Union
Al^P
Vol. 6. No. 9.
GASTONIA, N. C., FEBRUARY 29, 1912
One Dollar a Year
HOME MIXING OF FERTILIZERS
By
O. B. ROBINSON
Gaston County
A study of the fertilizer which we use is a
phase of farming which is of compar
atively recent origin. The idea formerly pre-
''ailed, and does to a great extent yet, that all
'vhicli was needed in he fertilization of a crop
the applying of an 8-2-2 grade or some-
^^ling of like nature and value, unregardful of
^'"liat kind of land such guano was applied to
what kind of crop was to be grown. In
^ther words, if a ton of “guano” was bought
^^d used by a farmer, he considered that he
done his part towards the fertilization of
nis
crop.
^ In the first part of this article, I will show
Home Mixing” should be more general
it is at present.
For the reason that when you buy com-
^^rcial fertilizer of any analysis—say an
3'3 (8% i3hosphoric acid, 3% ammonia, 3%
Potash) you are, very probably paying money
a mixture which is highly deficient in ni-
'■^ogen available. When you put fertilizer
Wilder
your cotton or corn, you expect that
^^tilizer to feed the cotton and corn plants to
^ full extent of the plant food denoted as in
I'y the analysis of said fertilizer. And when
^Uch fertilizer does feed plants to the full ex-
the ingredients in that fertilizer are avail-
plant food.
^ow let us get back to the statement that in
ail Q
. ‘°'3-3 guano, you are probably paying for
^trogen which you do not get. The laws of
State concerning the fertilizer manufact-
and sold, compels companies manufact-
^ fertilizer to guarantee the analysis of
^ ^ brand placed on the market. Thus when
UJ) o r •
°'3-3 fertilizer is placed on sale, the com-
^^^y manufacturing such fertilizer guarantees
contains 8% phosphoric acid, 3% am-
0
and 3% potash, but here is the point:
laws do not require the fertilizer manu-
^turer to disclose /wzu much of each ingre-
^ available. In the phosphoric acid and
Potash elements, we know that they are
^fiable because you might get these ingredi-
th
f^om any known scource and practically
same degree of availability exists in each
ljut with ammonia, the case is much
sources for obtaining nitrogen
^^uionia) are quite varied. Some of the
*^ces are nitrate of soda, sulphate of soda.
tankage, leather scrap and ' hair. The same
per cent of amrnonia or nitrogen in leather
scrap, hair or peat, etc., is worth only from
one-fifth to one-tenth as much as is the nitro
gen in cotton seed meal, nitrate of soda, etc.
This is true because the nitrogen in leather
scrap and peat is not quickly available. It
takes from two to ten years to become avail
able and will be of little value to you in your
present crop needs. Hence, it is a very im
portant matter that you know from wnat
source the ammonia in your fertilizer is taken.
The fertilizer manufacturer can meet the re
quirements of the law and yet place and foist
a fertilizer on you which .is almost worthless
so far as the ammonia element is concerned,
but which costs you as much as if all the am
monia was available. Here then is the first
reason why you should do your own mixing
of fertilizer.
In “home mixed” goods you have know
ledge of how much plant food is available.
In factory mixed goods you have no know
ledge of the availability of your guano.
Furthermore, your loss is not confined to the
loss of cost of the available ammonia but to
the consequent diminishing of the crop re
turn—the amount of cotton or corn which
available nitrogen would have produced and
the amount which unavailable nitrogen pro
duced.
2. Home mixing should be practiced be
cause each man knows, or should know, the
needs of his land better than a fertilizer manu
facturer, living several hundred miles away
and knowing absolutely nothing about your
land and very little about farming in general.
Soils lying within a half mile of each other,
very often, differ greatly in their composition
and thereby necessarily in their needs, when
it comes to the question of applying fertilizer.
One farm may have an excess of nitrogen, an
other an excess of potash, etc.
For example, you might take the farm of
Mr. C. M. Faires, four miles South of Gas
tonia, which, after being tested, was found to
contain enough potash to make one hundred
crops. After this test, Mr. Faires has found
it would be bad business and a useless waste
of money to buy commercial fertilizer ready-
mixed, because in such ready-mixed goods, he
would necessarily have to buy a certain per
cent of potash.
Then again, suppose you had had peas or
some other nitrogenous plants on part of your
farm the previous year. It would certainly be
a bad business policy for you to buy a ready-
mixed fertilizer because in buying such goods,
you would necessarily have to purchase nitro
gen at a high price which would be in excess
of the amount needed as there would be plenty
of nitrogen in the ground which the peas had
put there.
Furthermore, by home mixing you can pre
pare your analysis to suit specific crops. In
bying ready-mixed fertilizer for clover or
peas, you are simply “throwing to the birds”
that part which you are paying for the nitro
gen because clover and peas do not take up
nitrogen from the ground (neither that which
is naturally in the ground or that which is ap
plied), but gathers nitrogen from the air.
3. You 'should do your own mixing because
it is not only an indirect saving, but a direct
saving. When you buy ready-mixed fertilizer
you pay the manufacturer for “mixing, bag-
ing, shipping, agents commission, profit and
long credit” (at 10%).
Furthermore you buy sand (filler) of
which you have an abundance x)n your farm.
You not onlylbuy but haul it several miles
from town to your farm besides paying freight
on it from the factory to your town, all of
which could be eliminated, provided you
bought the chemicals and did your own mix
ing, in which case you would pay freight on
plant food only and not on a lot of worthless
sand.
The “Home Mixing” of fertilizer has been
discredited to a great extent by writers who
dwelt upon the benefits to be derived from
home-mixing, but who neglected to show how
to mix properly and fro mwhat sources the
ingredients should be taken. On account of
lack of knowledge of the foregoing, many
have tried the home-mixing with very unsat
isfactory results.
Many people think that it doesn’t make any
difference from what source nitrogen is ob
tained to mix with phosphoric acid and potash
from any source, but such is not the case.
(Continued on page five)