ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
NORTH CAROLINA
Agricultural Experiment Station,
IFOIEl 1885.
PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.
RALEIGH:
P. M. HALE, State Printer and Binder.
1886.
Office of the North Carolina
Agricultural Experiment Station,
Raleigh, N. C, March 15, 1886.
To Governor A. M. Scales,
Chairman of the Board of Agriculture:
Sir:—I have the honor to submit herewith the Annual
Report of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station
for the year 1885. I trust it will prove satisfactory to your
Excellency and the Board of Agriculture.
Respectfully yours,
CHAS. W. DABNEY, Jr.,
Director.
NORTH CAROLINA
STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.
1886.
Governor ALFRED M. SCALES, (ex-officio) Chairman.
W. G. Upchurch, Esq President of the State Agricultural Society.
Kemp P. Battle, LL. D President of the State University.
W. R. Williams, Esq Master State Grange, Patrons of Husbandry.
Col. R. W. Wharton First Congressional District.
Dr. A. G. Brooks Second Congressional District.
Dr. Matt. Moore Third Congressional District.
Col. W. F. Green , Fourth Congressional District.
Azariah Graves, Esq Fifth Congressional District.
John Robinson, Esq Sixth Congressional District.
A. Leazar, Esq Seventh Congressional District.
Burwell Blanton, Esq Eighth Congressional District.
Dr. C. D. Smith Ninth Congressional District.
EXECUTIYE COMMITTEE.
Gov, Alfred M. Scales, W. G. Upchurch, Col. W. F. Green.
FINSNCE COMMITTEE.
W. G. Upchurch, Col. John Robinson, A. Leazar.
OFFICERS.
Montford McGehee Commissioner.
Peter M. Wilson Secretary.
Charles W. Dabney, Jr Chemist and Director Experiment Station.
J. T. Patrick General Agent Immigration.
ASSISTANTS IN THE EXPERIMENT STATION.
Balduin von Herff, Ph. D. Frank B. Danci', A. B.
Herbert B. Battle, B. S. W. A. Withers, A. M.
THE KOETH O.A.IK.OI-.IIlSr.A.
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT AND FERTILIZER CONTROL STATION.
Established by the General Assembly of 1877, for the promotion of
North Carolina Agriculture.
1. Offices and laboratory in the Agricultural Department Building, corner
of Edenton and Halifax Streets, Raleigh. The chemical work of the Station
will include:
The analysis of all Fertilizers legally on sale in the State ;
The analysis of Agricultural Chemicals, of Composts and Home-made
Fertilizers, and of all materials from which they can be made;
The analysis of Soils, Marls and Mucks;
The analysis of Feeding Stuffs;
The analysis of Minerals, Ores and Mineral Waters;
The analysis of Drinking Waters, and Articles of Food.
The Station has facilities for doing the following botanical and other work:
The examination of Seeds with reference to their purity, and capacity to
germinate
;
he testing of varieties of Cultivated Plants ;
The examination of Grasses and Weeds ;
The study of Insects injurious to vegetation.
2. The Experimental Farm and Plant House of the Station will be estab-lished
during 1886 adjacent to the Fair Grounds of the State Agricultural Soci-ety,
one and a half miles west of Raleigh. There experiments will be carried
on, in the language of The Code, '* on the nutrition and growth of plants with
a view to ascertain what fertilizers are best suited to the various crops of this
State, and whether other crops may not be advantageously grown on its soils,"
and also experiments to ascertain the best varieties of the staple cultivated
plants and fruits, the best forage plants and grasses, and the best methods of
preparing for, sowing and cultivating the important farm and garden plants
in our climate and on our soils.
Other lines of investigation will be started later on.
The Station is a bureau of information for farmers, and every person inter-ested
in developing our agricultural industries is invited to apply to the Sta-tion
for any information connected with farming. We will endeavor to
give correct answers to such questions, or refer them to the best sources for
obtaining reliable information.
Reports of experiments, notes of observations or experiences on the farm,
and suggestions of subjects of investigation, clearly and briefly written, will
be welcomed and used to the best advantage possible.
Many publications upon the subjects mentioned are mailed, free of charge,
to citizens of North Carolina applying for them.
Correspondence is invited upon subjects pertaining to scientific agriculture.
Farmers are especially invited to visit the laboratory and the experimental
grounds.
Address: Dr. CHARLES W. DABNEY, Jr., Director,
Raleigh, N. C.
May 21st, 1886.
DIRECTIONS FOR SENDING SAMPLES.
The Station makes analyses for the citizens of North Carolina without
charge—provided,
1. That the results are of some use to the -public and are free to publish ;
2. That the samples are taken according to our directions for sampling and
are fully described.
Samples when accepted will be entered upon our register in the order of
their coming and analyzed in turn.
The results of each examination or analysis will be promptly communicated
to the person sending the sample. Results of general interest will be sent
simultaneously to the State newspapers or published in The Bulletin or report.
Station furnishes blanks.
Fertilizers are sampled by the regular Inspector for official analysis.
When other analyses are necessary, take a sample from at least a tenth of the
packages in the lot, mix these samples thoroughly on a sheet of paper, draw a
half-pound sample from this pile, put it into an air-tight package and send to
the Station as directed below. Write to the Station giving the brand, manufac-turer,
and agent of whom the sample was bought, and the number of bags in
the lot sampled. Give also the printed guarantee on the bag and the reasons
for suspecting the fertilizer below its guarantee. To collect damages from the
manufacturer in case the fertilizer falls below its guarantee, the sample should
be drawn, sealed, and mailed (or expressed) in the presence of witnesses.
Chemicals, composts, manures, feeding- stuffs, and articles of food may be sam-pled
in a similar manner.
Soils are sampled by taking a spot in the field of supposed average charac-ter,
and proceeding as follows: Get a plain tight box made closely so as to
hold a column of soil 3x3 inches, and about two feet long. Dig a hole suffi-cient
to put in the box, and get a column of ^oil the size indicated. Pack
tightly in the box, so it cannot shake around. Then write a full description
of the soil, including location, character, previous cultivation and treatment;
how manured, what crops grown, and what kind of plants and trees were on
the soil. Were the cultivated crops and other growth good, poor, or diseased ?
If diseased, state how.
Marls and Mucks are best sampled by taking a spot of supposed average
character, and taking a sample of a section from top to bottom of the layer,
and packing closely in a cigar box, so that it cannot break up.
Mineral waters must be put into two to three-gallon demijohns securely
packed in straw. The demijohns should be entirely clean, or preferably new.
Give the name of the spring and location.
For analyses of drinking waters, when there are reasons for suspecting
their impurity, get permission for analysis from Dr. Thos. F. Wood, Secretary
State Board of Health, Wilmington. Fill out the blank which he will send,
and mail it to the Station. The sample should be drawn according to the
directions on the back of the blank.
6 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
The Express Company transports all kinds of samples when properly packed.
As we have no fund for that purpose, the Express charges must be prepaid in
all cases.
By mail, as fourth-class matter, (one cent for each ounce) can be sent the
following: Samples of ores, minerals, marls, seeds, plant cuttings, bulbs, roots,
feeding-stuffs—all kinds of samples, in fact, except liquids, poisons, explosive
or inflammable articles and articles liable to injure the mail bag or persons
handling ; packed in pasteboard boxes or paper, and securely tied. Samples
of fertilizers, chemicals, composts and mucks must be packed in tin, or put in
a glass bottle, sealed, and the bottle then packed in a wooden or tin box in
cotton or saw dust, to be forwarded by mail.
Write your name and address, preceded by the word " from " upon all pack-ages,
and put some mark, word or number upon them by which to identify
them. This is very important. Address all packages to
EXPERIMENT STATION,
P. O. Drawer 33, Raleigh, N. C.
PUBLICATIONS
OF THE
NORTH CAROLINA EXPERIMENT STATION,
1878 to 1886.
This list includes reports, special publications and contributions to The Bul-letin
of the Department of Agriculture, but excludes all circulars, directions
and forms. Unless marked otherwise, they are unbound.
The following were issued under the Directorship of Dr. Albert R. Ledoux :
Directions for making Vinegar, 1878, 4 pages ;
Analyses and Valuations of Fertilizers, 1877-'78, 30 pages ;
Ville's formulas for composting and others, furnished by Dr. Ledoux, 1878,
16 pages;
The Sugar Beet in North Carolina, 1878, 50 pages;
Silica vs. Ammonia, results of comparative soil-tests of Popplein's Silicated
Phosphate, with a number of ammoniated guanos, 1878, 24 pages;
Analyses and Valuations of Fertilizers for 1877 and 1878, republished, 1879,
16 pages
;
Report of the Director to the Legislature, January, 1879, Document No. 8,
16 pages
;
Analyses and Valuations of Fertilizers for 1879, 8 pages;
Formulae for Composting, 1879, 16 pages;
Report of the Station for 1879 (bound), 193 pages ;
Report of the Station for 1880, including Analyses of Fertilizers for that
year (bound), 148 pages.
The following were issued by Dr. Charles W. Dabney, Jr.:
Report to the Legislature, January, 1881, 16 pages ;
PUBLICATIONS. I
Analyses of Drinking Waters, Bulletin for January, 1881;
Value of Active Ingredients of Fertilizers, Bulletin for February, 1881
;
The Use of Agricultural Chemicals, Bulletin for March, 1881 ;
Analyses and Valuations of Fertilizers and Chemicals, 1881, 16 pages;
Adulterated Chemicals, Bulletin for July, 1881;
Analyses and Valuations of Fertilizers, 2d edition, 1881, 12 pages;
Report of the Station for 1881 (bound), 172 pages ;
Trade in Fertilizers—Extension in Cotton Culture, Bulletin for Jan., 1882;
Home-made Manures—High-manuring on Cotton, Bulletin for February,
1882
;
Does Cotton Exhaust? Cotton Seed and its Uses, Bulletin for March, 1882;
Stable Manure, Saved and Composted—Rice Products as a Feeding-Stuff,
Bulletin for April, 1882;
Analyses of Fertilizers, 1882, 8 pages ;
Analyses of Fertilizers, 2d edition, 1882, 12 pages;
Experience with Home-made Manures, Bulletin for June, 1882;
Report of Work done for the State Board of Health, 1881, 8 pages ;
Treatment of Cotton Lands'—Station at State Fair, Bulletin for October, 1882;
Report of the Station, 1882 (bound), 152 pages;
Horn, Leather and Wool- Waste, and the Fertilizers made from them, 1882,
10 pages
;
Finely-ground Phosphates or "Floats," 1882, 10 pages;
On Kainite, 1882, 28 pages
;
Rice and its Products—Food and Fodder Plants, Bulletin, May, 1882;
The Soja Bean—Waste Products of Tobacco Factories, Bulletin, May, 1883;
Analyses of Fertilizers, 1883, 16 pages;
Analyses of Fertilizers, 2d Edition, 1883, 16 pages ;
Cotton Seed and its Products, Bulletin, June, 1883
;
N. C. Resources for Commercial Fertilizers,
I. Ammoniates
;
II. Potash Sources, Bulletin, December, 1883;
III. Phosphates, Bulletin, January, 1884
;
The Trade in Fertilizers during 1883, 12 pages;
Cost of the Ingredients of Fertilizers, Bulletin, February, 1884 ;
The Phosphate Investigation, Bulletin, March, 1884;
Analyses of Fertilizers, season of 1884, 16 pages;
Composition of N. C. Phosphates, Bulletin, April, 1884;
N. C. Phosphates, report on, 26 pages ;
Report of Station, 1883 (bound), 104 pages;
Analyses of Fertilizers, season of 1885, 16 pages ;
Analyses of Fertilizers, 2d edition ;
Report of Station, 1884 (bound), 104 pages;
Analyses of Fertilizers, additional, Fall 1885, a circular, 2 pages
;
Analyses of Composts, etc., a bulletin, 2 pages ;
Injurious Insects and Diseases of Stock, a bulletin, 2 pages.
CONTENTS.
Board of Agriculture, 1886, and Officers,
Announcement of the Station, ....
Directions for sending samples, ....
Publications of the Station, 1878 to 1886,
Contents,
Report of the Director,
Fertilizer Control and the Trade during 1885,
Analyses of Fertilizers 1885, ....
Miscellaneous Fertilizers and Fertilizer Materials,
Phosphatic material, ......
Potash manures, .......
Nitrogenous manures, ......
Home-made Fertilizers,
Mixing manures on the farm, ....
Composting, .......
Insoluble phosphates, ......
Formulas for farm manures, ... 1
Soil Analyses,
Marls—Descriptions of beds and localities,
Analyses of
Phosphates—Resume" of the Exploration for North Carolina,
Additional Analyses of .
Pyrites—Uses and statistics,
Report on, in North Carolina,
Explorations for ......
General consideration of the North Carolina,
Index,
PAGE.
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4
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40
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95
101
107
REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR
OF THE
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
The act which will signalize the year 1885 in the history of
the Agricultural Experiment Station is the resolution of the
Board of Agriculture, passed at the December meeting, to estab-lish
an experiment farm in connection with the Station. This
experiment farm makes this institution for the first time the
complete thing which the Act of 1877, establishing it, contem-plated.
We had urged this addition to our equipment regularly in
every biennial, and almost every annual and quarterly, report
for four years.
The Act referred to, now a part of The Code, (sections 2184 to
2213 inclusive), which required, in its introductory paragraphs,
the Board of Agriculture a to control the sale of fertilizers/7 to
make "investigations and experiments, directed to the introduc-tion
and fostering of new agricultural industries," to "investi-gate
the subject of drainage and irrigation/' "the diseases of
cattle and other domestic animals," " the ravages of insects, and
the means of preventing them," &c, evidently contemplated
experimental plots, barns, stock and utensils as a part of its
equipment. These means are more distinctly indicated in section
2196, which pertains especially to the Agricultural Experiment
and Fertilizer Control Station. This institution is to have two
arms or agencies—first, it is to be a bureau to control fertilizers,
and secondly, it is to be an Agricultural Experiment Station of
the broadest type. It is worth while to quote this section as a
whole
:
10 ANNUAL EEPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
" Sec. 2196. Establishment of an agricultural and fertilizer con-trol
station ; duties of the chemist.
"The Department of Agriculture shall establish an Agricultural Experiment and
Fertilizer Control Station, and shall employ an analyst, skilled in agricultural
chemistry. It shall be the duty of said chemist to analyze such fertilizers and
products as may be required by the Department of Agriculture, and to aid so far
as practicable in suppressing fraud in the sale of commercial fertilizers. He shall
also, under the direction of said Department, carry on experiments on the nutri-tion
and growth of plants, with a view to ascertain what fertilizers are best suited
to the various crops of this State ; and whether other crops may not be advan-tageously
grown on its soils, and shall carry on such other investigations as the
said Department may direct. He shall make regular reports to the said Depart-ment
of all analyses and experiments made, which shall be furnished when deemed
xiseful, to such newspapers as will publish the same. His salary shall be paid out
of the fuuds of the Department of Agriculture."
In each biennial report to the Board since 1880 the Director
has quoted this law and has urged the immediate establishment
of the experiment farm in these words:
" The law thus distinctly provides for practical farm experi-ments
by your State chemist. But how is the chemist to per-form
his duty? At present he has no effectual means whatever,
of so doing. We believe that the time has now arrived when
this work can and ought to be started. Our other arrangements
are all complete. The expenditures upon the agricultural build-ing
are at an end. Oar people expect progress of us. We have
no right to stand back from any work which we are thus author-ized
to do, and which will tend to promote the progress of agri-culture
in the State, if the means are at hand to do it.
"There are thousands of questions which call for careful, scien-tific
investigation. These problems require special training on
the part of the experimenters, and they require time, care and
money, which the ordinary farmer cannot command. Their
results are for the general benefit, and it is the duty of the State
to perform them. In the nature of things, the ordinary farmer
cannot make them for himself. We, in North Carolina, have
our own peculiar problems connected with our own special crops.
There are questions of the greatest importance connected with
cotton, tobacco and corn, which demand ou» attention, and it is
not probable that anybody can or will solve them for us.
ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF STATION. 11
"We urge you to the investment of a moderate amount in an
experimental farm as a means of turning your present invest-ment
in the chemical laboratory to better account. Theory and
practice go hand in hand in the natural sciences. The experi-ments
in the laboratory are necessarily much limited if we can-not
test them in practice. If we had an associated farm our
laboratory work would be able to expand into far greater use-fulness."
The Board did not, in its opinion, have the means adequate to
the establishment of the farm before. Other matters equally as
positively required by law, such as the exhibitions at the great
international expositions, the needs of our home fairs, the exam-ination
and surveys of deposits of useful minerals (coal and phos-phates),
experiments on the propagation of fish and the intro-duction
of new species of fish, the necessity for publishing great
numbers of books and maps illustrative of the State, etc., had
been started, and absorbed all the available funds of the Depart-ment.
But in December last, the Board declared that the time had
come when they could see their way clear to at least start the
operations of an experiment farm in connection with this Station.
The experiment station, which had its origin in Saxony in
1851, was at first only a chemical laboratory for the analysis of
fertilizers, soils, etc., such as ours has been for eight years. But
it did not stand there. Its work was rapidly extended to the
control of the sale of seed and of feeding stuffs. Then experi-ment
stations, with fields, plant-houses, barns, stables, etc., were
started for making experiments on the nutrition and growth of
plants, on methods of cultivating and fertilizing, on growing
sugar-beets and making sugar, on vine growing and wine mak-ing,
on cattle feeding and on the diseases of domestic animals,
etc. The European experiment stations have become widely
differentiated and strongly specialized, and the related industries
or districts, interested in a particular line of work, now have their
special stations, such as sugar experiment stations, forestry sta-tions,
viticultural stations, general botanical and horticultural
12 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
stations, stations for reclaiming barrens, bogs and moors; silk
stations, beer and spirit stations, et cetera. Such a rapid devel-opment
has the experiment station idea had in Europe since
1851, when the first one was established there. Germany alone
has now about 100 experiment stations of all kinds. One of the
most typical and probably the most useful of these was described
by the following resolution, passed by a meeting oT farmers at
Frankfort in 1869.
This resolution expresses so clearly the relative importance of
the various needs of the farmer, and hence the relative impor-tance
of the work of an experiment station, and what such a
station is, that it is translated and given in full :
"Resolved, That we respectfully request the establishment of a station which,
first above all things, shall exercise a real, practical control over the sale of ma-nures,
over the sale of feeding stuffs and the sale of seeds. At the same time
the station shall be a place to which all agriculturalists may direct their questions,
and receive explanations and advice on all subjects which come up in their daily
experience in the field ; where they can obtain counsel, and be guided by the
light and the results of the most recent achievements of science. This station
shall also institute any practical experiments which may be necessary to solve
questions of geueral agricultural interest and value.""*
The station which was established by this act at Darmstadt,
and over which Dr. Paul Wagner, the well known writer on
agricultural science, has presided for a number of years, and
which started first as a chemical station, has given the world
in the last few years a most refined, thorough and searching sys-tem
of field experimentation accompanied by the clearest and
happiest illustrations of their results.
The development of experiment stations in this country has
been even more rapid. The first one was established in Connec-ticut
in 1875; the second in North Carolina in 1877. There are
now regular experiment stations in Maine, Massachusetts, Con-necticut,
three in NewT York, and one in New Jersey, Ohio, Ala-bama,
North Carolina, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Tennessee and
Louisiana. The rich State of Kentucky was the last to join this
list, but she has just established a station at Lexington, in the
*Report 1879.
THE WORK OF AN EXPERIMENT STATION. 13
heart of the famous blue-grass region. California does all the
work of a general experiment station, and a great deal more,
bearing on wine-making and horticulture, at her Univer-sity
through the agency of scientists specially employed for this
purpose. Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Kansas, Georgia, Iowa,
Mississippi and Texas have special bureaus for doing the whole,
or a part, of the work of an experiment station at their agri-cultural
colleges. All of these stations and colleges have ex-periment
farms or plots, except North Carolina, which will
start its farm next year—and possibly Connecticut, which has
only five acres.
Lt is thus seen that every southern State has an experiment
station or a bureau corresponding thereto except Maryland, a
chiefly commercial State, Virginia, Florida and Arkansas.
The Americans, always intensely practical, have developed
rapidly the different uses and applications of this idea. The
chief line of work of the older and best equipped stations in this
country may be indicated as follows :
—
Connecticut experiment station :—Fertilizers, soils, feeding
experiments.
North Carolina:—Fertilizers, home sources of manures, marls,
phosphates, soils.
New Jersey:—Manures, field experiments, feeding experi-ments.
New York (Geneva):—Horticulture, varieties, field experi-ments,
feeding and dairy experiments.
Massachusetts:—Fertilizers, field experiments, horticulture.
Ohio:—Field experiments, botanical and chemical work.
Louisiana:—Sugar experiment station, etc.
An experiment station is not a " model farm." The agricul-tural
experiment station is simply an organization for the study
of science applied on the farm and in the industries based
immediately upon the products of the farm. The experiment
station has its chemical, botanical and biological laboratories; its
plant houses, experimental plots and stables. The last are as
much laboratories as the former. The aim everywhere is to
ascertain what science teaches in these special relations.
14 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
On the other hand the " model farm" makes rural economy its
chief study. Its aim is practical success. It has the best land,
most convenient houses, best machinery and tools and finest ani-mals,
and it should make the biggest crops, finest fruit and fat-test
stock at the least cost. The experiment station must spend
money to learn; the "model farm" should make money. To
conduct an experiment station we get a scientific man ; to con-duct
a " model farm" we employ an intelligent, shrewd farmer.
The New York Experiment Station at Geneva will illustrate
what we mean. From the report of the Treasurer of this station
for the year ending September 30, 1885, we get the following
facts
:
Total expenditures $20,085
Of which there was paid in salaries to scientific men and
their assistants 8,995
For labor 4,490
The expenses of the chemical and botanical laboratories of
field, garden and feeding experiments make up the balance of the
amount.
On the credit side of the account there is the sum of $780.41
from the sale of produce. This is the most extensive station in
the country, and its work is chiefly in the field, the garden and
the stable. This station owns 125 acres of land, but uses only
about 30 acres in actual experiments.
We have entered into this explanation of what an experiment
station is to prevent misunderstanding about our new undertak-ing.
The addition of land to the equipment of the North Car-olina
Experiment Station does not mean that we will "run" a
"model farm." No more land will be cultivated than is abso-lutely
necessary for obtaining accurate results, and not a dollar
will be spent for ornament or for show. It is to be simply a
field laboratory. The Station, which has a chemical laboratory
at the Agricultural Department building, adds to itself a labor-atory
in the field. In the chemical laboratory, analyses of fer-tilizers,
soils, marls, composts, feeding stuffs, &c, will be made
as heretofore. In the field laboratory, experiments will be made,
WORK OF STATION DURING THE YEAR. 15
in the language of The Code, "on the nutrition and growth of
plants, with a view to ascertain what fertilizers are best suited to
the various crops of the State;" on "new agricultural industries
adapted to the various climates and soils of this State/' on "drain-age
and irrigation/' on "the diseases of cattle and other domestic
animals," "relating to the ravages of insects," &c.
The experiment farm is located northwest of Raleigh one and
a half miles, at the State Fair grounds. The State Agricultural
Society gave about 25 acres, and the Board of Agriculture pur-chased
10 acres additional at $50 per acre. The soil is poor and
thirsty, but is in many respects well adapted to the purposes of
experiment. During the year 1886 only a modest start will be
made. The experimental ground must be carefully examined,
laid off and drained-; and roads and walks must be made. The
most necessary buildings will be erected on the land which the
Board owns. The year will be chiefly taken up with this work
of preparation, and little in the way of practical results is to be
expected.
North Carolina farmers will rejoice at this step of progress,
and it is to be hoped that the Station, in its complete form, will
receive their renewed support and encouragement.
The following list shows the number and character of analyses
made during the year, 1885 :
Articles Analyzed. Number.
Fertilizers, official (134), unofficial (56) 190,
Composts 7
Marls 53
Phosphates, rocks (20), and natural phosphates (4) 24
Soils 13
Kainite (5), sulphate of potash (1), muriate of potash (1) 7
Cotton seed meal (10), hulls (1), hull ash (1) 12
Rice "Flour" (1), and "Polish" (1) 2
Dissolved Bone (1), and Bone meal (4) 5
Fish Scrap (2), ammonite (1), dried blood (1) 4
Screenings (1), tobacco sterns (2), rotted tan bark (1), muck (1) 5
Nitrate of soda (1), sulphate of ammonia (1) 2
Bugs (1), wheat insects (1) 2
16 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
Meal (1), Ship stuff (1) 2
Butter (1), buttermilk (1), cream tartar (3), tin foil (1), window cur-tain
(1) „ 7
Urine (1), hog's heart (1) 2
Minerals identified 95
Boiler incrustation (1), residue soil solution (1) 2
Gold ores (15), iron ores (3), gypsum (3), graphite (1) 22
Waters, health analysis 16
Waters, mineral analysis 34
Coals — 15
521
The Dumber of analyses made during 1881, was 450; during
1882, 459; during 1883, it was 453; during 1884 (phosphates),
was 642.
The following publications were made by the Experiment
Station, under the direction of the Board, during the year 1885:
Name. No. Copies.
Bulletin No. 1, Partial Spring analyses of fertilizers 5,000
Report for 1884, (250 copies of which were bound) 10,000
Bulletin No. 2, Spring analyses of fertilizers, complete. 10,000
" 3, Fall analyses of fertilizers, partial 500
" 4, Analyses of composts, fertilizing materials, &c 500
" 5, Fall analyses of fertilizers, partial 500
" 6, Diseases of stock, insects, &c 500
" " 7, "What the valuations of fertilizers mean" 2,000
These publications and any back publications remaining on
hand are sent to citizens of North Carolina, free of charge, on
application. Nearly all of the above have been mailed to a list
of persons who have sent us their names in the past, and but
few remain on hand.
;
THE FERTILIZER CONTROL AND THE TRADE
DURING 18S5.
The Experiment Station was established chiefly to give pro-tection
to the farmers of North Carolina in the purchase of ferti-lizers.
The analysis of fertilizers which constituted its earliest
work has continued to be the most important portion, although
it is no longer the largest part of its work.
The law is found in sections 2190 to 2196 of The Code. It
was a wise provision of the law which gave the farmer this pro-tection
at the time it did. The fertilizer trade was just being
established in the State and, while there were many excellent
articles, there were many worthless ones which, through igno-rance
more than fraud, were offered the farmers of the State,
who had no means whatever of selecting the good. This was
remedied by the system of careful inspection and analysis which
the Legislature of 1877 gave the State and which is still in force.
The condition of the trade in fertilizers has steadily improved,
year by year, since that time. If this control had not been es-tablished,
it is safe to say that not one-half the fertilizer now
sold would find consumption with us.
This system of fertilizer control is based upon two simple
principles: first, the license of the manufacturer to sell a brand
or article of a guaranteed composition and grade; second, the
inspection and analysis of all fertilizers, when licensed, to see
that this guarantee is sustained. The first requirement involves
a formal announcement and an exact statement by the manufac-turer
of what he proposes to sell. No particular grade or com-position
is named in the law, but the Commissioner of Agriculture
is authorized to admit to competition in the trade of the State
every description or grade of article which can be reasonably
supposed to meet the wants of any crop or farm.
18 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
From the nature of a fertilizer its purchaser cannot judge of
its character or richness, as the purchaser of sugar or salt can of
the quality of those articles. The farmer must call in the help
of the chemist to dissect the sample, weigh its valuable ingre-dients
and estimate its worth. It is just this that the State has
provided shall be done once for all of its agriculturists through
the Experiment Station.
REGULATIONS OF THE FERTILIZER CONTROL.
Manufacturers are required to take out annually a license, for
which they pay $500, and file with the Commissioner of Agri-culture
their stamp or brand, which the law requires shall in-clude
the guaranteed analysis of the article and must be uniform
upon all packages, and which cannot be changed during the year
for which the license is taken. The license is required upon
each different "brand or quality." Every such brand has then
the freedom of the whole State. Experience has proved that
this plan is the fairest and best for all concerned. It is simple,
can be easily carried out, and causes the manufacturer, the dealer
and the farmer alike the least trouble.
The following ruling of the Board of Agriculture further
defines the classes of articles which are taxable:
"At a meeting of the Board of Agriculture, October 15th, 1879, it was resolved
that the following articles shall be admitted free of tax, with such additions or
changes as may afterwards be made by the Executive Committee, upon consulta-tion
with the chemist, viz : Ground bone, bone ash, ground bone black, ground
phosphate rock, or other mineral phosphate, nitrogenous organic matter com-mercially
free from phosphoric acid and potash, nitrate of soda, nitrate of
potash (saltpetre), sulphate of ammonia, muriate of ammonia, kainite, sulphate
of magnesia, sulphate of potash, sulphate of soda, muriate of potash, lime,
plaster, ground cracklings, ground tankage, salt and oil of vitriol."
Upon the following articles the license tax will be exacted :
"Any of the above articles, or others, sold for fertilizing material under any
trade-mark or proprietary brand; upon dissolved bone, dissolved bone black,
dissolved mineral phosphates (all acid phosphates or superphosphates), and upon
any two or more of the articles mentioned in the first list, if combined either
chemically or mechanically."
REGULATIONS OF THE FERTILIZER CONTROL. 19
To make plain the requirements of the law in the matter and
to secure uniformity, the following scheme is reconmiended for
the brand :
(Weight of bag)
(Name of brand)
(Trade- mark)
(Manufacturer's address)
Analysis (date)
Available phosphoric acid per cent.
Nitrogen (or ammonia, if claimed) "
Potash, (if claimed) "
North Carolina privilege tax paid.
The phosphoric acid should not be expressed as bone phos-phate
alone. By available phosphoric acid is meant the sum of
the soluble and the so-called "reverted."
The methods of the Association of official agricultural chem-ists
are used. Total nitrogen will be determined and credit
given for all available forms. Owing to the difficulty in dis-criminating
between the different sources whence nitrogen is ob-tained
in compound superphosphates, it is not attempted to give
a different valuation to each different nitrogenous material in
these articles. But leather scrap, horn scrap, wool-waste and
similar materials are considered as fraudulently present in such
goods, unless special mention is made on the bags. Special
steps will always be taken to detect their presence, and when
found in any sufficient amount to affect the value of the goods,
mention will be made of the fact. Nitrogen may be expressed as
such or as ammonia. The potash referred to is that soluble in
water. It should be expressed simply as potash (K 2 0). The
percentages may be given within reasonable limits. These limits
should not be greater than two per cent, on the available phos-phoric
acid, J per cent, on the nitrogen, and J per cent, on the
potash.
Samples of fertilizers are drawn under the supervision and
immediate direction of the Commissioner of Agriculture. Great
care is taken to get the fairest possible sample of the brand
offered for sale. Every possible precaution, fairly within the
20 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
powers of an inspector, is taken to attain this end. The analyses
of official samples only are published.
The chemist of the Agricultural Experiment Station receives
the sample with a number only. He does not know the name
of the brand until his report of analysis is put on file in the
Commissioner's office. When this has been done, the actual
returns of the analysis are compared with the composition guar-anteed
or branded on the bag. The manufacturer and the dealer
or agent selling the same then receive copies of the analysis.
If the article is shown by the analysis to be deficient at any
point, the manufacturer or agent has an opportunity to correct
the mistake. The matter having been fully decided, the analy-sis
is published in the papers of the State. In all cases where
the law is uot satisfied promptly, its penalties are exacted.
The analyses made for farmers, dealers, &c, on their samples
are for their personal use, but these are not published by the
Station or allowed to be used in any way in the place of the
official analyses of the samples drawn by the State's inspectors.
Our certified and sealed duplicates of official analyses will be
furnished gratis to the manufacturers and their agents.
The fertilizer control, as organized in the State, has supplied
just what is needed for the protection of the farmer in the intel-ligent
use of fertilizers, without giving rise to any artificial or
unnecessary restrictions on trade. It is believed that the law of
this State is superior to every other fertilizer law in these respects.
It creates no artificial or arbitrary limits to the composition of
fertilizers. It insures perfectly good faith between manufac-turer,
agent and consumer. It is simple and requires a mini-mum
of machinery, of expenditure aud of espionage, a thing dis-tinctively
disagreeable to all American citizens. Its history
will show that its execution involves the fewest difficulties or
embarrassments for all concerned.
FERTILIZERS DURtNG 1885.
Under this control the trade in fertilizers has continued in a
healthy state during the past two years. The following table
FERTILIZER SALES AND MANUFACTURES. 21
shows the number and description of fertilizers licensed to be
sold in North Carolina during the years 1881, '82, '83, '84 and
'85.
1881. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885.
"Acid phosphates," or simple superphosphates.. 8 10 11 7 9
Superphosphates with potash 9 15 15 10 10
Ammoniated superphosphates. 40 55 67 59 63
Natural guanos 13 2 3 2
Agricultural lime 112 11
Specialties 2 1
59 86 92 80 85
Where did these fertilizers come from? It would be interest-ing
to know 'where all the fertilizers sold in this State are made.
This is not so easy to ascertain as one would suppose. Some
merchants have their goods made partly at one place and partly
at another. In compiling the next table we have ascertained
as far as possible where each brand sold in the State in each of
the years from 1880 to 1885 inclusive was manufactured, and have
credited it to that State. Where this could not be ascertained,
we have credited the article to the address of the general agent
or merchant selling it. In this way, North Carolina and the
neighboring States have probably a few too many to their credit.
WHERE THE FERTILIZERS ARE MANUFACTURED.
1880. 1881.
3
2
6
3
2
25
1882. 1883. 1884. 1885.
Massachusetts 2
1
3
3
2
21
2
4
3
1
2
42
1
17
6
14
2
3
2
1
2
30
20
8
12
3
Connecticut 2
5
1
2
45
1
15
6
9
3
New York 4
New Jersey 2
Delaware 4
Maryland 31
Pennsylvania
7
3
5
9
3
6
18
North Carolina 9
South Carolina 11
Totals 47 59 86 92 80 85
It is gratifying to note that North Carolina has at least made
a beginning at the business of manufacturing her own manures.
22 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
The last three years, the Southern States, at the bottom of the
column, show a decided improvement in this business. Where
the States of Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina sold
only fifteen brands in 1880, they now sell thirty-eight.
The progress of the trade may be briefly stated, as follows:
Forty-two brands of fertilizers were sold in 1879, forty-eight in
1880, fifty-nine in 1881, eighty-six in 1882, ninety-two in 1883,
eighty in 1884, and eighty-five in 1885. Sixty thousand tons
were sold in 1879, the year after the establishment of the Station,
eighty thousand in 1880, eighty-five thousand in 1881, ninety-two
thousand in 1882, ninety-five thousand in 1883, ninety-five thous-and
in 1884, and probably a little less in 1885. During the
same time the price of fertilizers has been as follows: In 1879
phosphoric acid was estimated to cost in North Carolina, on the
average, for soluble, 12J cents; for reverted, or precipitated, 9
cents per pound. Ammonia cost 22 cents, and potash 8 cents per
pound. In 1880 the same prices ruled. In 1881 available
phosphoric acid was worth 12J cents, while ammonia went up a
little and cost 18.9 ceuts, on the average, per pound, potash re-maining
the same. In 1882, owing to the introduction of a
large quantity of the German potash salt, the price of potash in
manipulated goods went down to 6 cents, while ammonia went
up to 25 cents, and available phosphoric acid remained at 12J
cents per pound. In 1883 the activity in the South Carolina
phosphates reduced the cost of available phosphoric acid to our
farmers to 10 cents, while ammonia cost them only 22J, potash
remaining still at 6 cents per pound. In 1884 available phos-phoric
acid declined still further to 9 cents, ammonia to 20 cents,
and p )tash remaining still the same, viz: 6 cents per pound.
In the spring of 1885 the figures remained the same, except for
potash, which was reduced to 5 cents per pound. At the close
of 1885 a conference of the State chemists of Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, agreed to intro-duce
a new basis of calculation, as will be explained below, and
fixed the figures for use in calculating the commercial values at the
seaboards of these States at 7J cents for available phosphoric
acid, 16 cents for ammonia and 5 cents for potash per pound.
FERTILIZER VALUES AND PRICES. 23
The average composition of the ammoniated superphosphates
with potash (so-called complete fertilizers) for each year was as
follows:
AMMONIATED SUPERPHOSPHATES, WITH POTASH.
AVERAGE IN
1880. 1882. 1883. 1884. 1885.
Available phosphoric acid 7.40 8.91 8.59 8.15 9.13
Ammonia 2.70 2.60 2.33 2.67 2.65
Potash 1.30 1.82 2.18 2.13 2.34
Valuation on the 1885 basis 25.42 28.26 26.96 27.28 29.37
In calculating the valuations, the same figures have been ap-plied
to the average analysis of each year for the purpose of
comparing them. These figures prove forcibly that there has
been a gradual, but steady improvement in the quality of this kind
offertilizer from 1880 to 1885. By the same analyses the aver-age
per cent, of available phosphoric acid has increased from
7.40 in 1880, to 9.13 in 1885, the average per cent, of pot-ash
has increased from 1.30 in 1880, to 2.34 in 1885, while the
per cent, of ammonia remains remarkably near one figure for
all the years, except 1883, when ammoniates were unusually
scarce. Thus the valuation of the average fertilizer, using the
prices of 1885 for all analyses alike, has, with a few fluctuations
steadily climbed up from $25.42 per ton in 1880, to $29.37 per
ton in 1885. The most remarkable thing is that during this
period, 1880 to 1885, the actual cash prices paid by North Caro-lina
farmers for these fertilizers has declined from $40.00 to
$30.00 per ton. The actual selling price has declined $10.00
per ton, while the quality or grade has improved $4.00 worth
on the ton, making a total gain to our farmers of $14 per ton.
This means that North Carolina farmers could get in 1885 for
three million of dollars what they had to pay four millons for
in 1880—yes, and get an article one-sixth better than the 1880
article was.
The cost of ingredients of fertilizers to manufacturers, especially
of phosphates, has declined somewhat, but not enough to account
for a gross difference of $14 per ton, for that is what the difference
is between 1880 and 1885, on a fertilizer of the same grade.
24 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
Manufacturers of fertilizers will tell you, and tell you correctly,
what the true explanation is. Competition, or something else in
the development of this great industry, has reduced the price of
fertilizers to the farmers from a price which included big profits,
to a price which now includes a very low margin of profit, while
the regular analysis and publication of the composition of the
fertilizers by the fertilizer control stations, has induced their
makers to steadily improve them.
ANALYSES OE FERTILIZERS FOR 1884.
The figures used in estimating the relative commercial values
of ammoniated superphosphates and similar manures during
1884, were
:
Available phosphoric acid 9 cents per lb.
Ammonia 20 " "
Potash 5 " "
These relative valuations merely furnish a convenient method
of summing up the results of the analyses and of comparing
them. They are not intended, of course, to fix the price at
which the articles ought to be sold all over the State. Differ-ence
in freights to different points renders this impossible.
Neither do they represent the agricultural value of the articles.
This is a very different thing indeed from the commercial or
market value of an article. The actual agricultural value of a
manure, applied to a particular soil or crop, depends upon a great
number of conditions, the properties of the soil, the cultivation,
variations in the weather, &c, as well as the properties of the
manure. The agricultural value and the commercial value have
no fixed relation, in fact; although in using fertilizers we always
hope and expect that the value to us in the field will exceed their
cost enough to give us a profit.
A conference of the State chemists of Virginia, North Caro-lina,
South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama, in September 1885,
agreed upon a new plan for estimating these values, which will
be uniform for all these States. This new plan does not apply to
our analyses below for 1885, but it will be well to explain it
here.
FERTILIZER VALUES AND PRICES. 25
The values we shall give in connection with the analyses of
fertilizers in 1886, will represent the relative commercial cash
values at our seaboard, that is at Wilmington, Beaufort, New-bern,
Washington, Edenton or Elizabeth City. They will ap-ply
as well to points like Portsmouth (Norfolk) and West Point.
To ascertain the cash value for interior points, it will be neces-sary
to add the freight from the port of entry to that point. In
case of fertilizers manufactured in the interior of the State, it
will be necessary to add to the value which we report the amount
of freight for one ton from Wilmington, Portsmouth or the usual
port for that place. For example, to ascertain the commercial
cash value of a ton of fertilizer at Raleigh, add to our value at
the seaboard the amount of freight for one ton from Wilming-ton,
or Portsmouth, as the case may be. At Charlotte, add to
the reported value the freight from Charleston, Wilmington or
West Point, and so for every other point.
This plan differs materially from the plan previously pursued,
and we ask especial attention to this. The plan followed by the
Station in 1885 and all previous years, in common with most of
the bureaus of the same kind, was to ascertain the average cash
value of fertilizers at the chief interior centres of the trade, such
as Raleigh and Charlotte, and to base the estimates upon this.
This plan, always very unsatisfactory, became entirely impracti-cable
when the competition of different fertilizer-manufacturing
centres cut down the prices to the lowest margin of profits. The
figures agreed upon by all these States for use the next season
are:
AT THE SEABOARD:
"Available" phosphoric acid lh cents per pound.
Ammonia 16 " " "
Potash 5 "
To illustrate the significance and application of the new plan
aud figures : suppose an acid phosphate on sale at Wilmington
contains 12J per cent, of soluble and reverted phosphoric acid
(which together are called "available"). 12J pounds in 100 is
26 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
250 pounds in a ton. Multiply 250 by 7J cents, the figure for
1 lb. "available/7 and you get $18.75 as the cash value of the
article at retail. Now this signifies that the man who pays cash
can get that article at Wilmington at that price, the way the
market stands at present. Or, supposing the freight to Char-lotte
is $2.50, the man who pays cash in Charlotte can get that
article at $21.25; which is the Wilmington cash value with
freight added.
This must not be understood as applicable to airy but cash
purchasers.
On the one hand, the man who buys largely, or offers other
inducements, will get his fertilizer cheaper. On the other, the
farmer who promises to pay in a fluctuating staple next Novem-ber
must expect to pay considerable money in addition for the
time and risk.
The Station made 134 analyses of official samples of commer-cial
fertilizers during 1885, and 56 additional (unpublished)
analyses especially for private persons. This is counting official
samples alone, 1J analysis of each brand sold in the State that
year ; or, counting all samples, 2J analyses of each. This does
not include the analyses of phosphates, agricultural chemicals, or
other ingredients of fertilizers.
The analyses in the following tables were all made on samples
drawn according to law by the special agents of the Department
of Agriculture from new lots of goods received in the State after
the beginning of the new year. On the even pages will be found
a list of fertilizers licensed to be sold in the State during the year,
with the addresses of the manufacturers or general agents. On
the page opposite the name is the analysis and relative valuation
of the fertilizer.
In three instances two analyses are given for one brand. In
these cases, resulting probably from carelessness in the mixing
or some mistake in bagging or shipping, the samples differed
widely in character, and it was impossible to ascertain which one
of them correctly represented the true character of the goods of
this name on sale in the State.
FERTILIZER PRICES AND VALUES. 27
The water given is that lost by continual heating at the tem-perature
of boiling water. The insoluble phosphoric acid is that
contained in phosphates which fail to dissolve in neutral am-monium
citrate solution (sp. gr., 1.09)—Atlanta method.
The soluble phosphoric acid is that free or in form of phos-phates
(generally the one-lime phosphate or acid phosphate of
lime), soluble in pure cold water. The "reverted" is that insol-uble
in water, but dissolving neutral in standard ammonium
citrate solution. This is all that the term reverted signifies here,
and it is used simply to stand for the phrase, " insoluble in pure
water, but soluble in standard ammonium citrate solution under
the standard conditions." It is generally agreed that it is within
the power of plants to take up directly the phosphates so dis-solving,
or in other words, that these phosphates are "available."
The " total available phosphoric" is simply the sum of the
soluble and "reverted" acid. The nitrogen is given as such, and
calculated to its equivalent, ammonia. The potash is given as*
simple, uncombined potash (K 2 Oj.
The number of the analysis on the Station books is given in
the first column at the left, and the place where this particular
sample was drawn, in the column at the right of the first page,
28 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
o
Si
3168
3103
3255
-3276
3184
3104
3180
3269
3147
3258
3296
3162
3164
3237
NAME.
Acid Phosphate,
Acid Phosphate, L.
&R.,
Acme Fertilizer,...
Americus Brand Am-moniated
Bone Su-perphosphate,
Ammoniated Dis-solved
Bone,
Ammoniated Guano,
L. & R.,
Ammoniated Phos-phate
for Fine To-bacco,
Ammoniated Soluble
Navassa Guano,
Anchor Brand,
ADDRESS OF MANUFAC-TURER,
OR GENERAL
AGENT.
Anchor Brand for To-bacco,
Arlington Ammoni-ated
Soluble Phos-phate,
Ashepoo Acid PhoS'
phate,
Baker's Dissolved
Bone Phosphate,
Baker's Standard
Guano,
Atlantic Phosphate Co.,
Charleston, S. C,
Lorentz & Rittler, Balti-more,
Md.,
Acme Manufacturing Co.,
Wilmington, N. C,
Williams, Clark & Co., 112
Pearl street, N. Y.,
John Merryman & Co., 24
Second street. Baltimore,
Maryland,
Lorentz & Rittler, 10 South
street, Baltimore, Md.,
J. G.Miller & Co., Danville,
Virginia,
Navassa Guano Co., Wil-mington,
N. C,
Southern Fertilizing Co,,
1321 Gary street, Rich-mond,
Va.,
Southern Fertilizing Co.,
1321 Gary street, Rich-mond,
Va.,
Dambmann Bros. & Co.,
Baltimore, Md.,
Ashepoo Phosphate Co.,
Robertson, Taylor & Co.,
Agents, Charleston, S. C,
Chemical Co., of Canton, 32
and 34 South Charles
street, Baltimore, Md.,
Chemical Co., of Canton, 32
and 34 South Charles
street, Baltimore, Md.
SAMPLED AT
Shelby,
Raleigh,
Oxford,
Raleigh,
Shelby,
J Raleigh,.... \
\ Lumbert'n, f
Winston,
Rocky Mount,...
Warren Plains,
Asheville,
Concord,
Shelby,
Goldsboro,
10
11
12
13
14
ANALYSES OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 29
Water.
Insoluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Soluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Kverted
Phosphoric
Acid.
Total
Availa-ble
Phospho-ric
Acid.
a
<v
C
Si
-4—
c
fl'S
<D H
-=. o
Si -C
03
-*J
O
1.55
3.03
3.35
2.23
2.16
3.50
1.85
5.18
1.83
Relative
Corn.
Value
per
Ton,
(2,000
lbs.)
1 13.32
14.84
11.40
14.78
11.10
j 13.51
I 11.46
12.89
14.65
3.22
1.90
1.32
0.40
3.47
2.45
4.17
1.73
3.20
7.44
8.33
4.59
7.30
6.69
7.25
6.60
6.20
4.33
3.54
1.79
4.72
3.33
. 2.70
2.46
2.03
1.88
5'.79
10.98
10.12
9.31
10.63
9.39
9.71
8.63
8.08
10.12
$ 21.31
9, 21.25
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
2.54
2.17
2.20
2.80
1.44
1.92
2.35
3.08
2.63
2.67
3.40
1.75
2.33
2.85
32.43
31.88
29.74
34.58
24.38
29.04
31.45
10
11
12
12.83
13.73
12.38
16.25
14.99
4.74
0.84
3.79
3.84
3.99
4.73
7.50
7.34
7.24
5.09
2.49
2.72
4.19
3.82
3.03
7.22
10.22
11.53
11.06
8.12
2.42
2.35
2.94
2.85
1.88
2.89
0.94
•
26.65
32.68
21.63
13 19.91
14 1.79 2.17 2.12 25.41
30 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
o
GO
NAME.
3229; Baltimore Soluble Bone,
j
32021 Bone and P'ruvian Guano
3283
3136
3203
3174
3494
3252
3185
3268
3349
3509
3107
"Bos" Amnioniated Su-perphosphate,
Bradley's Patent Super-phosphate
of Lime,
British Mixture,
Calvert Guano
Chesapeake Guano
Diamond Soluble Bone...
ADDRESS OP MANUFAC-TURER,
OR GENERAL
AGENT.
SAMPLED
AT
Baltimore Guano Co., 32 and 34 Smithfield ,
S. Charles St., Baltimore, Md
Upshur Guano Co., Norfolk, Vir-ginia,
Wm. Davidson & Co., Box 126
Baltimore, Md.,
Bradley Fertilizing Co., Lewis
F. Detrick, General Agent, 108
S. Charles St., Baltimore, Md.,
E. B. Whitman, 104 S. Charles
St., Baltimore, Md.,
P. Zell & Sons, 30 South Street,
Baltimore, Md.,
Chesapeake Guano Co., 21 P. O.
Avenue, Baltimore, Md.,
Walton, Whann & Co., Wil-mington,
Del.,
Littleton,
Hillsboro,
Wilson ....
Franklin-ton,
Lumberton
Statesville,
Diamond State Super-phosphate,
Dissolved Bone Phos-phate
of Lime, Pacific,
Durham Bull Fertilizer,
Eddy stone Soluble Guano
EdistoAcid Phosphate...
Empire Guano
Lord & Pf)lk, Odessa, Delaware,! Warren
Plains,
John S. Keese & Co., 10 South
St., Baltimore, Md.,
Durham Fertilizer Co., Durham,
North Carolina,
Clark's Cove Guano Co., New
Bedford, Mass.,
Edisto Phosphate Co., Charles-ton,
S. C,
Rasin Fertilizer Co., 20 and 22
South St., Baltimore, Md.,
Shelby
Durham....
Henderson,
Shelby
Raleigh ....
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
ANALYSES OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 31
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
S-,
S3
15.78
11.41
11.70
16.12
16.36
3 C .
o
s- -
o
3 °- .
COP-i <1
4.12
2.43
1.12
1.24
2.45
"0 3
*H Q_, .
> o .S
8.07 3.97
5.65
«s o
<3 _a .S
o ^ o H -q'C
12.04
3.55
6.95 3.57
9.20
10.62
a ei
<3 S
+3 a c .-, cr a
O
2.81 3.41
2.22 2.69
o
Ph
r o
1.82
2.61
8.20 2.49 10.69 2.45! 2.971 1.65
6.40 2.78 9.18 2.28 2.77 2.09
21.67
32.02
32.30
32.77
29.69
23
24
25
26
27
28
13.37
22 12.54
12.87
11.48
11.39
10.81
15.26
15.46
3.67
3.02
1.55
4.01
1.96
1.30
7.281 1.75 9.03 1.61 1.96 1.63
6.52
4.41
7.94
5.48 12.00
3.57
4.14
5.54 2.96
6.26
1.09 9.90
2.75 6.00
3.01
2.52
3.06
7.98
12.08
8.50
9.27
12.42
9.06
1.61 1.96 3.73
2.21 2.68
1.80
2.28
2.18
2.77
2.18
1.10
1.75
1.73
26.02
21.60
25.93
21.74
28.20
26.51
24.11
29.12
32 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
o
S3 C
• i—
--
C3
3186
5210
NAME.
Etiwan Dissolved Bone,...
Etiwan Guano,,
3270 Eureka Ammoniated Bone
Superphosphate,
3105
3211
3496
Excellenza Soluble Phos-phate,
Farmer's Bone Fertilizer...
Farmer's Friend, .
Fish Hawk Guano.
ADDRESS OF MANUFAC-TURER,
OR GENERAL
AGENT.
SAMPLED
AT
3272 Game Guano.
3228 Giant Guano.
3140 Gibbs & Co.'s High Grade
Ammoniated Phosphate,
3177
3143
3172
3141
3108
Good Luck Guano.
High Grade Premium
Guano,
IXL Ammoniated Bone
Superphosphate,
Lazaretto Acid Phosphate,
Lister's Ammoniated Dis-solved
Bone Phosphate,
Wm. C. Bee & Co., General
Agents, Charleston, S. C,
Wm. C. Bee & Co., General
Agents, Charleston, S. C,
Atlantic & Virginia Fertiliz-ing
Co., Richmond, Va.,
Long & Dugdale, 37 S. Gay
st., Baltimore, Md.,
Enterprise Fertilizing Com-pany,
Tarboro, N. C,
Read & Co., 88 Wall st., N. Y.
Freeman, Mason, Lloyd &
Dryden, Norfolk, Va.,
Baltimore Guano Co., 32 & 34
S. Charles St., Baltimore,
Rasin Fertilizer Co., 20 & 22
South st., Baltimore, Md.,
E. J. Powers, Wilmington,
North Carolina,
The Geo. W. Miles Co., Mil-ford,
Conn.,
Geo. L. Arps, Norfolk, Va.,
The Geo. W. Miles Co., Mil-ford,
Conn.,
Lazaretto Chemical & Fertili-zer
Works, G. W. Grafflin,
Prop'r, Baltimore, Md.,
Lister Bros., Newark, N. J.,
Shelby
Tarboro, ...
Winston,...
Raleigh
Tarboro, ...
Statesville,
Winston,...
Wilming-ton,
Wilming-ton,
Monroe, ...
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
Wilming- |40
ton.
Lumberton
Wilson, ....
Raleigh,....
41
42
43
ANALYSES OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 33
<u
15.09
15.22
Insoluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Soluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Reverted
Phosphoric
Acid.
Total
Availa-ble
Phospho-ric
Acid.
a
&c
o
i-
-1-9
%
o
c a
a> o
"5 a
.5 a
Z<
J3
zn
03
O
Ph
Relative
Com.
Value
per
Ton,
(2,000
lbs.)
29 1.96
2.30
9.50
4.30
3.20
4.77
12.70
9.07
$ 22.86
30 2.55 3.10 1.55 30.27
31 10.10
13.71
1.33
3.54
8.16
6.79
2.67
2.11
10.83
8.90
2.29
2.60
2.78
3.16
30.61
32 2.06 30.72
33 9.88 *4.35 5.40 2.63 8.03 2.19 2.66 2.42 27.51
34 13.09 1.64 6.32 3.92 10.24 1.58 1.91 1.47 27.56
35
36 13.54 4.92 3.45 5.01 8.46 1.74 2.11 2.27 25.94
37 15.68 2.69 4.88 4.20 9.08 2.25 2.73 1.96 29.22
38 20.15 2.97 3.72 4.73 8.45 2.57 3.12 1.87 29.56
39 19.48 3.18 6.00 2.24 8.24 2.17 2.64 1.22 26.61
40 20.69 1.97 5.03 4.29 9.32 1.86 2.26 1.72 27.54
41 19.13 3.26 5.95 2.07 8.02 2.26 2.74 2.40 27.80
42 11.98 3.82 8.80 4.00 12.80 23.04
43 16.42 1.07 8.61 2.43 11.04 2.60 3.16 1.64 34.15
Note.—Insoluble is from fine steamed bone.
34 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
o
a
o
« ,—
i
3230
3173
3257
3139
3232
3203
3138
3208
3213
3144
ADDRESS OF MANUFAC-TURER,
OR GENERAL
AGENT.
3231
3182
3207
3212
3114
Lister's Plain Dissolved
Bone,
Long's Prepared Chemicals
National Tobacco Fertilizer
Navassa Acid Phosphate...
New Era Champion Guano,
Norfolk Fertilizer and In-secticide,
Orchilla Guano
Owl Brand Guano
Owl Brand Tobacco Guano,
Patapsco Ammoniated Sol-uble
Phosphate,
Patapsco Guano
Peruvian Guano No. 1,
Lobos,
Peruvian Mixture
Piedmont Special Fertilizer
Piedmont Guano for To-bacco,
Pine Island Ammoniated
Phosphate,
Lister Bros., Newark, N. J...
Long & Dugdale, 37 S. Gay
street, Baltimore, Md.,
Travers, Snead & Co., Rich-mond,
Va.,
Navassa Guano Co., Wilming-ton,
N. C,
Upshur Guano Co., Norfolk,
Virginia,
Styron, Whitehurst & Co.,
Norfolk, Va.,
Travers, Snead & Co., Rich-mond,
Virginia,
Davie & Whittle, Petersburg,
Virginia,
Davie & Whittle, Petersburg,
Virginia,
Patapsco Guano Co., 14 South
Holliday st. Baltimore, Md.,
Patapsco Guano Co., 14 South
Holliday st., Baltimore, Md.,
Hurtado & Co., New York,
N. Y.,
American Fertilizer Co., Nor-folk,
Va.,
Piedmont Guano and Mfg.Co.,
383 Charles street, Balti-more,
Md.,
Piedmont Guano and Mfg.Co.,
383 Charles street, Balti-more,
Md.,
Quinnipiac Fertilizer Co.,
New London, Conn.,
SAMPLED
AT
Goldsboro..
Monroe
Henderson
Wilson
Kinston ....
Washing-ton,
Wilson
Littleton...
Franklin-ton,
Weldon
Wilming-ton,
Lumberton
Franklin-ton,
Franklin-ton,
Laurin-burg,
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
ANALYSES OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 35
CD Insoluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Soluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Reverted
Phosphoric
Acid.
Total
Availa-ble
Phospho-ric
Acid.
Nitrogen.
Equivalent
to
Ammonia.
Potash.
Relative
Com.
Value
per
Ton,
(2,00.0
lbs.)
44 14.86
11.29
0.04
3.80
13.91
7.43
1.43
3.38
15.34
10.81
$ 27.61
45 2.57 22.03
46 10.28 2.93 4.40 4.26 8.66 1.64 1.99 3.14 26.69
47 15.82
14.68
3.17
1.65
6.95
4.37
3.80
4.16
10.75
8.53
1.80
3.72
21.15
48 1.77 2.15 27.67
49 see below, page 38.
50 see below page 39.
51 14.01 3.59 7.33 2.53 9.86 1.62 1.97 1.95 27.57
52 14.79 1.14 8.38 1.34 9.72 2.50 3.03 2.61 32.22
53 13.46 4.13 7.09 3.03 10.12 2.03 2.46 1.91 30.09
54
55 12.27 5.36 2.70 6.80 9.50 7.66 9.30 2.37 56.67
56 15.72 1.61 7.94 2.96 10.90 2.29 2.78 1.64 32.38
57 14.34 2.39 5.27 " 3.70 8.97 2.14 2.60 1.69 28.23
58 16.02 1.28 4.64 4.54 9.18 2.29 2.78 3.63 31.27
59 13.03 2.11 4.82 5.30 10.12 2.56 3.10 1.89 32.51
36 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
o
c
.2
CO
3137 \
3206J
3131
3155
3146
3181
3215
3176
3236
3170
3251
3132
3205
NAME.
3235
3254
3142
Pocomoke Superphos-phate,
Prolific Cotton Grower,
Raleigh Standard
Guano,
Red Navassa Guano,
x Ammoniated,
Reliance Ammoniated
Superphosphate,
Royster's High Grade
Acid Phosphate,
Sea Fowl Guano,
ADDRESS OF MANUFAC-TURER,
OR GENERAL
AGENT.
Slingluff's Pure Dis-solved
Bone,
Soluble Pacific Guano,
Soluble Pacific Guano
for Tobacco,
Special Cotton Com-pound,
Special Compound for
Tobacco,
Special Truck Fertil-izer,
IStar Brand Guano
Star Brand Special To-bacco
Manure,
jStono Acid Phosphate,
Freeman, Mason, Lloyd &
Dryden, Norfolk, Va.,
Goldsboro Oil Mills, Golds-boro,
N. C,
Raleigh Oil Mills and Fer-tilizer
Co., Raleigh, N. C,
Navassa Guano Co., Wil-mington,
N. C,
Walton, Whann & Co., Wil-mington,
Del.,
Royster & Strudwick, Nor-folk,
Virginia,
Bradley Fertilizing Co.,
Lewis F. Detrick, Gen'l
Agent, 108 S. Charles
street, Baltimore,
Boykin, Carmer & Co., Bal-timore,
Md.,
John S. Reese & Co., 10
South st., Baltimore, Md.,
John S. Reese & Co., 10
South St., Baltimore, Md.,
G. Ober & Sons, 85 Ex-change
Place, Baltimore,
G. Ober & Sons, 85 Ex-change
Place, Baltimore,
H. J. Baker & Bro., New
York, N. Y.,
Allison & Addison, Rich-mond,
Virginia,
Allison & Addison, Rich-mond,
Virginia,
Stono Phosphate Company,
Charleston, S. C,
SAMPLED AT
Wilson,
W'shingt'n
Goldsboro,
Raleigh,
Rocky Mount,...
Lumberton,
Tarboro,
Fayetteville,
Selma,
Shelby, ;
Oxford,
Wilson,
Macon,
Smithfield,
Oxford,
Newbern,
ANALYSIS OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 37
o3
17.12
17.87
9.49
17.40
12.74
14.03
2 o
14.76
14.41
12.05
14.55
18.25
73 20.75
13.32
14.53
3.45
3.21
1.23
1.82
3.07
t
2.34
5.05
15.31 1.55
2.47
3.98
2.84
1.69
2.01
1.60
2.95
2.72
Soluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Reverted
Phosphoric
Acid.
Total
Availa-ble
Phospho-ric
Acid.
a
be
o
-,
o
c a
la a
^<
pa
O
Ph
3.76 3.48 7.24 2.00 2.43 3.77
3.06 7.11 10.17 2.63 3.19 4.67
5.77 3.87 9.64 2.25 2.73 3.31
5.82 3.04 8.86 2.72 3.30 2.55
4.63 4.66 9.29 1.61 1.95 1.46
5.17 4.11 9.28 1.84 2.23 2.53
7.07
7.70
4.33
3.25
11.40
10.95 2.44 2.96 1.63
9.36 3.51 12.87 1.76 2.14 0.37
6.13 3.35 9.48 1.89 2.29 1.68
6.60 2.25 8.85 2.27 2.75 3.47
7.36 2.79 10.15 2.14 2.60 1.86
7.11 1.91 9.02 2.85 3.46 2.68
7.06 1.39 8.45 1.82 2.21 1.46
6.52 4.79 11.31 2.32 2.82 2.38
6.38 3.69 10.07 1.58
pSS8£
26.52
36.00
31.58
31.70
25.98
28.15
20.52
33.18
32.08
27.70
30.40
30.53
32.75
25.71
34.01
20.31
38 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
6 ADDRESS OF MANUFAC-a
NAME. TURER, OR GENERAL SAMPLED AT
.2 *+3 AGENT.
-4-3
CO
3178 Stono Soluble Guano.. Stono Phosphate Company,
Charleston, S. C,
76
3133 Walker's Ammoniated
Cotton Phosphate,
Joshua Walker. 13 German
street, Baltimore, Md.,
Wilson 77
3166 Wando Acid Phos-phate,
Wando Phosphate Com-pany,
Charleston, S. C,
Concord 78
3160 Wando Fertilizer Wando Phosphate Com-pany,
Charleston, S. C,
79
3169 Whann's Raw Bone
Superp., Plow Brand
Walton, Whann & Co.,
Wilmington, Delaware,
Shelby...., 80
3113 Wilcox, Gibbs & Co.'s
Manipulated Guano,
Wilcox, Gibbs & Co.,
Charleston, S. C,
81
3163 Wilcox, Gibbs & Co.'s
Superphosphate,
WT
ilcox, Gibbs & Co.,
Charleston, S. C,
Shelby 8?,
3102 Zell's Ammoniated
Bone Superphosphate,
P. Zell & Sons, 30 South
st., Baltimore, Md.,
83
3106 \
3266 i
Zell's Cotton Acid
Phosphate,
P. Zell & Sons, 30 South
st., Baltimore, Md.,
84
3256 Zell's Tobacco Fertil-izer,
P. Zell & Sons, 30 South
St., Baltimore, Md.,
Oxford 85
The following licensed fertilizer cannot be classed with superphosphates:
"3209, The Norfolk Fertilizer and Insecticide, manufactured by Styron,
Whitehurst & Co., Norfolk, Va.," sampled at Washington, 1885, was found to
contain :
Moisture 12.61 per cent.
"^Bone phosphate 3.96 " "
fSulphate of potash 2.33 " "
Chloride of sodium small amount.
Carbonate of lime 32.75 per cent.
Lime as hydrate aid oxide 24.55 " "
Magnesia 1.72 " "
Sand and insoluble, volatile and organic matter,
oxide of iron, alumina, combined water and
loss 22.08 " "
Equivalent to phosphoric acid, 1.81
fEquivalent to potash, 1.26 per cent.
100.00 per cent.
per cent.
ANALYSES OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 39
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
10.34
15.66
12.11
13.60
12.91
12.66
14.31
15.30
15.14
13.22
14.84
Insoluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Soluble
Phosphoric
Acid.
Reverted
Phosphoric
Acid.
4.53 4.39 2.96
2.45 5.83 3.36
2.62 8.54 3.81
2.78 6.63 3.14
2.40 5.72 4.43
0.88 5.01 3.17
1.43 4.37 4.24
2.97 7.27 1.95
4.00 7.59 8.86
3.43 6.97 4.30
2.19 5.77 3.00
03 O
"5 ~p-
> CO
G & O h3t
c
CD
be
o
7.35
9.19
12.35
9.77
10.15
8.18
8.61
9.22
16.45
11.27
8.77
II
&<
2.98
2.02
1.76
2.68
2.65
2.38
1.65
3.62
2.45
o
2.14
3.25
3.21
2.00
1.72
2.17
03 & c~-° >> c —'
"3 -Hg C3 r O
$ 29.43
28.51
22.23
1.83! 27.98
2.87
2.52
34.14
30.08
3.84 19.34
1.69
0.82
1.34
29.81
30.43 \
21.63/
5.25 ! 29.03
3138, Orchilla Guano, Travers, Snead & Co., Richmond, Va., sampled at
Wilson contained,
Moisture at 212° F., 11.43 per cent.
Total phosphoric acid, 17.86 "
Equiv. to bone phosphate, 38.99
Carbonate of lime, 36.06
Potash, 0.30
MISCELLANEOUS FERTILIZERS.
" North Carolina Agricultural Chemical Works " at Winton.
Last winter some persons, who had just come to the State, and
were possibly uninformed about our fertilizer laws, started into the
business of mixing fertilizers without license at Winton, Hertford
county, under the firm name of the North Carolina Agricultural
Chemical Works. One H. M. Pollard, referred to as a fertilizer
trickster in the Anuual Report of the Connecticut Station for
1884, was the leading spirit. They purchased some chemicals,
mixed and sold a few tons of very good fertilizers of different
grades, and left. When the inspector got to Winton the material
was all in the hands of farmers, and the law-breakers had fled
the State. The Station received samples of their products from
farmers of that neighborhood and made the following analyses
of them. The articles were mixed from good materials, chiefly
dissolved bone-black, cotton-seed meal, animal matter, sulphate
of ammonia, nitrate of soda and muriate of potash.
3316. Mr. C. W. Mitchell, Aulander, sent the first sample, May 1. Cash
price $50 per ton. The mixers represented that this article contained 9 to 11
per cent, of available phosphoric acid, 8 to 10 of ammonia, and 9 to 10 of pot-ash.
The sample fell below their minimum only in the ammonia. Fifty dol-lars
was not too much for it.
3322. Mr. Julian G. Moore, St. Johns, sent a different sample. This had
some natural guano in it. They appear to have mixed a variety of articles.
3339. Mr. R. H. Saunders, of Winton, sent two samples, one marked "for
corn " and one "for cotton." The corn fertilizer had the natural guano again.
3340. The cotton fertilizer was mixed with bone-black. Mr. Saunders
represented that many were using the fertilizers. We have no further inform-ation
about the articles, though the samples all look very much as if they had
been mixed just to be analyzed, not to go into the soil. Their analyses and
valuations are given in this table.
MISCELLANEOUS FERTILIZERS, 41
PRODUCT OF THE NORTH CAROLINA CHEMICAL WORKS, WINTON.
©
+3
J.
•i—
o
6.46
7.72
8.39
6.36
a.
O .
&0
e *
3 o
owA2
—
0.45
0.41
0.45
0.49
A'o
.P,o3
© O
7.93
0.26
0.59
8.02
O .
ft"3
So
f %
1.81
6.1C
5.76
1.56
A
— .2
?'§
ps
9.74
6.42
6.35
9.58
d
a
O
Ph
6.14
4.90
4.66
8.20
o
+^ . a ce
©•g
5 3
£ S
as
H *
7.4G
5.95
5.66
9.96
Potash.
Relative
value
per
ton
of
2,000
lbs.
3316 61 per cent. vol. and
org. matter
C. W. Mitchell,
Aulauder,
Julian G. Moore,
R. H. Saunders,
Winton,
R. H. Saunders,
Winton,
9.31
5.92
5.76
10.00
56.68
3322
3339
53 per cent. vol. and
org. matter.,
"For Corn"
41.28
3340 "For Cotton"
39.83
67.08
BONE MEAL.
3068. Sent by E, P. McAnally, Walnut Cove.
3153. Bone meal, made and sent by the Enterprise Fertilizer Company, of
Tarboro, from partially weathered bones.
3321. Bone meal, sold by Baugh & Sons, Baltimore and Philadelphia.
3412. Also from Baugh & Sons, sample from Latta C. Johnston, Charlotte.
3068
3153
3321
3412
R. P. McAnally, Walnut Cove,
Made and sent by Enterprise Fertilizer Co., Tarboro,] 14.22
Sold by Baugh & Sons,
Baugh & Sons, sent by Latta C. Johnston, Charlotte, 19.96
o
£1 «f-i a *-
C6
AX ~o8 d
PhO £Z <X>
cS a* blj
otal ric o.S
O
f-i
16.63 36.32
Z
3.25
31.04 2.10
16.58 36.19 2.67
43.59 3.60
03
g>3
Sg
•2 *
3.95
2.55
3.24
4.37
PHOSPHATIC MATERIALS.
3304. A sample of dissolved bone from W. P. Blanchard, Potecasi. This
was only about one-third dissolved, and was not pure bone. There was only
one per cent, of soluble phosphoric acid.
3080. "Phosphoral," said to be "made from Redonda phosphate and an
African phosphate with sulphurous acid, by the Elizabethport Milling Com-pany,
N. J." Mr. Geo. E. White, Agent, 159 Front street, New York, writes
to Capt. B. P. Williamson, who sent the sample to the Station, that the mate-rial
is guaranteed to contain 25 per cent, of available phosphoric acid, and
frequently yields 30 to 35 per cent., and that it sells for 95 cents per unit of
available. There is only a trace of soluble phosphoric acid. Ammonium
3
42 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
citrate solution dissolves a considerable part of the phosphate, varying with
the amount of the solvent, the time and the temperature. It has a very high
per cent, of phosphoric acid.
3392. A "powdered phosphate rock," sent by Messrs. Cronly & Morris,
Wilmington, said to have come from the island of Roncador, imported in the
British brig Iolanthe. Carbonate of lime, with a small amount of phosphate.
It contained 3 per cent, of moisture, and only 0.36 per cent, of sand.
3193. A natural guano "from Roncador Cay, an island in the Caribbean
Sea,''' so said Messrs. Geo. Harriss & Co., who sent the sample, marked " Carib-bean."
3124. "Screenings," coarse lumps, not passing through the screen, in mix-ing
a fertilizer, sent by the Enterprise Fertilizer Co., Tarboro, who wished to
know what they were composed of. The kainite appeared to be moist and to
be collecting various parts of the mixture into lumps.
Phosphoric
acid
soluble
in
ammonium
cftrate. Total
phospho-ric
acid.
Yielding
ammonia.
02
O
3304
3080
Dissolved bone, W. P. Blauchard, Potecasi, 5.00
See
above.
0.95
7.46
14.94
42.77
8.56
16.77
9.06
3.95
3392 Phosphate from Roncador Island, Br. Brig Iolanthe,
Cronly & Morris, Wilmington,
3193 " Caribbean," from Roncador, Geo. Harriss & Co.,
Wilmington, 0.45
3194 Screenings. Enterprise Fertilizer Co., Tarboro, 3.24 3.78
Potash Manures.
KAINITE.
3012. Crude kainite, cargo of 400 tons imported direct by W. P. Baugham,
Washington ; guaranteed to run 23 per cent, of sulphate of potash and contains
244- per cent.
3066. Crude kainite, bought in Baltimore by R. P. McAnally, Walnut
Cove.
3086. Crude kainite, bought by the Goldsboro Oil Mills. This is the lowest
grade received during the year.
3278. Sent by W. P. Baugham, Washington. Slightly discolored and sup-posed
to be adulterated, but found to contain the full amount of potash.
3345. Sent by Arch'd Carmichael, bought from J. B. Starr, Fayetteville.
Good kainite.
MISCELLANEOUS FERTILIZERS. 43
ANALYSES OF KAINITE.
3012
3066
3086
3278
3345
W. P. Baugham, Washington,
R.;.P. McAnally, Walnut Cove,
Goldsboro Oil Company, Goldsboro..,
W. P. Baugham, Washington, ,
Archibald Carmichael, Fayetteville,
Potash.
Sulphateof potash.
13.25 24.50
13.38 24.74
11.57 21.40
11.08 26.05
13.61 25.30
MURIATE OF POTASH.
The only sample received was from T. R. Lee, Mt. Olive ; No. 3263, con-tained
potash 50.81 per cent, or muriate of potash 90.17 per cent. This is the
ordinary commercial standard for this salt.
"PURE SULPHATE OF POTASH."
Heretofore the standard commercial grades of potash salts have been
Muriate of potash, 'containing 50 pr. ct. potash, K 2 O
"Double sul. potash and magnesia" " 48 " " " "
"High grade" sulphate of potash " 40 " "
"Low grade" sulphate of potash, " 30 " " "
Kainite, " 12 " " "
Recently a nearly pure sulphate of potash with a minimum of 52 per cent,
of potash has been produced and this is to be placed at the top of the above
list.
3479. The Station received a sample of this from the importers, Lleller,
Hirsch & Co., 164 Front street, New York. The next highest grade of sul-phate,
the so-called "Double Sulphate" above, contains usually 2} to 3 per
cent, of chlorine ; the new "pure sulphate," is guaranteed to be practically free
from chlorine, containing less than one-half of one per cent. The importers
are offering this "pure sulphate," guaranteed 95 per cent, of sulphate of potash
and free from chlorine, at $2.30 per hundred pourfds out of store in New York,
in lots of 25 tons.
The sample sent by Heller, Hirsch & Co. contained
Sulphate of potash 97.90 percent.
" of lime, 0.44
" of magnesia, 0.45 "
Chloride of sodium, 0.18 "
Insoluble matter, in hot water 0.68 "
Moisture, 0.50 "
100.15 "
44 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
This article is of especial interest to our growers of fine, bright tobacco, who-believe
that chlorine tends to spot or darken the leaf. The mechanical con-dition
of the material is excellent, and it is well adapted to be used both in
regular tobacco fertilizers and in home-made mixtures for tobacco. We hear
that it will be manufactured in this country also from the lower grade German
potash salts, so that it is to be hoped that the supply will be sufficient.
COTTON SEED HULL ASHES.
This is an important source of potash for the South. The hulls are sepa-rated
from the seed at the oil mills, and are usually burned for fuel, supplying
all of the power required for the machinery. As was to be supposed, being a
part of the seed, these hulls have a rich ash. The cotton seed of the ordi-nary
season is divided into two equal parts at the mills. The kernels, forming
one-half, are crushed, and produce cake and oil. The hulls yield from 2J to
2} per cent, of crude ash when burned. An experiment made in 1885 gave.,
after removal from the seed of 22 lbs. more of lint,
Hulls 49.9 per cent, of the seed.
Ash, crude, . 2.53 " of these hulls.
Or, we may count each ton of cotton seed as containing 25 lbs. of crude ash.
As burned under the boilers, this ash is ordinarily mixed with more or less
char, earth, lime, &c, from the brick work, but may be obtained almost per-fectly
free from these things, if properly managed.
3084. A sample of this hull ash, carefully made by the Ralgigh Oil Mills
and Fertilizer Company, analyzed as follows:
Moisture, at 212° F.,. 4.29 percent.
Matter insoluble in dilute acid, 6.47 "
Phosphoric acid, nearly all soluble, 3.55 "
(Equivalent to bone phosphate, 7.75 per cent.)
Potash, 44.72
We have found pure hull ash, free from sand and coal, to run as high as
50 per cent, of potash.—See Report of this Station, 1882, page 97, and following.
This ash is just beginning to receive the attention it so richly merits. The
commercial ash varies much in potash, according to the care taken in prepar-ing
it. But it has never to our knowledge brought the price which it would
seem to be entitled to in proportion to muriate of potash. With its 3^ per
cent, of phosphoric acid, good ash, like the above, ought to be worth fully as
much as muriate, which was quoted in Baltimore at $1.90 per 100 lbs., whole-sale,
on January 1st.
Prof. Hilgard, in his report on the cotton seed oil industry, Vol. V. Tenth
Census of the United States, p. 61, rates the cotton seed' hulls " at $5 per cord
for fuel, and their ash at $10 per ton for manurial purposes"; but he calcu-lates
the ash in the hulls on a basis of 4 per cent. His totals for the United
States in 1879 are,
MISCELLANEOUS FERTILIZERS. 45
Total tons of cotton seed, 2,270,417
(based upon the generally accepted ratio of two tons of
seed to one of lint ; whereas, the proportion is probably
much higher).
Total tons of seed reserved for planting, 238,718
Total tons of seed for milling, 2,031,699*
From the last total we have calculated,
Total tons of hulls from extra seed, after 22 lbs. lint per ton
is removed, 1,002,925
At 2.5 per cent, these hulls will yield,
Total tons of hull ashes, of highest grade, 25,073
Considerably less than half of the extra cotton seed of 1879 was milled
(exactly how much cannot be ascertained). So that less than half this amount
of ash was actually obtained.
Potash in muriate is worth 4 cents a pound at wholesale. Supposing each
ton of the above to contain 40 per cent, of potash, a low estimate, the total
possible cotton-seed-hull ash output of this country would be worth $32 per
ton, or a total of $802,336. '
* The reporter wrote a 5 for the in this total, which resulted in a big error in the
result.
Nitrogenous Manures.
ANALYSES OF COTTON SEED MEAL.
c
CO
3115
3238
3246
3247
3248
3249
3250
3264
3326
MADE AND SENT BY
Raleigh Oil Mills and Fertilizer Company
Charlotte Oil Company
Charlotte Oil Company
Charlotte Oil Company
Charlotte Oil Company
Charlotte Oil Company
Charlotte Oil Company
Elizabeth Citv Oil Mills
P. E. Chazal, for Nitrogen Committee Assoc. Off.
Ag. Chemists,
3535lRaleigh Oil Mills and Fertilizer Company.
8.70
13.35
15.25
16,10
14.27
17.26
21.02
14.27
9.28
o
o — .
O o
2.88
2.81
3.03
3.42
n
«1
IS
7.78
7.50
6.83
7.16
8.02
9.44
9.10
8.29
8.69
9.74
1.87*
1.89*
1.17f
1.5lf
* Potash dissolved out by dilute hydrochloric acid,
t Potash dissolved out by hot water.
46 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
AMMONIATES.
2887. Fish scrap, made and sent by Dey & Bro., Beaufort. This was a
very excellent sample. The fish is very dry and scarcely decomposed at all.
The sample contained
Volatile and organic matter 90.93 percent.
Ash or mineral matter 9.07
100.00
The volatile and organic matter contains, calculated on original substance:
Nitrogen, 11.35 per cent.
Equivalent to Ammonia 13.78
The ash contains, calculated on original substance:
Phosphoric Acid 4.09 per cent.
Equivalent to Bone Phosphate, 8.94
3122. Fish scrap, sent by Enterprise Fertilizer Co. Tarboro, contains :
Phosphoric Acid, 8.15 per cent.
Equivalent to Bone Phosphate, 17.79
Nitrogen, 7.86
Equivalent to Ammonia, 9.54
3088. Rice, Flour and Meal, from J. Strauss & Co., Goldsboro, examined
with reference to fertilizing value. These materials are all used for feeding
purposes, never as a manure.
P <p . u += a ae<s ££ en ^
5*
ft o 5 ft O T3 o
o PQ o £ "© £
3.06
3.84
- A
ft £ £ 8
c5
3088 Rice, Flour, 6.68 9,35 2.85
3089 Rice, Meal or "Polish," 8.37 2.05 2.49
Rice flour is the firs! meal taken off the grain by the pestles, the "polish77
an inner layer taken off in the process of polishing the grains. (See repor*
this Station 1882, page 89.)
3070. Rotted tan-bark, sent by R. P. McAnally, Walnut Cove, used by him
in composts.
3323. Dried blood, sent by Mr. P. E. Chazal for Nitrogen Committee of
the Assoc. Official Agricultural Chemists.
3329. Ammonite, or dried animal matter, from the same source.
3333. Nitrate of soda from same.
3334. Sulphate of ammonia from same.
3420. Muck "from N. C.," sent by Capt. R. B. Saunders, of Oxford, who
wrote, "It is said to show 12 per cent, of ammonia and can be dug up like
earth. This beats the Arabian Nights, and if it is true I would like to find
out where the stuff grows. • It contains less than 1 per cent, of nitrogen.
MISCELLANEOUS FERTILIZERS. 47
3070 Rotted tan bark, R. P. McAnally, Walnut Cove,
3323 Dried blood, P. E. Chazal, State Chemist, Columbia, S. C.
3329 Ammonite,
3333
3334
3420
Nitrate of soda,
Sulphate of Ammonia, " "
Muck from N. C, Capt. R.'B. Saunders, Oxford, N. C.
<S
bk-~
ffl rQ —
etO
c 0) C
+= [M *
fc
0.75 0.91
13.94 16.92
13.52 16.41
15.18 18.43
20.65 25.07
0.90 1.09
TOBACCO STEMS AND A FERTILIZER MADE FROM THEM.
3067. Ground tobacco stems, sent by K. P. McAnally, Walnut Cove, con-tained,
Phos. acid, 1.00 per cent. Equiv. to bone phosphate, 2.18 per cent.
Yielding ammonia , 2.04 "
Potash 6.08 "
3242. A fertilizer said to have been made at Louisville, Ky., from tobacco
stems, sent by the Durham Fertilizer Company, contained,
Moisture, 6.08 per cent.
Phosphoric acid, 5.35 "
Equivalent to bone phosphate, 11.68 per cent.
Nitrogen 2.21 per cent.
Equivalent to ammonia ,,..,2.68 "
Potash 8.26 per cent.
This has had a little bone mixed with it, and probably some potash salt.
HOME-MADE FERTILIZERS.
Some Illustrations.
The Station is always glad to direct attention to all cheap
ingredients of fertilizers, and especially to home-produced mate-rials
and the mixtures made from them.
2708. The Battleboro Grange is in the habit of mixing a lot of fertilizer
each year for its members. This is a sample of their mixture sent by Mr. W.
P. Davis.
2978. A compost of "250 bushels cotton seed, 1 ton acid phosphate, 1 ton
kainite and 2 two-horse loads of lot scrapings," from Mr. W. H. McLaurin,
Laurinburg, contained 87.0 per cent, of sand and insoluble matter, \ per cent,
of phosphoric acid and 0.42 per cent, of ammonia. The ingredients were evi-dently
badly mixed, for the sample sent was nearly all earth and does not rep-resent
the above ingredients.
Mr. N. W. Crawford, of Elizabeth City, is a systematic mixer of his own
fertilizers, and with good success, as the results show. The Station has made
these analyses for him :
2767. A mixture of "300 lbs. cotton seed meal, 125 cotton seed hull ashes,
400 acid phosphate, 175 kainite, and 500 lbs. rich dirt from around an old
dead horse, buried 18 months before," making 1500 lbs., which cost $10.52.
We calculate, omitting the "dirt" at first as of unknown composition, that the
mixture should contain at least
1.5 per cent, of ammonia.
5.00 " phosphoric acid.
4.00 " potash.
The mixture was actually found to contain :
1.81 per cent, of ammonia.
6.23 " phosphoric acid.
4.85 " potash,
which indicates that the " dead horse dirt " must have contained before mixing,
0.93 per cent, of ammonia, %
3.69 " phosphoric acid,
1.80 " potash,
and to have been worth, therefore, $8 to $10 a ton. This illustrates happily
one of the economies of the farm.
3240. This spring Mr. Crawford used a mixture of 200 pounds of dissolved
bone, 200 of acid phosphate, 200 of cotton seed meal, 140 of kainite, 160 of
land plaster, 100 of cotton seed hull ashes and 500 of hen-house manure, mak-
HOME-MADE FERTILIZERS. 49
ing 1,500 pounds, at a cost of $9.10. The manure, &c., was pulverized and
sifted through a coal sifter and the ingredients were sprinkled down on a plank
floor in layers. The kainite was dissolved in water and sprinkled on each
layer, "chopped together and run through the coal sieve again.'" The sample
analyzed :
Phosphoric acid, 6.38 per cent.
Ammonia, 1.37
Potash, 3.49
Calculated, omitting the hen-house manure:
Phosphoric acid, 5.50 per cent.
Ammonia, 1.00 "
Potash, 3.30
From which it can be shown, as in the preceding case, that the mixture gained
materially from the hen-house manure.
3005. This autumn Mr. Crawford used the following mixture under turnips
:
1 part bone meal, 1 part "rich dirt", 2 parts of dry, sifted hardwood ashes,
"wet with a solution of kainite and let stand two weeks," contained :
Phosphoric acid, 6.10 per cent.
Ammonia, 0.90 "
Potash, 3.60
3069. A mixture of chemicals:—sulphate of ammonia, muriate potash and
bone meal, proportions not known, from R. P. McAnally, Walnut Cove.
3262. A compost made from stable manure and chemicals, sent by Prof. R.
S. Powell, who wanted to know what needed to be added to it to make it a
good tobacco manure. Advised to add some tankage or bone meal to it.
3373. An unusually rich compost sent by Paul Lee, Shotwell, formula not
known. This approximates some of the commercial fertilizers in value.
The details of the analyses are given in the table:
ANALYSES OF COMPOSTS.
2708
2978
3005
3069
3240
3262
3373
W. P. Davis, Battleborough,
W. H. McLaurin, Laurinburg,....
N. W. Crawford, Elizabeth City,.
R. P. McAnally, Walnut Cove,....
N. W. Crawford, Elizabeth City,..
Prof. R. S. Powell, Reidsville,....
Paul Lee, Shotwell,
_i.
. o
03 o rH +a
-£
cs
-3 £
cS 0)
73 jd
3mi
16.67
j
87.161
30.13
74.90
20.50
o »
£ S
>
40.06
8.67
24.34
13.87
j
60.30 i
£V3
o o
J~2 C^
4.96
0.50
6.10
6.63
6.38
2.01
4.30
1.90
0.35
0.74
1.35
1.13
0.20
1.55
•3 a
2.31
0.42
0.90
1.64
1.37
0.24
1.88
3.10
3.60
5.95
3.49
0.54
2.33
50 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
HOW TO COMPOST AND MIX MANURES FOE, THE FARM.
The great number of requests which the Station receives for
information on this subject shows that these practices are increas-ing
rapidly throughout the State. The Station is always glad to
give information about farm materials and the methods of pro-ducing
manures, and no one should pay anybody for formulas
when they can get from us, free of charge, any number of them
for utilizing to best advantage in fertilizing all kinds of refuse
materials. The peddlers who travel through the country selling
farm rights to make manures by their formulas are usually very
ignorant men and their formulas are either entirely worthless or
possess no novelty at all to entitle them to be sold. The fact
that the formula has been patented at Washington is no guaran-tee
at all that it is worth anything. We have seen the most ridi-culous
and worthless things which had been patented. Last year
we investigated a case and found, on inquiry at Washington, that
the Government had given a man a patent on a method of
making a "complete fertilizer," the whole of which was to cover
a large heap of pine-needles partly with earth, and then set fire
to the pine-needles and burn them, as charcoal is burned. When
they had burned all they would, you were told to mix the earth
and charred mass together, which was your fertilizer. -It cost
you $5 to learn this. A few of the formulas produce good mix-tures
or composts, but there is no need for anybody to pay for
what is well-known and can be had for nothing by applying to us.
Let your aim be to save all the natural manure and compost,
or mix, all the fertilizer you possibly can, at home. Look after
your stable, hog-pen, chicken-house and every other source of ani-mal
manure zealously. For this end use an abundance of litter or
of absorbents of some kind. Save all the ashes, old lime and
everything of that kind. Look about you to discover on your
farm material that may help you in fertilizing. Have you any
pond-mud, muck, or woods-mould ? At spare times you can dig
and haul these. Have you any marl, or lime-rock ? If this is
anywhere within your reach, you will be sure to find a good place
somewhere to use it. Save, and do not buy, except to supple-
HOME-MADE FERTILIZERS. 51
ment, or add to your savings and make them better. To make
your manure, muck or mold, or whatever you have, act best and
go farthest it will frequently pay you to add some lime, phos-phate,
potash or other salt to them. We shall give here a short
list, therefore, of the commoner and more useful "chemicals/' or
composting materials, with their average composition and retail
cash prices the 1st of Jan. 1886, at the places named:
I. Phosphates, &c.—Finely ground S. C. phosphate rock or "Floats," 23 per
cent. phos. acid, $12 per ton at Charleston.
N. C. phosphate, simply finely ground, 15 to 20 per cent, of phosphate, 60
per cent, of carbonate of lime, $8 per ton at Rocky Point, Wilmington or
Raleigh.
Acid phosphate, 12 per cent, available phosphoric acid, $19 at Wilmington
and $21 at Charlotte, or Raleigh.
Ground bone, 3 to 4 per cent, ammonia and 40 per cent, of bone phosphate,
$32 at Baltimore, $37 at Raleigh and Charlotte.
II. Sources of Nitrogen.—Ground fish scrap, 10 per cent, ammonia, $35 in
Baltimore, or $37 at Wilmington. Tankage from beef, 8 per cent, of ammonia
and 30 of bone phosphate, $25 in Baltimore. Azotine, $2.50 for each percent
of ammonia in the ton, usually 15 per cent.. Dried blood, $2.40 for each per
cent, per ton. Sulphate of ammonia, 25 per cent, ammonia 3J cents per
pound.
Nitrate of soda, 2f to 3 cents per pound. The last four are Baltimore prices.
III. Sources of Potash.—Muriate of potash, 2 cents a pound in Baltimore,
50 per cent, potash; kainite, 12 per cent, potash, $10 per ton in Baltimore, or
Wilmington ; $12 to $13 in Raleigh or Charlotte.
"Pure sulphate potash" (see page 43 this report).
High grade sulphate potash 40 per cent, potash, $40 per ton in New York.
In making up the manure for a crop, the farmer should be
guided chiefly by two considerations. He must ascertain wherein
the soil, upon which the crop is to be grown, is deficient, and he
must know the requirements of the plant which is to live upon
it. These matters are best ascertained by experiment, as will be
explained further on. We will suppose that the farmer has
determined what he is going to use, and how much per acre, and
will endeavor to explain how different fertilizing materials are
to be combined and prepared.
There are two distinct cases. In the one case, the plant food
of the materials to be used is already in sufficiently available
52 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
form and the different ingredients need only to be well mixed in
the proper proportions. In the other ease, some of the materials
need to be changed before they are put in the soil, and must be
composted, or rotted. We will illustrate the method which will
have to be used in each, case by an example.
HOW TO MIX MANURES.
First. The materials do not need to be composted, but only
mixed. Let us illustrate with the .case of a cotton manure. We
will suppose that it is a piece of poor, sandy land, upon which
pine was the original growth, that it is desired to manure. The
planter has ascertained by actual trials upon this land that he
must supply a little of all the chief elements of plant food in
order to make a paying crop. His experience teaches him that
the most economical application is a manure that will enable him
to apply conveniently 25 pounds of phosphoric acid, 5 pounds
of ammonia, and 6 pounds of potash per acre, and that it is an
advantage to have a part of his ammonia in a form quickly avail-able
for the first demands of the plants, with a part more slowly
available. He must take care, therefore, to mix the ingredients
in these proportions.
Now to get the materials. The farmer looks around him to
see where he can get them to best advantage. He has at home
some mixed wood ashes, which have been exposed in part. He
can get a lot of damaged cotton seed meal, and he sends to a dis-tance
and gets some dissolved phosphate rock, sulphate of am-monia
and kainite. We will regard the ashes as containing 4
per cent, of potash and 6 per cent, of phosphoric acid, and will
suppose the damaged cotton seed meal contains 6 per cent, of
ammonia. The dissolved phosphate rock will give 12 per cent,
of available phosphoric acid, the sulphate of ammonia 25 per
cent, of potash. To get the desired amounts. of phosphoric acid,
ammonia and potash per acre, he must use the following amounts
of each material
:
HOME-MADE FERTILIZERS. 53
Pounds of Pounds of Pounds of
Pounds per acre. Phosphoric Acid. Ammonia. Potash.
100 Ashes contain 6. 4.
150 Dissolved phosphate contain, 18.
40 Cotton seed meal contain 1.5 2.4
10 Sulphate of ammonia contain, ....;. 2.5 ,
20 Kainite contain 2.4
320 pounds contain 25.5 4.9 6.4
The ingredients are now to be mixed in these proportions. A
thorough mixing is something not as easily accomplished as one
may think. This is all important in order that each individual
little rootlet may find within its reach all of the different agents
whose good effects depend partly upon their simultaneous pres-ence.
This is one of the chief advantages that a good commer-cial
fertilizer has over, a home-made fertilizer. The different
ingredients of the bought manures are mixed by the aid of the
most approved machinery. One of the little Universal mills is
a Very useful thing on the farm. They will grind feed, cotton
seed, tobacco stalks, kainite, etc. Pulverize your ingredients the
best you can before mixing, and then you can mix them by
sprinkling down the different ingredients in layers and shoveling
them together.
As a rule, chemical manures must be kept in a dry place. We
will select a smooth place under a shed as our mixing floor, and,
having crushed all lumps, will sprinkle down in this case, first a
layer of ashes, then a layer of cotton seed meal with a little sul-phate
of ammonia and kainite, in the proportions decided upon,
a layer of ashes, &c, until the materials are exhausted. The
mass is then to be shoveled together, first into numerous little
heaps, then into larger ones, until, finally, it is all brought
together into one large pile. It would be very well now to let
this heap lie a few weeks. If the materials are at all moist the
soluble salts will be diffused through the insoluble materials and
a more thorough mixing thus accomplished. When the materi-als
are very dry it will be necessary to sprinkle the layers, as put
down, with enough water to moisten them without causing the
54 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
heap to drip. When the manure is taken up, it should be passed
through a sieve and all lumps crushed. It is then ready to be
put upon the land.
HOW TO COMPOST MANURES.
Second. Some materials must be composted to render their
constituent more readily available to plants. The seeds of
grasses, weeds, &c, in the litter must be killed. The manner
of managing the compost differs so much with the different
materials which enter into it, that it is almost impossible to give
any general directions on the subject.
We will have to take an example here, also, and suppose that
it is desired to compost cotton seed with stable manure, and to
combine with them enough bone and muriate of potash to make
a manure for corn.
Rotted stable manure contains more soluble plant food and
less water and insoluble mineral and vegetable matter than
fresh. The best conditions for the rotting of stable manure are
moisture and exclusion of air. On the one hand, the heap
should not be leached by the rain, and, on the other, it ought
not to get dry or be open to the too free circulation of air.
We prefer a cement floor, or a tightly laid wooden floor, slop-ing
from all sides to the centre, upon which to build the heap.
This may well be under a roof, and there may be a covered
trough to drain the pile into a tight box or barrel. A basin,
scooped out in the ground down to the clay, will answer every
purpose, and if the liquids do not soak or drain away, there is
no objection to its being exposed to moderate rain. We will
suppose that the materials are to be combined in the proportions,
22 bushels of cotton seed, or about 600 pounds, 600 pounds of
stable manure, 700 pounds of bone meal and 100 pounds muri-ate
of potash to the ton of 2,000 pounds. If the cotton seed are
used first as an absorbent in the stalls along with the litter, a
layer of bone meal should be sprinkled over each layer of man-ure
that is taken from the stalls. In the other case, we will
soak the cotton seed in water in which the muriate of potash has
HOME-MADE FERTILIZERS. 55
been dissolved, and, putting down a layer of stable manure over
it, follow it by a layer of bone. Every few layers that are put
down the mass ought to be trampled, or rammed down and well
wetted with water, or solution of the muriate of potash. The
heap is built up in a conical form and covered over with earth,
leaving an opening in the top in which water can be poured.
The pile will soon begin to ferment and get warm, and liquid
will drain from it into the barrel. This should be thrown back
upon it and more water added, if it appears to get at all dry.
The heap should lie at least eight weeks. When broken, it
should be cut down through the layers and thoroughly chopped
up.
How might we expect a sample of compost made from these
materials in these proportions to analyze? We calculate from
the ingredients used what amount of plant food there would be
in a thousand pounds of the mixture, air-dried, as follows:
Pounds of Pounds of Pounds of
Phosphoric Acid. Ammonia. Potash.
350 lbs. bone-meal contain about 80. 12.
300 lbs. cotton-seed " " 4.5 9. 6.
300 lbs. stable manure " '' 1.5 1.5 1.5
50 lbs. muriate of potash,
" " 25.0
1000 pounds contain about 86.0 22.5 32.5
The spreading of chemical manures, also, requires careful
attention. If they are broad-casted by hand, they should be
sown just as carefully as grain or grass seed. In case the whole
surface is to be covered, the wheat drill may be used to spread
the fine manures. The best way, unquestionably, to spread a
compost is to use one of the excellent machines now made for
the purpose.
The Station receives so many requests for formulas for mix-tures
and composts that we will give a few simply as suggestions
and illustrations, using different farm materials and cheap chemi-cals.
We group them under the heads "For Cotton" and "For
Tobacco;" but they are all, with a few exceptions, as indicated,
good general fertilizers, and will be useful on a variety of crops.
56 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
COMPOSTING INSOLUBLE PHOSPHATES.
In the middle section of North Carolina there has been mani-fested
already some dissatisfaction about the acid phosphates, or
plain superphosphates. Where they have been repeatedly used
for a number of years, they are beginning to lose their effect, it
is said, and a disposition to use insoluble phosphates, " floats,"
bone-meal, etc., is growing up. We receive a good many requests
for information about the best methods of composting such phos-phates.
In a letter to the South Carolina farmers, published in the
monthly report of the Department of Agriculture of that State,
Baron H. von Liebig makes some remarks of interest in this
connection.
"In an article on 'Mineral Manures and Mineral Manuring/
published in the Royal Agricultural Journal of England, we have
already taken occasion to say that the inefficacy of insoluble phos-phates,
especially in poor soils, was caused often by a want of
potash in the land, and that, along with the phosphoric acid,
therefore, this constituent of plant food* should also be supplied.
The best form in which this can be done is in the shape of kainite,
which furnishes also the sulphur needed for the albuminoids. I
have laid especial stress, moreover, on the addition of quicklime*
to the kainite, for this is required to bring about the necessary
chemical change in the soil, the sulphuric acid of the kainite
combining with the lime, and sulphate of lime and carbonate of pot-ash
being formed. It is only in this latter combination, viz., that
of an acid plant alkali, that the potash can play its proper physio-
*The writer probably did not intend that it was essential that* the lime used
should be quick or caustic lime. Such lime airslakes, or forms carbonate of lime
almost immediately upon being broken up and mingled with the moist soil or com-post.
In composts especially, where the water is sure to be heavily charged with
carbonic acid, the reaction referred to must be a double decomposition between
the finely-ground or precipitated carbonate of lime and the soluble sulphate of
potash, which form sulphate of lime (gypsum, or plaster), and carbonate of pot-ash,
the compound desired for the plants. According to this view, our North Car-olina
marls will answer for the lime and our North Carolina phosphates will supply
both phosphoric acid and lime for the plan outlined by Baron Liebig.
HOME-MADE FERTILIZERS. 57
logical part. But this addition of lime has, strange to say, been
overlooked by all agricultural chemists except Dr. Ravenel, who
has carried it out in his experiments. I believe, however, that
the results obtained both by Dr. Ravenel and Prof. Jamieson,
though those of the latter were got in a different manner, are to be
attributed solely to the right application of. true scientific princi-ples,
which Lawes, in his experiments, seems to have entirely
disregarded."
Baron Von Liebig goes on to say : " Now, to return to the
reason why superphosphate has nevertheless, in most if not all
cases where artificial manures were employed, been in advance
of precipitated phosphate, I maintain that this is not to be sought,
as is generally believed, in the wider and more uniform distri-bution
of the soluble than of the insoluble phosphate in the soil,
but rather in the concentration of phosphoric acid around larger
or smaller particles of the tilled field. Superphosphate, in
comparison with raw ground phosphate or precipitated phos-phate,
exists always in so much coarser a mechanical condition
in the soil that it can never be broken up so uniformly by the
harrow. And this fact alone explains the cause of its more
rapid effect. When monophosphate is dissolved by rain, pre-cipitated
phosphate is formed in the soil concentrically around
the particles of superphosphate. Each single root-fibre now
comes in contact in a larger area, not with one or more phos-phate
particles, but with hundreds and thousands lying close
together. Wherever such a fibre finds most nourishment it is
developed most vigorously, and shoots out new fibres, not need-ing
even to grow in length to seek its necessary phosphatic food
in other particles of soil. If now the root-fibres find all the
constituents of plant food accumulated in like manner, every-thing
works together for the growth of the plant as rapidly as
possible. This is of the highest importance, especially with tur-nips,
which contain but a small supply of plant food. The
union of all elements of plant food in a large and porous mass
constitutes the chief advantage which stable manure, though con-taining
a smaller proportion of plant food, possesses over artifi-
4
08 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
cial fertilizers. This holds good for many kinds of plants, par-ticularly
in the cultivation of garden crops."
"Dr. Ravenel and Prof. Guerard have erroneously made Liebig
responsible for the theory that plants are nourished chiefly by
the food constituents which are soluble in water circulating in
the soil. For it was Liebig, on the contrary, who first proved
and established it as a law, that plants prepare their food solu-tions
for themselves from the mineral salts which are physically
combined with, or chemically precipitated on, the surface of the
soil, by means of the acids contained in their root-fibres. It
stands to reason, however, that this is not possible without an
ample supply of water in the soil. It is also equally manifest
that plants cannot take up potash in the absence of carbonic
acid in solution in water, the principal office of which is to dis-solve
the silicates in the soil, while on the contrary it has very
little action on the phosphates. The effect which turf has on
raw ground phosphate when composted with it is not due to the
production of carbonic acid and its power of dissolving phos-phates,
but depends mostly on the fact that the turf being in a
coarse mechanical condition retains in its pores and on its sur-face
the particles of fine ground phosphate, and concentrates
them every here and there in the soil—an action similar to that
as described when explaining the effect of superphosphate. In
either case, only one of the many roots of the growing plant,
stretching out its fibres in every direction, needs to come in con-tact
with such a particle of turf in order to transfer hence an
ample supply of phosphoric acid to the plant. Upon the healthy
growth of the organs of the plant above ground depends also
the development of its roots below, and these again come in con-tact
with fresh particles of turf thus laden with phosphoric acid.
When turf cannot be had, sawdust or leaf-mould serves more or
less the same purpose; but stable manure is beyond all doubt
the best kind of vegetable compost that can be used. Raw
ground phosphate, therefore, should always be applied to the
land composted with some bulky organic material. There is a
saving also in phosphate manure in the use of such material
;
HOME-MADE FERTILIZERS. 59
or, in other words, without, the admixture of vegetable substances
more artiticial fertilizers must be employed to produce the same
harvest results. In every case where Prof. Jamieson and others
have compared the efficacy of superphosphate mixed with stable
manure with raw phosphate also composted in like manner, the
difference in the manurial value of the phosphates has almost
entirely disappeared—which distinctly corroborates ray views as
stated above."
"Now, my advice to farmers and fertilizer manufacturers of
South Carolina, and those using the South Carolina phosphates,
is not to use their fine ground phosphate, or "floats," in making
a low grade of superphosphate with less sulphuric acid, but from
the coarser ground phosphate to manufacture the highest grade
of superphosphate possible, as they have hitherto done. But
the finest ground phosphate, or "floats," it is undoubtedly better
to sell unvitriolized, as in this condition it may be more econo-mically
utilized by the farmer without the addition of acid, pro-vided
that it is composted with stable manure, or other vegeta-ble
matter, along with kainite and lime as required. There are
special cases, however, and with certain kinds of crops, which
only experience and circumstances can determine, where it will
be found more advantageous to mix the raw ground phosphate
with more or or less superphosphate. And in my opinion there
are not a few instances, in which superphosphate has heretofore
been held to be not only indispensable but irreplaceable, where
a mixture of half superphosphate and half raw ground phosphate
would yield identically the same results, provided, of course,
that other conditions were equal."
"Precipitated phosphate, I am convinced, can never be manu-factured
on a large scale, or otherwise than as a secondary pro-duct
; but I believe that raw ground phosphate, even though its
present cost of production may increase, will always be able to
compete with superphosphate. Both, however, the soluble as
well as the insoluble phosphates, have their full authority in ag-riculture,
and only ignorance or a misunderstanding of the sub-ject
will ever seek to supplant one altogether by the other. The
60 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
further practical use of raw ground phosphate will assign to each
fertilizer its proper place, and each will mutually assist the other
and conduce to a continued employment of both. Any fear that
the superphosphate manufacturers may entertain that the in-creased
use of raw ground phosphate will lessen the sale of su-perphosphate
is entirely groundless ; the use of both will grow,
though possibly not in the same proportion. It would be foolish
in the extreme, therefore, for the manufacturers to try to prevent
the use of raw ground phosphate by immoderately lowering the
price of superphosphate. 7 '
We give these long extracts for the guidance of those who
wish to use insoluble phosphates. The cream of them is his
advice to compost insoluble phosphates with lime, by which we
infer carbonate of lime or marl is meant, kainite and an abund-ance
of vegetable matter, which may be stable manure, muck,
mould or even sawdust, where nothing better is to be had. We
have had this in mind in framing- several of the formulas below.
FOR COTTON.
We give a variety of formulas each to make about one ton of fertilizer, so as
to meet the requirements of the different sections of theState,and using as far as
possible whole packages of the articles, so as to save weighing or measuring.
I. Mixtures.—The cost of each can be calculated from the prices given above:
1. Acid phosphate, , 400 lbs.
N. C. phosphate (insoluble phosphate and lime), 600 "
Kainite 400 "
Cotton seed meal, ... 600 "
Or use all acid phosphate, or all N. C. phosphate.
2. Tankage, ground, 600 lbs.
Acid phosphate, 600 "
Kainite, 300 "
Sulphate of ammonia, 80 "
Woods-mould, or fine rich earth, , 420 "
Or use bone meal or ground fish in place of the tankage.
3. N. C. phosphate, 1000 lbs.
Kainite, 400 *
Dissolved bone, or tankage, 500 "
Sulphate ammonia 60 and nitrate soda,...-. 40 "
HOME-MADE FERTIEIZEES. 61
Or 100 pounds sulphate of ammonia.
4. Acid phosphate, 800 lbs.
Muriate potash, 100 "
Sulphate ammonia, 60
Finely pulverized manure from hen house, horse or cow stables 1040
These may all be used after the manner of commercial fertilizers.
II. Composts.—A. On the plan of Baron Liebig
N. C. phosphate, containing carbonate of lime and phosphate, 800 lbs.
Kainite, 200 "
Stable manure, cotton seed, muck, mould, or some vegetable
matter, 1000 "
B. Or use ground S. C. phosphate, 600
Marl or lime, 400 "
Kainite, 200 "
Cotton seed and stable manure, mould, muck or vegetable mat-ter,
800 "
C. Or, again, using dissolved and insoluble phosphates together
(Liebig:)
N. C. phosphate, 800 "
Acid phosphate, 200 "
Kainite, , 200 "
Manure, cotton seed or some vegetable matter, 800 "
D. From acid phosphate entirely. The cost of this one is calculated as an
illustration
:
Acid phosphate, at $20.00 per ton,
Kainite, at $12.00 per ton,
20 bushels cotton seed, at 16 cts- per bushel,
Stable manure, or any rich earth or mould,
LBS. COSTS.
600 $6 00
200 1 20
600 3 20
600
One ton of 2,000 $10.40
Or use 800 lbs. of acid phosphate and 400 lbs. of kainite.
Put down, best under shelter, or so that the heap will not be leached, a layer
of manure or earth, a layer of cotton seed well soaked in a solution of kainite*
a layer of acid phosphate, manure or earth again, &c. The heap should be
thoroughly moist, but not drip. Cover over with earth. Watch it that it does
not heat too much and pour more water in the top of it, if it does. Let the
heap lie six or eight weeks. Then cut down across the layers and chop to-gether.
Can use, according to desire, 500 to 2,000 lbs. per acre.
The other composts above are to be treated in a similar manner.
62 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
FOR TOBACCO.
I. Mixtures.—a. For a high grade fertilizer, mix:
Acid phosphate 900 lbs.
Ground tankage or fish scrap 800 "
Sulphate of ammonia 60 "
Nitrate of soda 40 "
"Pure sulphate of potash" 200 "
Or use bone meal, in which case, however, as this does not contain as much
ammonia as tankage and fish scrap, you must use 80 lbs. more of sulphate of
ammonia.
On the farm it will probably be better to mix the above with an equal
amount of woods-mould or fine, rich earth.
b. A cheap mixture :
North Carolina phosphate... 700 pounds.
Ground tankage, or fish 500 "
Kainite 400
Acid phosphate 400 "
c. Using cotton-seed meal :
Cotton-seed meal 400 pounds.
Sulphate of ammonia... 60 "
Acid phosphate, or dissolved bone 600
Kainite 400 "
North Carolina phosphate 540 "
In b and c it will be better, to insure bright tobacco, to use instead of the
kainite 150 pounds of " pure sulphate potash," or " high grade" sulphate of
potash.
II. Composts. Prepare as for cotton :
(1). Fine horse or cow manure, rich mould, or similar
material 900 pounds.
Acid phosphate, or dissolved bone.... 600 "
High grade sulphate potash 150
Bone meal, fish scrap, or tankage 350
Sprinkle each layer with water and let lie for a month.
(2). A cheap compost:
Acid phosphate 200 pounds.
North Carolina phosphate 600 "
Kainite 200 ' "
Cotton-seed, stable manure, or mould 1000
The last few pages were written merely to supply suggestions
to many iuquirers. The intelligent farmer will see many things
to modify in adapting them to his circumstances.
SOIL ANALYSES.
In making the analyses given below, we have followed in the
main the plan of Prof. E. W. Hilgard and Prof. Peter, described
by the first named writer in Vol. V of the Census Reports, 1880,
in the discussion of Soil Investigation, page 67. We have not
separated iron, alumina and manganese, as they do. In the in-terpretation
of the results, we have been guided in part by the
remarks of Prof. Hilgard at the same place.
Some of the samples were taken by our directions, as noted,
but in most cases we are not informed definitely as to what depth
of the soil the sample represents.
2533. J. H. Etheridge, Coleraine, Bertie, wished the lime only to be
determined in a sample of soil he sent. The object was to ascertain if the
land contained lime enough to grow peanuts well. In reply to an inquiry
Mr. Etheridge writes: " It was taken from the top of the banks near the river
Chowan. There is a large quantity of marl in the banks here, but not in tw©
hundred yards of where the sample of soil was taken from. It is not a culti-vated
soil, and has never been. It is covered with grass. The hill the soil
was taken from was once occupied by Indians. Skeletons, bones, pottery,
arrow-points, &c, have frequently been dug up, showing it was a burial place.
I think the large per cent, of lime comes from the mussel-shells that are scat-tered
on the hills." The sample was dried at 212° F.
Coarse residue 5.30 per cent.
Fine earth. 94.70
The coarse residue is composed of pieces of shells and quartz grains.
The fine earth contained
Carbonate of lime 6.62 per cent.
Sand and insoluble .84.41 "
The soil must have received a marling in some natural way.
2977. The sample sent by W. H. McLaurin, Esq., of Laurinburg, with
the inquiry, " What is necessary to add to this besides compost to make
wheat?" The soil contains
Fine earth 63. (SO per cent.
Coarse residue 36.11 "
the latter composed of large, clear grains of quartz, with pieces of decayed
root fibres.
64 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
A chemical analysis of the fine earth showed it to be composed of
• Hygrometric water 1.52 percent.
Volatile and organic matter 2.797
Sand and insoluble matter 91.22 "
Phosphoric acid 0.12
"
Oxide of iron and alumina 3.845
Lime 0.26
Magnesia 0.108
Sulphuric acid 0.039
Potash 0.10
Soda 0.158
100.167 per cent.
The soil is a very sandy loam. It has enough lime and phosphoric acid to
last for a while, and these are the chief things. The potash is scanty, just
enough with the others to produce moderately for six to eight years, when, if
not improved or subsoiled, it would begin to fail rapidly. It is a highly
improvable soil, and lime was the right thing to use upon it, especially
in preparing it for wheat. If you have not this and must buy, get insoluble
lime phosphate, and apply 500 to 800 pounds with 200 lbs. kainite, per acre.
Then put in peas, to be followed with wheat. With the wheat you can put in
a little bone meal, or phosphate, and ashes or kainite.
3158, 3369, 3370, from C. II. Davenport, Columbia, Tyrrell county, who
describes their location, their original growth and general character, as fol-lows
:
The land is situated on the west side of Scuppernong river, has the river
two and one-quarter miles on the east, and one and one-quarter miles on the
north and south of it; has a swamp about orae-third of a mile on the southwest,
with a good fall that makes it very easy to drain, except in such floods of rain
as we had last May. The soil is very easy to cultivate, and produces very good
crops for this section. The land has been cleared a long time, so I cannot
give you a full statement of its forest growth, only by adjoining lands and as I
have been told.
No. 1. The timber was white and red oak, and heavy red pine, which was
the principal timber, with some other small timbers, such as sweet-gum,
black-gum, white bush, dogwood, &c. No. 2. Nearly the same as No. 1, only
not so much of the oak, but more of the beech. No. 3, has more sweet-gum,
with heavy pine and other small growth, as above described. No. 2 is a small
ridge of sandy soil running east and west, with a light roll on Nos. 1 and 3.
Nos. 1 and 2 have a good red clay subsoil. No. 3 is a little mixed with red and
white clay, not all one solid color. The land has been cultivated in cotton
several years, and manured with compost, with ditch-bottoms and pine straw.
With this manner of manuring the land will, in any good or fair year, give on
No. 1, 450 lbs. of cotton per acre, and No. 2, 350 lbs.; No. 3, about 450 to
475 lbs. per acre, or, when cultivated in corn, will give, on No. 1, 5 bbls. per
SOIL ANALYSES. 65
acre, No. 2, 1 J and No. 3, 5} bbls. per acre—all of the above figures in good
crop seasons. On No. 1 the cotton is generally very strong and healthy and
matures well. No. 2 is not so strong, and does not make a large growth and
matures very early and, if a dry season, it sheds its leaves, but the stalk will
still keep green. No. 3 makes a tall and large growth and matures late.
Neither of the soils are subject to the black rust, and they are all generally
healthy, except in wet and cold springs; then, while the cotton is small, it will
die right much, particularly on No. 2. Nevertheless I do not have a really bad
stand in any year. The weeds and grass on Nos. 1 and 3, when cultivated, are
crab and quill grass, morning-glory and a weed that we call here cuckle burrs.
No. 2 grows mostly crab grass, and, when all the land is allowed to rest, sends
up a good growth of tall stick-weeds, with some rag weeds, dog-fennel, cuckle
burrs and grass.
3158 3369 3370
Marks. No. 1, gray. No. 2, yellow No. 3, black.
sandy.
Per cent, coarse residue 5.50 9.60 8.80
Coarse residue composed of , Sand and or- Sand and or- Sand and or-ganic
matter, ganic matter, ganic matter,
lumps oxide
of iron.
Per cent, fine earth... 94.50 90.40 91.20
Fine earth composed of:— Per cents. Per rents. Per cents.
Hygrometric water 2.58 1.307 ' 3.232
Volatile and organic matter 3.807 1.645 3.740
Sand and insoluble matter 88.267 93.10 88.092
Phosphoric acid 0.137 0.157 0.189
Oxide of iron and alumina 4.578 3.418 5.966
Lime 0.315 0.265 0.355
Magnesia..... 0.178 0.094 0.171
Sulphuric acid 0.000 0.000 0.000
Potash 0.208 0.135 0.222
Soda 0.083 0.067 0.10
100.153 100.188 100.067
We have given Mr. Davenport's letter in full because, as a description of what
these soils will do, it runs so exactly parallel to what the analyses teach us we
might expect. The three soils are variations of the same type of sandy loam.
Nos. 1 and 3, are quite good soils of this class. No. 3 having somewhat the
largest resources to be used up, will last the longest. No. 2 is a little behind
the others, does not produce so well now and is liable to give out sud-denly
under constant cropping. The important ingredients, phosphoric acid,
lime and potash, are on the verge of giving out in this soil. A thorough
66 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
liming with oyster shell lime, or marling, if marl is to be had, would im-prove
these soils. If more concentrated fertilizers can be applied, composts
of acid phosphate and kainite, or of ground oyster shells, ground phosphate
and kainite will probably pay well for the use.
3291. Soil, described as a " section from top to bottom of the layer of earth,
a general average of the soil," (evidently the layer of cultivated soil is meant),
from C. H. Lewis, Farmer's P. O., Randolph county. The analysis is as fol-lows
:
Coarse residue * 2.70 per cent.
" is composed of sand and organic matter.
Fine earth 97.30 per cent.
The fine earth is composed of:
—
Hygrometric water 3.312 per cent.
Volatile and organic matter 4.680
Sand and insoluble matter 78.705 "
Phosphoric acid 0.083
Oxide of iron and alumina 10.477
Lime. 0.260 "
Magnesia 0.459 !'
Sulphuric acid trace.
Potash 0.783
Soda 0.125" "
98.884
This analysis needed to be reviewed, but the sample was of such uncertain
origin that we concluded that it did not merit so much work. The soil is very
deficient in lime and phosphoric acid, though rich in potash for a clay. soil.
3364. From Croome Swamp, Angola Bay. General W. G. Lewis, who
sent the sample, writes: "The soil was taken from the south ditch of the
Croome-James road being built in Angola Bay, in Pender county, about a
half mile east of Croome's bridge over North-East river. The growth is gum,
ash, pine, bay, poplar, &c. A part of this swamp has been drained and cleared
and been in cultivation by A. B. Croome and others for eighteen years. The
first six years it was cultivated without rest. Since then it is rested every
alternate year. It produces from thirty-five to forty-five bushels of corn per
acre, with poor drainage and cultivation. The soil works very easily, pulver-izes
well and does not clod at all. The soil is good also for peas, sweet pota-toes,
<&c."
The sample of soil marked No. 1, Croome Swamp, Angola Bay, a section
from side of a ditch two feet deep, is a black mass full of fine roots and fibres,
and contains:
Fine earth 87.30 per cent.
Coarse residue 12.70
composed of sand and organic matter, with two, apparently water worn
pebbles.
SOIL ANALYSES. 67
A chemical analysis of the fine earth showed it to be composed of
Hygrometric water 5.607 per cent.
Volatile and organic matter 11.252
Sand and insoluble matter 81.507
Phosphoric acid 0.144 "
Oxide of iron and alumina 1.431
Lime 0.070
Magnesia 0.063
Sulphuric acid 0.000
Potash 0.068
Soda 0.071
100.213 per cent.
Looking at the percentages alone one would conclude that this could not be
a productive soil, when the fact is that it is quite productive of corn, peas,
sweet potatoes, &c. It contains, as it stands, a sufficient percentage of phos-phoric
acid, which makes it such a remarkably good corn producing soil, but
the percentages of lime and potash are very low. In even such very light
soils, as this, we expect to find fully 0.1 per cent, of lime and the same of
potash, with at least 0.06 of phosphoric acid, if the soil is at all productive.
But it will not do to consider percentages alone, as this soil shows. On account
of its sandy character and the large amount of organic matter in it, we have
here a very porous soil, and one which the rootlets of plants can penetrate and
pervade fully to a depth of three or four feet. We received over two feet in
depth of the soil and the rootlets evidently extended beyond this.
The essential plant food is in part much diluted, but it is there, and in form
to be taken up readily.
If marl is convenient, this soil would be made more productive and more
permanently so, by a liberal addition of it and kainite.
Without this it will give out suddenly after a while.
(February 11th. In a letter just received from General Lewis he says there
is marl of seemingly good character on the line of the James-Croome road,
and states that the opinion that this soil will give out suddenly if not limed
is confirmed by his observation. So there is no reason why this soil cannot
be fully maintained).
3371. The sample soil sent to the Station by Mr. E. McRae, of Shoe Heel,
contains
:
Fine earth 79.60 per cent.
Coarse residue 20.40 "
the latter composed of organic matter, leaves, small roots and stems, quartz
grains and charred wood.
68 ANNUAL REPORT N. C. EXPERIMENT STATION.
A chemical analysis of the fine earth showed it to be composed of
Hygrometric water 1.445 percent.
Volatile organic matter 3.31
"
Sand and insoluble matter 93.285
Phosphoric acid 0.10
"
Oxide of iron and alumina 1.34
Lime 0.485
Magnesia 0.079 "
Sulphuricacid 0.037
Potash 0.04
Soda 0.095 "
100.216 per cent.
Mr. McRae said that cotton always "blighted " on this soil. This blight-ing
is said to be caused generally by one or two things:
1. Deficiency of potash. This the analysis supports. Even a very light
sandy soil like this should have one-tenth of one per cent, of potash (0.10),
to be moderately productive.
2. Very frequently a sour condition, which means generally the presence of
ferrous salts (of " copperas v
) in the lower layers of the soil. The soil should
be well drained first, then apply lime, or marl, and kainite, and I think you
will find that the bad spots will fade out. Try this remedy and let me hear
what success your have.
. 3374. A half- bushel sample of soil sent to the Station by Mr. Robert F.
Phifer, of Concord. Two samples ; this one the top soil. Corn " frenches "
and cotton " blights" on this soil, which is locally known as "black-jack"
land. It contains:
Fine earth ...79.25 per cent.
Coarse residue 20.75 "
the latter composed of a few clear grains of quartz and a small amount of
organic matter.
A chemical analysis of the fine earth showed it to be composed of
Hygrometric water 5.975 per cent.
Volatile and organic matter 4.752
Sand and insoluble matter 58.955
Phosphoric acid 0.09
Oxide of iron and alumina 28.125
Lime 0.83
Magnesia 0.625
Sulphuricacid 0.062
Potash 0.05
Soda 0.304
99.768 per cent.
SOIL ANALYSES. 69
3375. The subsoil to 3374, sent by Mr. Phifer, contains :