 
We need more and better nitrogen than 
they supply, and they do not contain 4ialf 
enough potash for us. In the West these 
low-grade fertilizers are said to promote 
large crops of clover which, when pastured 
or fed on the farm, maintain its fertility 
for years. The chief drain from such 
farms Is in the phosphoric acid, which is 
sold in the live stock. 
How about the potash? 
It is about all left in the liquids of ani¬ 
mals so that when they are pastured the 
soil does not really lose potash. Where 
clover is grown extensively nitrogen is add¬ 
ed to the soil to offset what the animals 
take away, so that phosphoric acid is about 
all that needs to be added to the soil. 
Under such a system of farming one of 
these low-grade fertilizers may actually 
supply all that a stock farm, naturally 
rich, requires. It is nonsense, though, to 
apply the same rule to one of our eastern 
farms, of naturally lighter soil, where 
fruit, vegetables or hay are sold. A man 
handling such crops should buy the best 
fertilizer he can get. 
From one point of view the low-grade 
fertilizer is a fraud and a bluff. About all 
there is in it of value is the phosphoric 
acid. The manufacturers add a smell of 
nitrogen and a finger mark of potash and 
then attempt to give it all the dignity of a 
"complete” fertilizer. It makes me think 
of my friend, the restaurant man, who sold 
corned beef and cabbage for 15 cents a 
plate. He added a piece of turnip and a 
slice of carrot, called it “New Kngland 
dinner” and got 25 cents for it. It is like 
the young men in New York who pay 10 
cents for a plate of pork and beans and 
then go and pick their teeth in front of a 
restaurant where J2 dinners are served! If 
a farmer needs acid phosphate let him go 
and buy it at a fair price and know Just 
what he is buying, but do not buy a low- 
grade fertilizer and pay a manufacturer $10 
for mixing $4 worth of other stuff with the 
phosphate! 
Dog Notes. —^As I write I am alone in the 
farmhouse. I should not say that, for Shep 
is curled up on the mat by the door. One 
watchful eye is open and one quick ear Is 
ready. At a whisper from a friend that 
bushy tail taps on the floor; at the sound 
of a stranger every ounce of the active 
body is ready! For years I said that I 
would not keep a dog. That was because 
I rated all dogs down to the standard of 
the yelping curs who run about to advertise 
the poor things in human form who train 
them and give them example. Shep is a 
gentleman in fur. and I have great respect 
for him. I had little to do with his train¬ 
ing and so I can pay myself no compli¬ 
ment when I say that a dog is likely to be 
a character photograph of his master! I 
think of these things as I walk about the 
city and see the dogs that are kept in flats 
and “apartments.” Few children receive 
the care and artifleial love which these 
lazy brutes enjoy. One woman has actually 
brought suit against another for "alienat¬ 
ing the affections” of a dog. This woman 
had a white bulldog which she left in care 
of another woman while off on a journey. 
When she returned she found that the bull¬ 
dog would only wag his tail when she 
whistled—while he followed the other wo¬ 
man. It Is a serious and sad fact that this 
silly creature has brought suit for $2,000 
damages—as the lawyer says: 
“The plaintiff espied said dog Snowflake 
in the company of the defendant, and the 
plaintiff gave the usual signal of call, and 
the said dog was about to respond to the 
same when the defendant wilfully, mali¬ 
ciously and unlawfully called the said dog 
Snowflake from the plaintiff to herself; and 
said dog responded to the call of said de¬ 
fendant. Margaret Jackson, thereby shock¬ 
ing the plaintiff’s feelings and inflicting a 
great mental shock of disappointment upon 
the plaintiff. That the defendant, Mar¬ 
garet Jackson, has by such conduct alien¬ 
ated the affection of said dog from the 
plaintiff, thus depriving the plaintiff of the 
companionship, entertainment and pleasure 
hereinbefore more fully set forth.” 
I can well believe this when I see how 
some of these city dogs are cared for. 
Right on the same block there may be lit¬ 
tle children starving for love or even food 
while these fat and four-footed brutes are 
pampered and caressed. The Hope Farm 
man likes to take a hopeful view of the fu¬ 
ture. but when a strong, healthy woman 
picks out a dog as cradle member of the 
family (and a bulldog at that) he begins 
to think that society is surely going to the 
dogs! H. w. c. 
THE WEAR 
OF RUBBER BOOTS AND 
SHOES DEPENDS UPON 
THE RUBBER IN THEM. 
There is absolutely no wear in any of the other ingre¬ 
dients of which they are composed. Every time the 
quality of Rubber Boots and Shoes is reduced 10 per cent., 
the durability is reduced over 20 percent, because there is 
only one way to cheapen them, and that is to leave out 
Rubber and put in its place other things that have no 
wearing quality whatever. This cheapening process has 
been steadily going on for the past 40 years. 
BUCKSKIN BRAND 
OF RUBBER BOOTS AND SHOES 
are made of real rubber—and one pair of them 
will out wear two palrsof the standard first grade.s 
now on the market. Try a pair and be convinced. 
Made in Duck Boots, Duck rolled edge Overs for Socks, 
and Felt Boots and in Arctics and light rubber shoes. 
Insist oil getting the BIJCKSKIX BKA.M). None gen¬ 
uine iTlthout theuford BUCKSKIN on the top front of 
the legs of tlie boots and the hottoins of the shoes. 
If your dealer does not keep them write us and we will 
see that you get them either through some 
dealer in your town or from us direct. We will 
also send you a very interesting catalogue 
profusely illustrated, which describes the mak¬ 
ing of Rubber Boots and Shoes from the gath¬ 
ering of the rubber to the finished goods. 
MONARCH RUBBER CO., 
80 Bridge Street, LAMBERTVILLE, N,J. 
FACTORY, ST. LOUIS, MO. 
NOT MADE BY A TRUST. 
A n actual test of a 5-tneh 
atrip cut from the aole of 
the Iluokakln Boot. Note 
the elast icity and strength 
Only tlie best Rubber 
will s'and a test like this. 
Weight of hoy and swing 
110 lbs. 
HUBBARD’S 
FOR 
1903 
FERTILIZERS 
FOR 
1903 
Our new Pamphlet is ready for distribution. Sent Free to any 
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MIDDLETOWN, CONN. 
3UY DIRECT FROM FACTORY, BEST 
MIXED PAINTS 
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