-PHOTO EKO.CQ'. 
Vol. LXVII. No. 3027. 
1, 190S. 
— /- . .. .. 
o *A 
v&sam 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
A BAG OF FERTILIZER. 
How To Pick It Apart. 
Part IT. 
What does this mean? I thought “nitrogen” was 
nitrogen. 
You may have thought so, but you didn’t think it all ganic nitrogen is not all alike. ,Of course we know 
age, dried fish dr clover and Alfalfa. This or¬ 
ganic nitrogen mifst dccayr3r^fejrment,'Gftf ore the nitro¬ 
gen which it cdjMaiiiVcan go inro$ie jform of nitrates, 
and thus fecd^liKft&fttP, Wh ile j jxfse titrates, after 
they are formed, arcW^rt^l,value^sjtfte they are all 
ready for the plant to use/ycnl Wneasilv see that or- 
that sawdust will not decay as rapidly as ground clover 
hay or wheat bran, while of course a large bone or a 
dead cat will not feed a tree as quickly as a handful 
of fine ground bone or of dried blood. If you have 
ever plowed them under you know that a crop of 
out. You might say that sugar is sugar, yet with a 
moment’s thought you can see what a difference there 
is between a lump of white sugar and a sugar beet, 
or a cake of maple sugar and a maple tree. You 
cannot deny that the sugar is in the beet or the tree, 
yet you would not buy 
either one to sweeten your 
coffee. Think a moment 
and you will see what this 
difference is. In one case 
the sugar is free from 
other substances, while in 
the beet or tree it is com¬ 
bined or organized with 
other things which hold it 
in the beet or tree. It 
must be separated from 
those other things before it 
can be used. First the 
juice or sap is removed and 
boiled down to a syrup, and 
from this the sugar is 
made. Now when you read 
about the three forms of 
nitrogen, which are “or¬ 
ganic matter,” “ammonia” 
and “nitrates,” think of 
the tree, the sap and finally 
the sugar, and you will 
have an idea of the way 
one comes from another 
and the difference in value. 
You see the 300 pounds 
of nitrogen as nitrates in 
this fertilizer may be com¬ 
pared with the pure sugar. 
It is in a soluble form—all 
ready to feed plants. The 
41 pounds of “organic” 
nitrogen may be compared 
with the tree and the sap 
all the way along in the 
process of boiling. Some 
is all ready to be made into 
nitrates and in some an¬ 
alyses would be classed as 
“ammonia,” while some of 
this organic matter must be 
slowly decayed in the soil. 
We cannot make this too 
clear, for it is the im¬ 
portant thing in buying 
fertilizers. Suppose some 
one is sick at your house, 
and your wife says she 
must make some chicken broth. She doesn’t say go Crimson clover or cow peas will decay in the soil 
and kill a calf or a pig, or take a piece of salt meat, much more rapidly than a crop of rye. The more 
for she knows chicken is best for that purpose. You nitrogen there is in an organic substance the more 
kill and dress a good hen. Your wife does not hand rapidly it will decay. 
AN ALFALFA ROOT FROM WASHINGTON. Fig. 38 
this raw meat to the sick person and say: “Here is 
the nourishment you need—take it!” No—she boils 
that chicken until it is tender, skims off the fat and 
Well, I think T understand that, but how does it 
help me buy fertilizers? 
Take another view of it. Suppose you want to sell 
feeds this broth to the sick one. You can see the your farm, and advertise it. One man offers you 
difference. That broth, made from the chicken, rep- $5,000 cash. Another says he will pay $3,000 cash 
resents the nitrates or soluble nitrogen, while the and a $2,500 mortgage; another $2,500 and his note 
chicken itself represents the organic matter in the fer¬ 
tilizer. As is the case of the chicken, the organic 
for $3,500, and still another $2,000 cash, a mortgage 
for $1,000, and the deed to a young apple orchard 
nitrogen in the fertilizer comes from things that have which he claims is worth $4,000. Which offer would 
g>o^n like dried blood, cotton-seed meal, tank- you call best? The cash represents the nitrates, and 
the mortgage, the note and the orchard various forms 
of organic matter. If you were administrator of the 
estate of a young man who had a lot of experience 
to learn you would be wise to invest his property so 
that a good share of it could not be easily turned into 
cash. You would not feed a crop that way, for you 
must get your money out of it at once. Still you 
can see that you must have enough of these nitrates 
on hand to feed the plant until the organic matter 
can decay in the soil and become available. It is 
like your wife feeding that sick man on broth. That 
would nourish him and keep him along until he was 
able to eat and digest the 
solid chicken or ham and 
eggs. If you used nothing 
but nitrates on your crop 
the chances are that in a 
wet season some of this 
soluble nitrogen would be 
washed out of the soil and 
lost, unless you used it 
three or four times in small 
doses through the season. 
But when we use good 
stable manure we do not go 
through all this talk about 
“nitrates” and the rest of 
it—and good manure beats 
any fertilizer. 
We are glad you spoke 
of that, because the great 
point of value in a high- 
grade fertilizer is that the 
nitrogen in it is in much 
the same form as that 
found in well-rotted man¬ 
ure. Think what manure 
is. The animal eats hay 
and grain. Part of this is 
digested and is passed as 
liquids. The nitrogen in the 
liquids is in the form of 
nitrates—much as if you 
dissolved nitrate of soda in 
water. The solid manure 
contains “organic nitrogen” 
in various stages of decay— 
some all ready to be 
changed into the nitrates 
and others little more along 
in the process than chopped 
hay or soaked grain. Any 
man knows that well-rotted 
manure will make the gar¬ 
den jump in Spring, when 
fresh manure would lie cold 
in the soil. All know, too, 
that manure from animals 
fed on wheat bran and 
clover hay will ferment 
more rapidly than manure 
from hay or dry stalks 
alone. You can see that the three forms of nitrogen 
are in the manure the same as in the fertilizer. Of 
course you know that good hen manure is better and 
quicker than plain cow manure, and we can now 
easily see why, when we look at the analyses. You 
see the hen manure contains nitrogen, which is 
quickly made ready, while the cow manure must wait 
until the soil is warm and moist before the organic 
matter will decay. 
Pounds of Fertilizer in One Ton. 
Nitrates. Ammonia. Organic. 
lien Manure . .... 7 22 
Fresh Cow Manure. .... 3^ 6 
You can see from this what we are getting at. If 
you plow under fresh cow manure and put a little 
