1908. 
A BAG OF FERTILIZER. 
How To Pick It Apart. 
Part III. 
In order to obtain your 41 pounds of “organic” 
nitrogen you can use 600 pounds of tankage, 350 
pounds of dried blood or 500 pounds of dried fish. 
See what these will cost by getting figures from some 
dealer in chemicals. Ask him to give you a guarantee 
of analysis, so you can know just what 
you are to expect. I have obtained 
prices on ton lots, which I will quote 
when we finally figure up. We are now 
on the track of our nitrogen. The 
potash supply is quite simple, as the only 
available source of supply will be found 
in the potash salts. In mixing high- 
grade fertilizers either the muriate or 
the sulphate of potash will be used. 
Each of these contains 50 per cent of 
actual potash, so that 450 pounds of 
cither will give us the 225 pounds of 
potash found in the ton of fertilizer. 
The muriate is cheaper and for many 
crops is just as good. For such crops 
as potatoes, small fruit, sugar beets or 
crops which show high quality, or which 
contain much sugar or starch, the sul¬ 
phate is preferable, though it costs more. 
It now remains to learn where to find 
the phosphoric acid. This is usually the 
hardest thing of all for beginners to 
understand, yet it is quite simple. The 
chief sources of phosphoric acid in fer¬ 
tilizers are bone and phosphate rock. 
Much of the bone from slaughter houses 
is steamed under high pressure and then 
crushed or ground to a fine meal. Sometimes this is 
“cut” with sulphuric acid, but generally it is used 
after being crushed or powdered- 1 he phosphoric acid 
in the tankage and dried fish comes from the smaller 
bones found in those substances. 
Phosphate rock is a mineral substance which is dug 
out of the soil in South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
bone. I hey are more enduring than others, because 
this bone slowly decays in the soil and thus becomes 
available, while, as we shall see, the phosphoric acid 
from the phosphate rock becomes less available as 
it remains in the soil. 
Xow the phosphate rock when simply ground fine is 
not available enough for a high-grade fertilizer. A 
finely ground bone will be partly available, but to 
break up that lime and phosphoric acid combination 
THE VILLAGE STREET—AS IT OUGHT TO LOOK. Fig. 48. 
in the rock sulphuric acid is mixed with the ground 
rock or “floats” as it is often called. This acid “cuts” 
the rock; that is, it takes the lime away and leaves a 
large part of the phosphate soluble in water. Now 
here comes in another curious thing. This “water 
soluble” phosphate has such an affinity for lime that 
whenever it comes in contact with it one more part 
and other States. It is supposed that these deposits of the lime is taken up, and in this condition the 
are really petrified bone. Many years ago it is sup- phosphate is called “reverted.” While not soluble in 
posed that great numbers of animals 
died in the places where the phosphates 
are found. Their bones accumulated, 
and in time were changed in character 
somewhat as objects are petrified or 
changed to stone. The phosphoric acid 
remained, but whereas the bone 
was an organic porous substance the 
phosphate rock is a mineral or solid 
substance. The ground bone is partly 
soluble, and will decay slowly if left 
in the soil, while the ground rock is 
more like road dust and decays much 
more slowly. Now we are ready to see 
what we need in this fertilizer. We saw 
that the chemist found the following: 
Per eeut. 
Soluble phosphoric acid. 4.14 
Reverted phosphoric acid. 2.52 
Total available . G .66 
Insoluble phosphoric acid. 2.7G 
Total . 9.42 
In other words, we want to equal our 
ton of fertilizer, a total of 188 pounds, 
of which 132 pounds will be “available.” 
Now what we call phosphoric acid in 
our fertilizers is always combined with 
lime. These two elements have an 
"affinity” for each other—that is, they 
will make a chemical combination when 
put near each other. The ordinary 
“bone phosphate,” that is, the form in 
which the phosphoric acid is found in 
the hard bone or the rock, is composed 
of three parts of lime to one of the 
phosphoric acid. This combination is 
not soluble in water, and until it is 
broken up in some way most plants 
cannot use it. If you break this com¬ 
bination and get away one part of the 
lime the phosphate then becomes soluble 
in a weak acid, which is about equal in 
strength to the acid which the roots of 
plants secrete. Go still further and 
09 
toil of fertilizer. We should need about 950 pounds 
of acid phosphate to supply this, but as we see, the 
tankage or blood in which we get our organic nitrogen 
will also furnish some phosphoric acid. You will of 
course obtain figures on chemicals before going any fur¬ 
ther. I am quoted chemicals in ton lots at the seaboard 
as follows: It will cost nearly if not quite $2 per ton 
to deliver these chemicals at my station: Nitrate of 
soda, $58 per ton; muriate of potash, $43; dried 
blood, $45; fine ground bone, $28; tank¬ 
age, $38; ground fish, $38; acid phos¬ 
phate, $13. As there are 320 pounds 
of nitrogen in a ton of nitrate we see 
this means a little over 18 cents a 
pound. In the same way we figure that 
potash costs us 4.3 cents a pound and 
phosphoric acid over 4.6 cents. Now 
our table shows that in a ton of tankage 
there are 260 pounds phosphoric acid 
and 140 of nitrogen. We can buy the 
phosphoric acid in acid phosphate at 
4.6 cents per pound, therefore the phos¬ 
phoric acid in the tankage is worth 
$11.96. It follows that the 140 pounds 
of nitrogen in the ton are worth $26.04, 
or 18.5 cents a pound. Figuring the 
same way with dried blood we find its 
nitrogen worth 19.5 cents a pound. 
Going back to our table of analysis 
we see that we must have 200 pounds 
of nitrate of soda to give the nitrate 
nitrogen, 600 pounds of tankage to fur¬ 
nish the organic nitrogen and 450 pounds 
muriate of potash to supply the potash, 
with 750 pounds of acid phosphate to 
make up the ton. Putting these in a 
table we find the following: 
AMOUNT IN ONE TON FIGURED IN POUNDS. 
Nitrogen. Phos. acid. Potash. 
200 lbs. nitrate soda. 32 
GOO lbs. tankage. 42 78 
450 lbs. muriate. . . 225 
750 lbs. acid phosphate . 105 ”7. 
■ 
Total. 74 183 225 
You remember that the experiment station found 
71 pounds of nitrogen, 189 pounds phosphoric acid and 
225 pounds of potash in the fertilizer we are trying 
to match. Our mixture is quite as good 
—what will it cost? Going back to our 
prices we find that those chemicals at 
the sea board would cost me as follows: 
200 lbs. nitrate @ $ 2.00 . $5.80 
GOO lbs. tankage @ $1.90. 11.40 
450. lbs. muriate @ $2.15. 9.G7 
750 lbs. acid phosphate @ 65c. 4.88 
THE WILLOW-LEAVED OAK; AUTUMN ASPECT. 
See Ruralisms, Page 104. 
“cut” the phosphate so that only one part of lime is 
left with one part of phosphoric acid, and we have a 
"soluble phosphate”; that is, one that will dissolve in 
water. Perhaps we can remember this better if we 
recall the three forms of nitrogen—the organic being 
changed through “ammonia” to the soluble “nitrate” 
While these changes in nitrogen take place through de¬ 
cay in the soil the phosphate must be “cut” by the acid. 
hertilizers with a "bone basis” are those in which 
the phosphoric acid is derived from finely ground 
water it will dissolve in weak vinegar, which is about 
the strength of the acids which are secreted by the 
plant roots. Thus the “soluble” and the “reverted” 
forms of the phosphate together are called “avail¬ 
able,” as they are ready to feed plants, while the “in¬ 
soluble” form is not. The usual supply of phosphoric 
acid in fertilizer is acid phosphate—that is, the ground 
phosphate rock cut by the acid. An average sample 
will contain about 14 per cent of “available” phos¬ 
phoric acid. We need 132 pounds of this to equal one 
$31.75 
These figures are for ton lots; in 
smaller quantities the price would prob¬ 
ably be 10 per cent more. It would 
cost me at least $2 per ton freight to 
have the chemicals brought to my sta¬ 
tion. From this anyone can figure 
whether it will pay him to buy and mix 
at home. You will see that the margin 
is not large on small lots. For some 
crops, like orchards, grain or grass, it 
would not be necessary to mix at all, 
as the chemicals might be put on sep¬ 
arately. Nitrate of soda, muriate and 
acid phosphate are likely to be sticky, 
and do not make a good mixture to drill 
unless some dry substance like bone or 
tankage be used with them. 
The mixture I have named is not the 
only one or the best one that could be 
made of these chemicals. Here is an¬ 
other : 200 pounds nitrate; 200 pounds 
dried blood; 200 pounds tankage; 200 
pounds ground bone; 450 pounds muri¬ 
ate of potash; 800 pounds acid phos¬ 
phate. In the 1850 pounds, costing at 
the seaboard $31.77, we would have as 
much plant food as in the ton of fer¬ 
tilizer with the nitrogen in four differ¬ 
ent forms. 
Since writing the above the Vermont 
man who asked the original question 
sends quotations on small lots of chemi¬ 
cals—nitrate of soda, $64 per ton; 
muriate of potash, $52; acid phosphate, 
$22, and fine ground bone, $35. With these figures 
there would be little if any margin in favor of home 
mixing. Sometimes farmers deceive themselves in 
figuring chemicals by using the so-called “trade valua¬ 
tions.” The safest way is to get definite quotations 
from a reliable dealer, and from them figure the cost 
of nitrogen, potash and phosphoric acid as has been 
done in these articles. In spite of the theory that 
great savings can be made, “home mixing” of high 
grade goods has not become common. It is a good 
plan to buy chemicals to use with manure, h. w. c. 
Fig. 49. 
