condensing, are wasteful of fertility, unless the farmer guards against
such loss, by artificially supplying the lime, and phosphate potash. It
is largely through this taking of the whole milk from the farm without
adequate making up of the loss, that so many farms in the eastern states
became depleted of their fertility. Whenever butter dairying was carried
on, and consequently the skim milk was used to grow calves and pigs,
the live stock complement of the farm was kept up and the manure supply
greatly enhanced. Such sections like Delaware county, New York, have
suffered much less in the depletion of the soil in the past fifty years,
than did Herkimer, St. Lawrence, Madison, Oneida and other of the cheese
making counties of that state. The same a depleting process has been
going on in New England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and farther
west. The wonderful growth of villages and cities calls for an enormous
consumption of dairy products. This means taking the whole milk from
the farm in a large degree and thereby greatly reduces the growing of
live stock. We well remember sixty years ago how that central New York
produced great crops of clover and a large supply of cattle, hogs and
sheep. The tops of the hills were kept covered with the splendid forests
that characterized that state. The springs and small streams were by that
means maintained and we fished for trout in brooks that have not known
a trout for the past thirty years, and which are dry most of the year.
All this has been changed and sadly so for the worse. Had the farmers
kept the tops of the hills covered with trees it would have conserved the
water supply and helped maintain the side hill pastures.
Fifty years ago Horace Greeley, through his Tribune, warned the farmers
of New York against the destructive effect of stripping the forests from
the hill tops. Dairying in all its branches of butter production, milk
shipping, cheese making and condensing, must, of course, be kept up for
the necessities of the great army of consumers who demand it.
But the demand is just as imperative that the dairy farmer know what he
is about and conduct his farm with an eye single to the preservation of
its fertility. He must know more of the scientific side of his calling.
He must be more willing to use some of his revenue in the purchase of
fertilizers to produce against the natural waste that is constantly going
on. He must adopt the principle that it is to his ultimate greater profit
as well as the well-being of the state that he farm towards an increase
rather than a decrease of the fertility of his land.
These are some of the paramount problems of the day and hour that
confront the dairy farmer. The trouble is that here as well as elsewhere
in this broad field of agriculture, ignorance has held sway. “We all,
like sheep, have gone astray.” The wise live teachers of agriculture are
becoming more obsessed every day with the thought that if the future
millions of this country are fed, the American farmer must wake up, and
that right soon, to the fearful mistakes he has been making through his
ignorance and indifference in destroying the productive capacity of his
land.
Every man, woman and child in the Nation is vitally interested in the
promotion of conserving intelligence among the farmers of this country.
BACK TO THE FARM
BY HENRY IDE WILLEY.
This is the slogan of our clan; too long has the farm been deemed the
dumping ground for those whom poverty or mediocre ability has kept out of
the professions, arts and sciences.
“Anyone can farm” was the ancient idea. Not so the modern maxim. It is
“back to the farm,” with education, intellect and experience that more
than double the production of our soil and elevate the farmer to the same
high plane occupied by others of equal ability and intellect in other
callings.
Back to the farm is the maxim of our chief executive as he tours our
country in the interest of progress.
It is not the aim of this article to enter into a scientific dissertation
upon the chemical properties of all fertilizers, or to cover the entire
ground with reference to the art of fertilization, it would prove too
scopey a work to attempt any such a thing within the time and space that
could be prudently allotted upon an occasion like this.
All that I shall attempt to do will be to touch upon some salient
features of the art, and deal briefly with the most important details
to be kept in view by the progressive farmer, who seeks to get the
maximum results from a minimum area and amount of labor. Also I want
to warn you of the danger of being victimized by unscrupulous dealers
in fertilizers, and suggest some basic precautions to be observed, and
finally to convince you that there is no dearth of fertilizing material
in the United States that should be available at a reasonable price, to
all who may require it. A just and beneficent Deity seems to have wisely
provided abundantly all of the factors required to enable us to equalize
the productions of our country, only demanding that we perform a certain
amount of prefatory labor and wisely use the brains He has endowed us
with.
Generally speaking we are required to do a dollar’s worth of work to
obtain a dollar’s reward in all vocations. One dollar’s value in any of
the precious metals requires a dollar’s worth of work or outlay; the same
is true with a dollar’s worth of wheat, oats, beans, or anything else.
Where rains are not abundant and opportune, there are adjacent mountains
with their precipitating possibilities and lakes, or reservoir sites in
which to store water to irrigate about all of the lands capable of being
profitably watered. Just so within our area are vast deposits of calcium,
phosphates and other fertilizing factors, only requiring a certain amount
of labor, to enable us to place them where they will do the most good.
Florida probably produces the greatest volume and best quality of calcium
phosphates. Tennessee next. Then the Carolinas, Utah and Idaho, the
former only needing railways to provide transportation facilities to
provide abundant and cheap supply throughout the west.
In 1889, Albert Richter, Esq., discovered these last named deposits which
are gigantic reserves for the future.
When tillage begins, other arts follow. Daniel Webster says: “The farmers
therefore are the founders of human civilization.”
Farming is as much a business as any other vocation, and primarily, the
farmer should be a good business man to be successful. In the main he
follows his calling for the money he can make thereby, like other prudent
men, seeking the largest possible return from his outlay.
It is not enough to raise a crop, a profit must be realized upon the
labor and capital invested.
He must understand his business, must observe needed economics, yet must
be ever ready to spend a dollar when he can see a fair interest to be
derivable therefrom.
Farming is not only a business, but equally an art—the art of producing
animal and plant life needful and useful to mankind.
A true knowledge of agriculture and kindred occupations necessitates a
complete grasp of the principles upon which the art is based. In this
enlightened age such knowledge is indispensable. When our country was new
and only the most fertile soil was tilled, “anyone could be a farmer.”
To sow and reap were all that was required, so lavish was Dame Nature in
giving of the fertility stored up for centuries. But this soon sapped the
vitality of the soil, its tillage ceased to be profitable, and in many
instances abandonment of the farms ere long would follow.
This unfortunate result is greatly to be lamented, because, by
intelligent precautions the calamity could have been averted. The farming
of the future must be carried on by intelligent, educated men of liberal
training.
Geology, botany, zoology, chemistry and physics have already done much
toward the conservation of the fertility of the soil, but not generally,
as should be the case.
Importance of water, as a source of plant food and a conveyor thereof,
is one of the most important factors developed by chemical analysis. The
enormous proportion of water entering into the composition of the plant
and its incalculable value as a conveyor of plant food to the roots.
Nearly 900 of 1,000 parts of the matured corn plant are water, exclusive
of exhalations, which are considerable, or 1,000 pounds of corn during
its growing period use about thirty tons of water. As this amount of corn
can be raised on one-thirtieth of an acre, 900 tons, or an eighth inch
depth layer, would be required for an acre, and about the same amount
being lost by percolation and drainage gains as 1,800 tons of water per
acre, thus proving the need for the conservation of the moisture of the
soil. In fact 300 to 500 times more water in pounds is required, than dry
matter.
First, as it composes 80 per cent of the mature crop, it is the most
essential plant food. It also furnishes the hydrogen and oxygen found in
dry matter equal to 10 per cent more, making 90 per cent in all derived
directly from water.
Water also dissolves the plant food, facilitating its distribution.
It stiffens, or prevents the wilting of plants to replace losses by
evaporation, probably controls the temperature of the plants, and water
is indispensable for the movement of food within the plant, constituting
this the most vital single factor in determining the fertility of land,
hence the great importance of irrigation where moisture is not abundant.
Within the time and space allotted, it would be impossible to deal with
every factor relating to question of fertilization such as carbon,
nitrogen, etc. I will therefore proceed to treat of the most potent and
effective fertilizing compound. Phosphoric acid, tricalcite phosphate
of lime or calcium phosphate. This is present in normal soil, in much
smaller quantities than potash, and experience demonstrates, is more
likely to become exhausted. In fact in some regions no other fertilizer
is used.
The phosphates may be subdivided into two general classes, natural and
the manufactured phosphates: The natural phosphates have two general
sources—the bones of dead animals, and certain phosphates containing
minerals which will be designated. Raw bone meal is made by the grinding
of raw bones to a powder, and the finer it is, the more valuable the
product. This contains about 22 per cent of phosphoric acid and 4 per
cent of nitrogen. Raw bones contain a small quantity of fat also, and as
this promotes rapid decay of the bone, the phosphoric acid and nitrogen
are quite slowly disseminated to the crop.
Most of the bone meal of commerce is made from bones previously steamed
to remove the fat, and a portion of the nitrogen compounds. Bone so
treated contains about 28 per cent to 30 per cent of phosphoric acid and
1½ per cent of nitrogen. As these can be ground finer and decay more
rapidly, they are more valuable and effective than the raw bones.
Tankage is an important source of phosphoric acid in so-called animal
politogess. When the product contains a very large proportion of bone, it
is sometimes designated as bone tankage, and may contain 7 to 18 per cent
of phosphoric acid.
Bone black or animal charcoal is made by heating bone in air-tight
vessels, until the volatile matter is drawn off, and is used in the
refineries to purify sugar.
After it has become spent or used by refineries, it is sold for
fertilizing purposes. Bone black contains from 32 to 36 per cent of
phosphoric acid. In a number of places rock deposits are found that
contain varying percentages of phosphate of lime. These phosphates are
usually named after the place where they are obtained, as “Carolina,”
“Florida,” “Tennessee” phosphates.
These rocks contain from 18 to 32 per cent of phosphoric acid, and differ
from the bone products in that they contain no organic matter, and are
purely mineral substances. Ground to a fine powder, they are sometimes
sold under the name of “floats,” but the rock phosphates are used only to
a limited extent in the crude condition.
The phosphoric acid in all the natural phosphates described is combined
with lime, in a form that is extremely insoluble in water. In order to
render the phosphate soluble it is sometimes treated with sulphuric acid
which unites with part of the lime, leaving a phosphate which contains
only a third as much lime as the natural phosphate and is soluble in
water.
The lime and sulphuric acid make a compound which is the same as found in
gypsum or landplaster. This combination of soluble phosphate and gypsum
made by treating the natural phosphates with acid is called by various
names of superphosphate—soluble phosphate, acid phosphate, acidulated
rock, etc. For its manufacture the rock phosphates are generally
employed, both because they are cheaper, and because the organic matter
in the bones interferes with the use of sufficient acid to make all of
the phosphate soluble. A good sample of phosphate contains about 16 per
cent of phosphoric acid in a form that is soluble in water.
Sometimes when insufficient acid has been used a part of the soluble
phosphate will change into a form intermediate in solubility, between
the natural phosphate and the acid phosphate, and this is said to
have undergone “reversion.” The new compound being called “reverted
phosphates.” The latter product is supposed to be more available to the
plant than the insoluble or natural phosphate, hence, the soluble and
reverted phosphoric acid taken together are known as the “available
phosphoric acid.”
Sometimes, bone meal is treated with a limited amount of sulphuric acid
and the product is called “acidulated bone.” This contains a much smaller
proportion of its phosphoric acid in soluble form, than does the rock
superphosphate. When soluble phosphates are added to the soil, they
combine soon with the mineral matter and are converted, first into the
reverted phosphate, and finally into the insoluble form, such as is found
naturally in the soil. In this way the phosphoric acid is fixed and there
is no danger of its being lost by leaching.
The soluble phosphate present in acidulated goods is generally considered
the most favorable form of phosphoric acid for use as a fertilizer.
At first sight it seems useless to go to the expense of making the
phosphate soluble when it is again rendered insoluble by the soil, before
the plant can make use of it. The true object in making it soluble is to
aid in its distribution to the soil and thence to the plant.
When an insoluble phosphate is applied it remains where it falls, except
for the slight distribution it receives by cultivating. In the case of
the soluble phosphate, on the other hand, the phosphate dissolves in the
soil water, and is widely distributed before it becomes fixed by the
soil. In the former, also, the roots must go to the phosphate, while in
the latter, the phosphate is carried to the roots.
It will therefore be observed that after the soluble phosphate is
distributed throughout the soil, the individual particles must be
very much smaller than is the case with the insoluble phosphate. The
importance of fineness of division can not be too strongly emphasized.
Too much stress cannot be laid upon the need of intelligent use of
fertilizers. A little expense and effort in carefully analyzing the soil
to be treated, proving its component parts and proportions, then leaving
what should be added to result in the largest production of the crops
desired. No guessing nor conjecture should be indulged in, it can only
lead to disaster, whereas a little scientific investigation and analysis
will render success certain.
Analysis alone will not suffice. Actual testing of the various classes of
soil, dividing same into small blocks and using different proportions of
fertilizers on some, none on others, will insure the best results.
Farmers are furnished with a great variety of so-called fertilizers of
greater or less merit, and a vast variety of mixtures almost too numerous
to classify, many of which I regret to state are not at all what they
are represented to be, and often are worth less than one-third the price
charged therefor. No one should under any circumstances be induced to
purchase anything claimed to be a fertilizer, without first having had an
analysis made of the same by some chemist of unimpeachable integrity.
A failure or refusal to observe this precaution will be certain to
defeat the purpose in view and result in loss, instead of the gain
desired. There can be no good excuse given for the unfair adulteration
of fertilizers, because the supply of basic material is abundant, cheap,
and can be reasonably transported, leaving a good profit for all dealers,
when an absolutely pure article. As the product is now sold it ranges
from 1 to 3 per cent ammonia, 6 to 12 per cent phosphoric acid, 4 to 10
per cent potash.
The unit basis of purchase is a fair one to both vendor and vendee. A
unit means 1 per cent on the basis of a ton, or twenty pounds.
For example, a unit of available phosphoric acid would be twenty pounds,
and if the quotation was $1.00 a unit, the phosphoric acid would cost
five cents a pound. The system is applied to the sale of nitrate of
soda, the potash salt, blood, meat, tankage, superphosphate, etc., and
in nitrogenous goods the price is usually stated as so much a unit of
ammonia.
The number of units in the material is determined by chemical analysis.
This system could be applied as well to mixed as unmixed goods. But home
mixing would prove by far the wisest policy, as none of the frauds common
to commercial fertilizers could then be perpetrated.
It is little less than idiocy to buy any mixed fertilizer for any
specific tract of land, because you may be paying for an excess of many
elements, when the addition of some one single acid, such as sulphuric,
for instance, would double its production. Lime, marl, muck, wood or coal
ashes only would at times produce better results than the most perfect
and elaborate mixed fertilizer.
Apropos of this subject, permit me to call attention to a little work
of great value to every farmer. None should be without it. _Viz._, A
treatise on “American Manures, and Farmers’ and Planters’ Guide,” by Wm.
H. Buckner, Analytical Consulting Chemist, and J. B. Chynoweth, Eng.,
published in Philadelphia.
The great lawyer, Theodore Cuylor, and others, give this work unqualified
approval, and any farmer, after its perusal, is amply advised as to the
many frauds perpetrated in the name of fertilization, and can guard
against being victimized thereby.
To attempt to deal with the fertilization question without giving ample
scope to the question of water supply, would be a waste of effort, as
water is the most important of all elements to be considered.
Not all land is to be benefited by irrigation, but vastly more is
improved than is generally supposed. There are few sections where
the natural supply is precipitated at the right time, and in proper
proportion, and wherever this is the case irrigation can be profitably
resorted to always, providing the supply can be economically obtained and
distributed.
For example, take the rich Willamette valley in Oregon, where the
rainfall is excessive during the entire spring, but little or none
falls during the summer months, and it has been proven that larger or
more frequent crops can be raised there with irrigation, even in this
“Web-foot state.”
Perfect production is only attainable when control of all the elements
is possible, and this can be accomplished only in a hot house or
conservatory. But the nearest approach thereto in the open, is in an
almost rainless country, where the sunshine is constant by day, the soil
fertile, and irrigation possible.
Where these conditions prevail, as in Sinaloa, Mexico, as many as three
crops a year can be produced upon the same area, and it is safe to state
that there are few regions where the irrigation of the land will not
prove beneficial. In most instances the providing of irrigation carries
with it the necessity for a drainage system as well. It is not the
placing of water on the land which causes the benefit, but the passage of
the water through the soil, carrying the fertility or plant food to the
roots, hence flow must be kept up, and often this can only be insured by
providing a drainage system.
Our country is so new, and our soil was so fertile originally, that
abundant crops were produced thereon for many years, but this constant
cropping of the same product, year after year, has exhausted vast areas
and their life must be renewed.
Fertilizers are abundant and accessible in the United States and can be
laid down on any farm near to lines to transportation, and if of genuine
character and properly applied, crops can be doubled or better each
season.
Professor Hopkins of the Illinois university more than doubled the
production of wheat on a certain tract of land under this supervision.
The natural yield was about twenty-four bushels; fertilized, fifty-six
bushels per acre.
Although the phosphate deposits now known to exist are of vast area, it
was not until 1889 that the Florida deposits were accepted as valuable
and extensive.
Pebble deposits of Florida are supposed to underlie an area of about
2,000 square miles, and are on lands about 160 feet above sea level.
Over-burden:
1. Soil and subsoil, few inches to six feet.
2. A light colored sand, few inches to ten feet.
3. Stiff clay vari-colored at times, capping of sandstone color
brown to pure white.
MATRIX 212°.
Organic matter 2.40
Phosphoric acid 15.29
Carbonic acid 6.70
Lime 20.00
Iron and aluminum 13.06
Fluoride and magnesia .60
Insoluble silica and sand 41.95
------
100.00
Equivalent to tribasic phosphate of lime 32.33
Equivalent to carbonate of lime 15.20
Land pebbles average from 65 to 70 per cent tribasic phosphate of lime.
River pebbles are of the same origin, but slightly less value, 60 per
cent to 63 per cent phosphate of lime. The whole Peninsula of Florida
is underlaid with white limestone of the Vicsburg age (Lower Eocene),
according to Professor Lyall, upper middle Eocene, according to American
geologists, which is the oldest rock in Florida. Florida was submerged
until the end of the Eocene period, after which its elevation occurred.
Then came the Miocene submergence followed by a second elevation, next
the Champlain period and submergence, when it was covered with a mantle
of sand and clay, before it arose to its present elevation.
The phosphate pebbles were formed before this last submergence, and hence
washed into the depressions of limestone and over same.
ANALYSIS GRAVEL ROCK.
_Many Samples._
Phosphoric acid 36.08
Carbonate of lime 2.17
Oxide of iron and aluminum 1.94
Silica 4.50
Moisture 2.50
European Analysis of some organic matter—water.
Voelker Gilbert Marat
Phosphoric acid 36.56 36.33 36.84
Lime 52.08
Oxide of iron 1.36
Aluminum 1.39
Magnesia carb. phos 7.17
Insoluble 0.85
-----
100.
Tribasic phosphate of lime 79.81 79.31 80.43
Early in this century the marl beds of New Jersey were worked and used
for fertilization. This led to the discovery of similar deposits in
South Carolina. One Lardue Venaxen, who made the first geological survey
in 1826, discovered same, but no work was done until 1842, when Edward
Ruffin of Virginia confirmed the reports of previous explorers.
First carbonate of lime only was evolved; 20 per cent up to 90 per cent,
but later from 2 per cent to 9 per cent of phosphate of lime was found by
Dr. C. W. Sheppard and J. Lawrence Smith, Esq.
During the war, nodules and strata of rock phosphate were found by Dr. N.
A. Pratt near Ashley River.
It was not until April 14, 1868, that any systematic production of
phosphate was accomplished in South Carolina, when the first cargo was
shipped from Charleston and the arrival of same created a veritable
epidemic of phosphate fever in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and other
cities.
ANALYSIS.
_Mean of many hundreds of samples._
[1]Phosphoric acid from 25.0 per cent to 28.00 per cent
[2]Carbon acid from 2.50 per cent to 5.00 per cent
Sulphuric acid from 0.50 per cent to 2.00 per cent
Lime from 35.00 per cent to 42. per cent
Magnesia traces
Aluminum traces
Sesqui oxide of iron 1.00 to 4.00 per cent
Fluoride 1.00 to 2.00 per cent
Sand and silica 4.00 to 12.00 per cent
Organic matter and water.