306 
The RURAL NEW-YORKER 
February 14, 1920 
Soil and Fertility Problems 
Economy in Fertilizers; Why Long Island 
Farmers Use Fertilizers Freely 
Eastern and Western Methods.— 
One of the extensive potato growers from 
eastern Long Island was making his an¬ 
nual Summer pilgrimage in search of 
good seed potatoes in the northern part 
of Vermont. lie had, at length, found 
some certified fields of Green Mountain 
potatoes which were almost free from 
“off-type” hills, weak plants, mosaic, leaf- 
roll. rhizoctnia, fusarium, wilt, black-leg 
or other diseases. Price, delivery and 
payment hatl been agreed on, when the 
talk naturally turned to the question of 
how to grow the crop. After some tech¬ 
nical discussion of types of planting, the 
advantages of hand-cut seed, the use of 
weeders and ridgers before the plant is up 
and had compared various cultivations, 
the Long Island grower said: “I suppose 
you depend more on manure and less on 
fertilizer than we do?” 
“Yes,” answered the Vermont farmer. 
“We depend mostly on a well-manured 
sod, but I use fertilizer, too. This year 
I am afraid I used a bit too much.” 
“How much did you use?” asked the 
Long Islander. 
“Four hundred and twenty-five pounds 
an acre, and it was a high-grade potato 
fertilizer, too.” 
“What formula do you use?” asked the 
Long Islander. 
“A 3-8-2,” said the Vermonter. At this 
point a visitor from Nebraska, who was 
there for Old Home Week, joined the con¬ 
versation. 
“My neighbors say that chemical fer¬ 
tilizers only stimulate the land and leave 
it worse than before, so we depend on 
changing crops and clover to keep up 
the fertility.” 
“Well,” said the Long Islander, “that 
may do for grain on land like yours that 
has not been cropped too long, but clover 
only gives nitrogen, and our potato crop 
needs a lot of potash and phosphorus to 
supply what we ship away to the city in 
the potato crop. Besides if we used 
enough lime to grow clover all the pota- 
tos would be grubby, so we have to buy 
all the plant food that the crop uses or 
wastes. I am afraid that you will think 
I am trying to tell the best story last, hut 
I used a two-and-a-quarter of fertilizer to 
the acre on a hundred acres of potatoes 
last year, and have, done about that for 
years.” 
“What analysis?” 
“Well, we were short on potash the 
same as you, but I used a 5-8-3 and ex¬ 
pect to get a 5-8-5 next year.” 
“Now, see here,” said the Vermonter, 
“I have studied that question of plant 
food in books and bulletins, in grange 
and farmers’ institutes, and I know that 
an acre of potatoes uses only 47 lbs. of 
nitrogen, 22 lbs. of phosphoric acid and 
75 lbs. of potash. You will put oh 125 
lbs. of nitrogen, 200 of phosphoric acid 
and 125 lbs. of potash, it looks like a 
waste of plant food.” 
Liberal Feeding. —“Well.” answered 
the Long Islander, “on the face of it. you 
are right, and you may be right for Ver¬ 
mont, just as your cousin here^ may be 
right to depend on clover in Nebraska, 
but we have tried all ways on Long Is¬ 
land, and we have to figure close with 
our big overhead expenses. I know that 
we make most money when we use a two 
or a two-and-a-quarter of high-grade fer- 
tizer to the acre. I know we put on 
more than the crop needs, and my ex¬ 
planation is this: When you feed a cow 
or a flock of chickens you must give them 
just enough or they get off feed, and the 
surplus becomes offensive, but when we 
feed a plant the roots can never reach all 
that you put on. The amount of growth 
depends to a large degree on the amount, 
of fertilizer gathered in by the roots, and 
this depends again on the soil water be¬ 
ing rich enough in plant food. So if we 
want a full crop we have to put on 
enough plant food in fertilizers to keep 
the soil solution up to proper strength.” 
The Nebraska farmer shook his head. 
“That listens good, but why don’t that 
surplus of plant food wash out with your 
50-inch rainfall and sandy soil?” 
“Nothing but the nitrogan can do that,” 
said the Long Islander, “and we always 
sow rye or Timothy after potatoes to 
catch the nitrogen and hold it for the 
next crop. The rest stays there in such 
shape that the plant can use it, but not 
fully soluble like nitrate of soda. We are 
steadily building up our soil; 300 bu. per 
acre is as common as 200 bu. was 30 
years ago, and if we can get you Vermont 
farmers to raise us the right kind of seed 
we hope to raise the average another 
hundred bushels soon.” 
The Cover Crop. —“Another reason for 
lots of fertilizer,” continued the Long Is¬ 
lander, “is its effect on the cover crop. 
Manure costs us $4 a ton. When wo use 
a ton or more of fertilizer there is enough 
left to make the rye a rank, thick growth, 
but if we use only 1,000 or 1.200 lbs. the 
rye makes so small a growth that we 
must use manure or have the ground get 
hard and lumpy.” 
“I like the manure to keep the land in 
order,” said the Vermonter. “I could 
never get much result from a little mess 
of green rye. I have tried it, but it looks 
like nothing at all.” 
“Well,” said the Nebraskan, “I don’t 
like the idea of putting chemicals in the 
land, and I never liked to spread manure, 
but I plow' under a crop of clover when 
manure is needed.” 
“You may both be right,” the Long Is¬ 
lander answered, “but I can’t do it. Here 
in Vermont you may have a big hill pas¬ 
ture that needs live stock to utilize it. 
You raise good hay cheaply and the ma¬ 
nure you make from November 1 to May 
15 wdll cover most of your potato land. 
I have no pasture, little, hay .aud.no place 
to raise any. as three-fourths of my farm 
-is in potatoes and the rest is in Luce’s 
Favorite corn for .seed. So, all my ma¬ 
nure comes from my six horses and one 
cow, as the tractor doesn’t help. Now, 
as for clover, I know it is good, but clover 
takes lime and lime makes grubby pota¬ 
toes, so the best we can do is to use lots 
of good fertilizer and grow big cover eroixs 
during our long warm Autumn, when 
Vermont is frozen solid.” 
Vermont Prices. —“Well,” said the 
Vermonter, “I guess you are all right for 
Long Island, but maybe we could afford 
to buy lots more fertilizer if we got your 
prices. I cannot understand w'hy you can 
get more for your table stock that you 
dare not plant than we can for our cer¬ 
tified seed stock.” 
“That,” said the Long Islander, “is 
our famous quality, which gets into every¬ 
thing we raise, but it does help us to more 
fertilizer. You see, a little fertilizer 
gives a lot of result, but as we increase 
the amount it gives less and less increase, 
until it doesn’t pay to use any more, if 
I can figure that 500 lbs. more of fertil¬ 
izer will give me 15 bushels more pota¬ 
toes I use it. We have a smart young 
County Agent in Suffolk who figured it 
out this way, and then we had some ex¬ 
periments that proved it right on my own 
farm. It’s what the banks call ‘dimin¬ 
ishing returns,’ and as our fertilizer costs 
about $00 a ton it w ? orks like this: 
Value of 
increase for 
Amt. of Gain for 500 lbs. at 
Fertilizer Yield 500 lbs. .$1.50 a bu. 
500 lbs. 120 bu. . 
1.000 lbs. 150 bu. 30 bu. $45.00 
1.500 lbs. 175 bu. 25 bu. 37.50 
2.000 lbs. 100 bu. 15 bu. 22.50 
2.500 lbs. 200 bu. 10 bu. 15.00 
Profit 
$3*0*. 00 
22.50 
7.50 
Expense and Returns. —“So, as I 
figure it. I just about break even on the 
last 500 lbs. unless potatoes are $1.75 a 
bushel, as they were this year. Potato 
growing is a good deal of a gamble, but 
a good farmer is a dead-game sport, and 
I always bet that I win. for if the season 
is bad and the potatoes don’t grow the 
fertilizer is still there, while an extra big 
crop will give me so many more bushels 
to the acre that I can afford a little lower 
S irice per'bushel. If I knew I was to get 
>2 a bushel I would use 3,000 lbs. to the 
•acre, while at a dollar a bushel I would 
have to cut down on the amount unless 
fertilizer gets cheaper. We can’t use so 
much on real sandy soil because there is 
not enough water there to dissolve it, and 
it does not pay to put so much on a stiff 
clay, because fertilizer becomes insoluble 
in a short time, but on our mellow loams 
and sandy loams the amount is only lim¬ 
ited by the price of potatoes. 
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