114 
B/jc RURAL NEW-YORKER 
January 27, 1917. 
Messachusetts State Board of Agriculture 
Soil Fertility. 
The strong point brought out by Di¬ 
rector F. Thorne. Ohio Fxiteriment 
Station, before the Massachusetts Hoard 
of Agriculture. January i), was the impor¬ 
tance of finding out which element was 
lacking in the soil, and then supplying the 
requirement. It appears that in Ohio 
th<‘re is a lack of i)bosi)horus in the soil, 
owing in part to long-continued grain 
growing, hence the soil 3'esponds liberally 
to such fertilizers as acid pho-sphate and 
ground raw phosphate. Nitrogen is also 
lacking, but can be supplied to a large 
extent by growing clover. Dressings of 
phosphate, it was found, encourage heavy 
grt)wth of clover, but grotving clover one 
year in three would i ot supply all the ni¬ 
trogen needed. The application of ma¬ 
nure, it was found, had shown itself in 
three successive crops returning an in¬ 
crease of per ton of manure used. 
Dressings of gypsum had paid for the 
gypsum and 1(5 cents a ton extra. Dre.ss- 
ings of raw gi-ound phosphate had paid 
for the phosjihate and .$4.S0 per ton be¬ 
sides. Dressings of acid phosphate had 
paid for the pho.sphate, and .$5.40 per ton 
beside.s, and I’roF Thorne c'oncludes it 
would pay better to use the acid phos- 
phat(* ('ven if the raw phosphate could be 
had for nothing. The fields which receive 
these applications have been brought up 
to an average of (5(5 bushels of corn per 
acre, compared with 55 biushels with no 
treatment. In Washington County, where 
so many people of New England descent 
had settled, apple growing was formerly 
prominent, but had declined of late years 
because trees had refused to bear. Fart 
of one orchard was treated by applying 
acid phosiihate and nitrate of soda, five 
j)oun(ls of each per tree, for two years. 
At the end of the second year, the or¬ 
chard had become very productive and has 
continued to produce since then. The 
owner had oftered his whole farm for 
$5,500, but now refused $5,500 for half 
of his orchard. 
(Questions a.sked by the audience s<jught 
to apply the ideas to New England con¬ 
ditions. The speaker declared that in his 
opinion the farms of Ohio were losing 
$10.000,<XX) by not taking good care of 
their manure. It might be a blessing in 
disgui.se that we can get no more potash 
from Germany. It may teach us to .save 
it in our barnyards. Did it pay to buy 
and haul manure, asked a gardener. Yes: 
the speaker was buying it at $1.(10 per 
ton and hauling it nearly two miles. 
Would he recommend acid iihosphate for 
New England conditiousV The fertilizers 
to be u.sed depends on the soil. There 
were reasons to believe New England soil 
lacked pota.sh rather than jihosphorus 
acid. At any rate he believed it better 
business to use acid phosphate than the 
Taw phosphate. I’erhaps in New England 
kainit should be used instead of acid 
l)hosphate. The higher the acre value of 
the crop the more can the farmer afford 
to pay for fertilizers. In applying lime 
several forms were used, and the value 
seemed to depend on the amount of either 
calcium or magnesia contained. One ton 
of burned lime was equal to 11-5 tons 
hydrated lime, or two tons ground raw 
limestone. So far as could be told mag¬ 
nesia is as useful as limestone, and not 
injurious to the crops. Dime was applied 
every three or four years and paid three 
times its cost in the increase of the croi»s. 
It gave nine to lifteen per cent, increase 
in corn, which was one of the most re¬ 
sponsive crops, but part of the effect was 
due to the secondary increase of the clover 
cro]) that was grown and ploughed under. 
There was more clover to plow under 
where lime was used. Lime neutralized 
the effect of the acid developed by the soil 
b.'icteria, allowing the to flourish. It 
seemed to be nitric acid which they pro¬ 
duced. It was sometimes said that 
plowing under green crops makes the soil 
sour, but the acid produced by green croi)S 
is of a gaseous nature and would not sour 
the soil. The speaker did not believe 
green crops would injure the soil, but 
would on the other hand increa.se the 
crops if properly handled. He had known 
a ci'op of green rye to help a crop when 
plowed under, while part of the same rye 
when allowed to grow larger before plow¬ 
ing under had injured the following crop, 
the reason being that it took too much 
moisture out of the soil. If plenty of rain 
had followed the rye probably would have 
helped the crop. Would it pay to raise 
clover on our high price market garden 
soils? “Where rent is high it might be 
better to buy nitrogen than to hire clover 
to steal it.” Can we ajiply anything to 
make potash available in the soil? “We 
And that when acid phosphate and nitrate 
of soda are used liberally that some of the 
soil potash becomes available,” said the 
speaker. Director W. 1*. Brooks, of the 
Massachusetts experiment station, re¬ 
marked here that the soils in this section 
seem to lack potash. The products have 
taken away much of it, and much has 
been wasted in the barnyard, while fertil¬ 
izers used have been rich in phosphoric 
acid. The use of potash on potatoes had 
given 50 to 60 bushels increase, and he 
was not sure that it might not pay to use 
potash even at high prices for potatoes, 
but not for corn. The cheapest source of 
potash was in manure with the solid and 
li(juid i)arts carefully saved. Director 
Thorne said he recommended in Ohio the 
use of cement floors in stables and con¬ 
struction of cement manure, pits. The 
lo.ss in one sea.son was enough to half pay 
for a cement floor. 
Better IIesult.s By Advertising. 
Some of the possibilities of advertising 
iigricultural products were suggested in 
a brief address January 9 by Henry King 
Hannah, a New York advertising agent. 
According to the speaker, the farmers of 
this .section are iiiissing a great oppor¬ 
tunity for developing markets and in¬ 
creasing the general standard of the busi¬ 
ness through wholesale advertising. It 
was suggested that $100,000 a year for 
five years be used for such i)urposes. 
The result he assei’ted would be to raise 
the value of the product by at least $10,- 
(KlO.OOO and incidentally to bring in 
10,000 new families who would engage in 
farming, and these results would continue 
for many yeai-s. It would react on the 
advertisers and give them new pride in 
their business. Such a plan would re¬ 
quire not only the raising of the money, 
but the certainty of enough of the pro¬ 
ducts adv«‘rtised of the highest grade. 
The speaker applied his remarks by way 
of illustration chiefly to the ajtple crop, 
relating how some New England apples 
have pi-oved fully ('(pial to the best West¬ 
ern product. By pi-oducing more of these 
and advertising them properly with a 
special emphasis on the quality it would 
be possible to secure a market reputation 
better than that enjoyed by the far West¬ 
ern apple. The proposition was made 
only in a general way, and the audience 
did not seem to take it very seriously, 
although a delegate from the Cape re¬ 
marked that the Cranberry Sales Asso¬ 
ciation had spent $100,000 in advertising 
the crop in the Chicago district alone. 
The value of the cranberry crop, said 
I’rof. Brooks, is one and a half to two 
million dollars a year. »Somebody told of 
the results of advertising in Connecticut 
by a Western creamery concern which 
was now selling more butter in Connect¬ 
icut than the whole product of the Con¬ 
necticut creameries. Secretary Wheeler 
told how the asparagus growers were 
working out ,a system of raising money 
for advertising. Competition had reached 
a point where a wider market was re¬ 
quired. They purposed to assess the 
members a few cents per package, and to 
use the proceeds for advertising. This 
jflan Mr. Hannah believed would he satis¬ 
factory in raising funds to advertise the 
fruit crop.s. 
4'he meetings at which these discussions 
take place includes associations of dairy- 
inen, fruit growers, poultrymen and milk 
inspectors. There-was an exhibit of dairy, 
fruit and poultry supplie.s, of which the 
novelty in this section was a dust si)ray 
outfit and an apple grader or sizer. At¬ 
tendance was reasonably large, and the 
.scarcity of labor a leading topic of con¬ 
verse. The munition shops hereabouts 
are reported luring away even usually 
faithful Winter help with offers of $4 to 
$5 per day. g. r. f. 
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