1912. 
GERMAN FARMERS AND COMMERCIAL 
FERTILIZERS. 
Methods of Purchase and Application. 
There is probably no other country in which com¬ 
mercial fertilizers are so generally and so extensively 
used as in Germany. The crop yields, which are on 
the average at least twice what they are in the United 
States, are to no small degree the result of the gen¬ 
erous use that the German farmer makes of artificial 
fertilizers. In any farm accounts of the cost of 
growing crops artificial fertilizer is one of the fixed 
charges that is always reckoned in, and it is no small 
item of expense either, because the German farmer 
uses fertilizers generously—300, 400 or 500 pounds per 
acre being not at all unusual. However, there are a 
few fundamental principles that govern his use of all 
kinds of commercial fertilizers that we would do well 
to follow in America. 
In the first place, commercial fertilizers are never 
used to replace stable manure, but simply to supple¬ 
ment it. There is no place where farmers attach 
more value to or take better care of manure than in 
Germany. But they have also learned that they can 
often make it more useful when they use artificial 
fertilizers with it. In the second place, the German 
farmer uses the pure goods, and does not buy ready- 
mixed goods or special brands. The best idea of what 
the German farmers use may be gotten from the mar¬ 
ket quotations that appear regularly in all of the 
agricultural papers under the heading “Fertilizers.” 
The following, for example, is the market report as 
quoted in the weekly report of the Chamber of Agri¬ 
culture of the Province of Saxony which is sent regu¬ 
larly to three-fourths of the farmers in the Province: 
“Chili saltpetre 15-16% nitrogen for immediate de¬ 
livery on board cars Plamburg, $47.50 per ton; for 
delivery in February and March, $50 per ton. 
“Sulphate of ammonia 20 21% nitrogen for Fall 
delivery, freight prepaid, at 16 cents per pound, equal 
to $64 per ton for 20% goods. 
“Peruvian guano at $16 per ton, superphosphate 
17-19% at four cents per pound, phosphoric acid equal 
to $14.40 per ton for 18% goods. 
“Sulphate of ammonia 20—21% nitrogen for Fall 
at 5 z /2 cents per pound for phosphoric acid soluble in 
citric acid equal to $17.50 per ton for 16% goods. 
Kainit containing 12-15% potash $3 to $3.50 per ton, 
in 10-ton lots. Potash salts containing 40-42% potash 
at $15-$16 per ton in 10-ton lots.” 
It should be remarked that the Province of Saxony 
contains a large part of the potash deposits of Ger¬ 
many which supply the world at the present time. 
When you talk to a German farmer about what 
commercial fertilizer he is using he tells you how 
much Chili saltpetre, superphosphate or potash salts 
be bought, but rarely speaks of using a complete fer¬ 
tilizer. As a matter of fact, the different fertilizers 
are quite generally ap¬ 
plied separately to the 
crops on which they are 
used. This is particu¬ 
larly true of nitrate of 
soda, which is usually 
given to the crop in at 
least two different appli¬ 
cations. When used on 
the Fall grains (wheat or 
rye) one-half of the 
total amount to be used 
is applied in the Fall and 
the other half in the 
Spring, usually sowing by 
hand, although the drill 
is often used for this 
purpose. 
Another essential fea¬ 
ture of the German 
farmer’s use of commer¬ 
cial fertilizers that we 
would do well to pattern 
after is their method of 
buying them. Co-opera¬ 
tive buying is generally 
practiced and over -one 
million tons were pur¬ 
chased in this way last 
year. Much of it is bought direct from the import¬ 
ers—that is, of the fertilizers which Germany im¬ 
ports, which is no inconsiderable quantity. In 1910, 
the last year for which statistics are available, Ger¬ 
many imported $33,000,000 worth of Chili saltpetre 
and $10,000,000 worth of phosphate, but they also ex¬ 
ported $24,000,000 worth of potash salts. The co¬ 
operative buying of fertilizers not only enables the 
farmers to get them at a lower price by dispensing 
with the agents’ and middlemens’ profits, but also in¬ 
sures a better grade of goods than would otherwise 
be furnished. The fertilizers are sold in large or¬ 
THB RURAI> NEW-YORKER 
ders and on a guarantee of contents and the co-opera¬ 
tive companies make a practice of having samples 
analyzed to see that the guarantee is fulfilled—a thing 
that the individual farmer would seldom do. 
The practice of using such large quantities of arti¬ 
ficial fertilizer may be questioned, but it all resolves 
itself into a question of finance—does it pay? Can 
the farmer get enough more from his crop to pay 
for the fertilizer and extra "work it has occasioned? 
When a farmer knows what he is using and what the 
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash is costing, he is 
soon able to tell whether it pays him to use it or not. 
THE BOY, THE DUCK AND THE EARTH-WORM. Fig. 393. 
For example, a large farmer and a man who farms 
very intensively, using-large quantities of nitrogen 
and phosphate fertilizers, told me recently that it did 
not pay him to use any potash, although his farm 
is only a short distance from potash mines, and it is 
the cheapest fertilizer he can use. His land contains 
a large amount of clay, and from repeated trials of 
potash salts he had not got enough returns to justify 
him in continuing its use. On another farm not far 
away, which contained a great deal of muck land, 
the potash salts were by far the most profitable form 
of fertilizer that could be used, and without them a 
good crop could not be grown on the soil described. 
As long as artificial fertilizers are used as they are 
in Germany no detrimental effects on the land need 
be feared, but instead the farms will continue to grow 
more fertile and the crop yields to increase, as they 
have been going in the past. Recent statistics show 
that the crop yields of the staple crops of Germany 
have increased 60% in the last twenty years. 
Plalle a. Saale, Germany. h. c. price. 
The proxy farmer has had a hard time this year. He is 
the man who buys land and lets some one run it for him 
while he stays at his old job. 
Q27 
AN ALFALFA-EATING INSECT. 
Possibly the story of the loss of four acres of 
newly seeded Alfalfa and how it might have been 
prevented will be of interest to the readers of The 
R. N.-Y. We have had two fairly successful plots of 
Alfalfa here on the truck farm, grown on two of the 
light sandy fields, and thought so well of it that last 
year we decided to sow four acres more. The ground 
was plowed early, limed with two tons of ground 
limestone to the acre, harrowed several times to 
make a firm solid seed-bed, and finally just before 
sowing, well fertilized with bone and potato fertil¬ 
izer. A half bushel of seed was sown to the acre. 
The cost of seeding the four acres as near as we 
could reckon it, was $80 or $20 per acre. 
The Alfalfa came up quickly, grew nicely and for 
the first three weeks after sowing it was as near per¬ 
fect as we could wish. Then one day early in Sep¬ 
tember my father happened to come by the field and 
reported that some kind of blight had struck it, as 
some of the leaves were turning white. It was thought 
of little consequence, however, until a few days later, 
when a great portion of the field showed that whitish 
color. Then a close inspection was made, and we 
found that it was not blight at all, but a small green 
worm about one-half-inch long that was doing the 
damage. The insect was very hard to see as it was 
almost the same color as the Alfalfa and seemed al¬ 
ways to extend its body along the stem and the veins 
of the leaves. The insect had spun spider-like webs 
along the ground, and in some instances had made 
small cocoons by weaving grains of sand together 
in the webs and would retreat under these when dis¬ 
turbed. The whitish appearance of the Alfalfa had 
been caused by the insect eating the green coloring 
matter off the leaves, and also by chewing off the 
stem, after which the leaf turned white. 
As we had never heard of an insect enemy of Al¬ 
falfa we immediately gathered up a lot of the worms 
and sent them to Prof. Smith, the State Entomologist, 
at New Brunswick. In a few days he sent a man 
down here for more of the insects, and that gentle¬ 
man informed us that they were completely baffled 
as to the identity of the insect, and that it would be 
necessary to put them in breeding jars and let them 
change into adults, after which they could more easily 
be identified. When unable to identify the insect 
himself, Prof. Smith sent specimens to Washington, 
but they too were unable to identify it. In the mean¬ 
time the insect became more and more numerous on 
the Alfalfa, and in about two weeks after they were 
first noticed they had cleaned up all of the four acres 
except one small corner where the chickens had ac¬ 
cess to it and kept them picked off. They then 
started on an adjoining field of rye, and cleaned that 
also before cold weather could check their destruc¬ 
tive work. We did not mind losing the rye very 
much, but the Alfalfa 
was a big loss, yet it 
could have been pre¬ 
vented. They were leaf¬ 
eating insects, and a 
good dose of arsenate of 
lead put on with a po¬ 
tato sprayer, when we 
first saw the insects, 
would have done the 
work without injury to 
the Alfalfa and at a 
comparatively small 
cost, but we did not do 
it and lost the Alfalfa 
and learned a lesson as 
a result of our neglect to 
take this precaution. 
Later in the Fall, 
when the insects had 
changed to adults in the 
breeding jars at New 
Brunswick, Prof. Smith 
had n o difficulty i n 
identifying them as the 
Garden we b-w o r m. 
This Garden web-worm 
is common in New Jer¬ 
sey, but is usually kept 
in check by its natural enemies, and there have 
been few reports of serious injury from it. Prof. 
Smith stated last Fall that we would not be 
likely to have a serious attack this year, but 
if we do they will get arsenate of lead at the 
start. Prof. Smith recommended that, as a means of 
combating them when they were on any vegetation 
that was not to be used for food by either man or 
beast. I am telling this so that others can be on the 
lookout and be prepared for the web-worm should 
it appear on their farms. It eats clover, rye, beans, 
etc., as well as Alfalfa, and makes good headway 
when once started. trucker, jr. 
Salem Co., N. J. 
SOWING NITRATE OF SODA ON A GERMAN FARM. Fig. 394. 
