Vol. LXVIII, No. 3097. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 5, 1909. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
“FLOATS” AS A FERTILIZER. 
Summary of Results at the Ohio Station. 
For 12 years an experiment has been in progress at 
the Ohio Experiment Station in which a comparison 
has been made between floats, acid phosphate, gyp¬ 
sum and kainit as reenforcements of farm manures. 
Both open yard manure and fresh manure have been 
employed, the former after several months’ exposure, 
and the latter taken fresh from the stable. The re¬ 
enforcing materials have been applied in April at 
the rate of 40 pounds per ton of manure, and after 
lying a few weeks the manures have been plowed 
under for corn at the rate of eight tons per acre, 
in a rotation of corn, wheat and clover, the wheat 
and clover receiving no manure nor fertilizer. One- 
third of the land has been left continuously unma¬ 
nured, and the yield of this portion has averaged 
33.8 bushels of corn, 10.7 bushels of wheat 
and 1,225 pounds of hay per acre for the 12 years 
of the test. Each ma¬ 
terial has increased the 
effectiveness of the ma¬ 
nure. Computing corn 
at 40 cents per bushel 
and wheat at 80 cents, 
corn stover at $3 per 
ton, straw at $2 and hay 
at $8, the average val¬ 
ues of the increased 
production over the un¬ 
manured yields have 
been as shown in Table 
No. 1. This table shows 
that the phosphates have 
been much more useful 
than other materials— 
so much that it has been 
relatively unprofitable to 
use the gypsum and 
kainit, even though they 
had cost nothing. As be¬ 
tween the two phos¬ 
phates, the acid phos¬ 
phate has produced the 
greater increase, but the 
relatively large effect of 
the floats indicates 
either (1) that the 
floats has carried more 
available phosphorus 
than expected, or (2) 
that the manure has re¬ 
acted upon the phos¬ 
phorus of the floats, converting a part of it into 
available form, or (3) that the floats has performed 
Table No. 1. 
Cost of treatment and value of increase per ton of ma¬ 
nure : 
Cost of 
Value 
Net Gain 
Treat- 
of Increase. 
for 
Manure and Treatment. 
Yard manure, untreated.. 
ment. 
Total. 
$2.42 
Net. 
$2.42 
Tr’tm’nt. 
Fresh manure, untreated.. 
— 
3.22 
3.22 
Yard manure and boats. . 
17c 
3.75 
3.58 
$1.16 
Fresh manure and floats. . 
Yard manure and acid 
17c 
4.73 
4.50 
1.34 
phosphate . 
Fresh manure and acid 
30c 
4.31 
4.01 
1.59 
phosphate . 
30c 
5.10 
4.80 
1.58 
Yard manure and kainit.. 
34c 
3.28 
2.94 
.52 
Fresh manure and kainit.. 
34c 
4.22 
3.88 
.00 
Yard manure aud gypsum. 
13c 
3.14 
3.01 
.59 
Fresh manure and gypsum 
13c 
3.09 
3:56 
.34 
the function of lime in neutralizing soil acidity, tue 
experiment having been located on an acid soil. This 
experiment does not furnish data from which these 
questions can be decisively answered. It was claimed, 
by the dealer from whom a part of the floats was 
purchased that it would carry about three per cent 
available phosphoric acid, but this would not be 
sufficient to account for the results attained. When 
the experiment was planned it was expected that the 
manure would assist in making the phosphorus of 
the floats available, in view of tbe old method of 
softening bones by burying them in fermenting ma¬ 
nure heaps; but is evident that the manure has 
failed to convert all the phosphorus into available 
form. 
That floats may take the place of lime in neu¬ 
tralizing soil acidity is shown by another experiment, 
which is in progress on the Strongsville test-farm of 
this Station, the soil of this farm also being quite 
acid. In this test floats and lime are applied side by 
side as cross dressings on five ranges of 40 plots 
each on which corn, oats, wheat, clover and Timothy 
are grown in a five-year rotation, with different fer¬ 
tilizing treatments, the lime and floats being each 
used in the two quantities of one ton and two tons 
per acre. This work was begun four years ago, and 
the dressings of lime and floats are applied each 
season to the land that is being prepared for corn. 
The outcome has been that the corn, wheat and 
Timothy have shown but little preference between 
the two materials; but the clover crops are so much 
greater after the floats, especially on this land which 
has received no phosphorus in fertilizers, that for 
this land floats is cheaper at $8 per ton than lime at 
half that cost. 
That the effect of the floats is not altogether due 
to its action as a carrier of lime, however, is indi¬ 
cated by the following summary of the average yields 
per acre of clover hay for 1908 on the differently 
treated plots as shown in Table 2. The increased 
yield resulting from the floats is instructive. 
The floats has more than doubled the yield on the 
unfertilized land, and on that receiving no phosphor¬ 
us in the fertilizer, while the gain over the fertil¬ 
ized and limed land varies inversely with the amount 
of phosphorus carried in the fertilizers. This ex¬ 
periment thus indicates that floats may be very use¬ 
fully employed for the combined purpose of carrying 
lime and phosphorus, the increase over the limed 
land being more than enough in this one crop to pay 
for one ton of floats per acre, which quantity has 
Table No. 2. 
Treatment of Plots. 
Cross Dressing. 
Lime. Floats. 
Floats 
Over 
Lime. 
No fertilizer nor manure. 
Lbs. 
2,440 
Lbs. 
5,112 
Lbs. 
2,072 
Nitrogen or potassium—no phos¬ 
phorus . 
2,000 
5,488 
2,SS2 
Complete fertilizer with 320 pounds 
acid phosphate . 
4,174 
5,490 
1.310 
Complete fertilizer with 480 pounds 
acid phosphate . 
4,259 
5,411 
1.152 
Barnyard manure . 
3,898 
5,250 
1.352 
seemed to be as effective as the larger quantity, al¬ 
though the two tons of lime have produced a larger 
yield than the one ton, though not enough larger to 
pay the additional cost. This experiment, therefore, 
is confirming those of 
the Maryland and Illi¬ 
nois stations in showing 
that floats may be profit¬ 
ably used as a carrier of 
phosphorus on acid 
soils well stocked with 
organic matter, but the 
meager effect produced 
upon cereal crops pre¬ 
ceding clover would call 
for caution in depending 
upon floats alone. 
Returning to the ques¬ 
tion of the reactions be¬ 
tween manure and floats, 
it should be stated that 
in our experiments the 
floats had been incorpo¬ 
rated with the manure 
only a few weeks before 
the latter was applied to 
the land. We have be¬ 
lieved that a larger ef¬ 
fect would have been 
produced by using the 
floats daily in the stables 
during the accumulation 
of the manure—a method, 
most convenient in or¬ 
dinary farm practice, 
but not adapted to air 
experiment in which it 
is desired to know ex¬ 
actly how much of each material is being employed. 
Following the suggestions of our experiments, there¬ 
fore, we have for a number of years been using 
floats in the stables, after dairy cows and fattening 
steers at the rate of one pound per animal per day, 
and the result has been a very great improvement 
in the crops of the farm. It is certainly philosophi¬ 
cal thus to return to the soil that element which is 
carried away from it in greatest excess through 
grain, milk and the bones of meat-producing animals. 
The fact that the soils experimented on have been 
deficient in both phosphorus and lime has undoubt¬ 
edly had much to do with the marked results obtained 
•in the above-described experiments. At one of this 
Station’s test-farms, located over limestone gravel, 
and on a soil which is producing an average of nearly 
50 bushels of shelled corn per acre without any ma¬ 
nure or fertilizer the treatment of the manure is thus 
far producing a decisive effect. 
If it be true as we have assumed and our experi¬ 
ments, seem to indicate that a large part of the ef- 
