People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1896 — Commercial Fertilisers. [ARTICLE]

Commercial Fertilisers.

The consumption of commercial fertilizers has become such an important item in the business of farming that some facts in relation to the amount used may be of interest. The following table gives the amount estimated to be used in Indiana during the years named: TONS YEAR TONS YEAR 8000 1883 29000 1890 6900 1884 26750 1891 5860 1885 35000 1892 6250 1886 38000 1893 10000 1888 35000 1894 19350 1889 The amount Used in 1895 has not yet been*computed but it was considerably in excess of the amount used in any previous year. Fertilizers were first used in Indiana in the counties along the Ohio river about 1873. Their use has gradually extended northward especially along the eastern border of the state. Probably 90 per cent, of the fertilizers applied in the state are used south of the line drawn from Ft. Wayne to Terre Haute. The land on which fertilizers are most extensively and profitably used are clay lands and most of the fertilizer is used on the wheat crop. For the most profitable returns different kinds of fertilizers are required for different soils. All the fertilizers on our market have the general composition that would naturally be used for a clay soil. They contain far more phosphoric acid than nitrogen or potash. Clay soils are almost always deficient in phosphoric acid. In 1894 for every 1000 pounds of phosphoric acid 'in our fertilizers there were only about 14 pounds of nitrogen and 8 pounds of potash. In crops, nitrogen is the most abundant, potash next, and phosphoric acid least. The annual expenditure for fertilizers in Indiana is about 81.250,000. The total amount of plant food sold in fertilizers in 1894 was phosphoric acid 5589 tons, nitrogen 777 tons, potash 407 tons. These amounts are insignificant as compared with the quantity of these expensive plant foods that are annually exported from the state in grain alone. The annual loss of plant food from our soils is still greater from the failure to utilize for manurial purposes agreatpart of the corn fodder, wheat and oat straw produced in the state. The amount of plant food drawn each year from the soil %y these three side products represents a value of about 828,000,000. The results of this heavy drain on our soils are yearly becoming more evident. Commercial fertilizers have a legitimate part to play in helping to keep up the productiveness of the soil; but it would be unwise to depend on them alone when we have such valuable side products at hand. The rational course to pursue is to utilize all material including the clover crop grown on the farm, and then if it can be profitably done, to supplement these with commercial fertilizers. There is a wide range in the composition of the 250 different brands of fertilizers on our market and the question often arises as to which kind can be most profitably used. The fanner must in many cases answer his question by trial. But it would be unwise to at once give up the use of a line of goods of a class that had proven satisfactory, to make a trial of a different type of goods A trial on a small scale will involve less risk. Yet we should not rest with simply a profitable result. The, real aim is to find the method of combining the manurial material of the farm with such purchashed fertilizers as will give the greatest net profit consistent with maintaining the productiveness of the soil.

H. A. HUSTON, Chemist.