Muck.—The use of muck pays in stables, as it is a good absorbent and contains some nitrogen which gains in availability by mixture with manure. Its direct application to land as a fertilizer does not pay the labor bill under ordinary circumstances.
Sawdust.—As a fertilizer, sawdust does not have much value, but serves as an excellent absorbent in stables. Its presence in manure need not cause fear of injury to the soil. When fresh sawdust is applied in large quantity to a sandy soil, the effect upon physical condition is bad, increasing drouthiness.
CHAPTER XVIII
PURCHASING PLANT-FOOD
Necessity of Purchase.—The necessity of buying plant-food in the form of commercial fertilizers is a mooted question in any naturally fertile agricultural region just so long as crop yields do not drop to a serious extent. The natural strength of the land and the skill that enters into the farming are important factors in determining the profitableness of recourse to purchased plant-food. The free use of organic matter to maintain the supply of humus defers the time when commercial fertilizers should be used. Good tillage frees the potential plant-food of the soil, and delays the day of necessary purchase. The farm so situated that it can have all its products fed upon it is longer independent of outside help. The profitable use of feeding-stuffs from other farms is a safe way of escaping the direct purchase of fertilizers, although it is a transfer of fertility to the farm as surely as the employment of fertilizers, and is not a method that may have general adoption.
In the Lebanon Valley, Pennsylvania.
The organic sources of fertility, such as slaughter-house refuse, are containers of plant-food as surely as is stable manure. The inorganic sources, such as acid phosphate and muriate of potash, are containers of plant-food as surely as is animal bone or blood. There is no line that may be drawn to debar any substance that supplies plant-food profitably and contains no compound harmful to the soil.
The purchase of plant-food should begin whenever profit is offered by it, and in connection with its use there should be good tillage, organic matter, and healthful plant conditions in every respect. The use of a fertilizer pays best when the conditions are such that the plants can avail themselves of it in the fullest degree. Good farming and the heavy use of commercial fertilizers go consistently hand-in-hand.