i89o 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
4i 
farm (Topics. 
SHALL THE STATE EXPERIMENT 
FARM BE SUSTAINED ? 
A growing sentiment favors its abolition; 
disappointment of over-sanguine expec¬ 
tations ; failure to become acquainted 
with the nature and results of the work; 
accurate agricultural knowledge comes 
sloivly from experiments; a politician's 
investigations; benefits of experiment 
farms and stations abroad and, at 
home; demand for more liberal appro¬ 
priations instead of the abolition of the 
farm. 
There seems to be a growing sentiment 
in some quarters to do away with the farm 
attached to the State Experiment Station 
at Geneva, N. Y., on the grounds that it is 
too expensive and that the results obtained 
from it are of no practical value to the 
farmers. Started eight years ago on poor, 
worn-out land with old buildings contain¬ 
ing no modern conveniences, and sustained 
by paltry appropriations from the State, it 
is'a wonder that agriculture has derived as 
much benefit from it as it has. 
Some, I dare say, thought that the estab¬ 
lishment of the station would revolutionize 
farming at once, make their fields produce 
twice as much as formerly with the same 
slipshod cultivation, boom prices and teach 
them the undiscovered secret of making a 
living without work. It has not done this 
and these men say the farm is of no 
earthly use, and then there are thousands 
of farmers who laugh at science and say: 
“ Them scientists don’t know nothin’ ’bout 
farmin’,” and of course would not read 
about or act upon the reports of the exper¬ 
iments because, as each says: “Nobody can’t 
tell me nothin’ new ’bout farmin’.” Ah! 
there are none so blind as those who will 
not see. To be sure there are many who 
were at first honest friends of the farm, 
who are disappointed in the work done. 
Their great expectations have not been 
realized and therefore they would be in fa¬ 
vor of abolishing it. But, my friends, you 
must not expect any State or Nation to get 
the earth in return for an investment of 
$20,000 a year. The work done by our farm 
since its inception has been done carefully 
and conscientiously by those in charge, 
and I doubt if any other State has derived 
more benefit from its farm during the first 
seven years of its existence than have we 
from ours. 
Rumor says that there is apt to be some 
lively legislation at Albany this session in 
regard to appropriations for the station’s 
maintenance, and our cautious Assembly- 
man-elect E. H. Davis, is taking time by 
the forelock and getting pointers from his 
constituents by sending out to prominent 
farmers self-addressed postal-cards con¬ 
taining the following two questions: 
“Have you ever received any practical 
benefit from the State Experiment Farm 
at Geneva P Do you favor further appro¬ 
priations for the support of said farm ?” 
One of the most extensive farmers in this 
county answered, “ No,” to both questions, 
and I suppose there are others who have 
done the same. It is with a feeling of sad¬ 
ness that I have written the above, as it is 
a sorry state of affairs indeed when so- 
called intelligent farmers would be in favor 
of numbering our farm with the things of 
the past. 
Why do we need au experiment farm ? 
This question can be answered by facts of 
the present day and by history. Agricul¬ 
ture is the backbone of the Nation and 
anything that will stimulate it, tends to 
the welfare of a whole people as well as 
to that of the farmers. The extension 
of manufactures, agriculture and com¬ 
merce should go hand in hand as each 
branch depends upon the others, and a 
steady growth along these lines makes na¬ 
tional prosperity. The aim of intelligent 
manufacturers is, with the same capital to 
produce twice as much this year as they 
did last, and one great object of our experi¬ 
ment station is to teach farmers how to 
raise twice as big crops per acre as they 
did the year before. In the German Em¬ 
pire there are 184 agricultural experiment 
stations exerting a powerful influence upon 
the intelligent tilling of the soil. The cost 
of maintaining them is enormous; but 
Germany is a garden and naturally the 
foremost nation of Europe. The experi¬ 
ment stations in England have rendered 
invaluable service to English agriculture. 
In fact during the last 25 years the average 
yield of crops has been more than doubled, 
while in New York during the same period 
the average of three leading cereals has 
fallen off about one per cent. This looks 
as though the proud, boasting Yankees 
were 50 years behind “ Old England.” 
New York’s agricultural products are 
worth $300,000,000 annually, and I have no 
doubt that we could easily double the 
amount in two decades with no greater ex¬ 
penditure of labor than we now employ, if 
that labor were guided by intelligent farm¬ 
ers. We can make our experiment farm as 
valuable as the Rothamsted Farm in -Eng¬ 
land if we will, and it would seem that a 
State boasting a Capitol bu'lding costing 
millions upon millions of dollars ought to 
afford $50,000 a year toward developing the 
greatest of all industries within her 
borders. 
The farmers of New York must raise 
twice the products from the same acres in 
the future to enable them to compete suc¬ 
cessfully with the world, and the careful 
study of the work of our station, supple¬ 
mented with information from the leading 
agricultural papers, will tell them how to 
do it. To-day I was talking with a farmer 
who said he could never get any informa¬ 
tion about what was going on at the farm, 
it didn’t “ amount to shucks anyway,” and 
he was in favor of abolishing it, and yet 
that same man has had the last annual 
“ report ” in his house for nearly a year, 
but has not read it, although he has had 
plenty of time to do so. 
This report—a volume of over 400 pages 
—can be obtained by a little expenditure 
of time and a postal-card, and is actually 
worth as much to the farmers of New York 
as half the farm books sold at $2 apiece. 
I feel that I voice the sentiments of the 
vast majority of farmers in my county, and 
my State as well, when I say that instead of 
abolishing our station we should double the 
appropriations of last year, thereby enab¬ 
ling Dr. Collier and his corps of assistants 
to carry on more thoroughly the work it 
was established to do—that “ of promoting 
every branch of agriculture by scientific in¬ 
vestigation and experiment.” 
EDWARD F. DIBBLE. 
Livingston County, N. Y. 
EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN 
FERTILIZER ANALYSES. 
W. L. SNYDER. 
The laws of many of the States regulat¬ 
ing the sale and composition of commercial 
fertilizers make it almost imperative for 
manufacturers of fertilizers to employ 
competent chemists to analyze the pro¬ 
ducts they put forth from time to time to 
keep the composition up to the guaranteed 
claims. These guaranteed claims or the 
results of actual analyses, are now gen¬ 
erally printed on the bags or barrels con¬ 
taining the fertilizer, or a certificate of 
analysis may be sent with the goods to 
agents who are supposed to show them to 
farmers buying the product. These guar¬ 
anteed claims also appear in nearly all cir¬ 
culars and other advertising matter sent 
out by fertilizer companies. 
The following is a common form for re¬ 
porting analyses. 
per. cent. 
Total phosphoric acid. 12 
Soluble. 8 
Insoluble. 1 
Reverted phosphoric acid. 3 
Available phosphoric acid. 11 
Potash (K a O). 2.6 
Eq’l sulphate of potash. 5 
Ammonia. 3 
Moisture. 10 
These figures are taken as even whole 
percentages for use further on, and they 
represent what would be a very good com¬ 
plete fertilizer. In the published analyses 
some of these terms, especially those of the 
phosphoric acid list, are often omitted ; 
but the omitted terms may generally be 
figured from those published. From the 
fact that these results of analyses are 
printed on fertilizer bags, barrels and cir¬ 
culars which are to pass into the hands of 
the farmer, they are undoubtedly printed 
for his benefit and he should give them a 
careful study, otherwise the State laws 
and expensive analyses have failed to ac¬ 
complish all they might. One of the 
reasons why the analyses’ results receive so 
little attention is because they are not 
understood. 
The following is a brief explanation of 
the terms used in the above list, in the or¬ 
der in which they are there given. 
Total Phosphoric Acid, as the name 
indicates, is the entire amount of phos¬ 
phoric acid in the fertilizer. It is not in 
the fertilizer as free acid, but each mole¬ 
cule of acid is combined with one, two, or 
three molecules of lime, and, except in the 
last case, with water also. The term “to¬ 
tal phosphoric acid ” is often omitted in 
the published results of analysis, but the 
amount of total phosphoric acid is always 
determined by the chemist, for by a method 
of difference he determines from this form 
some of the other forms of phosphoric acid 
which he does not determine by direct an¬ 
alysis. Farmers may calculate the amount 
of total phosphoric acid present in the fer¬ 
tilizer from the other forms published as 
follows: Total phosphoric acid equals 
available phosphoric acid plus the insolu¬ 
ble phosphoric acid; or, using the figures 
aboveprinted.it is the 12=11 +1. Or the 
total phosphoric acid equals the soluble 
phosphoric acid plus the reverted phos¬ 
phoric acid, pltis the insoluble phosphoric 
acid with the figures 12=8 + 3 + 1. 
Soluble Phosphoric Acid is the amount 
of phosphoric acid in the fertilizer, that 
will be dissolved out by water. It is the 
amount of the total phosphoric acid as 
given above, each molecule of which was 
combined with one molecule of lime and 
two molecules of water. It is the most 
valuable one of the whole list and should 
always receive special attention, as nearly 
one-half the value of the fertilizer depends 
on this element. 
Insoluble Phosphoric Acid is the 
amount of the total phosphoric acid each 
molecule of which was combined with three 
molecules of lime. It will not be dissolved 
by water, and will not be dissolved by a 
neutral (neither acid nor alkaline) solution 
of ammonium citrate of 1.09 specific grav¬ 
ity. Agricultural chemists have calculated 
that this neutral solution of ammonium 
citrate will dissolve phosphoric acid that 
is combined, each molecule with two mo¬ 
lecules of lime, or what is called reverted 
phosphoric acid, and that it will have about 
as much solvent action on the phosphoric 
acid in 30 minutes at 60 degrees centigrade 
temperature, if frequently shaken, as the 
soil and roots of plants combined will have 
on it during the entire season of the growth 
of a crop. The insoluble phosphoric acid, 
as above stated, is not dissolved in the sol¬ 
ution of ammonium citrate, hence it might 
be concluded that these agricultural chem¬ 
ists consider that it will not be dissolved 
by the roots of the plants of one season’s 
crop at least. The farmer then will not 
want to buy much insoluble phosphoric 
acid expecting to get immediate results 
from it. 
These three forms—the “total,” “sol¬ 
uble,” and “ insoluble ” phosphoric acid— 
are the only forms that the chemist deter¬ 
mines by direct analysis, the other two 
forms—the “reverted” and “available” 
are both determined from these forms by 
addition or subtraction. 
The Reverted Phosphoric Acid equals 
the total phosphoric acid mi mis the sum of 
the soluble and insoluble phosphoric acid, 
or, using the above figures, it is the 12 
minus the (8 +1) or 9=3. The reverted phos¬ 
phoric is the amount of the total phosphor¬ 
ic acid that has once been soluble in water 
and combined with one molecule of lime, 
but which in the presence of more lime in 
the fertilizer, has taken up or combined, 
with another molecule of lime. It has 
changed half way back to its original form 
in which it contained three molecules of 
lime. This changing back process is called 
“ reverting,” and cannot be entirely pre¬ 
vented by fertilizer manufacturers. Re¬ 
verted phosphoric acid as plant food has 
approximately the same value as soluble 
phosphoric acid. 
The Available Phosphoric Acid is the 
sum of the soluble and reverted phosphor¬ 
ic acids, or itisthe 8+3=11, or the 12—1=11, 
the total phosphoric acid minus the insol¬ 
uble phosphoric acid. It is all that part of 
the total phosphoric acid that will be of 
much use to the plaut in a single season’s 
growth, hence the term “ available phos¬ 
phoric acid.” 
Potash (K 2 O): this term, which is gener¬ 
ally used to designate the amount of pot¬ 
ash in the fertilizer, means the oxide of po¬ 
tassium. In chemistry the first letter of 
the name of a substance, often combined 
with one other letter, is made to represent 
the whole name. In the case of potassium 
the letter would be P, ‘.but phosphorus al¬ 
so begins with p; hence, to avoid confu¬ 
sion, for potassium the first letter K of the 
Latin name for potassium or kalium is 
used. The potash does not exist in the 
fertilizer as the oxide or K 2 O, but is 
generally in the form of the sulphate. 
But the chemist generally figures the 
amount present in that form of oxide, and 
from this form can calculate the amount of 
sulphate of potash that it would represent 
by dividing 54 by 100. Some fertilizer com¬ 
panies report the potash present in the form 
of sulphate K 2 S 0 4 as then the percent¬ 
age appears nearly double what it would if 
reported as oxide K 2 O. Farmers should 
bear this in mind, as it is the actual potash 
K 2 O, that they want to figure on ; hence 
when K 2 S O t is given in the analysis re¬ 
sults, only about one-half is of value to tile 
soil, as there is plenty of sulphuric acid pres¬ 
ent in other forms. 
The Term Ammonia needs but little ex¬ 
planation, as all are familiar with it. It is 
to be borne in mind that it is the nitrogen 
alone of the ammonia that is of special 
value to many crops and that the nitrogen 
is 14-17 of the ammonia. The nitrogen 
may exist in the fertilizer combined in nit¬ 
rate of ammonia, or in organic compounds; 
but the chemist generally converts all 
forms to ammonia in his determinations, 
hence it is generally reported in this form. 
The Term Moisture needs no explana¬ 
tion and is often not reported in analysis, 
and is of little value save as a safeguard 
to the analytical chemist. 
CORRESPONDENTS’ VIEWS. 
Bates City, Lafayette County.—The 
year 1889 was, in almost every particular, 
the finest that we have enjoyed in Missou¬ 
ri during a residence of 22 years. Crops 
were good, the yield per acre for wheat and 
corn being in most sections extra good. 
The hay crop was very heavy, but was in¬ 
jured a great deal by the wet weather dur¬ 
ing harvest, and by standing until it was 
over-ripe, so that it is no better than straw. 
There has been but little need of feeding so 
far, as the weather has been so mild that 
our sheep and stock cattle have done wel 
out in the pastures; in fact, the grass has 
grown all this month. The mercury stood 
at 70 degrees on Christmas Day, and also 
on several of the preceding days. There 
have been only a few days on which stock 
were not troubled by flies, and I saw a large 
snake in the road on December 20 and 
the mocking birds are flitting about in 
the hedges, which is very unusual so 
late in the season. A great amount of 
plowing is done for the spring crops and the 
mortgage-lifter—the plow—is still going, 
turning under the stalks of last season’s 
growth. A few farmers in this county are 
laying a great amount of tile, but this busi¬ 
ness is by no means as general as it should 
be, for a vast amount of our best lands still 
need draining. I have been very much in¬ 
terested in the experiments and varied ex¬ 
periences of the correspondents of the R. 
N.-Y., but more especially in the letters of 
Mr. Terry, of my native State, yet all are 
full of instruction, and the discussion em¬ 
braces almost every department of farm 
life. I am much interested m one thing 
very needful on every farm, which I do not 
remember seeing discussed in the R. N.-Y. 
and that is a good reliable water supply. 
Only a small part of the “ meat crop ” has 
yet been put up. The hogs are very fat 
and the weather is too warm. j. T. F. 
We have received a considerable number 
of inquiries about the American Publishing 
Association of Chicago, Illinois. In an¬ 
swer to our request a friend in the Windy 
City, who'is accustomed to investigate such 
matters, hunted up the concern and writes 
to us as follows : “This is a mysterious 
firm: the name of Williams & Co. is on 
the door of the premises occupied by one 
man who represents the association, and 
who is very secretive in his business. He 
has occupied the office for three years and 
yet the agent of the building claims to 
know nothing about him. I le«rn that he 
does some sort of a printing business on a 
small press; but that is all I can ascertain 
with regard to him or his affairs.” Need 
we say another word f Isn’t caution obvi¬ 
ously necessary.in such’a’case]? 
