FERTILIZERS. The necessity of fertilizers for worn land is generally acknowledged even by the most ignorant; but very many—otherwise good farmers—fail to appreciate the advantage of applying manure while yet the soil is in a state of vigorous fertility, in order to ikeep it so, and also to still further improve its producing quality. They fail to, appreciate the fact that it costs no more to cultivate an acre of land in the highest state of fertility, than it does a poor acre. Nay, it costs less, for. the vigorous 'growth will soon tend to smother out the weeds and keep them down. The question of ordinary manures will be treated under the head of Manures, the term fertilizers being now, by common consent, applied to special manures and, particularly, to those known as commercial fertilizers. These are of six principal classes: 1, those manufactured directly from dead animal products, as offal, flesh. blood, fish, etc. ; 2, superphosphate, made from bones; 3, guano, or the deposit of marine birds;' 4 poudrette, manufactured from night soil, the contents of privies; 5, the mineral manures as lime, gypsum, salt, kainit, etc, ; and 6, ashes, the important constituent of 'which is potash. Among all these guano has been found to be the best source of nitrogen, (ammonia); and phosphoric acid, and bone preparation, the best source of superphosphate, or soluble phosphate of lime.. The most glaring and shameful adulterations of these substances rendered it necessary for those States where fertilizers were principally sold, to pass the most stringent laws for the protection of purchasers. Li relation to the supply of Peru vian guano, a report made by the British consul at Callao says that the whole amount of export able guano possessed by Peru would not, by fait estimate, reach 3,000,000 tons, a quantity which would supply the demand only for a very few years. Inforritation obtained through careful inquiries atthe quanape and Macabee Islands, up to November, 1872oplaced the available quantity at these localities at about 500,000 tons and 750, 000 tons respectively. "He is assured that the guano on the Lobos Islands does not exceed 750,000 tons in quantity. This has since been verified not only by a diminished supply, but by the that the guano question has led to seri ous wars between Peru and neighboring States. In relation to the supposed values of commercial fertilizers, chiefly occasioned by the specious advertisements of those engaged in the manufac ture and sale, Prof. S. W. in a paper to the Connecticut Board of Agriculture, as long ago as 1869, from analyses made to deters ine the commercial value as compared to the selling price, the samples tested being taken directly from the sq,cks and other packages in the dealers' stores, of sixteen samples tested, says • Of these sixteen samples, one, a home-m,ade superphos phate, has,no selling price affixed. Another fer tilizer shows a currency value of $61.52 per ton, against a„selling price of $56 per ton. In con trast to this a poudrette exhibited a currency value of only $3.03 per ton, against a selling Price of $28 per ton; and another of similar brand a value of only $3.16 per ton, 'against a selling price of $2.50 per barrel. The point is, any person buying commercial fertilizers, of any kind, if in States having laws relating to adul teration, should see that the value of the fertilizer has been regularly verified. Then the buyer has redress through the courts, if fraud be practiced, not easily obtained otherwise. Guanos, and other special fertilizers, may be made at home, Pigeon dung is fully equal to the best Peruvian guano, and the dry dung of fowls better than guano, as usually guaranteed and sold. Prof. Johnson recommends the following as an excel lent combination for fertilizing purposes• Mix one bushel of salt with two bushels of dry lime, under cover, and allow the mixture to decom pose gradually, thus forming an intimate chemi cal union of the two materials. For this purpose the mixture should lie at least six weeks before use, or, still better, two or three months, the heap mentioned being turned over occasionally. This salt and lime mixture, when applied at the rate of twenty to thirty bushels per acre, forms an excellent top-dressing for many crops. It acts powerfully on the vegetable matter of soils. Fifty bushels applied to a turnip field have pro duced as large a crop as twenty loads of barn yard manure. It is also very destructive to insects and grubs in the soil. Like salt, it attracts moisture from the air, and has been found useful against ,drought. Its decomposing
poWer is' remarkable; and, if three or four bushels of it are mixed with a cord of swamp muck, the latter will soon be reduced to powder. Coarse manure is in a similar ' manner decom posed and made fine. Sour, wet muck, thus treated and composted with barn-yard manure, constitutes a fertilizer almost as valuable as the unmixed manure of the barnyard. An excellent substitute for commercial fertilizers, such as superphosphates, etc., may be made as follows: Take one barrel of pure, raw, finely-ground bones, and one barrel of the best wood-ashes; mix them on a floor, and add gradually three pailfuls of water, mixing thoroughly with the hoe. Use in small quantities in about the same manner as the superphosphates. If the ashes cannot be procured, dissolve twelve pounds of potash in ten gallons of hot water, and with this solution saturate the bone-flour thoroughly; a harrel of dried peat or good loam, without stones, may be added. The mixture ,should not be sticky, neither too moist nor too dry. In apply-. ing it avoid direct contact with the seed; for instance, when applied in the hill, scatter a little earth over it before dropping the seed.' A very early visible effect should not be anticipated, but the good results will f manifest themselves as the season. advances. The Dr. Valentine's guano contains the following constituents" in a ton, arid is made as follows, the manufacture to be car ried on in a dry place: Take twenty bushels of dried peat, three bushels of wood-ashes, and five bushels of bone-dust, and mix them together; then take forty pounds nitrate of soda, twenty pounds of sal ammonia, eleven pounds of car bonate of ammonia, twenty pounds sulphate of soda, ten pounds sulphate of magnesia, and ten pounds common salt; • mix these ingredients in sufficient water to dissolve them—say four or fie pailfuls. Add this solution to the three articles first named, and mix as in making mor tar. When thoroughly intermixed, add three bushels of calcined plaster, which will absorb the sup0abundant liquid, and bring the composition, triton dry condition. Pack so as to exclude air. If occasion requires, garden mold or clean vir gin sell may be substituted for the peat. The editor of the Boston Journal of Chemistry recom mends increasing the bone-dust to four or five bushels, and to substitute nitrate of potash for the nitrate of soda, and that the rate of applica tion on ordinary northern soils be from a half ton to a ton per acre. The cost of the ingredi ents will depend on circumstances of locality, etc., but may be approximately stated at $20 per ton, not including the peat. Kainit, an article lately brought into commercial notice, is a rock containing from twenty-eight to thirty two per cent. of sulphate of potassa, in com bination with sulphate of magnesia, chloride of magnesium, sulphate of lime, and chloride of sodium. Its potash constituents give it its value. It is mined at Strassfurth, Germany, where the bed lays from 500 to 800 feet below the sur face. In relation to this fertilizer, Dr. Voelcker thinks it more likely to be remunerative on sandy and gravelly than on clayey soils, and especially for roots, clover, and other leguminous crops, and potatoes. For the latter, designed for mar ket, it may also be of use on heavier soils. In moderate applications it may be beneficial to grass land which does not receive sufficient dung, and which is annually cropped in hay, with the aid of such nitrogenous manures as ammonia salts or nitrate of soda. But he does not antici pate much benefit from a general use of kainit in agriculture. In South Carolina a phosphate rock is largely pained, and its use is increasing every year. Among its valuable constituents are 26.28 per cent. of phosphoric, acid; 39.78 lime; and, insoluble silicious matter, and soluble silica 15.31 per cent. The following table will show, from Dr. Emil Wolff, Germany, the aver age composition of the principal commercial fertilizers, these being the average results of numerous analyses, lately revised. They will be found approximately correct.
In relation to the application of most commer cial fertilizers and concentrated tnanures, if ap plied directly to the seed, or the plants they will kill. They should always be intimately mixed with the earth or applied dissolved water, or mixed with other material. 'For information relating to 'ordinary fertilizers see article Ma nures.