Annual report of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station

              ANNUAL REPORT
OF THE
NORTH CAROLINA
AGRICULTURAL
Experiment Station,
FOR
1881.
PRINTED BY ORDER OF
The Board of Agriculture.
RALEIGH:
Ashe & Gatling, State Printers and Binders.
Presses of Edwards, Broughton & Co.
1882.
Office of the North Carolina
Agricultural Experiment Station,
Raleigh, N. a, April 15tht 1882.
To Governor Thomas J. Jarvis,
Chairman of the Board of Agriculture:
Sir;—I have the honor to submit herewith the Annual
Report of the North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Sta-tion
for the year 1881. I trust it will prove satisfactory to
your Excellency and the Board of Agriculture.
Very respectfully,
CHAS. W. DABNEY, Jr.,
Director.
N. C. State Board of Agriculture,
1881.
Governou THOMAS J. JARVIS, (ex-oflmo,)
Chairman.
Col. THOMAS M. HOLT,
President of State Agricultural Society.
Col. WM. H. CHEEK,
Master of State Grange, Patrons of Husbandry,
KEMP P. BATTLE, LL. D.,
President of State University.
W. C. KERR, Ph. D.
State Geologist.
Capt. JAMES R. THIGPEN, of Edgecombe.
Maj. JONATHAN EVANS, of Cumberland.
•» 4-
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
Gov. THOMAS J. JARVIS,
Col. THOMAS M. HOLT,
Hon. KEMP P. BATTLE.
-*-
OFFICERS.
MONTFORD McGEHEE, Commissioner
P. M. WILSON, Secretary.
S. G. WORTH, Supt. Fish and Fisheries.
CHARLES W. DABNEY, Jr., Chemist.
I C. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.
ANNOUNCEMENT.
The friends of the Station will be glad to hear that it now occupies
the large and handsome apartments assigned it by the act of the last
Legislature, in the Agricultural Department Building in Raleigh.
The Laboratory is a complete one in every respect, and it is hoped
that the Station will now be more useful than ever to the farmers of
North Carolina.
The work of the Station will include, as heretofore :
The analysis of all Fertilizers legally on sale in the State.
The analysis of Agricultural Chemicals, of Composts and Home-Mail e
Fertilizers and all materials from which they can be made.
The analysis of Soils, Marls and Mucks.
The analysis of Feeding-stuffs.
The examination of Seeds with reference to their purity and capacity
to germinate.
The examination of Grasses and Weeds.
The study of Insects injurious to Vegetation.
The analysis of Minerals, Ores and Mineral Waters for the State
Geologist.
The analysis of Drinking Water, Articles of Food, &c, for the
State Board of Health.
Practical experiments upon different crops, with different manures, &c.
Numerous publications upon these and kindred subjects are mailed
free of charge. Correspondence is invited upon subjects pertaining
to scientific agriculture.
Address
Dr. OHAS. W. DABNET, Jr.,
Ealeigh, North Carolina
OFFICERS
OF THE
N. C. AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION.
Director :
CHARLES W. DABNEY, Jr., Ph. D„ (Goettingen.)
ASSISTANTS :
William B. Phillips, Ph. B.,
William F. Brugman, Ph. B., resigned,
Herbert B. Battle, B. S.,
Frank B. Dancj, A. B.,
Andrew D. Mickle.
Office and Laboratory in the Agricultural Department Building,
RALEIGH.
Preface.
The year 1S81 was one full of new undertakings for the Station.
The present Director entered upon his duties in November, 1880, and
commenced at once the work of that season for the Fertilizer Control.
The Experiment Field was undertaken in the Spring. By order of the
Board at the mid-summer meeting, the ]aboratory was removed to
Raleigh in August. The arrangement of the laboratory occupied several
months, and it was not until December that we got regularly to work.
In this way most of the time which should have been devoted to special
investigations was taken up, while a terrible drought disappointed all
our hopes in the experiments inaugurated. The work accomplished
during this time is, however, a valuable one, although it does not appear
in this Report. The State has now a large and well equipped labora-tory.
The subject which most interests our people is that of fertilizing the
soil. This is appropriately, therefore, the theme of this Report, as it
was the chief subject of our work the past year. Since farm economy
in fertilizing materials is a matter of growing interest to our farmers,
the largest chapter is taken up by the discussion of the materials within
their reach, from which home made manures can be produced, and the
proper method of combining them.
One hundred and seventy-one samples of commercial fertilizers have
l>een analyzed for the Commissioner of Agriculture and farmers of the
State, requiring altogether five hundred and thirteen separate determi-nations
of phosphoric acid, not counting the nitrogen or potash de-terminations
or the numerous duplicate analyses. All of these anal-yses
were made by the most thorough, accurate, and therefore, most
tedious methods. ~No rough, short-cut, methods or uncertain volu-metric
determinations are used in our laboratory. ~No work is under-taken
which cannot be completed in the most thorough, workmanlike
manner. Phosphoric acid is determined by fusing, precipitating with
molybdate and weighing as pyrophosphate of magnesia. u Reverted"
phosphoric acid is separated from the insoluble by the use of Ammonium
Citrate solution of Sp. gr. 1.09 and neutral. Twenty-three detailed
analyses of soils have been made and rjfty analyses of agricultural
chemicals and other materials used in making manures on the farm.
CHARLES W. DABNEY, Jr.
Raleigh, April 15th, 1882.
Contents.
Pagj*.
North Carolina Board of Agriculture Ill
Announcement IY
Officers of the Agricultural Experiment Station T
Preface VI
Contents VJI
Report of Director :
Introductory 1
Laws Establishing Dep't of Agriculture and Station... 6
Duties of the Board of Agriculture 7
License-tax on Commercial Fertilizers 9
Brand on Commercial Fertilizers 10
Law Creating- Agricultural Experiment Station 11
Act of 1881 Amending the Law :
Proceeding to Condemn Spurious Fertilizers. 18
" " " Unlicensed " 19
Summary of Station Work •. 20
Historical Sketch '.... 21
Growth of Trade in Fertilizers 22
Development of the Cotton and Tobacco Production 23
Removal... 24
The New Laboratory 25
Work Done During the Year 1881 26
The Fertilizer Control :
Resolutions of the Board Defining the Law 28
Scheme for Brand on Package „. 29
Instructions for Drawing Official Samples 30
Commercial Fertilizers in 1881
:
Amounts Sold During the Year 33
Cost of Ingredients of Fertilizers 34
Explanation of Tables of Analyses , 35
Table of Analyses of Fertilizers, 1881 38
List of Fertilizers that Paid the Tax During 1881 42
Farmers' Directions for Taking Samples 46
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers :
Wood-Ashes 47
14 " Analyses of 48
Stable Manure '. 52
How to Save Manure 53
How to Manage Manure 56
The Hurdling System, 61
Materials Supplying Lime , 63
VIII CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Marls, Analyses of 64
Limestone and Lime 65
Plaster or Gj'psuni, . 66
Materials supplying Phosphoric Acid 67
Bones . 68
Bone-black and Bone-ash 70
How to Reduce Bones on the Farm.- 70
Mineral Phosphates - 72
Dissolved Bones and Dissolved Mineral Phosphates... 73
Materials supplying Nitrogen.,., 77
Nitrate of Soda 81
Nitrate of Potash « « 83
Sulphate of Ammonia 85
Nitrogenous Matters used in Fertilizers 87
Materials supplying Potash 88
Muriate of Potash 89
Kainite, Analyses of , 90
Table of Average Composition of Fertilizing Materials 92
Some Home-made Fertilizers . 97
How to Prepare and Apply Home-made Manures :
How to Mix Manures 102
How to Compost Manures 104
Miscellaneous Analyses of Fertilizers 107
The Chemistry of Cotton 109
Cotton Seed , ,. Ill
Cotton Seed as a Feeding-Stuff 112
Cotton Seed as a Manure 115
Cotton Seed Oil Industry 116
Field Experiments 120
Scheme No. 1 124
Experiments Upon Cotton 125
Does High Manuring Pay Upon Cotton ?.. 126
Scheme No. 2 130
Manures for Different Crops. 133
Manures for Corn 135
Manures for Cotton 136
Manures for Tobacco 139
Manures for Wheat 141
Seed Examinations 144
Grasses Identified :
Red-Top, or Herds Grass \ 146
Egyptian Sugar Cane, or Johnson grass 146
Smut grass , 147
Jute 149
Work for State Board of Health 155
Analyses of Drinking Waters - 158
Index 162
INTRODUCTORY.
A visible, gradual deterioration of the arable soils of most civilized
countries cannot but command the serious attention or all men who take
an interest in the public welfare. It is of the utmost importance that we
do not deceive ourselves respecting the danger indicated by these signs,
as threatening the future of populations. An impending evii is not
evaded by denying its existence, or shutting our eyes to the signs of its
approach. It is our duty to examine and appreciate the signs. If the
source of the evil is once detected, the first step is thereby taken to re-move
it forever. Justus von Liebig.
Nations live out of the soil. They are strong and wealthy
according as the fruits of the earth are nutritious and abun-dant.
Agriculture was the first vocation of man, and every
other profession is dependent upon it. The production of
raw materials must precede manufactures. And where there
is no agriculture there can be no commerce. These are all
very common-place remarks. But they assume the gravest
importance when linked with the fact that the history of
the nations is the history of the exhaustion of the soil.
Wherever we find ruined cities, adorned with sculptured
temples and palaces, we must suppose there once existed a
teeming population and a productive soil capable of sustain-ing
this population. When these ruins stand now in tree-less
deserts, we must conclude that the once fertile soil was
exhausted by the people who at one time flourished upon it.
The innumerable ruins that are scattered through the great
East are the monuments of the primitive fertility of the
land that was the cradle of the race.
From the banks of the Euphrates man has marched west-ward
exhausting the earth of its fruitfulness as he went.
Palestine, that once "flowed with milk and honey," is a
" dry and thirsty land." Egypt and all north Africa to Mo-
2 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
rocco, once " the granary of the world," holds now an un-watered
Sahara. The peninsulas of the Mediterranean sus-tained
the powers that ruled the world many centuries.
But the power departed with the fertility of the soil. They
contain now only one half of the population they once did.
The paradise of fertility which the Moors found in Spain
proved a comparatively brief dream. The once smiling
plains of Grenada respond but poorly to the hard labor of
the present inhabitant. And now we have these words
from the great High Priest of Agriculture. The half starved
throngs of emigrants which Europe is sending to otir more
productive shores confirm this prophecy.
The fertility of the ancient lands of the East disappeared
as utterly as if swallowed up in the ocean. The produc-tiveness
of later lands is rapidly disappearing. We may
think that America is still safe from desolation. But how
i'long will she be so ? Two millions of people a year call for a
(million tons more of food. We have still vast acres of un-cultivated
lands. But facts show that exhaustion has gone
•on more rapidly in this country than in any of the old ones.
'Our forefathers found a warm and responsive soil on this
continent, and they inaugurated the plan which their chil-dren
have pursued. We have cultivated land until ex-hausted,
and then taken up new lands and exhausted them.
How few years have sufficed to produce the barren fields we
see around us. Our boasted reserve of uncultivated lands will
not sustain us long at this rate. The day will soon come
when we will have no more worlds to conquer, and then
there will be no new lands whence we can import our grain.
Whither is the plant food of our land disappearing? We
cannot create and we cannot annihilate any of those ele-ments
which nature has provided as the food of plants.
But we can so displace or transform them as to convert a
, garden into a desert. Every crop permanently removed
from the soil reduces the supply just so much. Every hun-dred
bushels of wheat sold off of the farm carries with it
Introductory. 3
forty-six pounds of phosphoric acid, thirty pounds of
potash, and one hundred and twenty-five pounds of nitro-gen.
Every hundred bushels of corn removed from the
farm is a loss of thirty-three pounds of phosphoric acid,
twenty pounds of potash, and ninety-six pounds of nitrogen.
Every thousand pounds of tobacco carry away fifty-four
pounds of potash and seven pounds of phosphoric acid. The
wheat crop in the United States in 1880 was 480,349,700
buslrels. This contained about 1,100,000 tons of phos-phoric
acid, 720,000 tons of potash and 2,880,000 tons of ni-trogen,
which is ten times as much of these ingredients as
was contained in all the artificial fertilizers sold in the
United States that year. What becomes of all this and all
the plant food contained in the billion and a half bushels
of corn and all the other crops removed from the soil?
What portion of it finds its way back, to the land whence it
came? The grain goes to the cities and towns and is con-sumed,
and the cities pour their sewage containing the plant
food of the country through the rivers into the ocean. The
sluggish waters of the Thames, loaded with the pestilent
filth of London, roll below the city as dark, thick and foul,
as the Stygian river. It is estimated that the sewage of
London would impart to a barren soil the power to produce
food enough for a quarter of a million of people. Multiply
this by the countless cities, towns and villages whose sew-ers
are draining the earth's productive resources away and
one begins to realize how it was that the Old World was
exhausted, and how rapidly it is that civilization is deplet-ing
the new.
Still this is the smallest part of the robbery to which the
arable soils of the earth are subjected. The rains are con-tinually
leaching the hill sides and bearing off the richness
of the earth into the sea. The cultivation of the soil, the
yearly ploughings and harrowings, hasten this action. Old
Ocean, the universal destroyer, is swallowing all. The fer-tility
of the earth will be deposited with it until future geo-
4 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
logic revolutions shall raise up the dry land out of the
waters.
America is travelling more rapidly in this direction than
any other country. Her food-yielding capacity is taxed to
feed other peoples. Our wheat, corn and rice go in great
quantities to foreign shores to be there transformed into
populations, wealth, instruments and objects of industry
and art, means of moral and intellectual growth, and all
which constitutes the power and splendor of civilized
states. We barter the greatest birthright of a nation, the
fertility of its soils, for a mess of pottage. We rejoice that
the balance of trade is in our favor, but forget that we are
exchanging the food of the future for the gold of the present.
Southern planters are especially neglectful of these mat-ters.
Accustomed long to the system of wearing out the
land and then clearing new, they have been slow to learn
the economy of the compost heap. Great progress is being
made in the right direction, however, and the time will
soon come when southern soil will be steadily improving
instead of steadily deteriorating. The cotton states have
an advantage over all other sections in having a crop which,
properly worked, takes the least of all known crops perma-nently
awTay from the farm. Already our farmers understand
the value of cotton seed. Let them learn as much about all
other farm manure and refuse, and care for it as scrupu-lously,
and soon they will see the old fields begin to blossom.
The phosphate beds of South Carolina, discovered at a
most providential time, the nitre beds of South America
and the potash deposits of Germany, offer us cheap some
of the most commonly needed elements of plant food. We
must learn how to use things, not blindly as we have been
doing, but knowingly, just where they will do the most
good. Above all else, we must learn that the compost heap
is the treasure-house of the farm.
Desiring to promote these ends as far as possible, I have
given in this report especial attention to the materials of
Introductory. 5
home-made fertilizers, the chemicals to be obtained on our
markets, and the home products and refuse which can be
used in the composts, selecting in all cases those things of
most importance.
One people alone in all the world has stood the test of
centuries upon the same territory. The Chinese live and
multiply upon the same lands which their fathers occupied
for centuries before them. They isolated themselves from
all the outside world and kept all which nature had given
them at home. Read how every particle of material of
manurial value is husbanded and restored to the soil, and
you have the secret of the wonderful stability of this won-derful
nation. Every pound of manure is saved. In the
cities the collection of urine and night-soil is the business
of an immense number of persons, who deposit receptacles
for this purpose in every house, which are then daily re-moved
and emptied. In the country, pits are constructed
and lined with plaster in which every kind of manure and
refuse are thrown, down to the dead leaves of trees and prun-ings
of plants. This they water with liquid manure and
cover wT ith straw- to prevent the evaporation. We must
meet this problem of the preservation of fertility in a sim-ilar
way. Varied industries must be built up to consume
our crop of breadstuffs at home. We cannot be isolated
like the Chinese ; but if we send only manufactured arti-cles
abroad, the greatest portion of the wealth of our soils
will be kept at home. Our farmers must learn the economy
of manures as the most important thing.
I have endeavored to make the matter of this Report as
untechnical and popular as possible. Throughout, the
effort has been to impart the needed knowledge in the
simplest language. It is hoped that a foundation has been
laid thus for future study and experiment in the interest
of the agriculture of our section.
Laws Establishing the Station.
The laws establishing the Station and controlling the sale
of fertilizers are contained in the following Act :
'ft
An Act to Establish a Department of Agriculture,.
Immigration and Statistics, and for the Encour-agement
of Sheep Husbandry.
The General Assembly of North Carolina da enact
:
Section 1. A Department of Agriculture, Immigration
and Statistics, as provided in Section 17, Article 3, of the
Constitution, is hereby created and established, which shall
be under the control and supervision of a Board, which
shall be constituted as follows, to-wit : the Governor, who
shall be ex-officio chairman ; the State Geologist ; the Master
of the State Grange, Patrons of Husbandry ; the President
of the State Agricultural Society ; the President of the
Agricultural College of the State, and two agriculturists
(who shall be appointed by the Board so as to keep the rep-resentation
of the different sections of the State as nearly
equal as may b<- ) and their successors in office.
Sec. 2. The Board shall meet for the transaction of busi-ness
in the city of Raleigh as often as they may deem expe-dient,
but at least twice in each year. They shall receive
no compensation, but shall be allowed, except the Governor,
the State Geologist, and President of the Agricultural Col-lege,
the sum of three dollars per diem for their personal
expenses while engaged in the duties of the Board, not ex-ceeding
fifteen days in any one year.
Sec. 3. The Board shall appoint and prescribe the duties,
and regulate the pay of the Commissioner of Agriculture,,
Laws Establishing the Station. 7
who shall be an agriculturist. And they shall also, when-ever
they deem it necessary, have power to employ a secre-tary
and prescribe his duties.
Sec. 4. The Board shall be empowered to hold in trust,
and exercise control over, donations or bequests made to
them for promoting the interests or purposes of this act.
Sec. 5. They may prescribe forms for, and regulate the
returns of, such County Agricultural Societies as may be
necessary to secure uniform and reliable statistics of their
operations.
Sec. 6. In order to facilitate the collection of reliable sta-tistics,
it is niade the duty of the Secretary of State to pre-pare
and send to the County Commisisoners of the several
counties, who shall distribute to each person in the county,
whose duty it is to list the taxable property thereof, blanks
prepared according to the direction of the Department of
Agriculture; and the persons listing the taxes as aforesaid
shall require each citizen, at the time of listing his taxable
property, to give in likewise the amount of his productions
for the previous year, as far as practicable, without oath,
which blanks, when completed, shall be returned to the
Board of County Commissioners, who shall collate the same
on one blank form and transmit the same to the Commis-sioner
of Agriculture on or before the first day of November
in each year.
Sec. 7. The Board shall investigate such subjects relating
to the improvement of agriculture, and for the inducement
of immigration and capital, as they may think proper, but
they are especially charged :
—
1st. With such investigations as may seem best adapted
to promote the improvement and extension of sheep hus-bandry,
and shall collect and publish, from time to time, all
available statistics on the subject, and shall suggest to the
General Assembly such measures as may be useful for the
encouragement of this industry, and more particularly for
the suppression of the ravages of dogs.
8 Annual Keport N. C. Experiment Station.
2d. With investigations relating to the diseases of cattle
and other domestic animals, and shall publish and distrib-ute,
from time to time, circulars of information relative to
any contagious diseases of stock, and shall have power in
such cases to quarantine infected animals, and to regulate
the transportation of stock in this State, or from one section
of it to another, and any person wilfully violating such
regulations shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
3d. With investigations relating to the ravages of insects
and with the dissemination of such information as may be
deemed essential for their abatement.
4th. With investigations and experiments directed to the
introduction and fostering of new agricultural industries,
adapted to the various climates and soils of this State ; espe-cially
the culture of silk,- the sugar beet, the grape, and
other fruits.
5th. With the investigation of the subject of drainage
and irrigation, and shall publish circulars of information as
to the best methods of formulae of both, and what surfaces,
soils and localities may be most benefited by such improve-ments;
also, with the collection and publication of infor-mation
in regard to localities, character, accessibilit}7
, cost
and modes of utilization of native mineral and other do-mestic
sources of fertilizers, including formulae for compost-ing,
adapted to different crops, soils and materials.
6th. With the collection of statistics relating to the sub-ject
of fences, with suggestions for diminishing their cost
and the conditions under which they may be dispensed
with altogether.
7th. With the supervision of all measures for the protec-tion,
propagation and culture of fish in the rivers and other
inland waters of this State, and to this end they shall at
once provide for stocking all available waters of the State
with the most approved breeds of fishes, and shall avail
themselves of such aid as the Fish Commission of the United
States may be induced to extend, and they shall inquire into
Laws Establishing the Station. 9
and report upon the practicability of constructing fish ways
over dams and other obstructions in the waters of the State,
and secure, as far as practicable, the co-operation of mill
owners. They shall select proper locations for the hatching
and care of the young fish and shall provide the necessary
hatching houses and such appliances as may be needed, and
employ such labor as maybe necessary to this end, and they
may appoint agents at such convenient points to aid them
in the distribution and hatching and protection of the ova
and young fish, provided such agents shall receive no com-pensation.
8th. They shall transmit to the General Assembly at each
session a report of the operations of the said Department,
together with suggestions of such legislation as may be
needful, and it shall be the duty of the Board to prosecute
all offenders against the laws which -have been, or may be,
passed in this behalf, and they shall endeavor to secure the
co-operation of adjoining States, to remove obstructions in
the passage of -fish in those rivers or streams which are
partly in this State and partly in such adjoining States.
9th. With the enforcement and supervision of the laws
and regulations which are, or may be, enacted in this State
for the sale of commercial fertilizers and seeds.
Sec. 8. That no manipulated guano, superphosphate, or
other commercial fertilizer, shall be sold, or offered for sale
in this State, until the manufacturer, or person importing
the same, shall first obtain a license therefor from the Treas-urer
of the State, for which they shall pay a privilege tax of
five hundred dollars per annum for each separate brand or
qualit}^ (and he shall also pay a tax of fifty cents per ton for
every ton sold.*) Any person, corporation, or company, who
shall violate the provisions of this act, or who shall sell, or
offer for sale, any such fertilizer, contrary to the provisions
above set forth, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon
*See page 16.
10 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
conviction shall be fined or imprisoned at the discretion of
the court*
Sec. 9. And every bag, barrel, or other package of such
fertilizer as above designated, offered for sale in this State,
shall have thereon a plainly printed label or stamp,* which
shall truly set forth the name, location and trade mark of
the manufacturer, also the chemical composition of the con-tents
of such package, and the real per centage of any of the
following ingredient:; asserted to be present, to-wit: soluble
and precipitated phosphoric acid, soluble potassa, ammonia,
or its equivalent in nitrogen, together with the date of its
analyzation, and that the privilege tax provided for in sec-tion
eight has been paid ; and any such fertilizer as shall
be ascertained by analysis not to contain the ingredients
and per centage set forth as above provided, shall be liable
to seizure and condemnation, and when condemned shall
be sold by the Board of Agriculture for the exclusive use
and benefit of the Department of Agriculture.* Any mer-chant,
trader, manufacturer, or agent, who shali sell, or offer
for sale, any commercial fertilizer without having such labels
and stamps, as hereinbefore provided attached thereto, shall
be liable to a fine of ten dollars for each separate bag or
barrel, or package sold or offered for sale, to be sued for
before any justice of the peace, and to be collected by the
sheriff by distress or otherwise, one-half, less the cost, to go
to the party sueing, and the remaining half to the Depart-ment,
and if any such fertilizer shall be condemned, as
herein provided, it shall be the duty of the Department to
have an analysis made of the same, and cause printed tags
or labels expressing the true chemical ingredients of the
same put upon each bag or barrel or package, and shall fix
the commercial value thereof at which it may be sold. And
any person who shall sell, or offer for sale, any such fertili-
*See page 18.
Laws Establishing the Station. 11
zer, in violation of the provisions of this section, shall be
guilty of a misdemeanor.
Sec. 10. The Department of Agriculture shall have power
and authority at all times to have collected samples of any
commercial fertilizers offered for sale in this State, and have
the same analyzed ; and such samples shall be taken from
at least ten per cent, of the lot from which they may be
selected.
Sec. 11. It shall be lawful for the Department of Agri-culture
to require the officers, agents or managers of any
railroad or steamboat company, transporting fertilizers in
this State, to furnish monthly statements of the quantity of
fertilizers, with the name of the consignor or consignee, de-livered
on their respective lines, at any and all points within
this State. And said Department is hereby empowered to
compel said officers, agents or managers, to submit their
books for examination, if found expedient so to do ; and any
such agents, officers or managers failing or refusing to com-ply
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
Sec. 12. The Department of Agriculture shall establish,
in connection with the Chemical Laboratory of the Univer-sity
at Chapel Hill,* an Agricultural Experiment and Fer-tilizer
Control Station; and (the Board of Trustees of the
University, with the approval of) the Department of Agri-culture
shall employ an analyst skilled in agricultural
chemistry.
f
It shall be the duty of said chemist to analyze such fertili-zers
and products as maybe 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 nutrition and growth of plants,
*By act of Assembly, 1881, the Board was instructed to remove the
Station as soon as the new. building was ready for it.
-fSee page 16.
12 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
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 shall carry on
such other investigations as the said Department may direct.
He shall make regular reports to the said Department of
all analyses and experiments made, which shall be furnished
when deemed useful, to such newspapers as wT ill publish the
same.
Said chemist shall be subject to the rules and regulations
of the University Laboratory, and the other rules and regu-lations
of the University, and his salary shall be paid out
of the funds of the Department of Agriculture.
Sec. 13. The Geological Survey is hereby made and con-stituted
a co-operative Department with the Department of
Agriculture, and the Geological Museum and the collections
therein shall, at all times, be accessible to the said Depart-ment.
The Geologist shall, as far as practicable, prepare
illustrations of the agricultural industries, products and
resources of the State, and arrange and care for such collec-tions
as the said Department may make for this purpose.
He shall also prepare abstracts of the survey, from time 'to
time, as may be required for the use of the Department in
their hand book, and circulars fjr publications, in illustra-tion
of the advantages of this State, and in promotion of the
general purposes of Immigration. In return for (such ser-vice
the State Geologist may have all his samples of marls,
soils, minerals, and other products analyzed by the chemist
at the Laboratory of the Experiment Station free of charge.
Sec. 14. It is hereby made the duty of the State Geologist,
upon the recommendation of the Board of Trustees of the
University, to devote two months in each year at the seat of
the University, in the performance of such duties in instruc-tion
as the Faculty may direct, and while employed in this
capacity he shall constitute a member of the Faculty.
Sec. 15. The Department shall, as soon as practicable, pre-pare
a convenient hand book, with the necessary illustrative
Laws Establishing the Station'. lf£
maps, which shall contain all necessary information as to-the
mines, minerals, forests, soils, climates, waters and water-powers,
fisheries, mountains, swamps, industries, and all
such statistics as are best adapted to giro proper informa-tion
of the attractions and advantages which this State af~
fords to immigrants, and shall make illustrative exposition
thereof whenever practicable at international exhibitions.
Sec. 16. The said Department shall be authorized, in the
interest of Immigration, to employ an agent or agents at
such points, in this or any foreign country, as they may
deem expedient and desirable.
Sec. 17. The said Department is authorized and directed
to establish and keep in its office, in the city of Raleigh, a
general Land and Mining Registry, wherein shall be re-corded
(if the owners shall so request) all the farming, min-eral
or other lands offered tor sale in this State, with a brief
and truthful description of the same. And the Department
shall act as agent for the sale or disposition of such property
as may be registered, as hereinbefore provided, and shall sell
or dispose of such property upon the terms and conditions
as stated and fixed by the owner thereof; and the Depart-ment
shall be allowed the sum of one dollar for registration^
and two and one-half per cent, commission on gross amount
of said transaction.
The said Department shall have authority to contract for
and hold bodies of land, for the settlement of colonies, with
exclusive control of the sale of same at such prices and for
such a period, as may be agreed upon by the owner thereof.
Sec. 18. That no person, company or corporation, being
non-residents of this State, shall catch fish by seines, nets or
other appliances for taking fish in large quantities, in any
waters within the jurisdiction of this State, wuthout first
obtaining therefor a license from the Public Treasurer, for
which he, or they, shall pay a privilege tax of one thousand
dollars per annum. And any such person or persons who
shall violate the provisions of this section, shall forfeit and
14 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
pay the sum of two hundred dollars for each day engaged
in fishing as aforesaid, to be collected by the sheriff of the
county wherein such violation maybe committed, and shall
also be guilty of a misdemeanor. And any citizen of this
State who shall form an alliance or co-parnership with a
non-resident for the purpose of evading any of the provis-ions
of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction shall be fined and imprisoned at the
discretion of the court, and the nets, seines or appliances of
such person or firm shall be liable to seizure and confisca-tion
for the benefit of the Department of Agriculture.
Sec. 19. That every person, firm or corporation, who shall
sell or offer for sale any commercial fertilizer of whatever
nature, and shall give in, under oath, to the Register of
Deeds of his county, on the first Mondays of January, April,
July and October in each year the number of tons of such
fertilizer he or they may have sold, for himself on commis-sion,
or as agent, during the preceding quarter, subject to
the provisions, pains and penalties contained in Schedule B
of the Revenue Laws of the year one thousand eight hun-dred
and seventy-seven, for which he shall pay a privilege
tax of fifty cents per ton, to be collected by the sheriff;
Provided, That no person shall be liable to such tax on fer-tilizers
purchased from another person, on which this tax
has already been paid ; And provided further, That no dealer
or agent shall be required to pay the purchase tax as im-posed
in Schedule B of the Revenue Act.
Sec. 20. Any farmer, trader or other person who shall
haul or bring into this State any commercial fertilizer, in
violation or evasion of Section 8 of this Act, shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be
fined not less than ten dollars or imprisoned not more than
thirty days for each offence; and any farmer or other per-son
who may buy without the State any commercial fer-tilizer
on which the privilege tax of five hundred dollars,
as provided in Section 8 of this Act, has been paid, shall be
Laws Establishing the Station. 15
required to report all such purchases to the Register of
Deeds for his county, and pay the privilege tax of fifty cents
per ton, as required of dealers, or be subject to the same
pains and penalties as herein imposed upon dealers in fer-tilizers;
Provided, That no county, town, or other corpora-tion
shall be allowed to tax any of the privileges or subjects
herein taxed by the State: Provided, That the provisions of
this section and section 17 of this Act shall not apply to any
of the counties in this State west of the Blue Ridge.
Sec. 21. It is hereby made the duty of the said Depart-ment
of Agriculture to receive from any manufacturer or
dealer in fertilizers any specimen quantities, not less than a
fourth of a ton, contributed by such party, and have the
same sent to different sections of the State for actual experi-ment
by practical farmers; and the person so experiment-ing
shall be required to make a careful. report of the results,
which shall be registered in the office of said department,
and a certified copy of the same shall be transmitted to the
contributor.
Sec. 22. That all money arising from the tax or licenses,
from fines and forfeitures, fees for registration and sale of
lands, not herein otherwise provided for, shall be paid into
the State Treasury and shall be kept on a separate account
by the Treasurer, as a fund for the exclusive use and benefit
of the Department of Agriculture; and until such fund can
be made available, as aforesaid, the Treasurer shall loan to
said Department, out of any moneys not otherwise appro-priated,
upon the warrant of the Governor, the sum of five
thousand dollars per annum, for two years from this date,
which sum shall be refunded to the Treasury by the first
day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine
Sec. 23. This act shall be in force from and after its rati-fication,
but the tax, forfeitures and penalties herein pre-scribed,
concerning the sale of commercial fertilizers, shall
not be enforced against any parties in the sale of any such
fertilizers now on hand in this State ; Provided, Said parties
16 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
shall render to the Governor, on or before the first day of
April, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven, under
oath, taken before any person authorized to administer the
same, an itemized statement of all such fertilizers, giving
brand, name, manufacturer, and number of tons of same
and obtain a license for the sale thereof as herein provided;
Provided, that this Act shall not apply to purchases already
made.
Read three times and ratified in General Assembly, this
12th dav of March, 1877.
An Act Supplemental to an Act to Establish a De-partment
of Agriculture, Immigration and Statistics.
The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact :
Section 1. That an Act entitled an Act to establish a
Department of Agriculture, Immigration and Statistics, and
for the encouragement of Sheep Husbandry, be and the
same is hereby corrected and amended, by striking out in
section 8 of said Act the words, "and he shall also pay a
tax of fifty cents per ton for every ton sold."
Sec. 2. That this Act shall be in force from and after its
ratification.
Read three times and ratified in General Assembly, this
12th day of March, 1877.
An Act to Amend an Act to Establish a Department op
Agriculture, Immigration and Statistics, and for
the Encouragement of Sheep Husbandry.
Section 12 of said Act shall be amended by interchang-ing
in the last clause of the first paragraph the words, "Board
Laws Establishing the Station.. 17
of Trustees of the University," and the words, " Department
of Agriculture."
Sec. 4. Sections 19 and 20 (nineteen and twenty) are here-by
repealed ; and it shall be the duty of the Treasurer, on
the certificate of the Auditor, to return to the Sheriffs who
have paid into the treasury the tax of fifty cents a ton, col-lected
under said sections, the amount of such payment to
be repaid by such Sheriffs to the parties from whom they
collected the same.
The General Assembly of 1879 passed on March 14th,
"An Act supplemental to an Act creating a State Board of
Health." Section 14 of that Act is as follows :
[When the County Superintendent of Health shall, in the
course of his investigation required at Coroner's inquest,
think it necessary to subserve the ends of justice that &<
chemical analysis of the viscera or fluids of the body be made,
he shall carefully pack up and seal the suspected article iia,
a proper receptacle, in the presence of a witness, and for-ward
it to the chemist of the Agricultural Station for analy-sis.
(Such analysis shall be made free of charge, and be.
returned to the Coroner of the county, such analysis having
precedence over other matters of investigation, not of a.
similar character, then in the laboratory of the chemist.)]*
Analyses for purposes connected with the hygienic duties of
the Superintendent of Health shall in like manner be made
by the said chemist, upon requisition signed and approved
by the Secretary of the State Board of Health. Such analy-ses
will include soil, drinking water, articles of food, air, &c,
to be packed for transmission by direction of the chemist of
the Agricultural Station.
'This paragraph was repealed, ch. 284, Acts of 1881.
2
18 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
An Act to amend an Act to Establish a Department of
Agriculture, Immigration and Statistics, and for the
Encouragement of Sheep Husbandry.
The General Assembly of North Carolina do enaet :
That the act to establish a Department of Agriculture,
Immigration and Statistics, and for the Encouragement of
Sheep Husbandry, be and the same is hereby amended by
inserting the following clause between the word "' condemna-tion"
and the word "and," in the fourteenth line of section
nine, to-wit : as hereinafter prescribed.
That the said act be and the same is hereby further
amended by inserting at the end of the first sentence of said
section, which concludes with the words- " Department of
-Agriculture," the following clause, to-wit:
Section 1. The proceeding to condemn the same shall be
^by civil action in the Superior Court of the county where
f-the fertilizer is on sale, and in the name of the Board of
Agriculture, who shall not be required to give bond for the
fprosecution of said action. And at or before the summons
'is issued, the said Board shall, by its agent, make affidavit
before the clerk of said court of these facts.
1st. That a license has been obtained for the sale of a fer-tilizer
of a particular brand.
2nd. That samples of the same have been analyzed under
authority of the Board, and found to correspond with the
label attached to the same.
3rd. That the defendant in the summons has in his pos-session,
and on sale, fertilizers of the same name and brand,
and bearing a label or stamp representing the analysis
made.
4th. That the fertilizers on hand and on sale are spurious,
and do not in fact contain the ingredients or in the propor-tion
represented by the stamp or label on them. Where-upon
the clerk shall issue his order to the sheriff of the
Laws Establishing the Station. 19
county to seize and hold all the fertilizers in possession of
the defendant, labeled or stamped as the affidavit described.
And the sheriff shall seize and hold the fertilizers so seized
until ordered to foe surrendered by the judge in term
time: unless the defendant shall give bond with justified
surety, in double the value of the fertilisers seized, to an-swer
the judgment of the court, in which case he shall sur-render
the fertilizer to the defendant and file this bond in
the office of the clerk of the Superior Court, and thereafter
the action shall be prosecuted according to the course of the
court. And if it shall be established in the trial that the
fertilizers seized are deficient or inferior to the analysis rep-resented
on the stamp or brand, then the plaintiff in said
action shall recover judgment on the defendant's bond for
the value oflthe fertilizers seized.
Sec. 2. That section eight of chapter two hundred and
seventy-four, laws of one thousand eight hundred and
seventy-six and one thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven,
be amended by striking out the word " and," between
the words " fine and " imprisonment" in the last line of said
section, and insert the word " or," so that it shall read "fine
or imprisonment ;" and by adding to to the end of said sec-tion
the following :
'' And all fertilizers so sold, or offered
for sale, shall be subject to seizure and condemnation in the
same manner as is provided in section one of this act for the
seizure and condemnation of spurious fertilizers, subject,
however, to the discretion of the Board of Agriculture to
release the fertilizers so seized and condemned, upon the
payment of the license tax, and all costs and expenses ex-curred
by the Department in such proceeding."
Sec. 3. That section nine of said act be amended by in-serting
after the word " stamp," in the third line of said sec-tion,
the following clause : " A copy of which shall be filed
with the Commissioner of Agriculture at or before the ship-ment
of such fertilizer into this State, and which shall be
uniformly used, and shall not be changed during the year
20 Annual Rfport N. C. Experiment Station.
for which such license is issued ;" and by striking out in the
third line of said section the word " which/' and inserting
the following words: " and the said label or stamp."
Sec. 4. This act shall be in force from and after its ratifi-cation.
In General Assembly read three times, and ratified this
the 4th day of March, A. D. 1881,
It will be seen from these extracts that the law requires
of the Station analyses for the Department of Agriculture
proper, analyses for the Geological Survey, and analyses for
the State Board of Health. It is evident thus, that to carry
out the requirements of the law and to meet the expecta-tions
of the people of the State, hard work must be done in
more than one direction.
The work of the Station may be summed up as follows
:
The analysis of all fertilizers legally on sale in the State.
The analysis of agricultural chemicals, of composts and
home-made fertilzers and all materials from which they cam
be made.
The analysis of soils, marls and mucks.
The analysis of feeding-stuffs.
The examination of seeds with reference to their purity
and capacity to germinate.
The examination of grasses and weeds.
The study of insects injurious to vegetation.
The analysis of minerals, ores, and mineral waters, for
the State Geologist.
The analysis of drinking water, articles of food, &c, for
the State Board of Health.
Practical experiments upon different crops, with different
manures, were conducted upon an experimental field last
year, and by correspondents according to directions from
the Station.
Historical Sketch.
The Agricultural Experiment Station was organized,
under an act of the Legislature of March 12th, 1877, on
April 19th, 1877, at the State University at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Albert R. Ledoux was Director until November, 1880.
Under his wise and energetic management the Station at-tained
early an eminent position of usefulness. As soon as
its practical workings were sufficiently illustrated, the
thinking farmers rallied to its support and its influence was
rapidly extended. The people soon caught the new ideas
presented and the analyses were eagerly sought.
Commencing work alone in the laboratory of the Uni-versity,
Dr. Ledoux soon found the work required of him
increasing rapidly, and, with the sanction of the Board,
employed Mr. W. B. Phillips, of Chapel Hill, as Assistant
Chemist. As the correspondence of the Station increased
much, the Station next gained the services of Mr. J. C.
Taylor as a Secretary. Mr. Taylor became later an Assist-ant
Chemist. The Board of Agriculture having decided
that the Station should endeavor to exercise a control over
chemicals used in composting and over seeds, Dr. Ledoux
was instructed later to employ still another Assistant, and
secured the services of Mr. George Warnecke, of Germany,
in September, 1878. Mr. Warnecke was connected with the
Station until November 15th, 1879. The Trustees of the
University, meanwhile, had assigned the Station better
quarters and the work attained very extended proportions.
During the first year of the Station there were made one
hundred and thirty-two examinations of all classes. During
second year the number was two hundred and thirty-two.
During the third year the number was increased to five hun-
22 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
dred and sixteen, up to the 15th of April, 1880. The whole-number
of examinations of all classes- made by the Station
up to date has surpassed sixteen hundred.
The publications of the Station during the whole period
of its existence are over seven hundred pages, and some
thirty thousand copies of reports, bulletins, formulas, &c,
have been distributed. Besides these, numerous contribu-tions
have been made the papers of the State, which have
almost uniformly with great courtesy published our analy-ses,
reports and bulletins. Dr. Ledoux's publications cover
many important and interesting subjects, such as—-the sugar
beet in North Carolina, the quality of American seeds, his-tory,
use and value of the cow-pea, value of pine straw,
formulas for various soils and crops, &c.
The workers at the station went and came meanwhile.
Mr. A. D. Mickle, of Chapel Hill, was, with the authority of
the Board of Agriculture, added to the corps of assistants
on the 15th of October, 1879, and the services of Mr. W.
Mager were obtained the 1st of January, 18791
. Mr. Mager
resigned June 15th, 1880. Mr. Taylor resigned in January,
1881, and Mr. H. B. Battle was added to the force of chem-ists
at that time along with Mr. W. F. Brugman. Mr. Brag-man
resigned in October, 1881. Mr. P. B. Dancy commenced
work at the Station the 15th January, 1882.
GROWTH OP THE TRAX>E IN FERTILIZERS.
In the year preceding the establishment of the Station
probably one hundred different brands of fertilizers were
sold in the State. They were of all grades, but, if one may
judge from the demoralization of the trade, the majority of
them were comparatively worthless. Farmers had lost all
confidence in them. A fertilizer which would one season
produce good results upon crops, would likely the next prove
utterly worthless. Innumerable quarrels between farmers,,
merchants and manufacturers were the result. The trade ioj
Historical Sketch. 23
fertilizers dwindled down to less than forty thousand tons.
The highest prices were demanded for all kinds of fertiliz-ing
materials. Meanwhile many soils were actually suffer-ing
for proper fertilization. Results have shown since the
establishment of the control of the sale of fertilizers that
there are hardly any soils in the world which repay better
the judicious application of superphosphates than the thin,
but warm and responsive soils of the south Atlantic slope
which are cultivated in tobacco and cotton. Lands which,
now cultivated with the regular addition of artificial ma-nures,
yield fairly good returns, had to be left uncultivated
before the trade in fertilizers was put under State supervision.
The first year after the establishment of the fertilizer con-trol,
there were comparatively fewer brands of fertilizers
sold. All of the worthless articles had been expelled from
the State, and only honest goods were offered on the market-
The difference made itself appear at once. The trade has
steadily extended itself both in amount and in area ever
since. Sixty thousand tons of fertilizers were sold in the
State in 1879, and eighty thousand in 1880. During this
period the average composition of fertilizers sold in the State
has steadily improved. And it is very striking that at the
same time, and in spite of the steady advance in the cost of
materials from which they are made, the average cash price
of fertilizers has decreased.
DEVELOPMENT OF THE COTTON AND TOBACCO PRODUCTION.
The extension of the trade in fertilizers is intimately
connected with the extension of the cotton culture. The
census returns show that the cotton production of North
Carolina has more than doubled itself within the last ten
years. With the aid of the super-phosphates, cotton has
extended its domain forty or fifty miles up the slopes of the
Blue Ridge, and northward across the Virginia line. Upon
the border of the natural kingdom of cotton, or the region
24 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
in which the soils are warm enough and the seasons long
enough to mature the cotton without any artificial aid, there
lies a region, the northern boundary of which is not yet
clearly defined, in which cotton can be made to mature reg-ularly
and early enough to make a paying crop by the use
of super-phosphates, either alone or combined with potash
salts. In this region the trade in fertilizers has grown to gi-gantic
proportions. In towns, where a few years ago only a
few tons of super-phosphates were sold and not a bale of cot-ton
was marketed, a large cotton trade is found now, and
hundreds of tons of fertilizers are sold each season. The in-crease
in acreage in cotton in our State last year was 8 per
cent. This is chiefly in the region mentioned. It is due
entirely to the introduction of super-phosphates, which will
always be a necessity upon those soils.
Tobacco has received a similar impulse from the use of
special mixtures wrhose bases are super-phosphate of lime.
Fine yellow tobacco is now made upon soil that a few years
ajsjo was considered too poor to produce any paying crop.
These soils, which contain little more than loose white sand,
appear really to supply nothing besides the necessary physi-cal
conditions of plant growth. A complete fertilizer applied
directly to the hill, seems to supply all the plant food. The
supply has to be renewed each year in the same way. The
fertilizer has become then the sine qua non of this produc-tion.
It appears, therefore, that the use of fertilizers is a
permanent thing in North Carolina, and that it will grow
with the agriculture of the State. The best attentionwill be
paid to the wants of the trade, and the greatest care will be
taken that it is conducted in a way most conducive of the
good of our farmers.
Removal.
In obedience to the instructions of the last Legislature
the Station was removed from Chapel Hill to Raleigh, as
Historical Sketch. 25
soon as the apartments designed for it in the new Agricul-tural
Department Building were ready. It enjoys greatly
improved advantages in its new home. Besides the ample
space and the admirable equipment which it has gained,
the facilities for transacting business are much improved.
The Station works in close connection with the other sub-departments.
It makes analysis of fertilizers for the Com-missioner
of Agriculture and of minerals and ores for the
Geological Survey. It is now under the same roof with
these offices. With better mail, express and telegraph facili-ties,
business will go forward now more rapidly.
The Station, which is a great degree the child of the Uni-versity
of North Carolina, and to which it is indebted for
sustenance and support during the tiying times of its in-fancy,
cannot omit at this time to acknowledge its great ob-ligation
to the Trustees, President and Faculty of this insti-tution.
The University allotted the Station apartments in
her laboratory and supplied it with water, fuel, and, in a
large part, apparatus, during its residence there. But it
owes the University far more for the personal labors and
enthusiastic support of its President and Faculty. The re-lation
has been severed with the entire approval of the Uni-versity.
It recognized its time of tutelage was passed, and
that its child could now be most useful in this other loca-tion.
It has sent it out accordingly with its Godspeed.
The New Laboratory.
The labor of fitting up the laboratory had to go on slowly.
The Board ordered that it should be made complete in all
its appointments. Every necessary convenience for facili-tating
the work of the chemist was to be put in. To pro-vide
and put in place all these things required time. The
Director had to devote most of his attention to this matter
to the interruption of the regular work during the fall. He
offers this explanation to his correspondents. Many things
26 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
had to be ordered from Europe, the rest came from New
York. At last the laboratory is complete, and the work
shall go on more rapidly than ever. With the labor-saving
and time saving machines we have now, it is estimated that
each chemist can do one-third more work. More thorough
and better results are attainable also through these means.
The Experiment Station now occupies ten apartments in
the new building. There are two offices, a receiving room,
a sample and store room, a dark room for spectroscopic and
other such work, a small and a large laboratory, a balance
and instrument room, a furnace and assay room, and a room
for noxious gases. There is besides a large cellar for storing,
for the boiler, pump, and for coal.
The laboratory is supplied throughout with gas, water
and steam. Suction for the filters is supplied upon each
desk. One boiler supplies cteam, under high pressure for
the pump and crushers, when desired, and under low pres-sure
for the distilling apparatus, and the evaporating and
hot air apparatus. Among other articles of apparatus may
be mentioned two of Becker's best balances, a Bunsen po-lariscope,
a good microscope, a Springier pump, and an
muffle furnace.
Four hundred and fifty samples of all kinds have been
examined at the Station during the year 1881. They are
classified as follows:
Commercial Fertilizers, „ 171
Soils, 23
Minerals, , 68
Marls, 23
Seed Tests, ... 7
Chemicals for Composting, 24
Drinking 'Waters, 73
Mineral Waters, 23
Phosphate Rocks, 4
Composts and Home-made Fertilizers, 4
Historical Sketch. 27
Agri cul tu ral Limes, 2
Coral, 1
Sugar, 1
Articles of Food, 5
Bitters, 2
Tripoli, 1
Whiskey, 1
Lime Stone,......, 1
Extract of Lemon, 1
Mucks, 3
Oysters Shells, , 1
Ashes, , : 2
Fish Scrap, 4
Fire Clay, 1
Grass, 1
"Cider Seed," 1
Drugs, 2
450
The Fertilizer Control.
The regulations under which the trade in commercia[
fertilizers is conducted in the State requires explanation.
Special attention is called by sections 8 and 9 of the Act of
1877, and to the Act of 1881, amending these Sections.
The principles upon which the control is based are, the
requirement of a guarantee of the composition and grade
of the article and the examination of all goods, to see that
this guarantee is sustained. For this purpose manufac-turers
are required to take out annually a license and file
their stamp or brand, which the law requires shall include
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. This license is re-quired
upon each different " brand or quality." The follow-ing
ruling of the Board of Agriculture further defines the
classes of articles which are taxable:
"At a meeting of the Board of Agriculture, October loth, 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 Com-mittee,
upon consultation with the chemist, viz : Ground Bone, Bone
Ash, Ground Bone Black, Ground Phosphate Rock, or other mineral
Phosphate, Nitrogenous Organic matter commercially free from Phos-phoric
Acid and Potash, Nitrate of Soda, Nitrate of Potash (Saltpetre)^
Sulphate of Ammonia, Muriate of Ammonia, Kainite, Sulphate of Mag-nesia,
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 materila
under any trade-mark or proprietary brand: upon Dissolved Bone
Dissolved Bone Black, Dissolved Mineral Phosphates—(all Acid Phos-
The Fertilizer Control. 29
phates or Super-phosphates,) and upon any two or more of the articles
mentioned in the first list, if combined either chemically or meehani
cally."
To make plain the requirements of the law in the mat-ter
and to secure uniformity the following scheme for brand
is recommended :
(Weight of bag).. ... ........
(Name or Brand).......j
(Trade mark) ,
(Manufacturer's Address)
Analysis .......(date)
Available Phosphoric Acid pr. ct.
Kitrogen (or Ammonia, if claimed) .
6t "
Potash, (if claimed) u bi
North Carolina privilege-tax paid,
The phosphoric acid should not be expressed as bone
phosphate alone. By available phosphoric acid is meant
both the soluble and the so called " reverted." In the de-termination
of the reverted what is known to Chemists as
the " Washington method," or citrate of ammonia method
is used. Nitrogen must, of course, be in available forms.
Owing to the difficulty in discriminating between the dif-ferent
sources whence nitrogen is obtained in compound su-perphosphates,
it is not attempted to give a different valua-tion
to different nitrogenous materials in these articles.
But leather scrap, horn, 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. Nitrogen may be
expressed as such or as ammonia. Potash is that soluble
in water. It should not be expressed as sulphate of potash
just as it is not desirable to state per cent, of bone phosphate
alone. Uniformity is very desirable in these matters in
order that farmers may understand exactly what is meant,
and, as a majority of manufacturers have adopted the plan
30 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
of stating simply the potash, K2O, and the phosphoric acid
P2O 5, it is recommended that all adopt these forms. In
case it is desirable to state that the potash exist as the sul-phate
in the article, the expression "actual potash in form
of sulphate" might be used. The per centages may be
given within reasonable limits. These limits should not be
greater than 2 per cent, on the available phosphoic acid,
J per cent on the nitrogen, and J per cent on the potash.
Samples of fertilisers are drawn under the supervision
and immediate direction of the Commissioner of Agricul-ture.
Great care is taken to get the fairest possible sample
of the brand offered for sale. Experience shows that this
is the most common source of dissatisfaction about anlyses
of fertilizers. In the first place it is indispensable that man-ufacturers
shall thoroughly mix the various ingredients of
the fertilizers. If this is not well done, it is difficult to get
a sample under any method which shall fairly represent the
whole. As will be seen from the following directions every
possible precaution, fairly within the powers of an inspector,
is taken to attain this end. The analyses of official sam-ples
only are published in these reports. No samples are
received from the manufacturers; but all must be drawn
inside the State after they are beyond the power of their
makers to change in any way and when they are as nearly
as possible in that condition of dryness in which they are
to be sold to our farmers.
Instruction to Agents for Collecting Fertilizer
Samples.
" Let the person having the fertilizer in charge be present,
and after showing him your authority for taking samples,
proceed in the following manner
:
1st. Take your sampler, thrust it in the end of the pack-age
at its full length until the chamber is well filled. Pour
all the samples thus taken (from at least 10 per cent, of the
The Fertilizer Control. 31
number of packages in the lot) together and mix them
thoroughly. From this lot so mixed, fill a can and place in
the can, then and there, one of the lead checks, noting at the
time very particularly, the number stamped on the check.
2. Take your registry and record an exact copy, in dupli-cate,
of the stamp or label on the packages thus sampled,
fill out the other blanks as follows
:
Where sample drawn when
Number bags, barrels or packages in lot
Number sampled .....
Cash price per .ton, Cotton price,...
Sealed number...
I certify that I took a lawful and fair sample of the above
named fertilizer at the time and place above named.
I certify that the sample taken by .,
of the above named fertilizer is a fair sample of the same,
and that the above written transcript is a correct one.
3rd. Take the can and, in the presence of the person in
charge, have the cap sealed on by solder. Send by Express
to Dr. C. W. Dabney, at Raleigh.
4th. Transmit to the office of the Commissioner at once
by mail, a duplicate of each copy taken. The copy retained
by you should be carefully preserved to be deposited in this
office when required."
The Chemist of the Agricultural Experiment Station re-ceives
the sample with the number mentioned in the above
directions. He does not know the name of the brand until
his report of analysis is put on file in the Commissioner's
office.
Commercial Fertilizers in 1881, 33
Commercial Fertilizers in 1881.
Fifty-nine different articles paid the license tax and were
admitted to sale in North Carolina during the year 1881.
These are to be classified as follows
:
Acid phosphates and dissolved bones, .........*. 8
Acid phosphates with potash salts, ........ 9
Ammoniated superphosphates, 40
Peruvian Guano,..,...... 1
Prepared Agricultural Lime, ............... 1
The trade in fertilizers during the year amounted to a lit-tle
over 85,000 tons of all kinds. As a result of the unusu-ally
bad weather transportation was very much interrupted
just at the season when most of the fertilizers were being
shipped. But for this the sales would have been consider-ably
larger. Reports from dealers show that the demand
was not met by about thirty per cent. Besides this, there
was a very large business done in Kainite and other agri-cultural
chemicals, the extent of which I have no means of
knowing. The use of these articles is rapidly extending
with the extension of the money-saving practice of making
manures at home.
The average cash price in our principal towns of the sim-ple
acid phosphates and the acid phosphates with potash
salts was $30.80. The average cash price of the ammonia-ted
phosphates was $40.30. I estimate that about twice as
much of the ammoniated goods was sold as of the acid phos-phates.
If this be true, the cash value in North Carolina of
3
34 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
the fertilizers of 1881 was about $3,200,000. This, however,
does not represent the actual outlay made for fertilizers by
our farmers. How many farmers paid cash for them ? In
the cotton country very few. As far as I can ascertain,
hardly one-tenth of the farmers of the State. Four hundred
and twenty-five pounds of middling cotton in November
was the price pretty uniformly obtained for ammoniated
superphospates, and three hundred pounds was usually
asked for acid phosphates. At eleven cents per pound for
the cotton this is $33 per ton for the acid phosphates, and
$46.75 for the ammoniated superphosphates. Supposing
the tobacco men paid for their goods on time at the same
rates as the cotton men, (they pay more in fact) we have
$3,265,000 as the round sum paid by the nine-tenths who
buy on the credit system, for fertilizers. Adding the amount
paid by the one-tenth cash men for their goods, we have as
the grand total paid by the State under these conditions for
fertilizers about $3,600,000. By buying for cash $400,000
would have been saved to the State. This is but an illus-tration
of the workings of the credit system. Farmers are
usually made to pay more for money than any class of peo-ple,
in spite of the fact that they give the best class of secu-rities.
Cost of the Active Ingredients of Fertilizers.
The growth of the manufacture of fertilizers during the
year has produced a decided upward tendency in all mate-rials
used in their production. All the sources of phos-phates
have been pretty actively worked. Taking the'South
Carolina phosphate rock as an illustration, we find that sales
have been made as high as $9.00 per ton, against $7.00 and
$7.50 for the year previous. The advance has been far more
marked in ammoniates of all kinds. The supply of fish-scrap
was very short. The slaughter houses of the West
were drained of everything they could supply also without
Commercial Fertilizers in 1881. 35
meeting the demand. Nitrogen in fish-scrap and blood has
become about as dear as in sulphate of ammonia and
nitrate of soda. The result is that nitrate of soda is being
used to a considerable extent in compound superphosphates.
While it is an excellent application for spring crops, I doubt
whether it will take the place of ammonia salts and animal
nitrogen upon the porous, sandy soil of our State. There is
a strong opinion among our cotton planters in favor of ani-mal
nitrogen in part, at least, in superphosphates for cot-ton.
Nitrogen has thus reached the price at which it be-comes
questionable whether it will pa}' our farmers to buy
it. Certainly they should turn their attention to the utili-zation
of every available nitrogenous material at home. I
shall speak of this matter farther on.
The cost of potash salts remained pretty much unchanged
during the year. Fortunately, Germany is still able to sup-ply
us from her wonderful Stassfurt beds, at figures so low
as to put potash easily within the reach of all whom it will
benefit. Kainite was imported into the country in enor-mous
quantities during the year and the promise is that it
will be offered in still larger amount the coming year.
The following figures were used in estimating the relative
commercial values of superphosphates and similar fertili-zers
during 1881
:
Available phosphoric acid, 12J cents per pound.
Nitrogen, 23 " " "
Or Ammonia, 18.9 " " "
Potash, 8 a it
Explanation of Tables of Analyses.
The names of the articles is given in the first column.
In the columns 2 to 10 inclusive, are given the percentages
of those things in the fertilizer which it is important to
know the amount of. Let those who are unaccustomed to
36 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
the use of percentages regard these figures as representing
pounds in a hundred pounds.
I have often been asked what the rest of the fertilizer, or
the difference between the sums of these percentages and
100, is made up of. Let me answer once for all with refer-ence
to all of the analyses, that it is the lime combined with
the phosphoric acid in its various forms of combination,
the sulphate of lime, which was formed when the original
phosphate of lime was treated with sulphuric acid, the or-ganic
and volatile matter, containing the nitrogen which
alone is given, and the sulphuric acid or chlorine combined
with the potash along with the accidental impurities of the
several ingredients. These things are unavoidably present
in a commercial article. Three of the constituents to which
no value is given are determined and their percentages are
given in the 2d, 3rd, and 4th columns, the water, sand and
insoluble phosphoric acid. A certain amount of moisture
and sand are unavoidably present. But their amounts
should not be excessive. They merely give dead weight
.and dilute the valuable ingredients. Since they are the
things which are most liable to occur in excessive amount,
-their determination is desirable.
The available phosphoric acid is the sum of the soluble
and the so-called, reverted. They receive together the val-uation
of 12J cents. Agricultural chemists have pretty gen-erally
agreed that the distinction so long maintained be-tween
these two is practically useless. The reverted phos-phoric
acid is just as active as the soluble in the typical soil.
•Ordinarily the soluble is all precipitated or reverted in the
soil before it is taken up by the plants. Practically it costs
the manufacturer just as much to produce it from the insol-uble
phosphates as it does to produce the soluble. Chem-ists
are not certain yet about the chemical character of the
so called reverted, so that it is for all reasons best to drop
the term and speak only of available phosphoric acid, or
available phosphate.
Commercial Fertilizers in 1881. 37
The total nitrogen is given in the 8th column. In the
9th is the ammonia equivalent to the nitrogen, and in the
10th column is given the percent, of actual potash.
To calculate the relative commercial value :
Multiply the per cent, of available phosphoric acid found
by anaysis by 12J. This gives the value in cents of the
available phosphoric acid found in a hundred pounds. Just
so, multiply the per cent, of ammonia by 18.9; and of pot-ash
by 8, and add these products together. The sum is the
value of these constituents in a 100 pounds. Multiply this
by 20 and you have the commercial value of the active in-gredients
of a ton of 2,000 pounds.
These relative commercial values are given in the eleventh
column. In the twelfth are the cash prices per ton of 2,000
pounds, as far as they could he ascertained, and in the last
column is the Station number of the analysis.
Lee's Prepared Agricultural Lime is not to be classed
with super-phosphates. The official sample contained :
PER CENT.
Moisture., 1095
Combined water and organic matter, 11.33
Potash, 2.01—equivalent to sulphate potash, 3.71
Sulphate of magnesia, 7.11
Sulphateof lime, S.12
Lime, as hydrate and combined with carbonic
acid, 31.58
Phosphate of lime, 0.41
Common salt, considerable amount, carbonic
acid and impurities, undetermined,.., 26.79
100.00
38 Annual Report N. C. Experimeelt Station.
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46 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
FARMERS' DIRECTIONS FOR TAKING SAMPLES OF
FERTILIZERS OR CHEMICALS.
Provide yourselves with a sheet of paper or a newspaper,
and a glass bottle, fruit jar or tin can which will hold about
a pint, and can be tightly closed. Take a small sample from
at least one-tenth of the bags or barrels and, putting these
samples upon the paper, mix them together thoroughly
with a trowel or any other instrument From the pile on
the paper then select about a pint, put it in a jar or can,
seal and send by Express to Dr. C. W. Dabney, Jr., Raleigh,
N. C.
Do not mix different kinds of things together, but send a
sample of each for analysis.
Pre-pay Express charges to Raleigh. This will be the
only expense you will have to meet.
Fill out the following blanks and send by mail to the
same address
:
Dr. C. W. Dabney, Jr.:
Sir—I send you to-day, the day of , 188..., a
sample for analysis.
It is represented to be , , and
is claimed to contain
Sold by , of ,
post office, county. Package marked
Please report analysis to
post office, county.
Yours truly,
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 47
Materials of Home-Made Fertili-zers,
I.
—
Ashes.
Ashes vary much in composition. The}7 differ greatly
for different plants, different parts or stages of growth of the
plant, and often for the same plant at the same stages of
growth when grown on different soils. In the case of each
plant, however, they represent in kind, if not in exact
amount, the mineral matter necessary to that particular
growth, and may, therefore, be expected to form one of the
best fertilizers to be found. Such is actually the case.
The mineral bases, as they are found in the ashes, are, of
course, in very different combination from what they were
in the plant. Potash in combination with organic acids in
the plants becomes carbonate of potash by burning. Phos-phoric
acid exists in the plant in soluble form combined
with potash or with organic matter. By the action of the
heat this is driven into combination with lime in the in-soluble
form called bone phosphate or three-lime phosphate.
So all of the combinations are transformed by the heat and
all in the direction of insolubility. But they remain, at
least, in a very finely divided state, and, so far, in a favor-able
condition to afford nourishment to new plants.
The ashes used for fertilizing purposes are derived chiefly
from the fires in our houses. The amount varies much, ac-cording
to the nature of the wood. The ash of oak wood is
from 2J to 4 per cent, of its weight; of red pine from 1J to
2 per cent. The composition of the ashes of these two woods
is presented in the following table
;
48 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
Oak Wood, Red Pine,
Contains in 100 pounds of
Potash,. 10.0 pounds 5.2
Soda, « 3.6
" 26.8
Magnesia, 4.8 "
6.2
Lime, 73.5 " 47.9
Phosphoric Acid,.... 5.5
"
5.1
Sulphuric Acid, 1.4 "
3.0
Silica, 1.1
"
2.0
Chlorine, 0.1
"
4.0
The younger branches contain uniformly more potash
and phosphoric acid and generally less lime. The constitu-ents
of all ashes most valuable for fertilizing purposes are,
first potash, next phosphoric acid and lime. The potash,
soda, lime and magnesia are chiefly found as carbon-ates
in ashes, while smaller portions of them are combined
with phosphoric, sulphuric and silicic acids.
The compounds of potash and soda are the ones which
are soluble in water. The proportion of these constituents
present vary somewhat, but I will take good dry mixed
wood ashes as the basis of calculation in what follows. Of
these about 13J lbs. in a hundred pounds are soluble in
warm wT ater. Or, taking the bushel at 50 lbs., (not far wrong,)
6| lbs. are soluble in water, and contain a little over four and
a half pounds of potash and soda, the remainder being the
acids—carbonic, sulphuric, &c, with which they are com-bined.
About 3J lbs. are potash. About forty-three and a
fourth pounds are insoluble in water, and consist of (roughly)"
Carbonate of lime,, 34 pounds.
Phosphate of lime,... , 3 "
Carbonate of magnesia, 4 "
Silicate of lime, , ., 2 "
The commercial value of good mixed wood ashes unleach-
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 49
is then, (using the figures ordinarily used in valuing fertil-izers),
as follows
:
3J lbs of potash at 6cts.... ,,...19J ets.
1J lbs of soda and other soluble constituents,
3 lbs of Phosphate of lime at 1| cts 5f ets,
34 lbs of Carbonate lime, -
4 lbs of Carbonate magnesia,
2 lbs Silicate lime,
25 cts.
That is, one bushel of ashes is worth 25 cents, allowing no
value to the soda, carbonate of lime or silicate of lime
which are certainly wTorth something to the farmer in the
form in which they exist in ashes.
By thoroughly leaching the ashes, 19J cents of this value
are removed ; the value of a bushel of well leached ashes is
only 5J cents, if we do not allow any value to the carbonate
of lime, &e. Thorough leaching is, however, seldom ac-complished.
So called leached ashes usually contain 1 to
2 per cent, of potash still. Two samples of ashes from hick-ory
wood burnt under the boilers at the Spoke and Handle
Factory at Greensboro, were examined as to the amount of
potash they contained. The ashes had been thrown out and
exposed to the leaching of the rains for a number of months.
They still contained potash. Sample No. 1341 had 2.24 per
cent., sample No. 1342, 4.12 per cent. The samples were
evidently differently exposed. 1342 retains about one-third
of its potash. One sees from this, nevertheless, the impor-tance
of keeping all ashes under shelter until they can be
put out on the land.
The agricultural value of the two forms of ashes are far
in advance of these figures, however. Ashes, containing all
their normal constituents, are worth more to the farmer
than for any other purpose. A bushel properly applied
will often return in the first year 50 cents in increase of
4
50 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
products. The potash and soda, in the form of carbonates,
sulphates and silicates in the ashes are in precisely the right
condition to be taken up by the plants. The phosphate is
so finely divided that, although insoluble, as we say, it is,
under the action of the carbonic acid of the soil, slowly ren-dered
available by plants. The lime, both as hydrate and
carbonate, and the soda salts, are well known to act upon
the soil, reducing various compounds to available condi-tions.
Leached ashes are also worth more to the farmer than 5J
cents per bushel. The soluble constituents never being entire-ly
removed, they often contain the elements of plant food in
more nearly the right proportions than in unleached ashes.
In unleached ashes there is much too large an amount of
potash in proportion to phosphoric acid. A good honest
bushel of average leached ashes is said to give a return of
15 cents the first year.
There are two objections to fresh ashes as a fertilizer, be-sides
this of the disproportion between the potash and phos-phoric
acid. One is, as already mentioned, that some of the
valuable elements, like the phosphoric acid, exist in insolu-ble
forms. The other is that, owing to the amount of pow-erful
alkali present they cannot be mixed with ammoniacal
salts or substances producing them without causing their
escape and loss. Applied to compost heaps, strong ashes
facilitate the decomposition very much. When air is per-mitted
to permeate the heap, and it is alternately wet and
dry, they, like lime, further the formation of nitrates. But.
when it is desired to retain the nitrogen as ammonia and
kindred compounds, strong ashes cannot be safely applied
to the heap. This objection does not apply to neutral salts
of potash and soda, like the sulphate and chloride. These
are well applied in a solution in water by sprinkling over
the heap.
These objections may be obviated by treating the ashes
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 51
with sulphuric acid, just as phosphate rock and bone are
treated with acid to render the phosphoric acid soluble.
Prof. Henderson, of the University of Georgia, gives some
results of the application of ashes so treated. He says : " In
1873, at the rate of 200 lbs. per acre of these sulphated ashes,
802 lbs. of seed cotton were produced, while, with the sim-ple
wood ashes, 200 lbs. made 675 lbs. ; the natural soil pro-ducing
607 lbs." Ammoniated compounds may be mixed
with such neutralized ashes and a valuable complete ma-nure
thus produced. The simple, unleached ashes should
always be applied separately to the soil, between the rows,
when the composted manure is put in the furrow or in the
hill, and should always be well scattered.
As for the value of ashes upon different soils, a few
facts are well ascertained. In new grounds, where log heaps
have been burned, the good results are well known and!
often last for years. The ashes in this case should be welli
scattered to prevent some spots getting a great excess. Oni
all sandy and loamy soils ashes are very generally of great
benefit as such soils usually need potash. Heavy clay soils
will not respond to the application of ashes near so dis-tinctlv.
Coal ashes have a very low agricultural value. They
consist chiefly of silica and alumina, and contain little pot-ash,
soda, lime or phosphate, as compared with wood ashes.
Still they may be applied to the soil when near at hand.
Ashes and plaster is an old and favorite mixture with the
farmers in the grass sections. They are applied to corn
sometimes, apparently with good success. The reaction is,
when the mixture is moist, the interchange of acids between
the potash and the lime. Sulphate of potash is formed and
carbonate of lime. This is an advantage for the ready as-similation
of sulphuric acid and the potash.
Ashes produce most distinct good results, of course, upon
all crops of which potash is a dominant constituent. This
is especially true of potatoes and the legumes. Ville found
52 . Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
that the suppression of potash from the manures applied to
potatoes caused a reduction of the yield of over one half.
When potash was deficient, the potato plants were very sub-ject
to all the diseases and the ravages of insects to which
the plants are liable. So ashes produce uniformly most
marked results upon lucern, clover and peas.
II.
—
Stable Manure.
Stable manure consists of the urine and solid excrement
•of domestic animals mixed with litter. These excrements
are of very varied composition. They vary with the ani-mal
from which they come, the food upon which the animal
is fed, its state of health, the manner in which it has been
worked, &c. Generally only a small part of the manurial
elements of the food is retained in the body of the animal.
The remainder passes into the manure. Hence, the richer
the feed the richer the manure. Good feeding pays, there-fore,
not only in the production of working strength, or
flesh, but also through the production of a richer manure.
The question of feeding profitably and the question of pro-ducing
manure are intimately connected, and should be
studied together.
The following may be quoted as average analyses:
In 1000 parts are contained of Water. Nitrogen. Potash. Sul. Acid.
Solid dung of the horse, fresh, 760 4.5 3.5 3.5
" " u cattle, " 838 5. 1. 2.
44 " " sheep, " ..... 655 5.5 1.5 3.
4v " " swine, " ..... 820 6. 2.5 4.
Urine of horse, fresh................ 900 15.5 15
" 4fc cattle, 44
................ 938 6. 4.
" 4t sheep, " ,.....,..,.. 872 10.5 22.5 0.2
" 44 swine, 4;
................. 967 4.3 8. 1.0
The composition of stable manure is further affected by
-the litter with which it is mixed. This is so varied in kind
and amount that it becomes almost impossible to give even
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 53
an approximate analysis of the stable manure derived from
any one animal, not to speak of that heterogeneous mass
which usually accumulates in the farm-yard, and which is
derived from many different sources. If an analysis must
be quoted, we may take about one-half per cent, of nitrogen,
potash and phosphoric acid, each, as the amount contained
in the average wet barn-yard manure. Seventy per cent,
of such manure is w7 ater. The organic matter varies from
15 to 25 per cent., the total mineral matter or ash from 5 to
10 per cent.
How to Save Manure.
Taking the case of horses' or mules kept in stables, two
very different methods of managing manures are in vogue.
Well constructed stables have strong, tight wooden floors in
the stalls, sloping slightly so that the urine will run off.
This should then be caught in a trough running along un-der
the edge of the stall floor and conducted into a barrel
sunk in the ground. To prevent the decomposition of this
liquid and the loss of ammonia, a shovelful of dissolved
South Carolina phosphate should be thrown into the barrel
every few days. This is well for two reasons. The sulphate
of lime contained in the acid phosphate fixes the ammonia,
preventing its escaping into the air as carbonate, which it
wTould otherwise do. The phosphate makes up a deficiency in
this manure also. From the analysis we see that, while com-paratively
rich in nitrogen and potash, urine is very poor
in phosphoric acid. By adding the phosphate to the liquid,
as it is dried down, we get a highly ammoniated super-phosphate
with potash, or, what is commonly called, a com-plete
fertilizer.
The solid dung and the litter, as it becomes filthy, are
throwrn out of the stalls daily. Ordinarily it is thrown out
into the barn-yard to be leached by the rain and scattered
about by the animals. Lying there during |the winter,
it loses two thirds of its valuable constituents. Everything
54 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
that is soluble is washed away, and the exposure and tramp-ling
promote a rapid decay which renders almost all the
plant food soluble, so that, when the farmer hauls out the
black wet mass in the spring, he has left most of his ma-nure
in the ditches which drain the stable-yard.
The manure should be thrown out under the shed and
packed down as tightly as possible. Every good stable
ought to have a shed conveniently located for this purpose,
under which a foundation for the compost heap is con-structed.
Where nothing else is done a basin should be
scooped out and a trough led from the bottom of it into
a barrel in the ground. A basin of brick covered with
cement or of wood, tightly laid; is better still. This barrel
will catch the drainage from the pile, which can either be
thrown back upon it when it becomes too dry, or the urine
can be received in this same barrel and both be mixed with
dissolved phosphate. When too large a quantity of solid
matter accumulates in the barrel it can be thrown out upon
the heap. A little acid phosphate sprinkled over the heap
every time a new layer is put on will greatly improve it.
This will enrich the manure, promote the decomposition of
the organic matter, and secure all of its ammonia. The
farmer may thus gradually build up his compost heap, add-ing
any chemicals which he may think necessary for the
particular soil or crop.
The other plan is the common one. Few stables upon
southern farms have the plank floors in the stalls, the drain-age
troughs or the compost sheds I have spoken of. The
bottom of the stalls is made of the best clay to be had, and
the trampling soon produces a very impervious floor. The
animals are supplied with an abundance of litter, which is
packed down under foot as fast as it becomes thoroughly
soaked. The proper management in this case is to let the
manure alone. The mass had best not be broken or stirred
until spring, if it is possible to let the accumulation go on
so long. If turned up and exposed to the air there will be
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 55
more danger of its losing value. If the stalls must be cleared
out do Dot throw the manure out into the barn-yard, under
the eaves of the houses, to be leached by the rain, but heap
up compactly under a shed, or compost with acid phosphate,
as already described. Manure kept in an open yard will, in
the course of a year, lose two thirds of its value.
While this is a bad method for the health of the animals,
keeping them filthy and causing skin diseases, it is a very
good plan to save the manure. One must use an abun-dance
of litter. This makes it as tolerable as possible for
the animals, and produces the more manure. Plenty of
litter is within the reach of every one if he will only save it.
When the team is not busy it can be employed hauling
leaves and pine straw. All of the refuse of the fodder and
straw, the shucks and cobs, chaff, <fec, will of course be used
in this way after the cattle have picked them over. Some
farmers use their cotton seed as bedding for their horses
and mules. If their feeding value is to be entirely neg-lected,
this is a very good plan. They add greatly to the
value of the manure as they are themselves rich in nitro-gen.
Their germs are killed and they are partly decom-posed.
Where the cotton-seed meal is used as a food, the
hulls make an excellent absorbent for the stalls.
To calculate the amount of manure made on the farm
from the number of stock :—The estimate is that a medium
sized animal supplied with abundant fodder, will produce
in a year the following amounts of manure :
Horse (exclusive of loss during work),.. 175 cwt.
Ox or cow, . 200 to 250 "
Sheep (October to May),..... .... 15 "
Hog, ....... .25 to 37 "
The quality of the manure depends upon the character of
the feeding stuffs, as mentioned.
56 Annual Report N. C Experiment Stations
How to Manage Manure.
The changes which take place when manure rs fermented
are quite complicated. The principal difference between,
fresh and rotted, manure lies in the amount of soluble mat-ter
in them. The best information on this subject is based
upon the experiments of Dr. Voelcker. the chemist to the
Royal Agricultural Society of Great Britain. He analyzed
barn-yard manure fresh and in all stages of decomposition.
I have space for only two of his analyses, which illustrate
the difference between fresh and rotted manure. The com-position
of a five ton heap of fresh manure is given in
the first column. The composition of this amount, after
lying an open manure pit six months, is given in the second
column
:
Fresh. Rotted*.
Total weight of manure in heap, 10,000.3 lbs. 7,138.3 lbs.
Water in the heap of manure, 6,917 " 4,707 a
Total organic matter, 2,824 u 1,678 u
Total inorganic matter, , „.. 559 u 753 ""
Total nitrogen in heap, .., „ 64.3 " 63 9 '*
Total soluble organicm atter, ,, ...... 248 "" 305 "*
Total insoluble organic matter, .... 2,576 "- 1,373 u
Soluble mineral matter, 154 " 204* "
Insoluble mineral matter, .. , 405 " 549 u
Nitrogen in soluble matter, .... 14.9" 21.4 "
Nitrogen in insoluble matter, ..» .... 49.4 u 42.5 ft
We see that 1,146 lbs. of dry organic matter has been de-composed
in this heap of five tons. There has been little
loss of nitrogen, however, the nitrogen of this organic mat-ter
having been absorbed by the other materials. The
amount of insoluble nitrogen has increased. It is 21.4 in?
the rotted manure against 14.9 in the fresh. So has the
amount of soluble mineral matter increased. This includes
the soluble phosphate. It is evident, therefore, that the
manure is in a more active and available state than when*
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 57
fresh. This paper has been frequently copied before, but
the following extract is so interesting that I give it as a
whole.
Dr. Vcelcker draws the following conclusions from his
experiments
:
" Having described at length my experiments with farm-yard
manure," he says, " it may not be amiss to state briefly
the more prominent and practically interesting points which
have been developed in the course of this investigation. I
would, therefore, observe
:
" 1. Perfectly fresh farm-yard manure contains but a small
proportion of free ammonia.
" 2. The nitrogen in fresh dung exists principally in the
state of insoluble nitrogenized matters.
" 3. The soluble organic and mineral constituents of dung
are much more valuable fertilizers than the insoluble. Par-ticular
care, therefore, should be bestowed upon the preser-vation
of the liquid excrements of animals, and for the same
reason the manure should be kept in perfectly water-proof
pits of sufficient capacity to render the setting up of dung
heaps in the corner of fields, as much as it is possible, un-necessary.
" 4. Farm-yard manure, even in quite a fresh state, con-tains
phosphate of lime, which is more valuable than has
hitherto been suspected.
" 5. The urine of the horse, cow and pig does not contain
any appreciable quantity of phosphate of lime, whilst the
drainings of dung heaps contain considerable quantities of
this valuable fertilizer. The drainings of dung heaps, partly
for this reason, are more valuable than the urine of our
domestic animals, and, therefore, ought to be prevented by
all available means from running to waste.
" 6. The most effectual means of preventing loss in fer-tilizing
matters is to cart the manure directly on the field
whenever circumstances allow this to be done.
" 7. On all soils with a moderate proportion of cla}% no
58 Annual Eeport N. C. Experiment Station.
fear need be entertained of valuable fertilizing substances
becoming wasted if the manure cannot be plowed in at once.
Fresh, and even well rotted dung, contains very little free
ammonia; and since active fermentation, and with it the
further evolution of free ammonia, is stopped by spreading
out the manure on the field, valuable volatile manuring
matters cannot escape into the air by adopting this plan.
" As all soils with a moderate proportion of clay possess
in a remarkable degree the power of absorbing and retain-ing
manuring matters, none of the saline and soluble or-ganic
constituents are wasted even by a heavy fall of rain.
It may, indeed, be questioned whether it is more advisable
to plow in the manure at once, or to give the rain fall op-portunity
to wash it into the soil.
" It appears to me a matter of greatest importance to regu-late
the application of manure to our fields, so that its con-stituents
may become properly diluted, and uniformly dis-tributed
amongst a large mass of soil. By plowing in the
manure at once, it appears to me, this desirable end cannot
be reached so perfectly as by allowing the rain to wash in
gradually the manure evenly spread on the surface of the
field.
" By adopting such a course, in case practical experience
should confirm my theoretical reasoning, the objection could
no longer be maintained that the land is not ready for cart-ing
manure upon it. I am inclined to recommend, as a
general rule: Cart the manure on the field, spread it at once,
and wait for a favorable opportunity to plow it in. In the
case of clay soils, I have no hesitation to say the manure
may be spread even six months before it is plowed in, with-out
losing any appreciable quantity in manuring matter.
" I am perfectly aware, that on stiff clay land, farm-yard
manure, more especially long dung, when plowed in before
the frost sets in, exercises a most beneficial action by keep-ing
the soil loose and admitting the free access of frost,
which pulverizes the land, and would, therefore, by no
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 59
means recommend to leave the manure spread on the sur-face
without plowing it in. All that I wish to enforce is,
that when no other choice is left but either to set up the
manure in a heap in the corner of the field, or to spread it
on the field, without plowing it in directly, to adopt the lat-ter
plan.
" In the case of very light sandy soils, it may perhaps not
be advisable to spread out the manure a long time before it
is plowed in, since such soils do not possess the power of re-taining
manuring matters in any marked degree. On light
sandy soils, I would suggest to manure with well fermented
dung, shortly before the crop intended to be grown is sown.
" 8. Well rotted dung contains, likewise, little free ammo-nia,
but a very much larger proportion of soluble organic
and saline mineral matters than fresh manure.
u
9. Rotten dung is richer in nitrogen than fresh.
" 10. Weight for weight, rotten dung is more valuable
than fresh.
" 11. In the fermentation of dung, a very considerable
portion of the organic matters in fresh manure is dissipated
into the air in the form of carbonic acid and other gases.
" 12. Properly regulated, however, the fermentation of
dung is not attended with any very great loss of nitrogen
nor of saline mineral matters.
" 13. During the fermentation of dung, the phosphate of
lime wT hich it contains is rendered more soluble than in
fresh manure.
" 14. During the fermentation of dung, ulmic, humic and
other organic acids are formed, as well as gypsum, which
fixes the ammonia generated in the decomposition of the ni-trogenized
constituents of dung.
" 15. In the interior and heated portions of manure heaps
ammonia is given off; but, on passing to the external and
cold layers of dung heaps, the free ammonia is retained in
the heap.
" 16. Ammonia is not given off from the surface of well
60 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
compressed dung heaps, but, on turning manure heaps, it
is wasted in appreciable quantities. Dung heaps, for this
reason, should not be turned more frequently than abso-lutely
necessary.
" 17. No advantage appears to result from carrying on the
fermentation of dung too far, but every disadvantage.
" 18. Farmyard manure becomes deteriorated in value
when kept in heaps exposed to the weather, the more the
longer it is kept.
" 19. The loss in manuring matters, which is incurred in
keeping manure-heaps exposed to the weather, is not so
much due to the volatilization of ammonia as to the re-moval
of ammoniacal salts, soluble nitrogenized organic
matters, and valuable mineral matters, by the rain which
falls in the period during which the manure is kept.
" 20. If rain is excluded from dung-heaps, or little rain
falls at a time, the loss in ammonia is trifling, and no saline^
matters, of course, are removed; but, if much rain falls,
especially if it descends in heavy showers upon the dung-heap,
a serious loss in ammonia, soluble organic matter,
phosphate of lime, and salts of potash is incurred, and the
ammonia becomes rapidly deteriorated in value, whilst at
the same time it is diminished in weight.
" 21. Well-rotted dung is more readily affected by the de-teriorating
influence of rain than fresh manure.
" 22. . Practically speaking, all the essentially valuable
manuring constituents are preserved by keeping farm-yard
manure under cover.
"23. If the animals have been supplied with plenty of
litter, fresh dung contains an insufficient quantity of water
to induce an active fermentation. In this case, fresh dung
cannot be properly fermented under cover, except water or
liquid manure is pumped over the heap from time to time.
Where much straw is used in the manufacture of dung and
no provision is made to supply the manure in the pit at any
time with the requisite amount of moisture, it may not be
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 61
advisable to put up a roof over the dung-pit. On the other
hand, on farms where there is a deficiency of straw, so that
the moisture of the excrements of our domestic animals is
barely absorbed by the litter, the advantage of erecting a
roof over the dung-pit will be found very great.
" 24. The worst method of making manure is to produce
it by animals kept in open yards, since a large proportion
of valuable fertilizing matters is wasted in a short time;
and after the lapse of twelve months, at least two-thirds of
the substance of the manure is wasted, and only one-third,
inferior in quality to fresh dung, is left behind."
The Hurdling System.
One gathers easily from these remarks that it is a difficult
matter to manage stable manure so as to preserve all of its
active ingredients. All of these difficulties are avoided
where the hurdling system is possible. Dr. Voelcker has
shown how rapidly manure, spread out over the barn-yard,
deteriorates. Such animals therefore, as are usually left to
stand in the barn-yard should be penned at night upon the
land to be fertilized. Movable fences are constructed with-out
much labor, and with their help several acres may be
highly fertilized by the droppings of the cattle or sheep of
an ordinary farm during a year. Land, once enriched in
this way, retains its fertilit}r a long time. A gentleman
tells me that a spot in a poor field where a sheep pen stood
fifteen years ago still presents a contrast to the surrounding
ground by the greater luxuriance of the crops.
Prof. Pendleton says, speaking of the hurdling system :*
" By a similar process, sheep husbandry might be made
a great source of income to our farmers. There is nothing
more valuable than their droppings for fertilizing some soils,
having in them twice as much nitrogen as fresh horse ma-
Scientific Agriculture, p. 321.
62 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
nure, and when dry as three to two. By a recent experi-ment
on turnips, we have become satisfied that any amount
can be produced on our poorest soils by the application of
super-phosphate. 50 lbs. of this article, costing $1.25 per
acre, with half a stand, produced 84 bushels : the natural
soil only 21. In another experiment, with 200 lbs. of am-moniated
superphosphate, 2,201 bushels were produced,
against 52J on natural soil.
" Now, if our legislatures would tax the dogs, and the
farmers buy a little superphosphate, and make turnips on
land otherwise valueless, having a small flock of sheep to
begin with, they could do several good things thereby.
The sheep, by the aid of hurdle pens, which could be moved
every morning if necessary, would eat the turnips off the
land, leaving their deposits, (which would enrich the soil)
and continue through the winter until the turnip field was
eat out, then you have a rich field to make cotton on, with
a crop of wool, and a supply of ;mutton. If all would en-gage
in it, the labor is divided between wool and cotton, the
price of cotton advanced, the number of dogs lessened, and
more food and clothing for the poor. We are satisfied that
wool can thus be produced cheaper than cotton, and know
that lands can thus be fertilized at a much cheaper rate
than to import nitrogen and phosphoric acid from the Pa-cific
isles in the high priced guano found in the markets.
" Boussingault made an experiment on a stubble with 200
sheep for one fortnight. He found that each sheep ma-nured
a surface of four square feet every night, so as to pro-duce
a maximum crop of turnips. At this rate, a flock of
200 sheep would make fourteen acres of land rich in one
3
rear. Estimating that each acre would make 600 lbs. more
of seed cotton than the natural soil, the 200 sheep would
make $308.00 at 11 cents for cotton the first year; and the
second year about the same amount could be realized from
the same land. The value of the wool and mutton would
be added to this."
Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 63
III. Materials Supplying Lime.
The Analysis of Coral.—-The following is the detailed
analysis of a piece of astraea bella, Coral, found in the marl
beds :
Sample, Ko. 1114, from J. J. Wolfe nden, Esq , Newborn, N. C, con-tains
:
Moisture, 0.53 per cent.
Insoluble matter, (Sand, &c.,).„ 9.19
Organic Matter,. 4.25
Ferric Oxide and Alumina, .. 0.79
Carbonate of Lime,. 83.27
Sulphate of Lime, ......... 0.63
Phosphate of Lime,... 0.08
Carbonate of Magnesia. .. 0.59
Potassium, , trace.
Sodium Chloride, 0.60 percent.
99.m
Marls.—Our people are acquainted with the great value
of marl as a fertilizer. They are found in enormous quan-tities
throughout all the eastern part of the State. When
the local freight rates are brought down low enough, these
marl beds are destined to be extensively worked. At present
their use is restricted to the immediate neighborhood in
which they are found. Lime is the valuable constituent of
ordinary marl in which it exists as carbonate. Phosphoric
acid is found in small amounts in nearly all of our maris.
Potash is found more rarely. The amount of sand and the
amount of these constituents valuable for fertilizing pur-poses,
are given only in the following analyses;
64 Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
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Materials of Home-Made Fertilizers. 65
Limestone is similarly carbonate of lime, often with car-bonate
of magnesia, when it is called Dolomite, and con-taining
varying amounts of sand and oxides of iron and
alumina. In some districts it is ground and applied to the soil
instead of marl. The objection to this is the expense of the
grinding, which is a difficult operation generally, and re-quires
heavy machinery. Where plaster and marl are not
to be had it ma}7 still be used profitably, however, upon soils
in great need of litne. I add the analysis of a limestone,
which is almost pure carbonate of lime
:
Sample, ISTo. 1279, of Limestone, from Messrs. French Bros., Rocky
Point, 1ST. C, marked "From Excelsior Plantation," contained:
Lime 51 84 per cent.
Equivalent to Carbonate of Lime, 92.58 " "
Another form in which lime is found as carbonate is oys-ter
shells:
Sample, No. 1340, was from L. Harvey, Esq., Kinston, N". C It con-tained
:
Lime,... 50.31 per cent.
Equivalent to
Carbonate of Lime, 88.05 " "
Phosphoric Acid, trace.
Agricultural Lime.—When any form of carbonate of
lime, limestone, oyster shells or shell marl is burnt, the car-bonic
acid is expelled, and simple lime is the product. This
is a favorite form in which to apply lime. It is usually air-slaked,
as it is said, which reduces the rock lime to a fine
powder suitable for scattering. During this air-slaking the
lime takes up carbonic acid again in part, and water. The
lime sold as agricultural lime is all in this condition. The
following analysis illustrates its composition :
Sample, ~No. 1055, of prepared Lime, from the Commissioner of Agricul-ture,
contained
:
Water, 18.55 per cent.
Lime, , 41.68 " "
Magnesia, 0.36 " "
Potash, „ trace.
Sulphuric Acid,.. "
Carbonic Acid, Undetermined.
K
6Q Annual Report N. C. Experiment Station.
Such lime is a powerful " digestive'' agent in the soil as
well as a plant-food. It acts upon the insoluble mineral
compounds of the soil, releasing potash and soda from the
conditions which locked them up from the plants. It is
also a great promoter of the decomposition of all organic mat-ter.
It greatty promotes the formation of nitric acid, through
which form, probably, all the nitrogen has to pass before it
can be taken up by plants. It releases thus also all of the
ash elements of vegetable matter, and lenders them avail-able
as plant food. Lime is applied, therefore, with great
advantage to freshly drained swamp lands and to newly
cleared lands. It corrects the acidity of sour soils, and
causes all such lands to give up their plant-food at once.
This effect of lime should be kept in mind when it is used.
It is to be remembered that it is burning up the organic mat-ter
and digesting all the food the soil contains, and care must
be taken to supply more organic matter, or the last state of
the land will be worse than the first. Lime on the top of
leaves, muck or cotton seed on the land is advisable, when
these are ready at hand. Lime is often mixed with common
salt, potash salts, or plast