Vol. LVI. No. 2456. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 20. 1897 
$1.00 PER YEAR. 
ROCK, POTASH AND CRIMSON CLOVER. 
CHEAP PLANT FOOD FOR THE DELAWARE FARMERS. 
How Shall We Buy Phosphoric Acid? 
[editorial correspondence.J 
Part II. 
Last week we described Mr. Derby’s system of fer¬ 
tilizing. He uses only Crimson clover which makes 
its growth at a season between the life of other crops, 
and is fed at a cost of le*s than $2 worth of dissolved 
phosphate rock and muriate of potash per acre. I 
wish to repeat what was said last week that, because 
Mr. Derby can do this, it does not follow that you 
can on your soil and with your crops and farm con¬ 
ditions. There may be other farmers who are mak¬ 
ing Crimson clover more useful as a direct substitute 
for manure than Mr. Derby, but I do not know where 
they live. Do 
Delaware farm¬ 
ers in general 
use fertilizers 
just as we do in 
other sections, 
then ? Not at 
all—they are 
either in the 
kindergarten 
stage or 10 
years ahead of 
the average 
farmers else¬ 
where—just as 
you look at it. 
At almost 
every little 
hamlet along 
the railroad in 
Delaware, you 
will find one or 
more small fer¬ 
tilizer factories 
or mixers. 
Some of them 
make their own 
sulphuric acid 
and thus “ re¬ 
duce ” the phos¬ 
phate rock on 
the premises, 
while others 
buy their sul¬ 
phuric acid or 
even buy the 
rock already 
acidified. One 
of these little 
factories may 
contain, in vari¬ 
ous bins, possi¬ 
bly 50 tons of 
ground bone, 100 tons each of tankage or ground fish, 
300 tons of dissolved rock, 200 tons each of muriate of 
potash and kainit, 50 tons of land plaster, and 75 tons 
of nitrate of soda. There are, also, machines for 
crushing and mixing the fertilizers and, of course, 
steam power for running this machinery. It is really 
like a big drug store with bins of materials instead of 
jars, and the facilities for mixing prescriptions for 
sick or hungry soils. In former years, these factories 
did a heavy business in selling mixed goods. They 
prepared different combinations of chemicals for 
various crops, and usually worked in connection with 
the canning factories in preparing special brands for 
truck, grain or fruit. That was before farmers 
studied into the composition of a fertilizer, or real¬ 
ized why the nitrogen in tankage or cotton-seed meal 
w^l act differently from that in nitrate of soda. For 
example, observant strawberry growers noticed that, 
when nitrate of soda was applied to naturally soft- 
berried varieties like Sharpless, Parry, or Phillip’s 
seedling, they lost color and became softer, while 
such varieties as Wilson, Hoffman, Lovett, etc., re¬ 
tained their color and firmness. When the slower- 
acting fish or tankage was used, even the naturally 
soft berries were not injured. Then again, differ¬ 
ences in results from the use of muriate, sulphate 
and kainit were noticed, and that led such men to 
get inside of the fertilizer factory and study what 
there was in the bag. It was not unlike a man dosing 
himself for years with some patent medicine—taking 
just what others provided for him, finding, at last, 
that some simple prescription would answer his pur¬ 
pose and save his pocketbook. For example—I know 
a man who has spent a good many hard-earned dol¬ 
lars in buying various brands of medical “ phos¬ 
phates”. A few words from a doctor explained why 
and how a mixture of dilute phosphoric acid and 
glycerine costing 75 cents, would do as much service 
as 85 worth of the prepared mixture. The 75-cent 
mixture was bought at the same drug store at which 
the 85 goods were sold. Yet that simple mixture 
cannot be recommended to every one because the 
glycerine will prove injurious to some people. A 
man must understand the effect of those different 
drugs before making up his mixture. 
That was about the way this fertilizer problem was 
worked out in Delaware. Delaware is a small State; 
it is easy for the farmers to reach the State chemist. 
I understand that they have a law which enables a 
farmer to obtain an analysis of his fertilizer for about 
85—aside from tfie regular State analysis. That is a 
privilege that the farmers of every State should enjoy. 
These farmers began by using the mixed goods. That 
is the way to begin with fertilizer. Start with a 
standard brand containing nitrogen, potash and phos¬ 
phoric acid in different forms and study it out. Un¬ 
less a man is willing to do this, he should never at¬ 
tempt home mixing. It requires more skill to make 
bread than it does to buy it. It takes as much study 
and skill to formulate and make up a chemical mixture 
j ust suited to your soil as it does to m ike bread cheaper 
than you can buy it. The housewife who makes ex¬ 
cellent bread may not think that she has any great 
amount of skill, because she may not be able to re¬ 
member when she did not know how. Let her com¬ 
pare herself with the daughter who has been brought 
up outside of the kitchen ! 
It looks easy to an outsider to see the way these 
Delaware farm¬ 
ers have carved 
the breast meat 
off the fertilizer 
bill, but it took 
them years to 
learn how to do 
it, and only the 
shrewdest o f 
them are doing 
it now. Plenty 
o f Delaware 
farmers are 
still buying fer¬ 
tilizers largely 
by guess work, 
though even 
such men pay 
less per acre 
than most 
farmers in 
other sections. 
We speak only 
of the best 
farmers be¬ 
cause no one 
wants to imi¬ 
tate a man who 
doesn’t do 
things in the 
best way. Re¬ 
member that 
there was a 
time when 
these farmers 
hardly knew 
there was any 
such plant as 
Crimson clover! 
Rock, potash 
and Crimson 
clover are the 
chief fertilizing 
elements in Delaware farming. Now and then a man 
will want some special fertilizer for a pet crop. This 
is the way he does it. After studying the matter 
over, and, probably, consulting with the State chem¬ 
ist, he makes up a formula containing so many 
pounds of nitrate of soda, so many of tankage and 
bone, dissolved rock and muriate, ne drives to the 
fertilizer factory and gives his order and walks inside 
to see the goods weighed out and mixed. In an hour 
from the time he starts, the goods may be mixed, 
bagged and put in his wagon. It is as much like the 
old-fashioned way of taking a load of apples to the 
cider mill and taking the cider back home with you 
as anything I have seen. Most of these men know the 
different ingredients by sight, and would know at 
once if the factory men undertook to give them kainit 
for muriate or to run in several hundred pounds of 
THE SUN-RAY PINE, PINUS MASSONIANA VARIEGATA. Fig. 56. See Ruealisms, Page 118. 
