The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., April 23, 1910, Page 304, Image 4

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

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Short Talks About Fertilizers.
A READING COURSE.-By E. E. MILLER.
XIX— FERTILIZER FACTS THAT SHOULD BE
REMEMBERED.
HE PROFITABLE USE of fer
tilizers depends, as was stated
,_ at the beginning of this series
of articles, largely upon the under
standing by the farmer of a few fun
damental principles, and his ability
to apply his understanding of these
principles to his particular conditions.
In the first place, it must always
be remembered that fertilizers are
primarily plant foods; that they bear
the same relation to the plant that
corn and oats do to the horse, or
bread and meat and butter do to the
farmer himself. In any soil there is
enough of all the plant foods to sup
ply the needs of very large crops for
a great many years, but most of
these foods are in such form that
they can not be used by the crops.
It is only when these foods are dis
solved in enough soil water to enable
the plants to draw them up through
the minute root hairs hv which thev
feed, that they can be utilized at all.
The farmer who applies fertilizers
to a soil, then, simply puts food for
his crops where it can be reached by
them. And to be of any value this
food must be in a form in w hich the
plants can utilize it.
The Three Plant Foods We Huy.
The three plant foods usually ap
plied are nitrogen, which goes large
ly to the development of leaf and
stem; phosphoric acid, which is use
ful chiefly in promoting the develop
ment of fruit and grain, and potash,
which aids in the production of
starch and gives vigor to stem and
foliage and perfection to flower and
fruit.
The most commonly used fertiliz
ing materials supplying nitrogen are
cottonseed meal, nitrate of soda,
tankage, dried blood, iish scrap, and
stable and green manures. Phos
phoric acid is chiefly derived from
acid phosphate, floats, basic slag and
bone meal. Potash is bought chief
ly in the form of muriate, sulphate
and kainlt, and is also obtained in
considerable quantities front wood
tishes and tobacco refuse. A fertil
izer containing all these elements of
plant food is known as a “complete”
fertilizes
What Limits the Crops.
It must be remembered alwayr
that the growth of any crop Is limit
ed by the supply of that plant food
which is least abundant, and no sur
plus of any one element can make up
for a deficiency of another. Indeed,
the growth of the crop is limited by
the lack of moisture in the soil to
make available the plant food there
present oflener than by any actual
lack of the elements which the plants
feed on. Other limiting factors of
crop growth may be too much moist
ure in the soil, soil acidity or poor
physical condition which does not
permit of propel aeration of the soil
and of the necessary development of
bacterial life.
Jt is because they correct these dif
ficulties In the soil that stable and
green manures are so much needed
on most Southern lands. And it i.
for the same reason that the same
amount of plant food applied In these
manures will usually give far better
results than an equal amount of
more readily available food applied
in the form of commercial fertilizers.
Indeed, it Is not too much to say that
in most cases the greatest need of
the soil Is a larger supply of humus
which will give better texture to the
soil, increasing ita moisture-bohling
capacity and permitting of better
aeration, and thus enabling the de
velopment of the soil bacteria wifich
change the elements of plant food in
the soil to available forms and ni^ke
it possible for the crops to utilize
them.
It is always to be remem
bered that even when commercial
fertilizers are applied, the ability* of
the plant to use them is goveraed
largely by the condition of the soil,
and that it is useless to expect the
best results from aaJ fertilizer <>t a
soil which is improperly drained,
which is dry or hard, or which is in
sufficiently supplied with decaying
vegetable matter. The man whp
wishes to use fertilizers economical
ly must, therefore, give first atten
tion to the condition of his soil;
for until he has it in proper shape
11 n rr.HJt ( f C __• ■
'-- ... .... • I e I
best results from any fertilizer he
may apply.
Adapting the Fertilizer to the Ct>>p.
The next thing to consider is the
lack of his soil in the available plant
food needed by the particular crop
he wishes to grow. And until he has
some intelligent idea of this, and can
therefore determine from a business
standpoint what plant foods his
crops most need, he cannot use fer
tilizers to the greatest profit.
It may be stated as a general rule
that practically alt Southern soils
except what are knowV as ••rich"
bottom landn are deflddnt in nitro
gen. And with the possible excep
tion of the alluvial lands of the Mis
sissippi bottoms all will be made
more productive by the application
of phosphoric acid. On the sandy
soils of the Atlantic Coast region,
potash is much needed for most
crops, while on the clay lands of the
Southern hill country and on the
soils of the lower Mississippi Valley,
it seems to he needed only for special
crops, if at ail.
The high eo*t of nitrogen and the
f. .a ; _ ... . _
W uj«t JL in ' itfiiuuy lOttC ITOul lilt
soil, makes it impraetfoftfelw for the
farmer to keep up the supply in hie
land by the purchase of it in com
mercial form, bine# it <-o*uh about
20 <<*nt* a pound, and u crop of cob
yielding a half hale to the aero re
move* at leant 1 ft pound*, it will be
*p<in at Once that Rome other method
of keeping up the supply of this elev
merit uiu*t be adopted if the farmer
i« to make a profit on the crop he
grows. Fortunately, however, by rais
ing leguminous crop* he can keep his
soil abundantly supplied with nitro
gen, ko that all he will need to buy
will he a readily available form for
special crops or for special occasions
of crop need. The growing of the*e
crops is, indeed, of much moro Im
portance in the long run than Is any
application of commercial fertilizers.
Phosphoric acid mu*t he bought,
au'i in many cases in increasing quau
'lie*. if Southern noil* are ever to
that degree of productivity
w l,lcli D*a> rightfully l>e expected of
*H',n It i probable, however, that
by filling the soil with hutous It will
i>e po;- ihle to get this phosphoric acid
from the raw phosphate rock at a
cost of less than one-half of what is
paid at present for the more avail
able form in the add phosphate.
j Until tTie soil is supplied with fills j
vegetable matter, however, it is not
likely that thfs*unavalafblo form will
give paying returns.
Potash should he applied In larger
proportions in some sections and i|i
much smaller proportions *uv other
lands of different type. Indeed, it is
probable that on many Southern soils
it does not pay to apply potash at all i
for any of the staple crops. This.1
as well as the amount and percent-j
age of the other plant foods to bo np- j
plied, is a matter which can he deter-!
mined only hy careful experiments on
his soil by the farmer himself. It is •
chiefly for this reason that the prae-|
tice of mixing fertilisers at home in
such proportions as are needed by |
the crop to be fertilized is to be ad- i
vised. And this is why it is so vitnl
ly Important for Southern farmers to
learn howr, not only to Judge of the
needs of their soil as regard* plant
foods, but also to determine the
amount of each of the plant foods in
a fertilizer and to adapt the ferMI-! 1
izer used to their Individual need*
What the Farmer Must I/carn.
To sum up the whole matter, then,
it may be said that the farmer whoj
wishes to use fertiliser* economically i
must consider first the prore**<'* of
plant growth and nutrition. He rauat
next consider the special part which <
each of the plant foods answer* in the <
development of the plant. Then, at- • i
tendon must be given to the compo
'Ition and pbysiwil coaditJon of the
nil nnfl tn 1he parflctflar demnudy
tho erop which is to be fertilized.
After thif, and from a know led go of
these things, the adaptation the
fertililer to the crop, must bo made.
AM this is a matler Involving ear
nest study and some very careful,
painstaking work, but it should bo
Inr easier for tho farmer to deem©
ibis study and work to tho solution
jt his fertilizer problems thus fwr
him to contiuue. as so many are
doing at present, to fcpend a large
l*er cent of his income for fertilizer].,
buying these fertilizers by guess
work and using them in some cases
inly to assist in the depletion of the
loll and thus to mako farming I.-hs
profitable and more uncertain with
jach succeeding year.
A big ‘ Hack to the Farm" meet
ug will he hold at Columbus, Misti.,
Vprll 3uth. (• It. Hightower, Fred
lent State Farmers* Union; It S.
iVilsou, Demonstration Agent for
dl**l*»lppi and Alabama; Uev. it A
V. Wilson, of Uatesvillo. Miss . and
ludge Cate Sailors, of Cleburne. Tex ,
a ill speak Dr. S A. Knapp is also
•xpected to make an address,
I now grow about 1^,000 acres of
orn a year, and t figure that my
louble-row cultivators save mo |J0.
»00 each year.--D. Itankin.
_■
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