Selections from the annual fertilizer bulletins of the Georgia Department of Agriculture, 1909

THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

SELECTIONS
FROM THE
Annual Fertilizer Bulletins
Georgia Department of Agriculture
1904 to 1906
HON. T. G. HUDSON Commissioner of Agriculture
"He that maketk two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground, where only one grew before, deserves better better of mankind, and does more essential service to his counery than the whole race of politicians put together."--Dean Swift.
ATLAK1A" GA.
CHAS. P. B\''l5p..STATS PRI^TZB niO'J

FEOM BULLETIN GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
SERIAL NO. 42

Season 1904-1905

INFORMATION IN REGARD TO
Commercial Fertilizers
CHEMICALS

Inspected, Analyzed and Admitted for Sale in the State of Georgia up to August 1st, 1905.
And Other Information in Regard to Fertilizers And Fertilizer Legislation.
UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF
T. G. HUDSON
Commissioner of Agriculture of The State of Georgia.

JNO. M. McCANDLESS
State Chemist.

P. L. HUTCHINSON,

- * ' ; P.'G: WILLIAMS,

First Assistant State Chemist.. , . \ Second" Assietanlr State Chemist.

AfAR 6 'gfe

FERTILIZER LAW.

u
,Of QEO^

FERTILIZERS, ANALYSIS, INSPECTION, REGISTRATION AND
SALE OP.
No. 398.
An Act to regulate the registration, sale, inspection and analysis of commercial fertilizers, acid phosphates, fertilizer materials and chemicals, in the State of Georgia, and to consolidate all laws relating to said sales, inspection and analysis, and to repeal all other laws or parts of laws in conflict therewith.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, That all manufacturers, jobbers and manipulators of commercial fertilizers, and fertilizer materials to be used in the manufacture of the same, who may desire to sell or offer for sale in the State of Georgia such fertilizers and fertilizer materials, shall first file with the Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Georgia, upon forms furnished by said Commissioner of Agriculture, the-name of each brand of fertilizers, acid phosphates, fertilizer materials, or chemicals, which they may desire to sell in said State, either by themselves or their agents, together with the name and address of the manufacturer or manipulator, and also the guaranteed analysis thereof, stating the sources from which the phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash are derived; and if the same fertilizer is sold under a different name or names, said fact shall be so stated, and the different brands which are identical shall be named.
SEC. 2. All persons, companies, manufacturers, dealers or agents, before selling or offering for sale in this

<H<H

8

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

State any commercial fertilizer or fertilizer material, shall brand or attach to each bag, barrel or package, the brand-name of the fertilizer, the weight of the package, the name and address of the manufacturer, and the guaranteed analysis of the fertilizer, giving the valuable constituents of the fertilizer in minimum percentages only. These items only shall be branded or printed on the sacks in the following order:
1. Weight of each package in pounds. 2. Brand name and, or, trade-mark. 3. Guaranteed analysis. 4. Available phosphoric acid, per cent. 5. Nitrogen, per cent. 6. Potash, per cent. 7. Name and address of manufacturer.
In bone meal, tankage or other products, where the phosphoric acid is not available to laboratory methods but becomes available on the decomposition of the product in the soil, the phosphoric acid shall be claimed as total phosphoric acid unless it be desired to claim available phosphoric acid also, in which latter case the guarantee must take the form above set forth. In the case of bone meal and tankage, manufacturers may brand on the bags information showing the fineness of the product, provided it takes a form approved by the Commissioner of Agriculture.
SEC. 3. If any commercial fertilizer or fertilizer material offered for sale in this State shall, upon official analysis, prove deficient in any of its ingredients as guaranteed and branded upon the sacks or packages, and if by reason of such deficiency the commercial value thereof shall fall three per cent, below the guaranteed total commercial value of such fertilizer or fertilizer material, then any note or obligation given in payment thereof shall be collectable by law only for the amount of actual total commercial value as ascertained by said official analysis, and any person or corporation selling

BULLETIN NO. 42

&

the same shall be liable to the consumer, by reason of such deficiency for such damages, if any, as may be proven, and obtained by him on trial before a jury in any court of competent jurisdiction in this State.
SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That the words "high grade" shall not appear upon any bag or other package of any complete fertilizer, which complete fertilizer contains, by its guaranteed analysis, less than ten per cent, available phosphoric acid, 1.65 per cent, nitrogen (equivalent to 2 per cent, of ammonia), and two per cent, of potash, or a grade or analysis of equal total commercial value; that the word "standard" shall not appear upon any bag or other package of any complete fertilizer which contains, by its guaranteed analysis, less than 8 per cent, available phosphoric acid, 1.65 per cent, nitrogen (equivalent to 2 per cent, ammonia) and two per cent, potash, or a grade or analysis of equal total commercial value; that the words "high grade" shall not appear upon any bag or other package of any acid phosphate with potash which shall contain by its guaranteed analysis less than 13 per cent, available phosphoric acid, and 1 per cent, of potash, or a grade or analysis of equal total commercial value; that the word "standard" shall not appear upon any bag or other package of any acid phosphate with potash, which shall contain, by its guaranteed analysis, less than 11 per cent, available phosphoric acid and 1 per cent, potash, or a grade or analysis of equal total commercial value; that the words "high grade" shall not appear upon any bag or other package of any plain acid phosphate which shall contain, by its guaranteed analysis, less than 14 per cent, available phosphoric acid; and, lastly, that the word "standard," shall not appear upon
any bag or other package of any plain acid phosphate which shall contain, by its guaranteed analysis, less than 12 per cent, available phosphoric acid. It is hereby provided that no complete fertilizer, acid phosphate with potash, acid phosphate with nitrogen, or

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

plain acid phosphate, shall be offered for sale in this State which contains less than 12 per cent, of total plant-food, namely: available phosphoric acid, nitrogen when calculated as ammonia, and potash, either singly or in combination; provided that in mixed fertilizers there shall not be claimed less than 1 per cent, potash and 0.82 per cent, nitrogen, when one or both are present in the same mixture.
It is further hereby provided, That no commercial fertilizers or fertilizer material shall be offered for sale in this State which contains such an amount of water as to render the handling or manipulation of such fertilizers or fertilizer material difficult, or to cause the clogging of fertilizer distributors by reason of its bad mechanical condition. Such wet or bad mechanical condition of any fertilizer shall be carefully observed by all fertilizer inspectors at the time of drawing their samples, and be reported along with the sample to the Commissioner of Agriculture, who, if he (or in his absence the State Chemist) confirms the opinion of the inspector, shall forbid the sale of that lot so inspected.
SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That all manufacturers and manipulators, or agents representing them, who have registered their brands in compliance with Section 1 of this Act, shall forward to the Commissioner of Agriculture a request for tax tags, stating that said tax tags are to be used upon brands of fertilizers and fertilizer materials registered in accordance with this Act, and said request shall be accompanied with sum of 10 cents per ton as an inspection fee, whereupon it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture to issue tags to parties applying, who shall attach a tag to each bag, barrel or package thereof, which, when attached to said package, shall be PRIMA FACIE evidence that the seller has complied with the requirements of this Act. Any tags left in the possession of the manufacturer shall not be used for another season, and shall not be redeemed by the Department of Agriculture.

BULLETIN NO. 42

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SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That it shall not be lawful for any manufacturer or company, either by themselves or their agents, to offer for sale in this State any fertilizer or fertilizer material that has not been registered with the Commissioner of Agriculture as required by this Act. The fact that the purchaser waives the inspection and analysis thereof shall be no protection to said party selling or offering the same for
sale.
SEC. 7. The guaranteed analysis of each and every brand of fertilizer or fertilizer material must, without exception, remain uniform throughout the fiscal year for which it is registered, and in no case, even at subsequent registration, shall the grade be lowered, although the proportion of the available constituents may be changed so that the decrease of one constituent may be compensated for in value by the increase of the other or others. Such proposed change must first receive the approval of the Commissioner of Agriculture. A brand name and, or, trade-mark, registered by one manufacturer shall not be entitled to registration by another ; and the manufacturer having first registered and used the said brand name and, or, trade-mark, shall be entitle dto it even should said brand name, and, or, trademark, not be offered for current registration at the time. Nothing in this Section shall be construed as debarring the right of any manufacturer to establish his ownership in, and prior right of registration of, any brand name and, or, trade-mark, whether said brand name and, or, trade-mark, had been previously regis-
tered or not. SEC. 8. No person, company, dealer or agents shall
sell, expose or offer for sale in this State any pulverized leather, raw, steamed, roasted, or in any other form, either as a fertilizer or fertilizer material, or as a constituent of fertilizer, without making full and explicit statement of the fact in registration with the Commissioner of Agriculture, and furnishing satisfactory proof

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

that the nitrogen is sufficiently available and valuable for the purpose for which sold.
SEC. 9. Be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of Agriculture shall appoint twelve inspectors of fertilizers, or so many inspectors as, in said Commissioner's judgment, may be necessary, who shall hold their office for such time as said Commissioner shall in his judgment think best for carrying out the provisions of this Act. The greatest compensation that any inspector of fertilizers shall receive shall be at the rate of eighty-three and one-third dollars per month and his actual expenses while in the discharge of his duty as such inspector. It shall be their duty to inspect all fertilizers, acid phosphates, chemicals, cotton-seed meal or other fertilizing material that may be found at any point within the limits of the State, and go to any point, when so directed by the Commissioner of Agriculture, and shall see that all fertilizers and fertilizer materials are properly tagged.
SEC. 10. Be it further enacted, That each of the inspectors of fertilizers shall be provided with bottles of not less than eight (8) ounce capacity in which to place samples of fertilizers and fertilizer materials drawn by him, and it shall be the duty of each inspector of fertilizers to draw, with such an instrument as shall secure a core from the entire length of the package, such samples of fertilizers and fertilizer materials as he may be directed by the Commissioner of Agriculture to inspect, or that he may find uninspected; and in the performance of his duty he shall carefully draw samples as fol lows: In lots of ten packages or less, from every package ; in lots of ten to a hundred packages, from not less than ten packages; in lots of one hundred packages and over, from not less than ten per cent, of the entire number, and, after thoroughly mixing the samples so drawn, he shall, by the method known as "quartering," draw from such thoroughly mixed sample to sub-samples, and with them fill two sample bottles, and shall plainly

BULLETIN NO. 42

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write on a label on said bottles the number of said sample, and shall also write on the label on one only of said bottles the name of the fertilizer, acid phosphate, or other fertilizer material, also the name of the manufacturers. He shall then seal both of said bottles, and shall forward to the Commissioner of Agriculture the said samples so drawn by him, stating the number of sacks from which the samples was drawn, and a full report of the inspection written on a form prescribed by the Commissioner of Agriculture, which report must be numbered to agree with the number of the bottle; and in said report shall be given the name of the fertilizer or fertilizer material, the name of the manufacturer, the guaranteed analysis, the place where inspected, the date of inspection, and name of inspector; and it shall be the duty of said inspectors to keep a complete record of all inspections made by them on forms prescribed by the Commissioner of Agriculture. Before entering upon the discharge of their duties they shall also take and subscribe, before some officer authorized to administer the same, an oath to faithfully discharge all duties which may be required of them in pursuance of this Act.
SEC. 11. Be it further enacted, That a sample of all fertilizers or fertilizer material, drawn by the official inspectors and filed with the Commissioner of Agriculture, shall be marked by number and delivered by said Commissioner of Agriculture to State Chemist, who will make a complete analysis of same, and certify, under same number as marked, said analysis to said Commissioner of Agriculture, which analysis shall be recorded as official and entered opposite the brand of fertilizers or fertilizer material which the mark and number represent; and the said official analysis of such fertilizer or fertilizer material, under the seal of the Commissioner of Agriculture, shall be admissible as evidence in any of the courts of this State on the trial of

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

any issue involving the merits of such fertilizer or fertilizer material.
SEC. 12. Be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of Agriculture shall have authority to establish such rules and regulations, in regard to the inspection, analysis and sale of fertilizers and fertilizer material, as shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, and as in his judgment will best cany out the requirements thereof.
SEC. 13. Be it further enacted, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to restrict or avoid sales of acid phosphate or any other fertilizer material to each othei by importers, manufacturers, or manipulators who mix fertilizer materials for sale, or as preventing the free and unrestricted shipments of material to manufacturers or manipulators who have registered their brand* as required by the provisions of this Act.
SEC. 14. Be it further enacted, That any person selling or offering for sale any fertilizer or fertilizer material without having first complied with the provisions of this Act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof -shall be punished as prescribed in 1039 of the Criminal Code of Georgia; provided this Act shall not go into effect until after the first day of August, 1902.
SEC. 15. Be it further enacted, That there shall be nothing in this Act which shall be construed to nullify any of the requirements of an Act fixing the methods of determining the value of commercial fertilizers by the purchasers, and incorporated in the provisions of the herein amended Ellington bill, which is as follows: An Act to regulate the sale of fertilizers in this State,
to fix a method for determining the value of the same, and for other purposes. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Georgia, and it is hereby enacted by authority of the same, That from and after the passage of this Act it shall be lawful for any purchaser of fertilizers from

BULLETIN NO. 42

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any owner thereof, or agent of such owner, to require of the person selling, and at the time of sale or delivery, to take from each lot of each brand sold a sample of its
contents.
SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That said sample or samples of fertilizers shall be taken in the presence of both purchaser and seller in the following manner: ''Two cupfuls of the fertilizer shall be taken from the top and two cupfuls from the bottom of each sack, provided there are not more than 10 sacks in the lot, but in lots of 10 to 100 sacks, from not less than 10 sacks; in lots of 100 and over from not less than 10 per cent, of the entire number. The samples so taken shall be intermixed upon some surface so as not t omix dirt or any other substance with the fertilizer. Then from different parts of the pile small portions at a time shall be scooped up in the cup and transformed to a widemouthed bottle of not less than one pint in capacity." This bottle shall now be corked with a suitable cork. The cork must either be pressed home flush with the mouth of the bottle or else cut across until it is flush or even with the mouth of the bottle. It shall then be taken by both parties at interest to the Ordinary of the county, who shall seal the same in their presence in the following manner: He shall completely cover the entire surface of the cork with sealing-wax, and then impress upon the molten wax his official seal, bearing his name and the style of his office. He shall then label the same with the names of the parties and of the fertil-
izers. SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That said Ordinary
shall safely keep said package, allowing neither party access to the same, save as hereinafter provided. The Ordinary shall receive a fee of ten cents from the party depositing such sample for each sample so deposited.
SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That should said purchaser, after having used such fertilizer upon his crops, have reason to believe from the yields thereof that said

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, GEOEGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

fertilizer was totally or partially worthless, he shall notify the seller, and apply to the Ordinary to forward the said sample deposited with him to the State chemist, without stating the name of the parties, the name of the fertilizers, or giving its guaranteed analysis, the cost of sending being paid by the purchaser. Before forwarding sample to the State chemist for analysis, the Ordinary shall take the affidavit of the purchaser that he has gathered his crop and believes from the yield thereof, that the fertilizer used was worthless or partially worthless. The Ordinary shall notify the State chemist at the same time that he forwards the sample that he has taken and filed such written affidavit of the purchaser.
SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of said State chemist to analyze and send a copy of the result to said Ordinary.
SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That should said analysis show that said fertilizer comes up to the guaranteed analysis upon which it is sold, then the statement so sent by the State chemist shall be conclusive evidence against a plea of partial or total failure of consideration. But should said analysis show that such fertilizer does not come up to the guaranteed analysis, then the sale shall be illegal, null and void, and when suit is brought upon any evidence of indebtedness given for such fertilizer, the statement of such State chemist so transmitted to the Ordinary shall be conclusive evidence of the facts, whether such evidence of indebtedness is held by an innocent third party or not.
SEC. 7. Be it further enacted, That in lieu of the State chemist, should the parties of the contract agree upon some other chemist to make said analysis, all of the provisions of the Act shall apply to his analysis and report to the Ordinary.
SEC. 8. Be it further enacted, That should the seller refuse to take said sample when so requested by the purchaser, then upon proof of this fact the purchaser

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shall be entitled to his plea of failure of consideration, and to support the same by proof of the want of effect and benefit of said fertilizer upon his crops, which proof shall be sufficient to authorize the jury to sustain defendant's plea within whole or in part, whether said suit is brought by an innocent holder or not.
Approved December 27, 1890.
SEC. 16. Be it further enacted, That there shall be nothing in this Act which shall be construed to nullify any of the requirements of an Act fixing the methods of inspection and determining the analysis of cottonseed meal, incorporated in the provisions of the herein amended Calvin bill, which is as follows:
A bill to be entitled an Act to require all cottonseedmeal to be subjected to analysis and inspection as a condition precedent to being offered for sale, and to forbid the sale in this State of such cottonseed-meal, if it be shown by the official analysis that the same contains less than 6.18 per cent, of nitrogen (equivalent to 7y2 per cent, of ammonia), to prescribe a penalty for the violation of the provisions of this Act, and for other purposes. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly,
and it is hereby enacted by authority of same, That from and after the passage of this Act it shall not be lawful for any person or persons to offer for sale in this State any cottonseed-meal until the same shall have been inspected as now required by law in the matter of all fertilizers and chemicals for manufacturing or composting purposes, nor shall it be lawful to offer cottonseed-meal for sale in the State if it be shown by the official analysis that the same contains less than 6.18 per cent, of nitrogen (equivalent to 7y2 per cent, of ammonia) ; provided), that the provisions of this Act as to the per centum mentioned in this Section shall not apply to meal manufactured from Sea-Island cottonseed, but the Commissioner of Agriculture shall, upon the passage of this Act, fix and make public a minimum per

fr-2

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

centum, which shall control as to the cottonseed referred to in this proviso; provided further, that if any cottonseed-meal shall not analyze up to the required per centum of nitrogen, the same may be offered for sale as second-class meal, provided the analysis be made known to the purchaser and stamped on the sack.
SEC. 2. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That there shall be branded upon, or attached to, each sack, barrel or package of cottonseed-meal offered for sale in this State the guaranteed analysis and the number of pounds net in each sack, barrel or package.
SEC. 3. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture to take all steps necessary to make effective the provisions of Sections 1 and 2 of this Act.
SEC. 4. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That any person or persons violating the provisions of this Act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished as prescribed in Section 4310 of the Code of 1882.
Approved July 22, 1891.
SEC. 17. Be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act be, and the same are, hereby repealed.
Approved December 18, 1901.

STATE OF GEORGIA,
Office of Secretary of State.
I, Philip Cook, Secretary of State of the State of Georgia, do hereby certify that the attached and foregoing eleven (11) pages of typewritten matter contain a true and correct copy of an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, providing for the inspection, analysis, registration and sale of fertilizers, approved December 18, 1901; the original of said Act being now of file and of record in this department.

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In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of my office, at the Capitol, in the City of Atlanta, this 20th day of June, in the year of our Lord One Thousand, Nine Hundred and Two, and of the Independence of the United States of America the One Hundred and Twenty-sixth.
PHILIP COOK, Secretary of State.

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

RULINGS BY THE COMMISSIONER INTERPRETING THE NEW FERTILIZER LAW.

fnirst--The grade of the fertilizer is to be considered a part of the "brand name and, or, trademark," and may immediately precede or follow the same, if used at

all.

, ,.

Second_It is optional with the manufacturer whether

he brands the grade on his sacks or not, but if he does

brand the grade on the sacks, then the goods must con-

form to the requirements of the grade, as stated in

Section 3 of the law. Third--In branding the word "potash" the charac-

ters "K20" heretofore in use are to be omitted. Fourth--In case of goods containing 10 per cent,

available phosphoric acid, 0.82 per cent, nitrogen and

1 per cent, potash, or such mixtures 9--1.65--1, or

8 0.82 3, or other combinations which do not reach a

total commercial value equal to that of the standard fer-

tilizer, which is 8--1.65--2, such mixtures are not to be

designated by any grade at all. Such goods may be

offered for sale, and branded with any name the maker

desires to give, provided such name does not indicate

that they belong to a high or standard grade.

Fifth--In printing bags containing acid phosphate

only, or acid phosphate and potash, where all three in-

gredients of plant-food are not claimed, it shall be op-

tional with the maker whether he brands only the guar-

anteed ingredients, as for instance:

Available phosphoric acid

14 per cent.

Or he may brand, Available phosphoric acid

14 per cent.

Nitrogen

--None.

Potash-

None.

But in this latter case the letters of the word "none"

shall be plain and distinct, and of the same size type as

the names of the elements standing opposite them.

Sixth--In the case of goods containing less than 1.65

BULLETIN NO. 42

21

per cent, nitrogen they may be branded as "Ammoniated" goods, "guano or fertilizer," or other words implying that the same is an ammoniated superphosphate, provided they contain not less than 0.82 per cent,
nitrogen. Seventh--A goods containing 10 per cent, available
phosphoric acid, 0.82 per cent, nitrogen and 3 per cent, potash can not be branded high-grade, since it has not as high a commercial value as the legal high grade.
Eighth--No manufacturer has the right to print the word "ammonia" at all on his sacks.
Ninth--Until further notice the Commissioner fixes, in accordance with the provisions of the Calvin bill, the minimum percentage of nitrogen required by law in the Sea-Island cottonseed-meals at three and seven-tenths per cent. (3.7 per cent.), equivalent to four and one-half (4 1-2) per cent, of ammonia.
Tenth--If it be necessary for lack of space on one side of the sack to turn and print on the other side, this will be permitted, provided the prescribed order be
observed. Eleventh--The word "potash" means potassium
oxide, or K 0, and will be so interpreted; the percentage of potassium sulphate or muriate must not be substituted for the percentage of Potash.
Twelfth--The words "standard" or "standard grade" may be used on the sacks at the option of the manufacturer, if used at all.
Thirteenth--It is regarded as consonant with the spirit of the law to print on the sacks if desired the name of the party for whom manufactured, thus, '' Manufactured for John Smith & Co., by Thos. Brown
& Co." Fourteenth--If desired for distinctive purposes, a
manufacturer may print the word "Georgia," following the words "guaranteed analysis."
Fifteenth--It is hereby ruled that the branding of all fertilizers or fertilizer materials (as described in Sec-

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

tion 2 of the law) shall be upon the sacks or packages themselves, except in the case of cottonseed meals, in which case a tag may be attached to the sacks. Furthermore, the letters used for the words high grade or standard grade (when used at all) shall be of not less than one inch in size, and no smaller letters than threequarters of an inch shall be used in any part of the
brand. Sixteenth--It is hereby ordered that in consonance
with the spirit of Section 8 of the law, that no sulphocyanides or materials containing sulpho-cyanides^ or dried muck or other materials not recognized by scientific authorities as being available sources of plant food, shall be used in any fertilizer sold in this State. All manufacturers are warned against purchasing unfamiliar fertilizer materials without first inquiring of this department as to their character.

AN ACT
To provide for the registration, sale, inspection and analysis of fertilizer materials, in bulk, in this State of Georgia, and to repeal all laws and parts of laws in conflict therewith.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Georgia, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That from and after the passage of this Act it shall be lawful for the manufacturers, jobbers, dealers, and manipulators of commercial fertilizers and fertilizer materials, to sell or offer for sale in the State of Georgia, acid phosphate or other fertilizer materials in bulk to persons, individuals or firms, who desire to purchase the same for their own use on their own lands, but not for sale.
SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of Agriculture of this State shall have the authority to

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establish such rules and regulations in regard to the registration, inspection, sale and analysis of acid phosphate or other fertilizer materials, in bulk, sold to persons, individuals or firms, who desire to purchase and use the same as provided in Section 1 of this Act, as shall not be inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, and as in his judgment will best carry out the require-
ments thereof. Sec. 3. Be it further enacted, That the same inspec-
tion fees shall be paid by manufacturers, dealers, jobbers and manipulators, who sell acid phosphate or other fertilizer materials in bulk, under the provisions of this bill as applies to such goods when placed in sacks, barrels or boxes under the general fertilizer laws of this State, and such inspection fees shall be transmitted to the Commissioner of Agriculture at the time notice of shipment of such acid phosphate or other fertilizer materials- in bulk are made to the purchaser or purchasers, provided for in this Act.
Sec. 4. Be it further enacted, That it is hereby made the duty of the Commissioner of Agriculture to personally prosecute each and every offender under the provisions of this Act, and upon conviction, such offenders shall be punished as prescribed in Section 1039, of the Code of Georgia, and all fines arising therefrom shall be paid into and become a part of the General Educational Fund of the State.
Sec. 5. Be it further enacted, That all laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act be, and the same are, hereby repealed.
Approved August 14, 1903.

STATE OF GEORGIA,
Office of Secretary of State.
I, Philip Cook, Secretary of State of the State of Georgia, do hereby certify, That the attached two (2) sheets of typewritten matter contain a true and correct

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GrEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

copy of the Act to provide for the registration, sale, inspection and analysis of fertilizer materials, in bulk, in this State of Georgia, and to repeal all laws and parts of laws in conflict therewith, the original of which is of file in this department.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of my office, at the Capitol, in the city of Atlanta, this 14th day of August in the year of our Lord One Thousand Nine Hundred and Three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the One Hundred and Twenty-eighth.
PHILIP COOK, Secretary of State.

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REMARKS OF THE OUTGOING COMMISSIONER.

In this, the last fertilizer bulletin of my administration, it is appropriate that I say a few parting words to the people of Georgia. For nearly seven years I have been endeavoring to promote your interests in every way possible and at all times you have given me your sympathy and hearty support in whatever I have undertaken for the common good.
It affords me pleasure to congratulate you on the past two years of prosperity and the hopeful outlook of the future. While some of this is due to improved methods and scientific cultivation, all that human skill could do would avail nothing did not a kind Providence bless your labors with fruitful seasons.
Yet it is also true that Providence helps those who help themselves and that it behooves us to always put forth our best efforts. The hap-hazard farmer, satisfied with primitive methods, can not in this day keep up with the procession. Many of you need no advice from any one, but are capable of giving instruction to others on all matters agricultural. But to those who still cling to old traditions, I would once more say: "Diversify your crops, raise abundance of corn and of wheat, oats, rye, barley, grasses and other forage crops; then make your cotton a surplus crop, and with proper cultivation you need not be uneasy about remunerative prices. Raise also a full supply of hogs, poultry and beef cattle, that with a well-filled larder you may give to your families the comforts that are their due and make them contented with the farmer's life. Add to these the attraction of pretty dwellings, surrounded by lawns carpeted with green and made bright with flowers, and in your dwellings have a choice collection, however small it may be, of interesting books and periodicals and there will grow up in your children a love for the old home place and a desire to build up similar homes, that will always insure for our rural districts a class of sturdy,

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GKOEGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

contented, prosperous farmers, the hope and bulwark

of every State. Asking for my successor, Hon. Thomas G. Hudson,

and all his staff the same cheerful support that they have ever given me, and wishing for you and them pros-

perity and happiness, I bid you farewell as Commis-

sioner of Agriculture.

0. B. STEVENS.

EEMABKS OF THE INCOMING COMMISSIONER.
I avail myself of the courtesy of Mr. Stevens, lately Commissioner of Agriculture, to say a few words to the farmers of the great State of Georgia.
I am fully aware of the responsibility of my position, but with the help of God will undertake the performance of its duties, with a sincere purpose to promote your welfare, which has been so carefully guarded by my predecessor. If I should make mistakes, and to err is human, I hope for charitable judgment and in all my earnest efforts to advance your interests I feel sure of your cheerful co-operation.
As Commissioner of Agriculture, it will be my aim to keep abreast with the times and to run the Department of Agriculture in the interest of the entire people, with "equal Justice to all and special privileges to none"; my motto being: "He that maketh two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, deserves better of mankind and does more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together."
T. G. HUDSON.

BULLETIN NO. 42

27

EEPOET OF THE STATE CHEMIST.

STATE OF GEORGIA, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
DIVISION OF CHEMISTRY.
ATLANTA, GA., August 21, 1905.
Hon. T. G. Hudson, Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Georgia.
DEAR SIR : Attached to this report I beg to hand you tables of analyses of commercial fertilizers sold in the State of Georgia during the season of 1904-1905. The number of brands analyzed this season is 1,352, against 1,241 the previous year. Tags have been sold during the past season which indicate that 713,582 tons of fertilizers (including 92,740 tons of cottonseed-meal) have gone into consumption in this State against 689,916 last year. An inspection of the tables of analyses, and a comparison of the percentages of plant-food guaranteed by the manufacturers with the percentages actually found by analysis, shows in the great majority of cases that the goods sold in this State run well above their guarantees, and the commercial value of the goods is likewise in even a greater majority of the cases very considerably above the guaranteed commercial value. As I have had occasion to remark before, there is no industry in all the land more honestly conducted than the fertilizer industry, and it is very much to be desired, that the same might be said of some of those industries which touch us much more nearly and vitally. The adulteration of food for man and beast goes merrily on in this great State of Georgia, unchecked by the strong arm of the law. With the aid of the capable and efficient Assistant State Chemists, Messrs. E. G. Williams and J. Q. Burton, I have investigated, so far as our limited time and means would permit, the subject of the

28

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

adulteration of human and cattle foods; the results of that investigation were published in last year's Bulletin (No. 41), and certainly show the urgent necessity for the passage and active enforcement of a stringent law directed against such nefarious practices. We have done our best to arouse public sentiment in favor of such a measure, and are sure from the many expressions and letters we have had on the subject, that the people are with us, and earnestly desire to see such a measure passed. The bill which I have drawn has now been before the Legislature for three years, and has twice received the unanimous recommendation "that it do pass" from the House Committees, to which it was referred, but owing to the congested condition of legislative business in the House, it has not yet been able to get a hearing in the House of Representatives. We are, however, sanguine of a hearing early in the next session of the Legislature. I wish to thank you, sir, for the kind and earnest interest which you have already manifested in a measure of so much importance to the people at large, and with your strong co-operation assured have little doubt we shall se it become a law at a comparatively early date. In this connection, I beg to lay before you a copy of an address delivered before the Interstate Cane-Growers Association at Montgomery, Ala., last January; also, a copy of the resolution passed by that body and the memorial addressed by
them in accordance therewith to the Georgia Legislature; also, a copy of the memorial addressed to the Legislature by the Eetail Grocers Association of Georgia, as evidencing the sentiment and desires of the people'where they have had an opportunity for expression.
Respectfully submitted,
JNO. M. MCCANDLESS, State Chemist.

BULLETIN NO. 42

29

ADDRESS OF STATE CHEMIST McCANDLESS BEFORE THE SUGAR-GROWERS CONVENTION, ASSEMBLED AT MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA.

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention:
An actively enforced pure food law is of the greatest importance to all the States, to all classes of citizens, and the gathering of this representative body of cane growers suggests to me its vital importance to you and your infant industry. It has always been the policy of Uncle Sam to protect his infant industries, and he has done this by building his tariff wall so high that no foreigner could climb over it and get the better of his boys in a trade. He has been so intent upon this object that he has neglected to prevent his pampered and overgrown infant boys (the manufacturing industries) from taking advantage of their weaker brothers (the Agri cultural industries) in more ways than Uncle Sam intended they should. Take for instance the glucose industry. It is a great and important industry which produces a valuable and wholesome product and adds many thousands of dollars annually to the wealth of the United States. It was, however, never intended that it should be used for the purpose of adulterating maple or cane syrup, and thus rob the cane and maple syrup boilers of the just rewards of their labor by a literally " syruptitious" and unfair competition. I might multiply instances, such as the substitution of oleomargarine for butter, of cottonseed oil for olive oil, of malt vinegar for cider vinegar; not to speak of those more shameless practices as where water is added to milk and poisonous drugs like formaldehyde and salicylic acid are added without warning to perishable food products to preserve them. The apologists for these nefarious

30

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

practices tell us that these substitutions should be encouraged, since the manufacture of glucose furnishes another market for the corn growers,,that of oleomargarine for the cattle raiser, and that the transfer of the olive groves of Sunny Italy to the cotton patches of the South must inure to the benefit of the Southern cotton planter. Now I might be content to hold my tongue if I believed for one moment, that the corn planter of Kansas ever received a cent a bushel more for his crop on account of the glucose foisted on the public for cane and maple syrup, or the Texas rancher a cent a head more for his beeves because of the oleomargarine that butters the poor man's crust, or the Alabama cotton grower a cent a bushel more for his cotton seed, because the salad oil pressed from it can not be distinguished when served on the tables of the Waldorf-Astoria, from the "sublime oil of Lucca." No, it is only the swindling intermediary who profits materially by these practices. Do not misunderstand me for a moment, I would not reduce by one gallon the glucose made from corn, not by one pound the "oleo" made from beef, not by one ounce the beautiful golden oil which vies in purity and flavor with the finest product of the Italian press. But I would stop dishonesty in trade. I would have every man receive for his dollar, the real substance he pays for, "every ship to sail under its true colors." I would force men who stand high in church and state and social position to cease palming off on the public the false for the true, the sham for the real. I stand on the broad platform that every citizen of the United States has the right to go into the markets of his country and call for whatever product may please his fancy, and is entitled to a reasonable assurance from his State and Government that he has obtained what he paid for, and not a mixture which somebody else thinks is just as good and which was made up for the express purpose of
obtaining money under false pretences. I do not believe in being extreme, nor in driving wholesome foods out

BULLETIN NO. 42

31

of the market simply from prejudice. If a merchant wants to sell a mixture of glucose and cane syrup, let him so brand the compound and put the world on notice what he is selling, and in like manner with oleomargarine or other wholesome but cheap products of the factories. As I stated to the convention at its Macon meeting, I went into the Atlanta market and bought from various stores samples of syrup, asking in each case for their best Georgia cane syrup, and paying fifty to sixty cents a gallon. Practically fifty per cent of these samples were found to be adulterated with glucose. This work was done before the Georgia syrup law went into effect. I may say here that the Georgia Syrup law, like all the Georgia food laws and the food laws of most of the Southern States, provides no machinery for making itself effective; there is no one whose business it is to see that it is actively enforced and executed. Since the syrup law became effective, I know of at least four instances in which it was violated. Some of you may say why do you not, as a State official, see that those guilty of violating the law are punished. I reply that my hands would be more than full, that I must also become the voluntary prosecutor of those violating other Georgia laws directed against the adulteration of numerous other food products, and in so doing must neglect the duties which the State has directly imposed upon me in carrying out the law against the adulteration of commercial fertilizers. In this case the State showed that she was in earnest in passing the law, and has provided the means for the inspection and analysis of the 700,000 tons of commercial fertilizers which were sold within her borders last year, and the crop of over 1,800,000 bales of Georgia cotton, exclusive of other agricultural products, bears witness in the most unanswerable manner to the honesty with which that great fertilizer industry is conducted within her borders. Shall we not give ourselves as much concern for the purity of the food we take into our bodies, as for that

32

GEOBGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

of the food which we put in the soil! It has been both truly and humorously remarked "that eating is the chief industry of the human race," and although I was born and bred a "free-trader," I will state that so far as this industry is concerned I am the most ardent of protectionists" Let us protect the stomach, which is the citadel of life, at all hazards; what are we but food transformed into life, action, energy, love and happiness, sorrow and sadness, whatever is good whatever is noble, and whatever is wicked in the world! Shall we not see to it that that food is at least what it pretends to be! Let us not be responsible for the conditions prescribed by the great English poet, when he says

"And the vitirol madness flashes up in the ruffians head, 'Till the filthy by-lane rings to the yell of the trampled
wife, And chalk and alum and plaster are sold to the poor for
bread And the spirit of murder works in the very means of
life. And sleep must lie down armed for the villainous cen-
tre-bits, Grind on the wakeful ear in the hush of the moonless
nights, While another is cheating the sick of a few last gasps
as he sits To pestle a poisoned poison behind his crimson lights."

We, of the Southern States, have been very remiss in this matter of protecting our people against fraudulent food products. Many of the Northern and Western States have actively enforced pure food legislation, and we are becoming the dumping-ground for the refuse which they reject. We need uniform State legislation badly; we also need federal legislation to supplement the State legislation, so that there might be no State or territory, no crack nor cranny in this broad Union of

BULLETIN NO. 42

33

ours where the adulterator could ply his villanous trade in peace and security, no port or harbor from which the strong arm of the Federal Government would not drive him back across the seas to the land from which he came. Is it not strange that though for about fifteen long years good men in the House and Senate of the United States have been struggling to enact such a law that no such law has yet been passed. Dr. Wiley has made such legislation the study of the-best years of his life, and has advocated before committee after committee of both Houses, one of the best pure food laws ever proposed for a nation; it has at last been passed by the House and is now awaiting action by the Senate, as it also awaited action by the Senate at its session of a year ago, and from the ominous way in which consideration of the bill was only a short time ago still further deferred, when pressed for action, it looks as though it might await action by the Senate indefinitely. Gentlemen of the Convention, we can do much to help the passage of this bill; let us memorialize the Senate of the U. S. that our great cane syrup industry (only one among many other great agricultural industries) is suffering for the need of legislation which will protect it against the adulterator, and then let the strong men here from each State take the matter up personally with their Senators, and request them to make it their business to see that the Hepburn bill comes up for action by the Senate at this session. Further, I want to ask this Convention to memorialize the Georgia Legislature to pass the pure food bill, which I have drawn for Georgia modeled upon the Hepburn bill; my bill has been submitted to Dr. Wiley and has his approval; I have several copies of it
here for any who may be interested in such legislation;
I beg that the members here representing the different
Georgia counties see their Senators and Representa-
tives and insist upon action on this bill at the approach-
ing session of the Georgia Legislature. Does not the
fact that adulterated cane syrup now brings 50 to 60

fr-3

34

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

cents a gallon in the retail markets show that there is a demand for the genuine article, which cannot be met at that price under the present conditions of supply and demand without resort to fraudulent practice! Does it not show that if the State only exercised a rigid supervision over the food supply of her citizens, and enforced a fixed standard of purity, that the cane-growers would profit by it? If the adulterated stuff now on the market were forced off, would not the demand exceeding the supply raise the price from 50 cents now asked and obtained for the fraudulent compound to 75 cents or more for the genuine article. Such laws will benefit everybody in general and the farmer in particular, by driving adulterated foods from the market and increasing the demand for pure milk, cheese, butter, honey, syrup and other products of the farm.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, I wish to quote the striking words of Senator Paddock, delivered in a speech in the IT. S. Senate in 1892 in advocacy of his pure food bill--"In the name and in the interest of public morality, I appeal to you to set legislative bounds, beyond which the wicked may not go with impunity in
this corrupt and corrupting work. Let us at least attempt to perform our part in the general effort to elevate the standard of commercial honesty, which has been so disgracefully lowered by these deceptions, frauds and robberies, the malign influence of which is everywhere felt. Let us help by our action here to protect and sustain in his honorable vocation, the honest producer, manufacturer, merchant and trader, whose
business is constantly menaced, and often ruined by these unscrupulous competitors, who by their vile and dishonest acts, manipulations and misbrandings are able to make the bad and impure appear to be the pure and the genuine; thus by a double deception, both as to quality and price, making the "worse appear the better" choice to the unintelligent mass of consumers.
In the interest of the great consuming public, partic-

BULLETIN NO. 42

35

ularly the poor, I beg of you to make an honest, earnest effort to enact this law. At best, a great multitude of our people are oppressed by a fear, a never absent apprehension, which they carry to their work by day and to their beds by night, that perhaps at the end of the following day or week or month they may fail to "make ends meet." Under the strain of this grim menace, life itself becomes a burden almost too grievous to be borne. But the thought of helpless wife and children, whose sole dependence he is, renews the courage of the wage-worker from day to day and so he struggles on, praying and hoping to the end. These, Mr. President, are the men, and these the women and children for whom before all others I make this appeal. If you could save to these the possible one-third to the nutritious element of their food supplies, which is extracted to be replaced by that which is only bulk, only the form and semblance of that of which they are robbed by the dishonest manipulator and trader, you would go a long way toward solving the great problem of the laboring masses, whether for them it is better to '' live or not to live," whether it is better to "endure the ills they have than to fly to others that they know not of," which lie beyond the realm of governmental and social upheaval
and chaos.

36

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

MEMORIALS TO THE LEGISLATURE.

At the Convention of the Interstate Cane Growers at Montgomery, Ala., January 25-26, 1905, the followingmemorial address to the General Assembly of Georgia was authorized:
MONTGOMERY, ALA., January 26, 1905.
To the General Assembly of the State of GeorgiaGreeting :
The Interstate Cane Growers Association in convention assembled in the city of Montgomery, Ala., having heard with profound interest and approval the address of Dr. J. M. McCandless, State Chemist of Georgia, on "the importance of actively enforced pure food legislation to the cane-growing States," and recognizing the far -reaching importance of such legislation and having adopted a resolution to memorialize the Senate of the United States, and the several State Legislatures, to pass the Hepburn bill now pending in the Senate of the United States, or some similar legislation, do hereby most respectfully memorialize the General Assembly of the State of Georgia that it is the sense of this convention that the sugar-cane growers of the United States, and especially of the State of Georgia, are in urgent need of protection against the adulteration of cane syrup, one of their chief products; that they fully believe that not only this interest, but many other of their agricultural interests, now suffering from the fierce, unscrupulous and unprincipled competition of the adulterator, will be fully protected by the enforcement of the provisions of the Hepburn bill or similar

BULLETIN NO. 42

'.'>7

legislation; and they most respectfully urge upon your honorable body that such legislation be taken up and passed for the protection and benefit of the people, at the earliest practicable moment.
THE INTERSTATE CANE GROWERS ASSOCIATION.
By B. M. MARTIN, Secretary.

ATLANTA, GA., August 3, 1905.
To the General Assembly of the State of Georgia-- Greeting:
Whereas, at the meeting of the Betail Grocers Association of Georgia, held at Fitzgerald, Ga., on July 11th and 12th last, also at former meetings of this association as well as at each of the annual meetings for the past three years of the National Betail Grocers Association of the United States, resolutions were passed endorsing the Hepburn Fure Food bill now pending before Congress, and
Whereas, a similar bill is now pending before your honorable body and whereas such a bill, or some similar legislation is most desirable for the protection of our customers, ourselves and the citizens of our State, we do most respectfully petition your honorable body that such legislation be passed, at the earliest possible moment, for the protection and benefit of the people.
BETAIL GROCERS ASSOCIATION OF GEORGIA.
J. W. KILPATRICK, President.
JOHN BRATTON, Secretary.

38

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

LETTERS ON AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

THE ANALYSIS OF A PLANT.
To Georgia Farmer: I wrote you last year a series of letters devoted almost exclusively to the feeding of live stock, the preparation of scientific rations and to the' general principles underlying the scientific feeding of stock. As you have asked me so many questions about fertilizers, I propose now to write you a series of letters on that subject, giving you the benefit of what I may have learned from books and from my experience
as an agricultural chemist. As the prime object of farming and of fertilization is
the raising of crops, we will begin by considering briefly
plant life. What is a plant? Let us examine and make a rough
analysis of one. Pull up a green and vigorous plant, brush the dirt from the roots and throw it down upon the ground with the rays of the sun beating upon it. Soon it assumes a peculiar appearance which we call "wilted." Had you taken the precaution to weigh the plant when you first pulled it up and then weighed it as>ain after a few hours, when it looked badly wilted, you would find that it had lost weight. By putting the fresh plant under a specially constructed glass vessel and setting it in the sun, you could prove to your own satisfaction that the loss in weight was due to the loss of water. The water in the plant heated by the sun rises as vapor, and if you had the special glass vessel I speak of you could see the water of the cotton plant condense in the cool part of the vessel in drops, which you could collect and weigh; and if you were provided with sufficiently delicate instruments, you would find the weight of this condensed water from the cotton plant was exactly equal to the loss in weight which it sustained after being badly wilted.

BULLETIN NO. 42

39

Young plants and vegetables frequently contain as much as nine-tenths of their weight of water.
In making hay we dry out the water of the grass in the sun, and when the grass has lost all the water it will in this way, it is said to be "cured," and becomes hay. This air dry grass or hay still contains from 8 to 12 per cent, of water, which can be driven out of it by heating it to the temperature of boiling water. If we should do that, what was left would be the "dry matter" of the plant.
This dry matter of the plant contains all the valuable elements for which the plant was grown. If we examine this dry matter further, we find in a general way that it is composed of two kinds of bodies, one of which will burn, or the combustible, and another kind which will not burn, the incombustible, or the ash. That part of the plant which burns or goes up in smoke is derived very largely from the air, and is gaseous in its nature.
NATURE OF THE ELEMENTS IN A PLANT.
If, now, we were to analyze these gases which escape on burning the plant, and then analyze the ash which was left, we should find that, besides the nine-tenths water which the original plant contained, the remaining tenth contained these elements: Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, potash, magnesia, lime, iron, phosphorus and sulphur, as essential elements; that is to say, we should certainly find all these elements present, as no plant could exist without them, each one being just as necessary as the other to the growth and life of the plant; and if one of them were cut out, the others being present, the plant could not develop.
THE ASH ELEMENT.
Besides those elements just mentioned, however, we should find in the ashes of the plant, silica, chlorine, soda and manganese, and sometimes a few other elements, though none of these last are absolutely necessary to the growth and development of plant life.

40

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

These ash elements, as we may call them, are all derived from the soil. Ninety-five per cent, of the dry matter of the plant comes out of the air, and is derived from the gases which exist in the air, the remaining five per cent, of the dry matter being the ashes, which come out of the soil. So you see the mineral part which comes from the soil, is only a very small part of the original plant, hut yet it is just as essential to the life and growth of the plant as any or all of the others.

HOW DISCOVERED THAT THE PLANT FEEDS ON AIR AND WATER.
Perhaps you would like to know how it was discovered that the air furnished a large part of the dry matter of the plant. An experiment like this was made: Some white sand was thoroughly burned, to destroy the combustible matter there might be in it, dhd then thoroughly washed with acid and water to remove any soluble mineral matter and just leave pure sand. This being put into a box a seed of corn is planted and watered with distilled water, or water containing no mineral. The seed after sprouting and growing as long as it could subsist on the food in the original grain of corn was carefully dried, all the water being driven out in an oven kept at the temperature of boiling water, and then the remaining dry matter was weighed. It was found that the weight far exceeded the weight of the original grain of corn, and also that this excess weight consisted entirely of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen; consequently, they must have come from the air and water, as they could have come from no other source.
The atmosphere contains a great abundance of these elements, carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, which are so necessary to plant life, so that it will not be necessary for us to trouble about them in studying the subject of fertilizers, since they are "given without money and
without price." The ash element which make only five per cent, of the
dry matter of the crop, will concern us very nearly, and

BULLETIN NO. 42

41

as they come out of the soil, I will write you in my next letter about the soil and its elements--those which are abundant, and those which are scarce.

CHEMISTEY IN AGEICULTUBE THE SOIL, ITS ORIGIN VARIE-
TIES OF SOIL.
All living things, both plant and animal, may be traced back to two sources, the soil and atmosphere. In the last analysis every particle of which they are composed must have been derived either from the air or the earth. The food derived from the air is by far greater in quantity than that from the soil, but as the elements of plant food, in the atmosphere automatically renew themselves, there need never be any fear that the atmosphere will be exhausted of the elements of plant food which it contains; the soil, however, is a different proposition. The elements of plant food contained are much less abundant than in the air; in fact, many of them are quite limited in quantity, and the best efforts of the farmer are needed to improve the condition of his soil so as to render the plant food in it more available; to prevent such plant food as exists from washing away, and to add plant food from any other available sources. The soil is any part of the earth's surface which is capable of cultivation and of the production of crops.
HOW SOILS ARE MADE.
The geologists tell us that when the earth first cooled down from a molten condition there was no soil anywhere, but only rock, great granite boulders and rocks of other nature, but that in the vast periods of time which elapsed between the cooling down of the earth's crust and the time when man and other animals began to appear on the earth, the rocks had rotted and crumbled away and produced what we now know as the soil and subsoil. The rain falling upon the rocks sinks into the cracks and fissures, and, freezing therein, tears and flakes off small particles; these in turn, being swept

42

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

along by floods, are ground against each other and gradually reduced to powder. The oxygen of the atmosphere also exerts a chemical effect in converting some of the minerals into oxides. For instance, if you leave a bright, new ax out exposed to the weather you will soon note a coating upon it which you call rust; that is produced by the action of the oxygen of the air upon the iron of the ax, and is really the oxide of iron. In this way, then, by the action of water in freezing and thawing, in grinding and transporting the broken fragments of the rock and by the action of the air in oxidizing the minerals going on for many thousands and thousands of years, possibly millions of years, the rocks have been gradually converted into what we now know
as the soil and subsoil.
DIVISIONS OF SOILS SANDY SOILS.
The subsoil may extend down only a few feet, or it may extend for many feet, but when you get to the bottom of it you will strike the rock, usually the same kind of rock from which the soil was originally derived. Soils may be divided into these general classes--sandy, clayey, limy and peaty, according to whether their principal ingredients consist of sand, clay, carbonate of lime or vegetable matter. A soil which contains over 70 per cent, of sand is called sandy. Such soils usually contain but little plant food. They are ill adapted to withstand a drought, as the sandy particles absorb and retain but little moisture, and the crops would soon burn up in a long dry season; but when the rainfall is abundant or irrigation is at hand these soils are desirable, because they dry out quickly, permit the easy cultivation of the crops and respond quickly to liberal fertilization. They are especially adapted to quick grow-
ing crops.
CLAY SOILS AND LIME SOILS.
A clay soil is one that contains over 50 per cent, of clay, and is exactly the reverse of the sandy soil. Water

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43

percolates through them very slowly and in a very wet season the crops on them suffer from the excess of moisture. They are also more difficult to cultivate. These lands, however, are usually richer in plant food. They are well adapted to the grains and grasses. Limy soils, lime soils, or calcareous soils, are those which contain over 20 per cent, of lime. The lime exists in these soils in the form of carbonate of lime, and is a very valuable element of plant food. It is itself absolutely essential to the plant, and it also aids in breaking up mineral combinations in the soil, and so rendering other elements of plant food available which would otherwise remain insoluble and therefore inert.
VALUABLE PROPERTIES OF LIME.
Lime also aids materially in the decay of organic or vegetable matter in the soil; it also improves the mechanical condition of the soil; it is a great benefit in this way both to sandy and clay soils. It causes the very taining just the right proportion of sand to keep it porous and warm and permeable to water; just the right amount of clay to keep it cool and to obviate the water together, and so improves its power of absorbing and holding water; it also improves the texture of a clay soil by preventing the particles from sticking or adhering so closely together, and thus renders it more porous and friable and easy to work, and also enables water to pass through it more easily, in a measure obviating the dangers of a wet season on clay land. The limy soils are adapted to the grains and grasses and fruits. Peaty soils consist of organic or vegetable matter in a state of partial decomposition, with comparatively little mineral matter. Such lands are usually of a deep black color and are very productive.
The three kinds of soil just described are the extremes of their kind, and the soils which are generally preferred by farmers are mixtures of these, and are known as loams; a soil which contains from 10 to 20

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GrEORGIA DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE

per cent, of clay is called a sandy loam, when it contains from 20 to 30 per cent, of clay it is a loam, and when it is composed of from 30 to 50 per cent, of clay it is a clay loam.
THE IDEAL SOIL.
An ideal or perfect soil is hard to find in nature conloose particles of the sandy soil to adhere more closely running quickly through it like a sieve or evaporating too rapidly from its surface; just the right amount of humus or "decayed vegetable matter to furnish nitrogen and to hold just the proper quantity of moisture like a sponge; also just the proper amount of lime in the soil to furnish plant food, to help liberate the potash from the feldspar and mica minerals in the soil, and also to aid in the decomposition of roots and turned under crops like clover and peas. Plenty of lime in the soil will help convert these into humus which is so highly appreciated by farmers all over the world because it helps to retain moisture, to convert the insoluble forms of nitrogen into the more soluble, and to give to the soil that black color which is usually found in most fertile soils, and which certainly has the power of absorbing more of the heat rays of the sun and thus making the soil warmer than the lighter colored soils can possibly be. In my next letter I will still write you more on this important subject of the soil.
CHEMISTRY IN AGRICULTURE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF
THE SOIL AND THE WHEAT CROP.
Whilst few farmers ever find such a perfect soil as I described to you in the last part of my last letter, yet every farmer has it in his power to improve the soil he starts with however poor it may be or whatever its nature may be, by judicious tillage, fertilizing, draining, ditching, liming, sanding, claying and terracing, according as the conditions of his soil may indicate. He should especially consider his soil and decide to what crops it seems to be best suited, and then devote his

BULLETIN NO. 42

45

energies to raising those crops rather than others which thrive poorly. If now we proceed to analyze a soil as we did a plant a short while since, we should expect to find in it some of all the elements we found in the plant, more especially in the ash of the plant. Let us take the analysis of quite a rich soil; here is about what we should have: Taking one hundred pounds of the dry soil, we should by means of a careful and skillful chemical analysis separate it into the following parts:

POUNDS PER HUNDRED

Carbon

f

These are elements which the plant is obliged to

Hydrogen -j 12.67 > have, but is not dependent on the soil for them,

Oxygen

{

J as it gets most all it needs from the air and rain.

Silica

71.55

Alumina

6.94

Iron

5.17 The elements in this part of the soil are either

Magnesia

1.08 not absolutely essential to plant life or the plant

Soda

0.43 could get along with very small amounts of them.

Sulphuric acid .0.04

85.21

Nitrogen

0.12

Phosphoric acid 0.43

Potash

0.35

Lime

1.22

2.12

The plant must absolutely have all of these to grow and thrive, and though they exist in the soil in small quantity, the plant needs them in large quantity.

Now let us analyze one hundred pounds of wheat plants:

POUNDS PER HUNDRED

Carbon

47.69

Hydrogen

5.54

Oxygen

40.32 All of this comes from the atmosphere and

the rain.

93.55.

POUNDS PER HUNDRED

Soda

0.09

Magnesia

0.20

Sulphuric acid .0.31

Chlorine

0.04

Iron

0.06

Silica

2.75

As you see, these are used in small quantity by the plant, and are supplied in profusion by the soil.

3.45 J

Nitrogen

1.60

Phosphoric acid 0.45

Potash

0.66

Lime

0.29

These the plants must have or die. Most soils

are deficient in them, and the farmer must add

them to get good crops.

i

3.00

46

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Thus you see by a study of these analyses that you find in the soil the same elements which we found in the plant we analyzed in our first letter, and also in this wheat plant. The carbon, hydrogen and oxygen which we find in the soil are of little or no use as plant food, because the plant gets its store of those foods out of the atmosphere. It derives its carbon from the carbonic acid in the air. You will remember that I wrote you in one of my letters last year about the importance of water and carbonic acid; and as it is apt here, I will repeat the paragraph:
WHERE THE PLANT GETS ITS CARBON FOOD FROM.
The water from which the hydrogen and oxygen come is given us free in the form of rain, and the carbon also in the form of carbonic acid, which is breathed out continually into the atmosphere by every living animal on the face of the earth, by every chimney and hearthstone which warms a happy family, by every smokestack, factory and locomotive which minister to our wants and necessities. Carbonic acid forms the principal part of all this smoke, although it is not the black part which we see, but the invisible part which is clear and colorless like the air. Vast streams of it are pouring out constantly into the air. Why does it not stifle and suffocate us as it would if poured into the rooms where we live '. it is because all plant life lives on it, the great forests absorb it; the crops of wheat, corn and cotton consume it: the lilies and the roses eat it and drink it. They take this deadly gas into their wonderful little bodies, and work it over and over together with the water which they suck out of the soil until they have separated the carbon from the oxygen, with which it is combined in carbonic acid, liberating the oxygen, and appropriating the carbon in building the cells and tissues and organs of which the plant is composed.

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47

LIGHT ESSENTIAL TO THE VITAL PROCESSES OF THE PLANT.
This process of the plant in taking its carbon out of the air is a most wonderful one, and goes on only under the influence of light or in the daytime, and the leaf of the plant is the active organ concerned in taking the carbonic acid out of the air. The leaf of the plant is formed of very numerous little cells placed side by side; on the under side of the leaf there are air-spaces between the cells, and over the whole leaf there is a thin skin. In this skin are numerous small holes, is a thin skin. In this skin are numerous small holes, through which the air passes; when it passes into the leaf whilst the sunlight is shining upon it, through some strange vital power, the little cells of the leaf under these conditions break up the carbonic acid of the air, retaining the carbon and setting the oxygen free, which passes out again into the air. When night comes, the carbon thus obtained undergoes a change and passes into the circulation of the plant, going to the various parts of the plant "where it may be needed. So we see that growing plants tend to purify the air by consuming its carbonic acid gas, which is injurious to animal life, and by giving off pure oxygen gas in its place, which is beneficial to animal life. Animal and plant life thus stand in mutual and beautiful relations to each other. Plant life inhales carbonic acid and exhales oxygen; animal life inhales oxygen and exhales carbonic acid. The animal in his lungs and blood causes carbon to unite with oxygen t oform carbonic acid; while the plant in its cells causes the carbon of the carbonic acid to separate from its oxygen.
ANALYSIS OF ONE HUNDRED VOLUMES OF AIR.
Analysis shows the percentage of carbonic acid in the air to be small. Thus a hundred gallons of dry air is composed of--

48

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

Oxygen Nitrogen _ Carbonic acid

Gallons.
20.99 78.98 00.03

You say this is a very small amount of carbonic acid; yes, it seems so, but when you come to consider the enormous bulk of the air, it actually is very large. There is so much of it that the volume of air which rests on one acre of your farm, calculating for a height of only fifty feet above the farm, would contain ninety pounds of carbonic acid gas, and this amount never grows less, even when the crops are feeding on it, because it is being constantly renewed from other sources. Therefore, whilst you need never fear any lack of the essential element of carbon, it is well for you to appreciate where it comes from and how important it is. I have said the oxygen and hydrogen found in the plant came also from the air; really they do not come from the air itself, but they come from the water which floats in the air in the form of clouds. These descend as rain upon the soil and are drawn up through the roots of the plant, and the oxygen and hydrogen of which water is composed are appropriated by the plant. You, of course, appreciate the importance of these two elements of plant life, because you know only too well how crops suffer in a dry season. We will consider the other elements in
our next letter.

NITROGEN AND THE WAY IN WHICH IT IS ABSORBED ACTUAL,
QUANTITIES OF PLANT FOOD IN SOILS.
Naturally the nitrogen we find in the plant by analysis next claims our attention. As I told you in my last letter that there are nearly eighty gallons of nitrogen in one hundred gallons of air, you would quite naturally exclaim that there would be no need to bother about providing nitrogen for the crops, as they ought to be able to obtain all they want from the enormous ocean of it floating all around and about them. Yes, one would natur-

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ally suppose so, but alas, it is not true; the plant is helpless to feed on the nitrogen around it in the air, no matter how.thirsty it may be for it. It is like the shipwrecked sailor in the open boat at sea, though parched and dying with thirst yet he can not slake his thirst, though there be nothing but water, water, all about him.
It seems as though there was a certain malice in Nature in so constituting plants that they can not take the nitrogen out of the air directly, yet perhaps it is a good thing they can not, because if they could, life would be so easy that we probably would not exert ourselves as much as we should: Nitrogen being the most expensive element of plant food, it if were provided free of cost like the carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, we could grow such enoromus crops at such small cost that the cost of living would be so reduced that a man would not have the same urgent stimulus behind him to work and to labor that he now has.

THE FORM IN WHICH PLANTS ABSOEB NITROGEN.
But to return to our subject, the plant requires nitrogen, but it can not take it through its leaves; it has to take it up through its roots, and in order for the roots to take it up, the nitrogen must be combined as nitrate. It must be in the form of nitrate of soda, or nitrate of lime, or nitrate of magnesia, or nitrate of potash, or some other form of nitrate before the plant can utilize it. If we put any organic matter containing nitrogen into the soil, either vegetable or animal, as cottonseed meal, blood, meat, or even if we plow under green crops, they will begin to decay and putrefy in the soil, until the nitrogen which they contain in the form of protein (about which I wrote you so much last year) is changed into a number of other forms, being finally converted into a nitrate after the decay of the original substance has been fully completed.
As a nitrate it is in a condition where it dissolves easily in water, and is then absorbed by the root hairs

fr i

50

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

and drawn up into the circulation of the plant. Now the vast majority of plants have to obtain their nitrogen in the roundabout manner just described, but there are a few favored plants which are able to obtain their nitrogen out of the air through the instrumentality of certain minute organisms or microbes in the soil. We
will have more to say of this later on. When the organic matters I have described above, animal or vegetable, as cottonseed meal, blood, meat, manure or turned under green crops decay in the soil, the carbon and hydrogen which are contained in them are not absorbed like the nitrogen through the roots into the plant; the plant does not get its supply of carbon and hydrogen m that way. They simply remain in the soil, to form what is known as the humus of the soil, or the decayed organic matter of the soil, which improves its mechanical condition, gives it a dark or black color, and serves as an excellent retainer of moisture and heat in the soil. Eeferring now to the analysis of a rich soil, which I gave you in my last letter, we find that besides the organic substance about which we have just been talking, there are also the inorganic or mineral substances, such as we found in the ashes of the plant we first analyzed.

THE VARIOUS ELEMENTS FOUND IN THE SOIL.

The most abundant substance of all these mineral or ash elements in the soil we find to be silica, or as you are acquainted with it, sand. You will remember there was in this particular rich soil 7.15 pounds of silica out of every hundred pounds, and yet the wheat plant grown on this soil only contained two and three-quarters pounds of silica out of every hundred pounds, and even this was not absolutely essential to the health and growth of the plant. Although we find alumina in the soil, we find none in the plant. Alumina is one of the principal elements of a clay soil. Iron, magnesia and sulphuric acid found in the soil are likewise found in the ash of the plant. Only small quantities of these, how-

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51

ever, are required by the plant, and they are always abundant in soils. Soda is likewise found in both soil and plant, but is not essential to the plant. Phosphoric acid, potash and lime are found in only small quantity in most soils, but exist in considerable quantity in the ash of plants, and each one of them is absolutely necessary to the life, growth and development of the plant. For this reason, the other elements being usually abundant, a soil is said to be rich or poor according to its contents of potash, phosphoric acid, lime and nitrogen.
Potash and phosphoric acid are usually contained in soils in small quantity, varying from about one-tenth of a pound in a hundred pounds of the soil to one pound in one hundred pounds. Although that amount looks small, in reality when you figure it in another way it is not so small; let us figure it by the acre:

WEIGHT OF THE SOIL PEE ACBE.
An average soil when dry, if taken to the depth of nine inches, will weigh three to three and one-half million pounds to the acre. Therefore a soil containing one-tenth of one per cent, of phosphoric acid, would really contain three thousand to thirty-five hundred pounds of phosphoric acid per acre, or as much as could be obtained by the application of ten to twelve tons of high-grade acid phosphate per acre. You would at once then say that a soil containing one-tenth per cent, of potash or phosphoric acid ought to be a rich soil, and should not require any fertilizers, but there you would be wrong, because it matters not so much what is the total amount of potash or phosphoric acid in an acre of soil as it does to know in what condition that phosphoric acid or potash exists.

AVAILABILITY OF THE PLANT-FOOD IN THE SOIL.
The question arises, is it soluble, is it available? Is it in such condition that the soil water can take it up and convey it to the roots and root hairs of the plant,

52

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

ready for absorption by tbem into the plant circulation? This is why we find it necessary to put acid phosphate and kainit and other fertilizers on lands which are being constantly cropped; it is because the constant cropping has exhausted or drawn out of the soil the soluble phosphoric acid and potash, available to the plant, and we must either put on a fertilizer containing them ma soluble form, or we must let the soil rest a while, that is "lie fallow," in order that a fresh supply of plant iood may be made available by the slow action of the soil water, the action of carbonic acid, and the other organic acids resulting from the decay of vegetable and animal matters in the soil. If you cannot afford to either put on fertilizer or to let your land "lie fallow," then your next resource is to rotate your crop; that is, to plant on the soil which has begun to fail you some other crop ot a different nature, which may not require so much ot a certain element of plant food as the previous crop did. For instance, follow cotton with peas or clover.

WHAT DETERMINES THE CROP-PRODUCING POWER OF THE SOIL.
In considering the capacity of a soil to produce crops we must remember one thing, and that is that the essential element which exists in the smallest amount settles the question of the crop-producing power of a soil. That is to say, if a soil is very rich in available phosphoric acid, nitrogen, lime, magnesia, and the other essential ash elements, and yet be poor in available potash, that soil can not produce heavy crops without the application of an available potash fertilizer. If that soil has only available potash enough in it to produce ten bushels of corn per acre, or two hundred pounds ot seed cotton per acre, then all you are going to get out of that soil is ten bushels of corn or two hundred pounds of seed cotton, no matter whether there was available phosphoric acid and nitrogen and lime, etc., in the soil enough to produce forty bushels of corn or fifteen hundred pounds of seed cotton. This brings us to the ques-

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53

tion of soil analysis, which we will treat in our next letter.

THE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OP THE SOIL NOT OF MUCH PBAC-
TICAL VALUE TO THE FABMEB AND WHY THE WAY FOE
THE PAEMEE TO ANALYZE HIS OWN SOIL.
Eeferring to the statement in my last letter, that if any one element in a soil essential to plant growth be lacking in an available form, then that soil can not produce a good crop, no matter how rich the soil may be in the other essential elements. You naturally exclaim, then, why not have a chemist analyze the soil, and tell the farmer what element or elements are lacking in his soil and what are abundant, so that he will know how to fertilize--whether he ought to apply acid phosphate, or kainit, or cottonseed meal, or lime, one or all, to his land, so as to get the best results, and at the same time use the wisest economy in the purchase and application of fertilizers. Yes, this is a very natural idea, and it was at one time, in the earlier days of agricultural science, thought that by means of a chemical analysis of the soil, that the key had been found by means of which we could unlock the secrets of Nature, and solve all the problems of practical agriculture. It was found however, on trial, that this idea, so beautiful in theory, did not work well in practice. It was discovered, for instance, that a soil which was producing poor crops contained one-tenth of one per cent, of phosphoric acid, or, calculating to a depth of nine inches, about three thousand pounds of phosphoric acid per acre, and yet this soil was in need of phosphoric acid, because when acid phosphate was used on it as a manure it responded with largely increased yields. Evidently the phosphoric acid in this soil, although abundant in quantity, 3,000 pounds per acre, was not in a condition available to the plant, so that it could be absorbed by the roots.

54

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

ELEMENTS SOLUBLE IN ACIDS NOT ALWAYS AVAILABLE.
Still when the chemist came to treat this soil with his strong chemicals, he could dissolve the phosphates in it readily. Thus it would happen that a chemist analyz ing a soil and finding in it, say, 3,000 pounds of phosphoric acid, 5,000 pounds of potash, and 4,000 pounds of nitrogen per acre, and knowing nothing else about the soil, except the results of his analysis, would report that the soil contained ample plant food for producing good crops, and was a good soil, not in need of fertilizers, when, as a matter of fact, the soil might be so poor as hardly to "sprout peas." After many trials and efforts to imitate the action of Nature in the laboratory, the conclusion was reached that it was notpossible to tell by a chemical analysis, in the case of cultivated soils, whether the soil was a fertile one or not, or what particular elements should be added to it for the production of
full crops.
ANALYSIS SHOWS THE ULTIMATE RESOURCES OF THE SOIL.
Whilst the chemical analysis is of a failure from this standpoint, still it is of value from another. For instance, if I make an analysis of your soil and tell you that it contains 3,000 pounds of phosphoric acid, 2,500 pounds of potash, and 4,000 pounds of nitrogen, then you would be encouraged to go ahead and make this plant food more available by judicious cultivation and treatment, such as liming, the turning under of green crops, etc., feeling assured that in the end you could bring that soil up to a point where it would yield bountifully. But if as a result of my analysis I should tell you that the soil only contained 150 pounds of phosphoric acid and 200 pounds of potash per acre, why then you would know that the best thing you could do with that land would be to abandon it or give it away, and not waste further time and labor on it. There is, however, a practical method by which you can analyze your soil for yourself far better than any chemist can do it

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55

for you, and by means of which you could tell for yourself whether your soil needs lime, phosphoric acid, potash or nitrogen, one or all. That method is as follows:
METHOD BY WHICH THE FARMER MAY ANALYZE HIS OWN SOIL.
First, select a piece of ground as level as possible, so that rain may not wash the fertilizer from one plot into an adjoining plot. Secondly, for the purpose of the experiment, mark off ten plots, each one just one-tenth of an acre in area. If convenient make the plots long and narrow, say one hundred and thirty-six feet long by thirty-two feet wide; these dimensions would enable you to have eight long rows, four feet apart, in each plot. Any other shape of plot will answer, only be careful to lay off the plots so that they shall each contain one-tenth of an acre, or 4,356 square feet. Separate the plots from each other by paths at least three feet wide, so that the effect of fertilizer in one plot may not be felt in an adjoining plot. It would be well to locate these experimental plots on some of your poorest land, or that which stands most badly in need of fertilizer. When all is ready carefully number the plots from one to ten so that you may keep a record of the nature and amount of fertilizer applied on each plot. Let us suppose that you decide to plant cotton on the ten prepared plots for the purpose of finding out what fertilizing constituent is most needed by your soil when growing cotton. Plant the cotton in your usual manner, after a careful preparation of the soil of the plots, thoroughly ploughing and harrowing the plots in order. Then apply the fertilizers as follows:
No. 1.--No fertilizer. No. 2.--143 pounds of cottonseed meal. No. 3.--200 pounds of 14 per cent, acid phosphate. No. 4.--80 pounds of kainit. No. 5,--No fertilizer. No. 6.--200 pounds of acid phosphate and 143 pounds of cottonseed meal.

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

No. 7.--143 pounds of cottonseed meal and 80 pounds
of kainit. No. 8.--200 pounds of acid phosphate and 80 pounds
of kainit. No. 9.--200 pounds of acid phosphate, 80 pounds of
kainit and 143 pounds of cotton seed meal. No. 10.--500 pounds of air-slaked lime.
In many of our Georgia soils lime is sadly lacking, and it may be just the thing needed by the soil, in conjunction with certain other fertilizers; to discover if this be the case, after having fertilized plot No. 2, mark off a strip 2i/2 feet in width diagonally across the plot, that is running from one corner to the opposite corner. Apply to this strip 50 pounds of air-slaked lime, and work in well with the soil and other fertilizer with a rake. Do the same with each of the other plots, omitting No. 10. Then when the crop begins to grow, if lime was specially needed by the soil in any of the plots, you ought to notice a marked superiority in the two and a half foot strip which runs diagonally across all the
rows in all nine plots.*
In the above fertilizers it is presumed that the acid phosphate is the kind most usually sold, containing 14 per cent, of available phosphoric acid, so that 200 pounds supplies 28 pounds of actual phosphoric acid to the plot.
The cottonseed meal is presumed to contain 7 per cent, of nitrogen, so that 143 pounds of its supplies 10 pounds of nitrogen to the plot, and the kainit to contain 121/2 per cent, of potash, so that 80 pounds yield 10 pounds of potash to the plots the kainit is applied to.
In applying the fertilizers observe the following precautions : Sow each fertilizer on the plot to which it is to be applied broadcast, using your best care and judgment to distribute the fertilizer evenly over the entire plot. In order to get an even distribution it is best to sow in such quantity that you will have to go over each plot at least twice to get all the fertilizer distributed. Take care not to sow while the wind is blowing, as it

BULLETIN NO. 42

57

may blow some of the fertilizer on to the adjoining plots. After sowing harrow the ground, and then it will be
ready for you to plant.
Plant thick enough to insure a perfect stand, and at the proper time thin out to a uniform stand. Treat all the plots exactly alike, except as to the fertilizers applied. Prepare the ground in each plot the same, plant the cotton all at the same time, and always cultivate the same and at the same time each day. Take pains to have the same number of plants in each row. It will be well to keep a notebook, with a page for each plot, in which to record your observations.
In this book record: 1st. The kind of fertilizer applied to each plot and the amount applied, on the page set apart for the respective plots from 1 to 10. 2d. Note down the date the cotton was planted. 3d. Note the date the cotton came up in each plot. 4th. When the cotton is about two inches high on the plot containing no fertilizer note the height and appearance of the other plots. 5th. After you have thinned out to a uniform stand record the number of missing plants, if any, in each plot. Of course use every endeavor to have the same number of plants in each plot, but in case of accident to some, be sure to put down the number missing in any plot so as to make allowances. 6. Eecord any other observations of interest during the growth of the crop on the different plots, such as the comparative dates of blooming, number of bolls to the stalk, date of opening of the bolls, height of the stalks after maturity of the plant. 7th. Keep the seed cotton from each plot to itself, weigh it by itself, and record the weight of the seed cotton from plot No. 1 on page No. 1, and so on with the others. When you have picked and weighed the last pound of cotton, then you will, I think, be able to decide for yourself what fertilizer or combination of fertilizers your land requires. Of course, if you have a bad season, very dry or very wet, you will not be able to decide so well, and in that case repeat the experiment

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GTEOKGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGBICULTUBE

another year. In this way you can analyze your own soil, and do it better than the best chemist in the world can do it for you, because you have appealed to the soil itself; you have spoken to it in the language of Nature, and it has replied in the same mute, but eloquent tongue, demonstrating the truth of her answers before your very eyes.
Yours truly, JNO. M. MCCANDLESS, State Chemist.

BULLETIN NO. 42

59

LETTERS ON AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY.

DESCRIPTION OF FERTILIZERS AND FERTILIZER MATERIALS.

DESCRIPTION OF THE VARIOUS NITROGENOUS FERTILIZER
MATERIALS.
As you and others have written me to know what is the value of the different materials used in the manufacture of commercial fertilizers, I will give you at this point a fairly complete account of the substances principally used. First we will consider in the order of their value in dollars and cents, and their agricultural importance, the nitrogenous materials, or those which yield nitrogen to the plant. Such substances are also known as ammoniates, because under certain conditions the nitrogen which they contain can be converted into ammonia. Now nitrogen and ammonia are not the same thing by any means, but still they are closely related, they are both gases. Nitrogen, as I have described to you before in another place, is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas, and constitutes four-fifths of the air or atmosphere which envelops the earth. Ammonia is also a gas and is colorless, but it has a pungent odor, the same which you have noticed in spirits of hartshorn or spirits of ammonia bought from the drug store. It laso has a caustic burning taste, and is easily dissolved in water, which nitrogen is not.
Ammonia is made by causing nitrogen to combine with hydrogen. Fourteen pounds of nitrogen combine with three pounds of hydrogen to make seventeen pounds of ammonia, so that ammonia always contains a large amount of nitrogen, but nitrogen never contains any ammonia. And right here it is well for you to understand, that we have all fallen into a very unwise and erroneous habit of speaking about a fertilizer as

60

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

containing such a per cent, of ammonia. As a matter of fact it is rarely if ever the case that a fertilizer contains any ammonia, as such at all, but it does contain nitrogen combined in various forms.
As you know, it is customary, in the careless way of talking obtaining among us all, to speak of cottonseedmeal as containing eight per cent, ammonia. That is wrong; it does not contain any ammonia, but it does contain six and six-tenths per cent, of nitrogen in the form of albuminoids or protein, of which I wrote you so much in my letters on feeding; and this six and six-tenths per cent of nitrogen can under certain chemical conditions be converted into eight per cent, of ammonia. I hope then 1 have made this plain, and when you buy a fertilizer in the future don't imagine because you smell certain peculiar odors about it that you smell ammonia; that is rarely if ever the case; the odors you smell are usually due to animal matters, fish-scrap, etc., and indicate no greater value in the fertilizer than one which has no odor at all.
In the same way a dark or black color is no indication of value in the fertilizer. In point of fact the highest grade fertilizer which could possibly be compounded by the art of man would be snow white in color. The materials used for compounding such a fertilizer would be nitrate of ammonia and phosphate of potash, and these salts when chemically pure are snow white salts. To return now to our description of the various nitrogenous materials. Cottonseed-meal, with which you are fully familiar, stands first in importance in Southern agriculture.
An average meal of good quality will contain six and six-tenths per cent, of nitrogen, which, if converted into ammonia, would be equal to eight per cent.
It also contains an average of 2.7 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 1.8 per cent, potash. It is a very valuable fertilizer, and constitutes the nitrogen base of the

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greater portion of commercial fertilizers manufactured in the South.
Next to cottonseed-meal the materials used most largely in the manufacture of commercial fertilizers are the
"PACKING-HOUSE PRODUCTS."
As little is generally known of these and the manner of their production, I will give you a brief account of their manufacture.
The great packing-houses are located chiefly in Chicago, Kansas City and Omaha, where immense numbers of cattle are slaughtered, and the various parts of the body are put to some special use. Apart from the production of dressed beef, mutton or pork, there is of course a large quantity of waste to be utilized, but the material most interesting to us is that which is used for fertilizers; this consists of blood, of bones, and a mixture of scraps of meat, skin, bones and blood.

DRIED BLOOD.
The material known as "dried blood" is the most valuable fertilizer product, and the richest in nitrogen. In preparing this material, the liquid blood is collected in vats, where it is cooked; this process causes the separation of the protein of the blood from much of the water; it is then put in to presses, where about one-half of the water is pressed out. After pressing it is still damp and in the form of cakes; these cakes are next broken up and dried by passing them through a mechanical drier heated by steam. The damp cakes go in at one end of the machine and dry cakes come out at the other, when they are ground to a powder and sacked ready for market. This blood will usually contain about thirteen per cent, of nitrogen, which is the equivalent of about sixteen per cent, of ammonia, but as in the case of cottonseed-meal, there is actually no ammonia
in it.

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GEOEGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

TANKAGE.
The next important product of the slaughter-house is what is known to the fertilizer trade as "Tankage." This is a mixture of blood, bones, waste scraps of meat, etc. This material gets its name from the fact that it is cooked in huge tanks in the first stage of its preparation. It is cooked under steam pressure at a high temperature for several hours. As a result, most of the fat in the mass is melted and rises to the top of the tanks, where it is skimmed off and utilized for soapmaking and other purposes. The bones and the cooked meat, etc., now lie at the bottom of the tank, and the tank water is dark and highly colored--is, in fact, a sort of soup, containing nitrogenous matter in solution. The solid matter, bones, etc., are removed, dried and crushed or ground in the same way as was done with the dried blood product.
CONCENTRATED TANKAGE.
The tank water is run into a vacuum evaporator, the excess of water removed, and a product known as '' concentrated tankage" is the final result of the treatment. The finished material contains about twelve per cent, of nitrogen. The dried and ground bone tankage, or what is known as "simple tankage," contains about sseven per cent, of nitrogen, ten per cent, of total phosphoric acid, and six and one-half per cent, of available phosphoric acid.
BONE MEAL.
There are also three kinds of bone meal produced; raw bone meal, regular bone meal, and steamed bone meal. The first is, as its name indicates, produced by the crushing and grinding of raw bones, after removing any adhering fat or meat. This material contains about four per cent, of nitrogen, twenty-three per cent, of total phosphoric acid, and eight and one-half per cent, of available phosphoric acid. The regular bone meal is cooked under pressure for a few hours in the tanks;

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63

this removes fat and also causes some loss of nitrogen, makes the product grind easier and finer. This grade of bone meal contains about three per cent, nitrogen, twenty-seven and one-half per cent, total phosphoric acid and twelve and one-half per cent, available phosphoric acid. Steamed bone meal is the product of the glue works, and is made by grinding the bone left after boiling all the fat and glue out of them that can be obtained. This process reduces the percentage of nitrogen, so that steamed bone meal will hardly average more than two per cent, of nitrogen, but has about the same amount of phosphoric acid as the ordinary bone meal.

HORN AND HOOi? MEAL, MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT.

Horn and hoof meal is another product of the slaugh-

ter-house. Imperfect horns and dark-colored hoofs are

thoroughly steamed, then dried and ground into meal.

The better quality of horns and hoofs command very

high prices, even as high as $200 a ton, for other pur-

poses, in the manufacture of buttons and novelties;

hence the quantity of this material coming on the mar-

ket is limited. There was formerly a great prejudice

against it, and it used to be considered fraudulent to

use it in fertilizers. Even in standard works on agri-

cultural chemistry of quite recent date the material is

spoken of as being only very slowly available as plant-

food. This, however, has in the past two or three years

been shown to be an error, and the material is now

regarded by those best informed as a rich and highly

available source of nitrogen. It contains about fifteen

per cent, of nitrogen. The quantity of it on the market

is comparatively small. There are many other products

of the packing-house, but these are the chief ones of

interest to the fertilizer trade and to the farmer. In

the next letter I will finish describing the nitrogenous

fertilizer materials, and write you something about

phosphates.

Yours truly,

JNO. M. MCCANDLESS, State Chemist.

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GEOKGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

NITRATE OF SODA.
Cottonseed-meal, blood, tankage, etc., which I have described to you in the last letter, are known as "organic" sources of ammonia, or rather of nitrogen. Habit is so strong, you see, it is hard to get rid of the use of that word ammonia. Nitrogen is much the better term for our use. Besides the organic sources of nitrogen we also have what are known as the "inorganic" sources. I have explained in a previous letter fully the meaning of these two terms, but lest you may have forgotten, I will stop a moment to say that an organic substance may be either vegetable or animal, thus a leaf, a seed, a piece of meat or of skin are organic substances. An inorganic substance is the opposite of these, and is mineral in its nature, a piece of rock or of iron is inorganic. The chief inorganic source of nitrogen, then, is nitrate of soda, also commonly called '' Chili Saltpetre"; saltpetre because it has many of the properties of real saltpetre,'which is nitrate of potash, and Chili because it is imported from Chili in South America.
Nitrate of potash or true saltpetre is a very valuable fertilizing compound, yielding both nitrogen and potash to the plant, but it is much too expensive to buy in this form; it is, therefore, better, or rather cheaper, to buy nitrate of soda and muriate of potash separately, and then mix them together, when we will accomplish practically the same results from a fertilizing stand point, and for a smaller outlay of money, than if we bought the same elements in form of nitrate of potash. Nitrate of soda is such an important salt for fertilizer purposes that I will go into some little detail about it.
The entire supply at present comes from the western coast of Chili. It extends in a narrow strip of land running north and south for about 260 miles, at an average distance of about fourteen miles from the ocean. The country where it is found is a desert, it never rains there and the whole region is bare of vege-

BULLETIN NO. 42

65

tation and destitute of water. The nitrate rock is called ""Caliche" (pronounced Ca-lee-chay), and the best quality has the following composition:

Sodium nitrate Sodium chloride -- Sodium sulphate Magnesium sulphate Insoluble matter Sodium iodate Sodium nitrite Magnesium chloride Magnesium nitrate Potassium chloride

50 per cent. 26 " " 6 " 3" " 14 " "
1" "

100 per cent.
The average quality of "Caliche" contains from thirty to forty per cent, of sodium nitrate, and the poorest quality worked ranges from seventeen to thirty per cent, sodium nitrate. The "Caliche" occurs from six to ten feet below the surface of the ground, and the vein or stratum varies from a foot and a half to twelve feet in thickness.
The process of extracting and separating the valuable nitrate of soda from the rest of the "Caliche," is done by means of water in which the nitrate of soda dissolves, and from which it is crystallized. A description of the process would be tedious. Suffice it to say that a costly plant is required for the purpose, and that the work is so well done that the product when finished contains about ninety-five per cent, nitrate of soda, which is equivalent to 15.65 per cent of nitrogen, or nineteen per cent, of ammonia. An enormous and annually increasing amount is shipped every year. The amount exported every year to Europe and America is about one million tons.

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

CHARACTER OF NITRATE OF SODA AND METHOD OF USE.
The material has a great number of uses besides its use as a fertilizer. It is used in the manufacture of nitrate of potash, which is needed to make gunpowder and fireworks; it is also used to make nitric acid, is an essential in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, upon which the whole superphosphate or acid phosphate industry depends, besides a great many other manufac- turing processes. Its great importance as a fertilizer depends upon its high percentage of nitrogen and its complete solubility in water, thus being immediately available as plant food, the nitrogen in it being already in the form of a nitrate, the form in which plants prefer to take most of their nitrogen. The nitrate of soda being readily and freely soluble in water, is ready for appropriation as plant-food as soon as it is put into the soil. Hence it is evident that the best way to use it is by application as a top dressing immediately before or after a rain, usually in the spring, when the plant is up and needs a good send-off to develop growth of stalk and foliage. Used in this way, the results are very sure and very striking.
SULPHATE OF AMMONIA.
One other important inorganic source of nitrogen is the salt known as sulphate of ammonia. It is produced chiefly as a byproduct in the manufacture of illuminating gas from coal; the gas coals all contain a small percentage of nitrogen; when subjected to a dry distillation in retorts, the nitrogen is driven off in the form of ammonia gas, and is finally absorbed in sulphuric acid, from which it is crystallized as sulphate of ammonia. This product usually contains about twenty and one half per cent, of nitrogen when purified, but if sold unpurified, as brown sulphate of ammonia, it may not contain more than eighteen per cent, of nitrogen. Sulphate of ammonia is freely soluble in water, and has this advantage over nitrate of soda, that it does not leach

BULLETIN NO. 42

67

out of the soil so readily as nitrate of soda does, and may, therefore, he applied with other fertilizers in the fall to fall crops without fear of serious loss through leaching during the fall and winter. I have not mentioned all of the various kinds of nitrogenous fertilizer materials, but have sketched briefly the principal ones, from which nearly all the commercial fertilizers sold in the State of Georgia are made. The next great class of fertilizer material we discuss will be the "phosphates."

THE PHOSPHATES.
In letter No. 4, bulletin No. 38,1 alluded to the impor-' tance of phosphoric acid as a constituent of plant-food. It is in the same class with nitrogen and potash, they being the elements found only in small quantity in most cultivated soils, all the other elements necessary to plant life being usually present in profusion. Phosphoric acid, then, must be added to the soil if we expect large yield. The various sources of phosphoric acid, then, are of interest.
Bones were the first and earliest form in which phosphoric acid was applied to the soil. Bones are a combination of organic and inorganic matter. The organic matter in a bone consists mainly of fat and a glutinous matter; the inorganic matter is chiefly phosphate of lime. This dual composition of a bone can be demonstrated very graphically by taking the leg bone of an animal and soaking it for quite a while in weak muriatic acid. This acid will dissolve away the phosphate of lime, which gives rigidity and stiffness to the bone, and leave behind the glutinous flexible animal matter of the bone, which will still retain the shape of the original bone. You can now take this soft organic matter and tie it into a knot, without breaking it. This soft animal matter of the bone is rich in nitrogen, so that a bone fertilizer is a double manure, both phosphatic and nitrogenous. Bones vary a good deal in composition, according to the nature and age of the animal there is not so

68

GEOKGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

much phosphate in the hones of a young animal as in those of an old one. Even in the same animal, the hard thigh bones of an ox, for instance, will contain more phosphate of lime than softer hones from other parts of the animal. Bones to be of value should, of course be ground, and the finer the grinding the better. A coarsely crushed or ground raw bone, which has not been treated to remove any of its original fatty matter, will decay with comparative slowness in the soil, and consequently but little effect might be perceived from its application the first season.
A good raw bone will contain on an average twentytwo per cent, phosphoric acid and four per cent, of nitrogen. Such a bone is quite difficult to grind fine, and on its fineness depends in large measure its value as a fertilizer. But by boiling and steaming much of the fat is removed, which has no value as a manure; some of the nitrogen is also removed in the form of glue and gelatine by the boiling and steaming process. This treatment, however, enables the bone to be ground much finer than the raw bone, and where the process has been carried out very thoroughly, as in the manufacture of glue, the resulting ground bone may contain as high as thirty per cent, of phosphoric acid, but the nitrogen in this case will be reduced to less than two per cent. Actual experiments have shown that all the phosphoric acid from a finely ground steamed bone may become available in one to two seasons in the soil, while that from a coarse ground raw bone would not become fully available in three or four seasons.

THE MINERAL OR ROCK PHOSPHATES.
If bones were the only source of phosphoric acid, modern agriculture would be in a distressing condition, since bones could supply only a very small part of the demand. The prices of fertilizers would be very much higher than they now are; the cotton crop of the South and the grain crops of the world would be very much

BULLETIN NO. 42

69

smaller, and the population of the earth very much less than it now is. So true is it that life itself as counted by generations rises and falls in greater or smaller volume, in unison with the available supply of plant-
food in the soil. A very large proportion of the dense population and increased wealth of the Old World is doubtless due to the discovery of the mineral phosphates. Deposits of these in greater or less quantity have been known for a long time in the Old World, but I shall mention only those fields in this country which
are of great commercial importance to-day. The first of these in point of discovery and development were the South Carolina phosphate beds. These beds are in the neighborhood of the city of Charleston, S. C. The rock is found both in the land and in the rivers in that vicinity. This phosphate is found usually in the form of lumps or nodules, varying from the size of a pebble to quite large masses. The deposits vary from one or two feet to twelve or more in thickness. This rock contains
no nitrogenous organic matter like bone, but is simply a rock phosphate. It is true, however, that among the deposits are found many evidences of life, such as ent localities, and the wood of different parts of the same tree will vary, the ashes from the twigs and young limbs being richer in potash than the ashes from the body or trunk of the tree. and abroad as a source of phosphoric acid; actual mining began here in 1868.

FLORIDA PHOSPHATES.
The next great discovery of phosphate rock in this country occurred in Florida in 1888 to 1889. There are different forms of this phosphate; first, we have the land or boulder phosphate, which occurs in rocky or stony masses of varying size and form, and varying from thirty to forty per cent, of phosphoric acid; thirdly, we have the "pebble" form consisting of small, hard, rounded pebbles, which occur both in the beds of

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

the rivers, and in deposits on the land. They are variable in composition, but range from thirty to thirty-six per cent, of phosphoric acid. The Florida rock constitutes a very important source of phosphoric acid, is highly esteemed, and is used largely both at home and abroad.
TENNESSEE PHOSPHATE.

Shortly after the discovery of phosphate rock in Florida, discoveries began to be made in Tennessee, in the vicinity of Nashville, and later still important deposits began to be found in Maury county, Tenn., near Mt. second, the "soft" phosphate, a white powdery material, mixed with more or less kaolin, and containing from eighteen to thirty per cent, phosphoric acid; phoric acid. There are other important phosphate deposits in the world, but those just described constitute the important ones for Southern agriculture. Havphosphoric acid. It is highly esteemed both at home itig mentioned the chief sources of nitrogen and phosphoric acid, we will take a bird's-eye view of the sources of potash.

POTASH, ITS IMPORTANCE AS PLANT-FOOD, SOURCES FROM
WHICH DERIVED WOOD-ASHES, STASSFURT DEPOSITS.

The only source of potash known to our fathers was ashes, mainly wood-ashes, and while potash from this source is a most excellent manure, yet evidently the Pleasant. This rock, like the others, is variable in form and composition, but the marketable varieties range from thirty to thirty-seven per cent, of phosappear to require the special application of potash as a manure. Light sandy soils on the other hand, and some clay soils also appear to be quite deficient in potash and are much benefited by applications of that fertilizer. Soils of this nature, therefore, stand as much in need of constant potash manuring as of phosphoric acid and
nitrogen applications.

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71

Wood-ashes, whilst they may be cheap and easily obtained in countries where large forest areas are to be cleared, in older countries cannot be so easily ob-
tained. Long before fertilizers became a commercial commodity wood-ashes were highly thought of by farmers. But usually when a farmer buys ashes he buys in immense vertebrae of animals, and large teeth of shark, marine and other animals. The South Carolina rock
contains from twenty-six to twenty-eight per cent, of the dark, owing to the fact that ashes vary so widely in their contests of potash. As a rule the ashes from hard woods are richer in potash than those from soft woods. The ash of the red oak, for instance, contains about six per cent, of potash, that of the hickory about nine per cent., some pine woods about four and a half per cent. No definite percentage, however, can be laid down for any special wood, as the same wood will vary in differquantity available must be quite limited. The great majority of soils, especially those which contain much clay, usually hold a large reserve of potash, and do not
It is impossible to fix the value of a lot of ashes, except by special analysis of the particular lot, owing to this great variability in composition, and owing to the further fact that the ashes may have been leached or mixed with more or less dirt. The average analysis for good unleached ashes may be taken as five per cent, of potash, one and a half per cent, of phosphoric acid, and thirty-two and one-half per cent, of lime. According to the values for fertilizers adopted for the present season, a ton of good average ashes at the coast should be worth four dollars and fifteen cents. This calculation allows no value to the lime, although of course it has a decided value on such soils as are deficient in it. Luckily since the-middle of the last century, farmers have been no longer compelled to rely on ashes as a source of potash, but have come to adopt in their stead almost universally what are known as the German or Stassfurt potash salts.

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GEORGIA DEPABTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

These salts are mined in Stassfurt in northern Germany, in the province of Saxony. They were discovered by the Prussian government while boring for rock, salt about the year 1857. At first they were considered worthless, but soon the great chemist, Liebig, began publishing his discoveries concerning plant growth and nutrition, showing potash to be an essential and muchneeded element in the growth and development of plants. This led to the development of the potash mines, and the utilization for agriculture of the precious salts contained in them. The first potash salt works for the manufacture and sale of the potash salts was established in Stassfurt in 1862. Some of the crude ores are suited for agricultural use just as they are dug from the mines, and are known as kainit, carnallite, sylvinit. The kainit contains on an average of about twelve and one-half per cent, of potash, the carnallite about ten per cent, and the sylvinit sixteen per cent, of potash. As there is a great demand for these products all over the world, and the freightage to long distances is quite an item, it became desirable to concentrate the potash in these natural products as much as possible, so as to avoid the cost of transportation on the salts contained in them useless to agriculture.
The great factories of the German Kali Works now prepare from the crude kainit, carnallite and sylvinit, muriates of potash containing forty-five per cent., fifty per cent, and fifty-five per cent, of actual potash, also sulphates of potash containing from forty-eight to fiftytwo per cent, of actual potash, also what is known as "double manure salts" with twenty-six per cent, of potash. A complete analysis of all these various products and some others will be found on another page of this bulletin.
These deposits are practically inexhaustible in quantity and will supply the agricultural world for many years to come. Should they ever become exhausted doubtless new discoveries will be made, and if not, pot-

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73

ash could doubtless be obtained, though of course at greater cost, from such waters as those of the "Dead Sea." There need, therefore, be no fear of the supply running short. Having now given you a brief account of the different raw materials used in the manufacture of '' guano,'' or commercial fertilizers, we will next consider the methods in use by the manufacturers for converting these raw materials into finished products.
THE ACID PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY DESCRIPTION OF PROCESS
OF MANUFACTURE.
The foundation of the great modern industry of commercial fertilizers is the manufacture of superphosphate, or as it is more generally known in this country, of acid phosphate of lime. The materials necessary for this manufacture are sulphuric acid and phosphate rock. The plant required for the manufacture of sulphuric acid is a costly one, and the process is somewhat complicated. Either brimstone from Sicily, or pyrites, which is a compound of sulphur and iron, some of which is imported from Spain and some produced from mines in this country, are the raw materials used in its manu-
facture. The brimstone or pyrites are burned in specially-con-
structed burners, and the sulphurous gases which result from the burning are caused to mix with nitrous gases produced from nitrate of soda, and drawn into great towers made of lead and packed with flints; thence they are drawn into immense leaden chambers or rooms, usually three in a row connected together. In these chambers the sulphurous and nitrous gases a*re mixed with steam, and condensed into sulphuric acid, which falls in rain on the floors of the leaden chambers. It is necessary to construct these chambers of lead, because almost any other material would be destroyed and eaten out by the action of this corrosive acid.
The phosphate rock is hauled to the factory, usually a building located alongside the sulphuric acid chambers,

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

it is there thrown into crushers which break it into small pieces; thence conveyed to the grinding machinery, either steel mills or buhr-stones, where it is pulverized into a fine meal or flour. You would naturally ask at this point, why not use this fine phosphate meal directly on the soil without mixing it with the caustic corrosive sulphuric acid? It is simply because this meal is of a rocky nature and only dissolves with difficulty in the soil waters, and as we have seen plants require their food to be easily soluble in water, so that the roots can suck it in. The phosphate rock meal, no matter how finely ground, dissolves only to a very limited extent in water, and it is necessary to so treat it as to liberate the rock-bound phosphoric acid and render it soluble in water. Hence the necessity for the sulphuric acid.
The phosphate meal (say it is from South Carolina rock, and contains twenty-eight per cent, of phosphoric acid, combined with lime to form sixty-one per cent, of bone phosphate lime) is first weighed, and we will take say one thousand pounds of it, and dump it into a circular cast-iron mixer into which has already been introduced one thousand pounds of sulphuric acid of the proper strength.
The acid and meal are now thoroughly mixed together by machinery in the iron pan. The mixture becomes very hot, the strong sulphuric acid attacks the lime combined with the phosphoric acid of the phosphate meal with amazing and furious energy and appropriates to itself the greater part of the lime in the form of sulphate of lime, gypsum or land-plaster, and liberates at the same moment the phosphoric acid, which is only allowed to retain its hold on a small part of the lime, with which it was first combined.
This smaller portion of lime and the phosphoric acid with which it is combined is what the chemists call mono-calcic phosphate, or superphosphate of lime. It is also known as the acid phosphate of lime. This acid phosphate of lime, or superphosphate is soluble in

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75

water; we have therefore accomplished what we set out to do, rendered the phosphoric acid soluble. This discovery was made by the great chemist Liebig, who thus put the entire world in his debt, laying the foundations of the great fertilizer industry, and rendering an inestimable boon to modern agriculture.

VIOLENT REACTION IN THE MIXEE, NATURE OF ACID
PHOSPHATE.
We will now go back to the mixture which we left in the iron mixer and study it a little further. As we saw the chemical energy of the action of the sulphuric acid upon the phosphate meal was prodigious, steam and hot stifling gases are expelled from the mixture, and finally the semi-liquid mass is dumped into an iron car, run out upon a track, built far above a deep den or pit, the car is tilted and the mass precipitated to the bottom of the pit; this operation is repeated many times, until the den or pit contains hundreds of tons of acid phosphate. The mass lying in the pit gradually becomes drier and drier, owing to the escaping steam, and also to the absorption of some of the water in crystal form by the sulphate of lime or land-plaster which has been formed.
This water which escapes as steam, and which is absorbed as crystal water, came from the sulphuric acid with which it was mixed. The sulphuric acid used in the manufacture is usually what is known as fifty (50) acid, or fifty degree Beaume acid, and contains about fifty-five per cent, of real sulphuric acid, the other fortyfive per cent, being water. After the semi-liquid mass has remained for a few days in the pile, it is dry enough to be handled, and on digging into it we find it to be of a porous honeycombed structure, crumbling easily between the fingers. If the acid phosphate is allowed to remain for a still longer time, still more water dries out from it, and it becomes hard and lumpy, and requires to be broken up in a disintegrating machine, before it can be manipulated or sacked.

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

But BO matter how dry it becomes it readily dissolves when placed in water, the water at once acquiring an acid taste. This acid taste is due, not to the sulphuric acid from which it was made, but to the mono-calcic phosphate, or acid phosphate, or superphosphate of lime, which was produced by the splitting up of the phosphate rock by the sulphuric acid. This phosphoric acid is called the soluble or water soluble phosphoric acid. In a well-made superphosphate there is no longer a particle of sulphuric acid remaining as such. Its powerful caustic and corrosive properties have been absolutely killed or neutralized by the lime of the phosphate rock. A wonderful transformation has been effected. We started with powdered phosphate rock and dilute sulphuric acid; in the material which we have produced from them there is neither phosphate rock nor sulphuric acid, but we have a mixture of a little free phosphoric acid, of mono-calcic phosphate, of sulphate of lime or land-plaster, a little water and a little sand, and a few other impurities, such as were found in the phosphate rock to begin with.
The phosphoric acid, the mono-calcic phosphate, and the sulphate of lime are now harmless, soluble in the soil waters, and ready for appropriation as food by the rootlets of the plant.

WHAT INSOLUBLE PHOSPHORIC ACID IS.
In practice the composition of the material will vary somewhat from what I have just described; for instance there will usually be present a small percentage of what is known as "insoluble phosphoric acid." This expression refers to a little phosphate rock which escaped the action of the sulphuric acid, because it is safer to use a little less sulphuric acid than is required for all the phosphate rock, than to run the risk of getting too much of this caustic and corrosive liquid, and thus spoil the mixture. Thus, if on studying the analysis of an acid phosphate or other fertilizer, you see that it contains

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one per cent, of "insoluble phosphoric acid," that means to say that the fertilizer contains two and eighteen hundredths per cent, of pure phosphate rock that the sulphuric acid never touched, because the manufacturer didn't put enough sulphuric acid in the mixture to eat up this two per cent, of phosphate rock, and convert it into superphosphate and land-plaster.
This insoluble phosphoric acid, however is not lost, because, while it is not soluble so that the plant may take it up at once, it still remains in the soil, and doubtless becomes acted on in course of time by the soil waters, and eventually appropriated as plant food. There is also another constituent of an acid phosphate which I did not mention during the first description of the process of manufacture, so as to avoid confusing you by crowding too many names and facts together, and that is that in most acid phosphates there are present small percentages of what is known as "reverted phosphoric acid.''
WHAT REVERTED PHOSPHORIC ACID IS.
Reverted phosphoric acid is that phosphoric acid which has reverted or gone back from a condition soluble in water to one which is insoluble in water. For instance, an acid phosphate may be analyzed shortly after making and found to contain say fourteen per cent, of water-soluble phosphoric acid; after standing for a month it might be analyzed again and found to contain only twelve per cent, of water-soluble phosphoric acid, having lost two per cent, of the phosphoric acid soluble in water. On examination it is found that this two per cent, has reverted or changed from a condition soluble in pure cold water to a condition in which it will not dissolve in water, but will dissolve in a solution made to imitate the water of the soil. It is, therefore, regarded as being available for the use and growth; of the plant.

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

WHAT AVAILABLE PHOSPHORIC ACID IS.
When, therefore, you see in our analysis of a commercial fertilizer the expression "available phosphoric acid" used, you may know that it means the percentages of water-soluble phosphoric acid and reverted phosphoric acid added together, and their sum is called the "available phosphoric acid." Usually the percentage of reverted phosphoric acid in an acid phosphate is small, ranging generally from one to three per cent. I have now described to you in a brief way the principal materials which enter into the manufacture of commercial fertilizers.
THE MANUFACTURE OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.
Having your materials, it now remains to make a complete fertilizer, or "guano," as it is popularly called. It is not really a guano, this name properly belonging to the deposits of sea-bird dung and decayed sea-birds found on the rainless islands in the Pacific oceans off the coast of South America, and known as Peruvian guano. This material was extensively used both in Europe and America some twenty-five or thirty years ago, but is now comparatively scarce and rarely offered for sale. The Peruvian guano was rich in phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash, making a complete fertilizer ; hence the name guano came to be applied to the complete artificial fertilizer made by simply mixing together ingredients rich in nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash.
The artificial mixture has this advantage over the natural, that it is easyto make a mixture to suit the requirements of any soil or crop, rich in phosphoric acid and poor in potash, or rich in potash and nitrogen and poor in phosphoric acid, or any other combination which might be desired. Suppose a manufacturer wants to make a complete fertilizer containing eight per cent, available phosphoric acid, two per cent, nitrogen and two per cent, potash, and that he has acid phos-

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79

phate, cottonseed-meal, and kainit to make the goods from, how does he go about it? He first sends samples of all these materials to a chemist and has them analyzed.
The chemist reports that he finds the acid phosphate to contain fourteen per cent, of available phosphoric acid, that the cotton-seed-meal contains six and a half per cent, of nitrogen, two and a half per cent, of phosphoric acid, and one and a half per cent, of potash, and that the kainit contains twelve and a half per cent, of potash. With these data to go by the manufacturer, after some figuring, calculates that he can make the goods he wants by taking
1,050 pounds of the acid phosphate 650 " " " c. s. meal 300 " " " kainit.

2,000 pounds.

So he has this formula made up, perhaps five hundred

tons of it, by having all these materials thoroughly

mixed in the above proportions, passing them through

his disintegrators, screens and other machinery, until * he feels satisfied a complete mixture has been effected.

Then to be sure everything is right, he has another

sample drawn from the mixed goods and sent to the chemist for analysis, who, if the mixture has been properly made, ought to report an analysis as follows:

Available phosphoric acid Nitrogen

8.16 per cent. 2.11 per cent.

Potash

2.36 per cent.

Suppose, now, the manufacturer is called upon by a

peach-grower, who has found that he needs a large quantity of phosphoric acid and potash for his crop, to

make him up a goods guaranteed to analyze ten per cent,

available phosphoric acid, three and a half per cent, of nitrogen and seven and a half per cent, potash. The

manufacturer soon sees by a little figuring that he can not make this goods up with the materials he has on

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

hand, but must go into the market and buy higher grade materials. He finds he can not make out of South Carolina rock an acid phosphate high enough for his requirements, but must buy some Tennessee rock. He does so, and after making it up into acid phosphate finds that it analyzes seventeen per cent, available phosphoric acid; he also buys some muriate of potash, analyzing fifty per cent, of potash, and some sulphate of ammonia, analyzing twenty and six-tenths per cent, of nitrogen. Having these data he calculates the following formula:

17 per cent, acid phosphate

1,200 pounds

Muriate of potash

____ 300 pounds

Sulphate of ammonia

-- 300 pounds

Cottonseed-meal

200 pounds

2,000 pounds

After thorough mixing and manipulation in the fac-

tory, as before, he sends a sample of the well-mixed

goods to his chemist, and receives an analysis like this:

Available phosphoric acid 10.45 per cent.

Nitrogen

3.74 per cent.

Potash

7.65 per cent.

which makes him feel satisfied, as he has guaranteed to

make for his customer a complete fertilizer containing

Available phosphoric acid

10 per cent.

Nitrogen

3.5 per cent.

Potash

7.5 per cent.

and he finds that he has done this, with a small margin

to spare. Now I am in receipt of questions from sev-

eral farmers who study the analyses in the bulletins,

wanting to know what it is that makes up the balance of

the one hundred per cent, in the analysis of a fertilizer

like the one first given which contains:

Available phosphoric acid

8.16 per cent.

Nitrogen

2.11 per cent.

Potash

2.36 per cent.

12.63 per cent.

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81

WHAT MAKES THE HUNDRED PER CENT. IN THE ANALYSIS OF

FERTILIZERS.

They write and say, '' Here you have a total of twelve and sixty-three hundredths per cent., what is the balance of eighty-seven and thirty-seven hundredths per cent.? We don't understand it, and we want to know what this big balance consists of.'' Now there are two ways of answering this question; the first is by giving you the formula according to which the goods were made, which was, as you remember, one thousand and fifty pounds of fourteen per cent, acid phosphate, six hundred and fifty pounds of cotton-seed-meal containing six and a half per cent, of nitrogen, and three hundred pounds of kainit containing twelve and a half per cent, of potash. Therefore the goods in question will be found, on reducing these quantities to percentages, to be composed as follows:

Acid phosphate Cottonseed-meal Kainit

52.5 per cent. 32.5 per cent. 15.0 per cent.

100.0 per cent.
There you have your 100 per cent., and this is the mixture which gave the analysis of 8.16 per cent, available phosphoric acid, 2.11 per cent, nitrogen, and 2.36 per cent, of potash.
There is another way of answering the questions of those who want to know what constitutes the eightyseven and thirty-seven one-hundredths per cent. That way would be to make a laborious and costly analysis in detail of all the various ingredients found in the acid phosphate, the cottonseed-meal, and the kainit. That analysis, when completed, would only gratify your curiosity, because the essential elements which, alone are of practical interest, the available phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash, have already been given. I have, however, made a complete analysis of a fertilizer, not

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GrEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

the particular one we have been discussing, but one very similar to it, made from South Carolina acid phosphate, cottonseed-meal and kainit. I give you below a copy of this analysis, which you will see adds up the full one hundred per cent.:

COMPLETE ANALYSIS OF A COMMERCIAL "GUANO"

OR FERTILIZER.

Per Cent

(a) Mono-Calcic, or Super-phosphate of Lime

9.52

(b) Di-Calcic, or Reverted Phosphate of Lime

3.02

(c) Tri-Calcic, or Bone Phosphate of Lime

1.99

Sulphate of Lime, or Gypsum, or Land-Plaster

24.60

OS

f Sulphate of Potash

3.19

(d) j Muriate of Potash

0.30

[ Potash, or Potassium Oxide (K20) Soda, or Sodium Oxide

0.56 029

Common Salt, or Sodium Chloride

41

Epsom Salts, or Magnesium Sulphate

4.14

Magnesia, or Magnesium Oxide

0.41

Magnesium Chloride

1.86

Pyrites, or Bisulphide of Iron

0.40

Peroxide of Iron

0.63

Alumina

0.64

Fluoride of Lime

0.39

Sand, or Insoluble Silicious Matter __

5.87

Water

9.33

Organic or ] (e) Protein

13.20

Animal and ! Carbohydrates(such as starch, sugar & gum) 8.11

Vegetable

Fat or Oil

4.37

Matter

I Fibre

1.77

(a) Contains water, Soluble Phosphoric Acid (b) Contains Reverted Phosphoric Acid

100.00
5.78 %
1.58

(a) and (b) Contain Available Phosphoric Acid

(c) Contains Insoluble Phosphoric Acid

1

7.36 0.91

Total Phosphoric Acid

(d) Contains actual Potash 2.45 per cent.

(e) Contains Nitrogen 2.11 per cent.

(a) Mono-Calcic, or Superphosphate of Lime

(b) Di-Calcic, or Reverted Phosphate of Lime

(c) Tri-Calcic, or Bone Phosphate of Lime

Sulphate of Lime, or Gypsum, or Land-Plaster

Potash

Soda

1

Sodium Chloride

Bi-Sulphide of Iron or Pyrites

Magnesia

Peroxide of Iron

Alumina

Fluoride of Lime

Sand or Silicious Insoluble Matter

Water

8.27
Per Cent 18.13 5.75 3.80 46.05 0.12 0.38 0.03 0.74 0.14 1.10 1.22 0.75
J 9.29 12.50

100.00

BULLETIN NO. 42

83

(a) Contains water, Soluble Phosphoric Acid (b) Contains Reverted Phosphoric Acid
(a) plus (b) equal Available Phosphoric Acid (c) Contains Insoluble Phosphoric Acid
Total Phosphoric Acid

11.00 % 3.00
14.00 1.74
15.74

PULL EXPLANATION OF THE PEECEDING ANALYSIS AND OF THE

In this analysis of the complete fertilizer, the monocalcic or superphosphate of lime given at 9.52 per cent, contains 5.78 per cent, of water-soluble phosphoric acid. That is to say in one hundred pounds of the fertilizer, there are nine and fifty-two hundredths pounds of superphosphate of lime, which dissolves readily in water, and of this amount five and seventy-eight hundredths pounds are pure phosphoric acid. In like manner, the fertilizer contains in one hundred pounds, 3.02 pounds of reverted phosphate of lime, and of this amount one and fiftyeight hundredths pounds are pure phosphoric acid, not readily soluble in water, but which does dissolve slowly in the soil and soil water. This is also some times called "citrate soluble" phosphoric acid, because it dissolves in a solution of citrate of ammonia made to imitate the action of soil water. The water-soluble phosphoric acid or 5.78 pounds, and the reverted phosphoric acid, or 1.58 pounds, are added together, making 7.36 pounds, and their sum is called the available phosphoric acid, being considered as available for the use of the plant.
Under the "reverted" phosphate of lime you will see in the analysis there are 1.99 pounds of tri-calcic phosphate, or as it is usually called "Bone-Phosphate" of lime. Of this amount (0.91) ninety-one hundredths of a pound is pure phosphoric acid, but it is in the form of tri-calcic phosphate, and will not dissolve in pure water or in the soil water, and it is therefore called the "insoluble" phosphoric acid. It is sometimes also called the "Acid" soluble phosphoric acid because, when the

84

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

chemist analyzes it, he uses strong acid to dissolve it. The "Available" phosphoric acid and the "insoluble" phosphoric acid added together make what is called the "Total" phosphoric acid, or all the phosphoric acid there is in the fertilizer.

VALUABLE QUALITIES OF THE GYPSUM FOUND IN FERTILIZERS.
Referring back to the analysis, under the item tricalcic or bone-phosphate, you will find that the fertilizer also contains twenty-four and six-tenths pounds of sulphate of lime or gypsum or land-plaster, which are all different names for one and the same thing. Gypsum is a good fertilizer of itself, and has a special action of its own in the soil, breaking up the potash-yielding silicates in clay soils and bringing the potash into a soluble form as sulphate of potash. This gypsum, as has been remarked, was formed when the sulphuric acid was mixed with the powdered phosphate rock, and it is now held a prisoner by the lime in such way that it has lost all of its former caustic and corrosive qualities, and can do no harm but only good in the soil.
Under the item of gypsum we find 3.19 pounds of sulphate of potash; this came out of the kainit used in making the fertilizer, and it contains one and seventenths pounds of actual potash (K O). Under this item you find three-tenths of a pound of muriate of potash, which also came out of the kainit, and this contains 0.19 of a pound of actual potash; under this item again you find 0.56 of a pound of actual potash. This came out of the cottonseed-meal. Adding the three actual potash items together, they amount to two and forty-five hundredths per cent. (2.45) or pounds per hundred. Lastly, looking further down the line till you come to the item protein. You already know all about protein, as I have written you so much about it in previous letters. This thirteen and two-tenths pounds of protein contains two and eleven hundredths (2.11) pounds of nitrogen. Now when the State Department of Agriculture analyzes a

BULLETIN NO. 42

85

fertilizer, it does not make such an analysis as this, because it would be too laborious, too costly, and would really do no practical good; so they go at once into the meat of it and analyze the fertilizer for its available phosphoric acid, its nitrogen and potash, and calculate its value from these three ingredients.

The analysis of such a fertilizer as we have been discussing would appear in the annual Bulletin in this form:

Available phosphoric acid Insoluble phosphoric acid Nitrogen Potash

7.36 per cent. 0.91 per cent. 2.11 per cent. 2.45 per cent.

12.83 per cent.
As you see this analysis only foots up twelve and eighty-three hundredths pounds per hundred. You meed no longer ask what constitutes the other eightyseven and seventeen hundredths pounds. All this extra 87.17 per cent, is "filler," filler put in by nature and not by man.
ALL ABOUT "FILLERS." .
In this connection we may profitably say a few words in regard to "fillers." A "filler" may be defined as being any substance put into a fertilizer, or existing there naturally, which is not phosphoric acid, nitrogen or potash. Fillers are of two kinds, natural and artificial. I have just given you an instance of a natural "filler," in the complete analysis of the fertilizer made out of acid phosphate, cottonseed-meal and kainit, and in this mixture only twelve and eighty-three hundredths pounds per hundred consisted of phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash; the rest was all filler, put there by nature in the original making of these materials. It is true, man did put in some sulphuric acid, but that was necessary to make phosphoric acid available or soluble, so it can scarcely be considered as an artificial filler.

86

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

The artificial "filler" is the filler put in by man for the purpose of reducing the total percentage of plantfood in a fertilizer. The materials used as artificial "fillers" are numerous; they may be sand, powdered cinders, graphitic slate, shale, pyrites cinder, marl, gypsum, etc. All of them are practically without any value as fertilizers; how is it, then, you inquire, that such substance can be put into our fertilizers, if we have an efficient inspection by the Department of Agriculture. I will explain to you how that is. Suppose that a manufacturer, instead of having on hand only South Carolina acid phosphate, cottonseed-meal and kainit when you call on him for an 8-2-2 goods, has on hand some of the highest grade materials known to the trade.

He has, say, acid phosphate made from Tennessee or Florida rock, which contains twenty per cent, of available phosphoric acid; also nitrate of soda with sixteen per cent, of nitrogen, dried blood with fourteen per cent, nitrogen, sulphate of ammonia with twenty per cent, nitrogen, muriate of potash with fifty per cent, of potash ; with these materials on hand he receives your order for a fertilizer, guaranteed to contain as small an amount of plant-food as the law will permit, viz.: twelve per cent., made up of eight per cent, available phosphoric acid, two per cent, nitrogen, two per cent, potash. Considering the materials he has on hand, he figures out this formula:

825 pounds of 20 per cent, acid phosphate

215 "

14 per cent, dried blood

75

16 per cent, nitrate of soda

85

50 per cent, muriate of potash

1,200
Now, in this 1,200 pounds of high-grade materials he has all the plant-food you called for, with a small margin for safety. You called for eight per cent, of a ton in available phosphoric acid or one hundred and sixty pounds, and in his 825 pounds of twenty per cent, acid

BULLETIN NO. 42

87

phosphate he has given you one hundred and sixty-five pounds of available phosphoric acid; you called for two per cent, of a ton, or forty pounds of nitrogen, and in his 215 pounds of dried blood, containing fourteen per cent, nitrogen and seventy-five pounds of nitrate of soda with sixteen per cent, nitrogen, he has given you fortytwo and one-tenth pounds of nitrogen. In like manner you called for forty pounds of potash, and in eighty-five pounds of fifty per cent, muriate of potash he has given you forty-two and a half pounds of actual potash. Now, the best thing both for you and the manufacturer, the cheapest thing for both of you, would be for him to send you that twelve hundred pounds put up in six sacks, which upon inspection and analysis would show:

Available phosphoric acid Nitrogen Potash

13.75 per cent. 3.50 per cent.
3.54 per cent.

But no, you won't have it that way, you must have a ton, ten sacks of 8-2-2; so the manufacturer rather than enter upon a campaign of education with all of his customers, obligingly freights into his factory eight hundred pounds of powdered slate mined some hundred miles away, utterly worthless as fertilizer, and mixes it in with the twelve hundred pounds of good fertilizer making one ton. This mixture on inspection and analysis shows:

Available phosphoric acid

Nitrogen

Potash

,

8.25 per cent. 2.10 per cent. ,_2.12 per cent.

A SMALL QUANTITY OF HIGH-GEADE FERTILIZER BETTER THAN A LARGE QUANTITY OF LOWER GRADE.

Now suppose you had exercised a little common sense and bought the six sacks, analyzing 13.75, 3.50 and 3.54, you would have been saved the cost of mining, pulverizing and freighting of the artificial "filler" to the factory, and the freight on four sacks of it from the factory to your railroad station, and the wear and tear on

88

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

your mules hauling that extra eight hundred pounds ten miles to the farm. Wouldn't it have been much better to have bought the six sacks, and when you got home, if you wanted it in the proportion of 8-2-2, which is a good proportion, to have mixed up the six sacks yourself with wood's earth, or compost, or even sand, before distributing? I think I hear you say, "Well, that's true, but why don't you fix the law and raise the grade so these fellows can't put in all this artificial 'filler.' "
My dear friend, there never yet was, and there never Will be, a law framed which can meet all the conditions of a great social and industrial problem, or which will compensate for the failure to exercise his own intelligence on the part of the individual citizen. Think for a moment, suppose we should pass a law making it impossible to use any artificial "fillers" in the manufacture of commercial fertilizers, by raising the grade to a very high point. Do you not see that by so doing we should at once paralyze this great industry, and cut short the cotton crop of the State, since we would at once bar the use of South Carolina acid phosphate, cottonseed-meal and kainit and a number of other good materials of similar grade, and thus at once raise the price of the high-grade materials to an unheard-of degree by greatly increasing the demand for them?
No, the conditions have been very thoroughly studied in every particular by the commissioners of agriculture of the various States, aided and advised by those best qualified by experience and training to understand the matter in all of its details, and the result of their deliberations is embodied in the new Georgia fertilizer law printed in this bulletin. This law raises the grade of commercial fertilizers from a total plant-food of ten per cent, minimum under the old law to twelve per cent, minimum, and protects the farmer in every way that a good and just law can protect him. It will give him the highest grade of fertilizers he has ever bought; it will protect him against fraud; it will guarantee that he

BULLETIN NO. 42

89

gets every pound of fertilizing value that lie pays for;

in fine, it is the best fertilizer law now on the statute

books of any State, but even such a law can not prevent

the use of "fillers."

Only education on the part of the farmer, and a

demand on his part for the higher grades of fertilizers

will eliminate the use of '' fillers.'' When you and your

brother farmers study the percentages of plant-food in

a fertilizer, and prefer to buy five or six sacks of a high-

grade goods to buying ten sacks of a goods containing

only the same quantity of actual plant-food, then there

will be no more "filler" put into high-grade fertilizer

materials, but the capital of the manufacturer and the

skill of the chemist will be exerted in the effort to take

out of the present low-grade fertilizer materials as much

as possible of the "filler" which God and nature have

put there.

Yours truly,

JNO. M. MCCANDLESS, State Chemist.

90

GEOEGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FERTILIZER FORMULA FOR ALL KINDS OF CROPS.

STATE CHEMIST'S FORMULAS FOR COTTON, WHEAT AND CORN.

I am often asked what formula I would recommend for cotton, what for wheat and what for corn. There is no one who can say what is the best application for any crop, unless he understands the character of the soil, the nature and amount of previous applications of fertilizer, the nature of the crops previously grown, and amounts harvested per acre. However, as it is often necessary j;o give an answer offhand to the question what is a good formula for cotton, I would give this answer. If you want to buy the goods already made, write to the manager of a fertilizer factory nearest you and ask for a goods to analyze as follows:

Available phosphoric acid Nitrogen Potash Use 400 pounds per acre.

7.00 per cent. 2.50 per cent. 2.50 per cent.

If you prefer to make the goods yourself, buy 14 per cent, acid phosphate, kainit and cottonseed-meal, and make up this mixture for each acre you intend to plant:

200 pounds of acid phosphate

145

cottonseed-meal

80 "

kainit

If you want to plant ten acres, then buy ten times those quantities and mix together. The mixture will analyze about as above, 7 per cent, available phosphoric acid, 2.5 per cent, nitrogen and 2% per cent, potash.

FORMULA FOR WHEAT.
It would be an excellent idea to plant wheat on land from which you have previously cut a crop of clover or cowpeas. The roots and stubble of these crops enrich

BULLETIN NO. 42

91

the soil with nitrogen derived from the air. However, if you have not such a field ready choose one from which you have already gathered a crop of cotton. It is the best not to follow wheat with wheat nor corn with wheat. Drag off the cotton limbs and burs with a harrow, turn up the stalks with a plow, and broadcast from twenty to twenty-five loads of stable manure, or stable and cow manure mixed, to the acre. "Lay off the lands" eight feet apart, across the cotton rows and then proadcast 400 pounds per acre of this formula :

1,200 pounds 13 per cent, acid phosphate

600 ''

cottonseed-meal

200 "

muriate of potash

2,000 or buy from your dealer a fertilizer guaranteed to contain:

Available phosphoric acid Ammonia Potash

8.00 per cent. 2.50 per cent.
5.00

which is what the above formula would analyze. In either case broadcast 400 pounds per acre. Then drag a harrow in each land, so as to thoroughly pulverize the soil and mix the fertilizers intimately with it. This treatment also obviates danger of killing the seed wheat by reason of the grains coming in actual contact with the strong chemicals of the fertilizer. Select a good variety of wheat, and broadcast. It would be well to wet the seed with a weak solution of sulphate of copper or bluestone before planting.

In the spring broadcast over the wheat one hundred pounds per acre of nitrate of soda. It would be well to mix each 100 pounds nitrate with four or five hundred pounds of loose fine earth, so as to insure a more even distribution.

A good fertilizer for corn would be the same as that given above for wheat, only omitting the top dressing of nitrate of soda in the spring.

92

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FORMULAS FOR COTTON.
The following formulas for cotton are the result of careful experiments by trained investigators on worn soil. It was found that cotton required a combination of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash. Phosphoric acid is the dominant element, however, with nitrogen standing next in importance. The relative proportion of the three important elements of plant-food is one part nitrogen, two and a half of phosphoric acid, and threefourths of potash. The quantities required by a crop of 300 pounds of lint cotton per acre are nitrogen 20 pounds, phosphoric acid 50 pounds, and potash 15 pounds. The dozen different formulas given below are so calculated as to contain very nearly these quantities of three important elements, and are so varied as to meet the requirements and the convenience of almost every former. No one formula can be said to have any special advantage over the other; just use the one you can get together with the greatest convenience and least cost to yourself. Each one will analyze about 20 pounds of nitrogen, 50 pounds of phosphoric acid, and 15 pounds of potash in the whole formula. Fertilizers may be applied either in drill or broadcast where used liberally, but if used sparingly drilling is considered preferable. Each formula represents the amount to be applied per acre to get the best results.

Muriate of Potash Acid Phosphate Nitrate of Soda

30 lbs. 334 " 125 "

Wood Ashes (unleached) 164 lbs.

Aeid Phosphate

261 "

Cottonseed Meal

286 ''

Muriate of Potash Acid Phosphate Cottonseed Meal

20 lbs. 281 " 286 "

Kainit Aeid Phosphate Cottonseed Meal Cottonseed

64 lbs. 273 " ] 43 " 13% bus

Cottonseed Hull Ashes... 45 lbs.

Aeid Phosphate

261 "

Cottonseed Meal

286 "

Aeid Phosphate Nitrate of Soda Stable Manure

266 lbs. 13 "
4000 "

BULLETIN NO. 42

93

Muriate of Potash Acid Phosphate Dried Blood

30 lbs. 334 " 167 "

Muriate of Potash

10 lbs.

Acid P. with P. (2%K,0) 312 "

Cottonseed Meal

286 ''

Muriate of Potash Acid Phosphate Nitrate of Soda Cottonseed .. :
Kainit Acid Phosphate Cottonseed

20 lbs. 300 "
64 " 13% bus.
45 lbs. 264 " 26% bus.

Kainit Acid Phosphate Nitrate of Soda Stable Manure

58 lbs. 300 "
70 " 2000 ''

Commercial Fertilizer to

analyze as below:

Available Phosphoric Acid 10.00

Ammonia

4.85

Potash (K20)

3.0IJ

Use 500 pounds per acre.

Any of the formulas given above for cotton would answer well for wheat if the quantity of acid phosphate in each is diminished by one-half, and the nitrogen increased by the amount of money saved on the acid phosphate. But in the case of the wheat the nitrate of soda should not be mixed with the other ingredients, but reserved and applied as a top dressing in the spring, when its effects will be immediate and marvelous, imparting a green rich color to the plant, and if as much as 100 lbs. per acre are used, increasing the yield 5 to 10 bushels per acre.

FARISH FURMAN'S FAMOUS FORMULA.

Barnyard manure

750 pounds

Cottonseed

750 pounds

Acid phosphate

367 pounds

Kainit

133 pounds

2,000 pounds. Use from 400 to 800 pounds per acre

A COMPOST FAMOUS IN LOUISIANA.

Green cottonseed Stable manure Acid phosphate Use 400 to 800 pounds per acre.

100 bushels 100 bushels 2,000 pounds

94

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

The Georgia Experiment Station formula for cotton (Colonel Redding, Director) has been tested there with excellent results. It is as follows:

Acid phosphate Muriate of potash Cottonseed-meal

1,000 pounds 75 pounds
700 pounds

1,775 pounds

Apply so as to get from 200 to 500 pounds of acid phosphate per acre.
The formula of the same station for corn and the grasses is--

Acid phosphate Muriate of potash Cottonseed-meal

1,000 pounds 30 pounds
1,250 pounds 2,280 pounds

Apply enough of the above formula to get from 100 to 200 pounds of acid phosphate per acre.

SPECIAL WHEAT FORMULA.
The director of the Experiment Station at Bouregard, France, is authority for the following:
If farmyard manure is supplemented by liberal application of commercial fertilizer, as follows:

Acid phosphate Sulphate of ammonia Muriate of potash

350 pounds 130 pounds
90 pounds

applied in the fall, and followed in the spring by a topdressing of 90 pounds of nitrate of soda, a yield of over 45 bushels of wheat per acre may be attained. The above are the quantities used per acre.

SPECIAL FORMULAS FOR TRUCKING CROPS.
Those who raise early vegetables for market, or what are known as trucking crops, require special formulas.

BULLETIN NO. 42

95

The trucker must get his crop to market early, or he is

likely to find no market for it. He therefore must force

his crop in every practicable way. One of the chief

methods of doing this is by the use of very rich or high-

grade fertilizers, used in very large quantities per acre,

one thousand and even as high as two thousand pounds

per acre of the very highest grade fertilizer being often

used. Large quantities of nitrogen are required and

part of this nitrogen must be in the form of the very

soluble nitrate of soda, which dissolves in water as

readily as sugar or salt. This valuable ingredient of

trucking crops should not be mixed with acid phosphate,

especially if the latter is damp, if the mixture is in-

tended to stand for any great length of time before use.

There is a tendency for the acid phosphate to cause a

decomposition of the nitrate of soda with a resulting

loss of nitrogen. As to the amounts to be used per acre

the trucker must use his own judgment and experience

with his soil, remembering that economy in this direc-

tion has not been found to pay by those wishing an

early market crop of vegetables. It is rarely the case

that less than five hundred pounds per acre will pay.

The formulas given below have been selected mainly

from some of the trucking bulletin's of the North Caro-

lina Agricultural Experiment Station.

A. For Celery: 7 per cent. Ammonia, 5 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 8 per cent. Potash.

1. 300 lbs. Nitrate of soda -

800 lbs. Fish scrap

6.9 pr. ct. Ammonia

600lbs.Acid phos. 13 pr.ct. will yield 5. 5 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.

300 lbs. Muriate potash --

8.0 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000

250 lbs. Nitrate soda 600 lbs. Dried Blood
8501bs.Acidphos.13 pr.ct. 300 lbs. Muriate potash--

f 7.2 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield < 5.5 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
\7.8 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

96

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

B. For Irish Potatoes: 6 per cent. Ammonia, 7 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 8 per cent. Potash.

1. 300 lbs. Nitrate of soda -_.

600 lbs. Cottonseed meal 800 lbs. Acid phos

.



will

yield

f5.4pr. \ 7.2 pr.

ct. Ammonia. ct. Avail, phos.

acid.

300 lbs. Muriate potash

(8.1 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

2. 300 lbs. Nitrate soda 600 lbs. Fish scrap 800 lbs. Acid phos. 14 pr. ct. 300 lbs. Muriate potash ._

f 5.8 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield \ 6.8 pr. ct. Ayail. phos. acid.
[7.8 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

3. 200 lbs. Nitrate soda 900 lbs. Fish scrap 600 lbs. Dissol'd bone black 300 lbs. Muriate potash __

(6.4 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield \ 6.6pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
[ 7.8 pr. ct. potash.

2,000 lbs.

J

I. 220 lbs. Nitrate soda ...

500 lbs. Dried blood 970 lbs. Acid phos. 14 pr. ct.

([6.1 pr. ct. Ammonia. will yield -j 6.8 pr. ct. Avail. pCos. acid.

310 lbs. Muriate potash __

[8.0 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

5. 300 lbs. Nitrate soda 600 lbs. Cottonseed meal . 800 lbs. Acid phos. 13 pr. ct. 300 lbs. Muriate potash __

f 5.4 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield -j 6.0 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
[8.3 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

6. 300 lbs. Nitrate soda 600 lbs. Tankage 800 lbs. Acid phos. 13 pr. ct. 300 lbs. Sulph. potash,H.G.

[5.5 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield -j 6.4 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
(7.8 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

C. For Beets and Lettuce: 6 per cent. Ammonia, 5 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 8 per cent. Potash.

l. 300 lbs. Nitrate soda 800 lbs. Cottonseed meal . 600 lbs. Acid phos. 13 pr. ct. 300 lbs. Muriate potash __

(6.2 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield \ 4.9 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
[8.5 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

BULLETIN NO. 42

97

200 lbs. Nitrate soda 800 lbs. Fish scrap 700 lbs. Acid phos. 11 pr. ct. 300 lbs. Muriate potash

f 5.9 pr. ct. Ammonia,
will yield { 5.4 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid, { 7.8 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

D. For Cabbage, Cauliflower, Cucumbers and Melonsi
6 per cent. Ammonia, 5 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 7 per cent. Potash.

1. 300 lbs. Nitrate soda 750 lbs. Cottonseed meal . 700 lbs. Acid phos. 11 pr. ct. 250 lbs. Muriate potash __

f 6.0 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield -j 4.8 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
{ 7.1 pr. ct. Potash,

2,000 lbs.

E. For Spinach: 5 per cent. Ammonia, 8 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid), 6 per cent. Potash.

1. 200 lbs. Nitrate soda . 650 lbs. Fish scrap 920 lbs. Acid phos. 14 pr. ct. 230 lbs. Muriate Potash _.

f 5.2 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield { 7.7 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
\ 6.0 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

2. 300 lbs. Nitrate of soda .. 1

500 lbs. Cottonseed meal .

f 5.0 pr. ct. Ammonia,

1,000 lbs. Acid phos. 14 pr. ct. will yield { 7.6 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.

200 lbs. Muriate potash __

[5.6 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

F. For Radishes and Turnips: 5 per cent. Ammonia, 7
per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 8 per cent. Potash.

1. 250 lbs. Nitrate soda 550 lbs. Cottonseed meal . 900 lbs. Acid phos. 13 pr. ct. 300 lbs. Muriate potash ,,
2,000 lbs.

f 4.6 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield \ 6.5 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
[ 8.3 pr. ct. Potash.

G. For Asparagus: 5 per cent. Ammonia, 7 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 8 per cent. Potash.

1. '200 lbs. Nitrate soda

'

700 lbs. Cottonseed meai _

f 4.9 pr .ct. Ammonia.

STM ',L ^,cid phos' 13 Pr- ct- wil1 yieId "I 6.1 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.

300 lbs. Muriate potash ..

[ 8.4 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

fr-7

98

GEOEGIA DEPAKTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

H. For Eggplant and Tomatoes: 5 per cent. Ammonia, 6 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 7 per cent. Potash.

1. 200 lbs. Nitrate soda 700 lbs. Cottonseed meal . 840 lbs. Acid phos. 13 pr. ct. 260 lbs. Muriate potash

f 4.9 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield { 6.3 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
[ 7.4 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

I. For Onions: 5 per cent. Ammonia, 5 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 8 per cent. Potash.

1. 200 lbs. Nitrate soda

750 lbs. Cottonseed meal . 750 lbs. Acid phos. 11 pr. ct.



will

yield

f \

5.1 5.1

pr. ct. Ammonia. pr. ct. Avail, phos.

acid.

300 lbs. Muriate Potash __

[8.5 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

J. For Sweet Potatoes: 3 per cent. Ammonia, 7 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 8 per cent. Potash.

1. 100 lbs. Nitrate soda

400 lbs. Fish scrap

f 3.5 pr. ct. Ammonia.

1,180 lbs. Acid phos. 11 pr. ct. will yield -j 7 .8 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.

320 lbs. Muriate Potash __

[ 8.3 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

2. 100 lbs. Nitrate soda 500 lbs. Cotton seed meal .
1,100 lbs. Acid phos. 13 pr. ct. 300 lbs. Muriate potash

f 3.5 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield \ 7 .8 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
[8.3 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

K. For Beans and Peas: 3 per cent. Ammonia, 7 per cent. Available Phosphoric Acid, 7 per cent. Potash.

1." 100 lbs. Nitrate soda |r 450 lbs. Cottonseed meal . I 1,200 lbs. Acid phos. 11 pr. ct.
250 lbs. Muriate Potash ..

f 2.9 pr. ct. Ammonia, will yield \ 7.1 pr. ct. Avail, phos. acid.
[6.9 pr. ct. Potash.

2,000 lbs.

BULLETIN NO. 42

99

FEEDING FORMULAS.

In Bulletin No. 36, issued season 1899-1900, I wrote a series of letters on cattle-feeding, and explained in detail how the feeder might, by the use of a table of analyses of the different feeding-stuffs, calculate in a scientific way the proper ration for his cattle. Many find this calculation to be irksome, and have applied to me for formulas ready calculated. In compliance with this demand I furnish below a number of feeding formulas, some calculated by myself, and some taken from a Bulletin on the subject by the Georgia Experiment Station. The formulas given, unless otherwise stated, are for cattle of 1,000 lbs. live weight; so that if the cow weighs 800 lbs., then 80 per cent, of the ration should be used, or if the cow weighs over 1,000 lbs., say 1,100, then 10 per cent, of the weight of the 1,000 lb. cow ration should be taken and added to the ration.

RULE FOB ASCERTAINING THE WEIGHT OF CATTLE.
A good rule for ascertaining the approximate weight of a cow is this: '' Ordinary cattle girting five feet will weigh 650 to 800 pounds, according to form and fatness; for each additional inch in girt add 25 pounds up to six feet, and for each inch after six feet add 50 pounds.

FORMULA NO. 1.

12 pounds of pea-vine hay.

20 pounds of rye fodder (green).

4 pounds of corn meal.

4 pounds of wheat bran.

2 pounds of cottonseed hulls.

This ration contains:

Dry matter

24.11 pounds

Protein _ __

2.47 pounds

Carbohydrates and fat

__12.83 pounds

Nutritive ratio

1:5.4

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GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

FORMULA NO. 2.
15 pounds of corn and cob meal. 12 pounds of cottonseed hulls. \y.> pounds of cottonseed meal.

This ration contains: Dry matter Protein Carbohydrates and fats Nutritive ratio

27.65 2.51
13.59 __1:6

(The above ration is an example of how to mix when green, succulent foods are not to be had; it would be better, of course, to add to such a ration if possible some green food, or 4 or 5 pounds of turnips, carrots or other roots.)

FORMULA NO. 3.

2.8 pounds cottonseed-meal. 4 pounds corn and cob meal. 3 pounds wheat bran. 25 pounds corn silage. I2V2 pounds mixed hay.
Nutritive ratio

1:5.7

FORMULA NO. 4.
3y2 pounds cottonseed-meal. 3 pounds wheat bran. 7 pounds cottonseed hulls. 17% pounds corn stover. 5 pounds mixed hay.

FORMULA NO. 5.
20 pounds cowpea hay. 10 pounds shredded cornstalks.

FORMULA NO. 6.
20 pounds of mixed hay. 3 pounds of cottonseed-meal. 4 pounds of corn meal.

fe

BULLETIN NO. 42
FORMULA NO. (.
25 pounds shredded corn shucks. 5 pounds cottonseed-meal. 3 pounds wheat bran.
FORMULA NO. 8.
20 pounds cottonseed hulls. 4 pounds cottonseed-meal. 5 pounds wheat bran.
FORMULA NO. 9.
15 pounds cowpea hay. 10 pounds cottonseed hulls.
5 pounds cowpea meal.
FORMULA NO. 10.
15 pounds cowpea hay. 8 pounds cottonseed. 6 pounds corn meal.

*-'***V
^ORfi\^

FOR FATTENING STEERS.
FORMULA NO. 11.
20 pounds cottonseed hulls. 5 pounds cottonseed-meal. Gradually increase to 24 pounds cottonseed hulls and 8 pounds cottonseed-meal.
, FORMULA NO. 12.
20 pounds shredded cornstalks. 5 pounds cottonseed-meal. 6 pounds corn meal. Eation for pigs weighing from 20-70 pounds: 2 ounces of corn meal per quart skim milk. Pigs weighing from 70-130 pounds: 4 ounces per quart skim milk. Pigs weighing from 130-200 pounds: 6 ounces per quart skim milk. Give all they will eat up clean.

102

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

RATIONS FOE HOESES AND MULES AT LIGHT, AVEEAGE AND HAED WOEK.

S. P. Mattox, of Elberton, Ga., writes, asking for some formulas for feeding mules and horses, observing, very correctly, that a mule or horse fed on hay and corn the year round will eat his head off. Yes. this is a very important matter, especially in view of the high price of grain, corn and oats, this year. When the Georgia farmer has failed to raise sufficient corn for his mules, the cost of feeding his work-stock, where he has to buy Western corn at ruling high prices, must make a ruinous inroad on the net sum he has received for his cotton crop. I have, therefore, calculated the following rations for mules and horses at work, and at rest, using as far as possible other nutrients than corn, and reducing the cost of feeding materially. I have given rations for a mule at light, at average work, and at hard work, as it is a great waste of provender, to feed the same quantities under all conditions.
Eations for mules and horses of 1,000 pounds weight, per day.
For horse or mule at light work: 10 pounds peavine hay. 10 pounds corn and cob meal. Nutritive ratio 1:6.9.
Eation for average work: 10 pounds peavine hay. 10 pounds corn and cob meal. 3 pounds wheat bran. Nutritive ratio 1:6.4
Eation for hard work: 10 pounds pea vine hay. 10 pounds corn and co'b meal. 10 pounds wheat bran. Nutritive ratio 1:5.5.

BULLETIN NO. 42

103

Eation for light work: 10 pounds corn-stover. 10 pounds oats. 3 pounds pea-meal. Nutritive ratio 1:6.8.
Ration for average work: 10 pounds corn-stover. 10 pounds oats. 5 pounds pea-meal. Nutritive ratio 1:6.
Eation for hard work: 10 pounds corn-stover. 10 pounds oats. 10 pounds pea-meal. Nutritive ratio 1:5.6.

COTTONSEED-MEAL EATIONS FOE HOESES
AND MULES.
The above rations can be substituted for corn when the latter is high, and are much better balanced, as regards their nutritive ratio, than the average ration of corn and fodder fed to work-stock. Many farmers feed their stock 20 pounds of shelled corn and 10 pounds of fodder (blades), and think they are feeding them in the best manner. As a matter of fact the poor mule gets out of this ration only 2 pounds of protein, when he should, at hard work, have nearly three; and gets over 19 pounds of carbohydrates, when a rational standard of feeding would only call for about 13, the nutritive ratio of the corn and fodder ration being 1:9.6, when it should approximate 1:5.4. In Bulletin 36, page 51, season of 1899-1900, after comparing cottonseed-meal with corn, as to their feeding value, and showing the great superiority of the cotton-seed meal, I made this remark: "In the light of these important facts it strikes me as being astonishing that no experiments appear to have

104

GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

>been made to see whether horses and mules will not eat -cottonseed-meal and cottonseed-hulls, one or both, and if not voluntarily, whether they could be gradually trained to do so, by mixing them gradually and