VOL. XXIX.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.  JUNE 23, 1894.
NO. 25.
TEETILIZERS AND SOILS.
Adaptation of Different Kinds Made.
The Use of Commercial Fertilizers on Medium and Light Soils.
HY  PROF. H.  A.  HUSTON.
The most profitable use of commercial
fertilizers or manures of any kind presupposes good drainage and good tillage.
While the application of fertilizing material to undrained lands may give an increase of crop, the condition of the land is
such as to prevent the free movement of
air and water in the soil, and without
such free movement of air and water the
plant acts at great disadvantage in taking
up the plant food supplied in the fertilizing material.
With good drainage and good tillage
there still exist wide variations in the
most profitable application of fertilizing
material. The causes of these variations
are found in the kind of crop raised, in
the amount and distribution of the rainfall and in the differences in the soils upon
which the crop is raised. The principal
part of the commercial fertilizer used in
Indiana is used on clay land and applied
to the wheat crop. The material most
lrar-goly uaod is raw or steamed bone.
"Complete" fertilizers are also largely
used. They usually consist of bone or
phosphate rock in which the phosphoric
acid has been made more soluble by treatment with sulphuric acid. If the raw material was bone some potash salt is added,
and if the raw material was rock potash
and nitrogen in some form, usually tankage or dried blood are added to make the
"complete" fertilizer. The addition of
the sulpuric acid, in addition to making
the phosphoric acid more soluble, also
converts some of the lime compounds of
the original phosphate into sulphate of
lime or land plaster, which is of value as
an indirect fertilizer in setting free potash
compounds held in difficultly soluble
forms in the soil.
COMPOSITION OF CROPS.
When we examine the composition of
our principal crops we find that in the case
of wheat, if the amount of phosphoric
acid present in the grain and straw is represented by 100, the amount of nitrogen
would be 220 and the amount of potash
would be 140. In the case of corn, stalks
included, if the amount of phosphoric
acid be represented by 100, the amount of
nitrogen would be 320 and the amount of
potash 175. When we make the same
kind of comparison for the most commonly-used fertilizers we find for bone,
when the phosphoric acid present is represented by 100, the nitrogen would be 15;
with steamed bone, when phosphoric acid
is represented by 100, the nitrogen would
be 10; with average complete fertilizers,
when the phosphoric acid is represented
by 100, the nitrogen would be 24 and the
potash 22. This does not mean that a ton
of complete fertilizer contains more nitrogen than a ton of bone, but only that the
complete fertilizers usually contain relatively more nitrogen, because most complete fertilizers contain only about one-
half as much phosphoric acid as good bone.
From the above comparison between
our most common crops and the fertilizers
most commonly used it is evident that
our farmers do not attempt to supply in
the commercial fertilizer the plant food
removed by the crop. Nor do I believe
that it will be fonnd either profitable or
practicable to do so. The formulas which
were originally made for this purpose
have proved unprofitable in most cases
and while the names have been retained
the composition of the goods has been- materially ol ranged. The great majority of fer
tilizers are not compounded to suit certain
crops. Primarily they are compounded
to sell. But to be salable they must more
or less completly meet some want. This
want is not the entire need of the crop.
Is it a need of the soil?
ON CLAY SOILS.
In answering this question it may be
well to keep in mind that the most progressive farmers in large sections of the
State spend annually over one million dollars for commercial fertilizers and that the
use of these fertilizers is rapidly increasing. This indicates that the practice has
been found profitable. The land on which
most of the fertilizers is used is clay land.
It is a matter of general experience that
clays are deficient in available phosphoric
much in their needs. On some of them
profitable results have been obtained with
complete fertilizers. If they are deficient
in potash it will be of little use to apply
bone or plain superphosphates to them
unless potash also is supplied. Light
sandy soils are liable to be deficient in all
three ingredients, indicating the need of a
complete fertilizer. Much less work has
been done on loams and light soils than
on clay. There are some loams that do
not give profitable returns with fertilizers
high in phosphoric acid, and some that
seem to need mechanical improvement
rather than chemical treatment. Often
these soils give profitable returns with
coarse manures when they do not yield
profitable returns with commercial fertil-
acid. They may also be deficient in nitrogen, but if well drained the amount of
available potash is generally sufficient for
ordinary crops. All land has the capacity
of raising a certain amount of any crop
for an indefinite period, the plant food becoming slowly available under ordinary
climatic conditions. The amount of this
crop is largely controlled by the available
amount of one of the plant foods most
likely to be wanting in soils—nitrogen,
phosphoric acid and potash. In the clay
soil the crop is most likely to be limited
by the amount of available phosphoric
acid. Hence the application of fertilizers
containing relatively large amounts of
phosphoric acid have given good returns
on clay lands. The amount of phosphoric
acid applied is in many cases enough or
more than enough to supply the phosphoric acid in the increase of the crop.
But it should be kept in mind that the advantage of the fertilizer in giving the
young plants a vigorous start is no small
factor in the case. The amount of nitrogen
and potash supplied in the fertilizers commonly used are insignificant as compared
with the amounts removed by the crop.
OTHER THAN CLAY SOILS.
So far as clay land is concerned we may
conclude that our common practice of
using commercial fertilizers containing
relatively high amounts of phosphoric
acid supplies the material most needed by
the clay soil. It does not follow, however,
that the present practice is the most profitable that can be worked out. In applying
fertilizers to other soils farmers have
naturally used the same kinds that have
given good results on clay. But the needs
of these soils may be very different from
those of clay. Thus soil derived from
limestone rocks generally contains considerable available phosphoric acid but is deficient in potash.   Medium loams vary
izers. The other soils of the State differ so
widely from clay that it is not to be expected that the same fertilizers that are
used on clays will give the best results on
loams or light soils. In general it would
be better to try
COMPLETE  FERTILIZERS
on these soils; but the real need of the soil
can only be known by making the plants
test the soil after the different fertilizer
ingredients have been systematically applied. Detailed directions for this were
published by me in 1891. When the results indicate the need of nitrogen it can
be most cheaply supplied by utilizing
olover or a similar crop. Experience over
a limited part of the medium soils of Indiana and over extended areas in other
States indicates that commercial fertilizers
may be profitable applied to such soils, but
that the kind of fertilizer differs from that
best adapted for clay soils. The subject of
commercial fertilizers is worthy of the
careful consideration of every thoughtful,
progressive farmer, even If they are to be
used only as a stimulant to give the young
plants a more vigorous start and thus en
able them to better utilize the food already
In the soil or supplied In coarse or green
manure.
There Is room for much farther progress
on all kinds of our lands. The question Is
not what fertilizer will give a profitable
return, but what method of using all
available fertilizing material will give the
greatest net profit consistent with maintaining the productiveness of the soil. In
speaking of available fertilizing material
It may not be out of place to mention that
the cornstalks, wheat and oat straw annually produced In the State contain fertilizing material which, if contained in commercial fertilizers, would be listed as
worth $28,000,000. Most of this material Is
now allowed to go to waste. No other
business would tolerate the waste of such
enormous values in side products and
farming cannot do so forever,
Purdue Agr'l Exp't Slt'n,
PROF. H. A. HUSTON.
The Farmer of this week contains a
very Interesting and Instructive contribution on fertilizers and their adaption to
the growth of the cereals, by Prof. H. A.
Huston, the State chemist, of Purdue
University. We also give an etching of
the Professor that will be recognized by
scores of our readers as one of the gentlemen who so ably aided Prof. Latta at
many of the Farmers' Institutes.
Prof. Huston is a native of the State of
Maine, graduating first at Lincoln Acad-
amy that State, in 1858, and afterward at
Boudoine College, Brunswick, Maine,
1879. He was the assistant chemist of that
college for two years. Coming west he
became first a science teacher and afterward, principal of the Lafayette High
School, for a year or two, then going Into
the faculty of Purdue University, first
as professor of physlcls and director of the
State Agricultural Experiment Station,
which places he still holds with great skill
and credit to tbe State.
Professor Huston is the author of 25
valuable scientific papers relating to agricultural chemistry, the first having been
•written in 1882 on Reverted Phosphates,
and being the first work done to investigate this matter along his chosen lines.
That has been continued, and there is now
under way the most extended series of investigations ever undertaken in this direction. This work has a direct and important bearing on the commercial and
agricultural valuation of phosphates. His
publications on sugar-beets, cattle feeds,
wheat, fertilizers, etc., are familiar to
thousands of our readers. He worked out
a number of methods of analysis for phosphates which are now used in official
work throughout the United States in
similar institutions. Our readers are familiar with the splendid work he has done
and is still doing in the way of analysis in
determining the value of fertilizers used
in the State and their adaptation to soils.
The professor is a member of quite a number of scientific associations, Is about 36
years of age, but has been too busy a man
ever to get married.
PLAHT FOOD BEHOVED BY CE0P8.
In his very excellent bulletin for May
last, the State chemist gives the enormous
amount of plant food taken from the soil
of Indiana by the staple crops each year.
He says: "Taking the average yields for lo
years, we find In round numbers: Corn,
100,000,000 bushels; wheat, 40,000,000 bushels; oats, 20,000,000 bushels; timothy, 1,750,-
000 tons; clover, 1,750,000 tons. Using the
average composition of these crops we find
that there are removed annually in the
grain of these crops: Phosphoric acid 30,-
158 tons, valued at $4,825,280; potash 17,720
tons, valued at $2,126,400; nitrogen, 75,736
tons, valued at $33,543,720; total $40,495,400.
The corn stalks and straw produced with
these crops contain nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and potash valued at $28,231,300, making a total-valuation of fertilizing Ingredients removed of $68,726,700. The timothy
hay crop removes fertilizing ingredients
valued at $16,625,000; the clover crop contains fertilizing ingredients valued at $19,-
250,000, making a total contained In the
five principal crops ol $104,603,700.
With the exception of a part of the nitrogen In the clover crop all this material is
removed from Indiana aoiln yearly by the
five principal crops.
The valuations useu in computing the
above sums are those used in computing
the relative commercial values of fertilizers. The objection may be made that the
fertilizing ingredients in these orops are
not in such form as to carry this valuation. But we are not considering these
crops ln the light of quick acting fertilizers, but rather in the light of consumers
Continued oouage R.