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Southern
Gardens
ByThornton
F. Jordan, Ph.D.
Fertilizing
and Composting in 1850
Historically,
as long as frontier land was available, farmers preferred to move
to unused land rather than invest money in fertilizers. But even in
primitive agriculture, before the chemistry of soil and crops was
understood, farmers used ground bones, wood ash, dried blood, saltpeter,
guano, and fish as fertilizers. The Romans, as early as 200 B.C. knew
about crop rotations, liming acid soils, adding manure, and growing
legumes to fix nitrogen from the air. But trained chemist didn't begin
to study plant nutrition until 1750, and it wasn't until 1834 that
the first field experiments were conducted. By 1850 both advocates
and detractors called the new scientific methods "book farming."
In 1850 planters from Georgia and Alabama met in Columbus, Georgia
to establish an agricultural journal. Their monthly, The Soil of the
South, began in January of 1851. In its first year it included nine
letters written by John P. Norton of the Yale College laboratory on
the current scientific farming practices. Sensitive to the doubters,
Norton's first two columns diplomatically defended "book farming."
In 1856 William N. White of Athens, Georgia published the first major
book which specifically addressed Southern horticulture. In his Gardening
for the South White drew from Norton's Yale columns. Besides offering
the first reference I have found so far on mulching, it includes several
sections on fertilizing practices in the south during the 1850s.
White classified all fertilizers broadly as manures, both organic
(animal and vegetable) and inorganic (mineral).
Manures had six different functions. The first was to ameliorate soil
by absorbing and maintaining moisture from the atmosphere. The so-called
hot manures--guano, horse, and pig--were high in nitrogen, quick to
ferment, and liable to burn plants by direct contact. But when turned
under, they helped clay soils absorb and retain water. The cold manures--of
ruminating animals and of vegetable compost--worked best in loam and
sandy soils. Rating them for their power to retain moisture, he recommended
pig manure, horse manure, salt, and soot, in that order. Not only
was soot a soil builder and a fertilizer rich in ammonia, it was also
an insecticide that could be applied to cabbages and other plants
infested with insects. A second function was to provide ammonia (hydrogen
and nitrogen) to the plant roots. In fact the value of any manure
was measured by the amount of ammonia it contained. Third, certain
manures could destroy weeds and vermin. Fourth, manures could decompose
stubborn organic substances in the soil. Fifth, both mulches and manures
they could protect plants from sudden changes in temperature, freezing
or scorching. And finally, they could improve the texture of the soil.
White then surveyed what manures were available in the South. Interestingly,
he noted that animal manures were relatively unplentiful in the South
because of the small proportion of animals relative to acres cultivated.
However, White devotes considerable discussion to the use of animal
manures. The manures of horses, hogs, oxen, and cows, in that order,
were valuable for ammonia content. Pig manure used alone was pernicious
to the growth of cabbage and turnip and gave an unpleasant taste to
many others. All these animal manures did best if fully composted.
In addition, animal urine diluted to 1/3 strength and allowed to grow
stale could be applied directly to plants at night or in moist weather,
or it could be absorbed in barns, stables, and animal pens with leaf
mould, swamp muck, or gypsum and cast as fertilizer.
Of imported animal manures, the richest in phosphates and nitrogen
was guano, the manure of tropical sea birds which fed exclusively
on fish. Dehydrated, guano cost $3 to $3.50 per hundred weight in
1856. It could be applied at a rate of two hundred weight per acre
mixed with one hundred weight of other animal manure. While Peruvian
and Bolivian guano was the best, the manure of domesticated birds--chickens,
turkeys, pigeons, etc.--was acceptable. Three to four hundred weight
of bird manure was equal to 14-18 hundred weight of animal manure
and was especially excellent to form liquid manures. One pound per
gallon of water could be applied once a week to the roots of plants,
but not directly to leaves or collars. Or, like other animal manures,
bird manures could be composted with leaf mould or swamp muck. Guano
was the most effective fertilizer to use in setting out new orchard
trees.
Besides animal manures, White's survey covers various other sources
of fertilizers. Wood ashes, for example, contained potash, phosphoric
acid, sulfuric acid, manganese, chlorine, soda, magnesia, carbonate
of lime, and soluble silica. Ashes could be applied directly to plants
or composted with swamp muck, earth, or vegetable matter. Lime was
an invaluable fertilizer. For coastal gardeners, oyster shell lime
was abundant. Inland, convenient sources of lime were rubbish from
old brick walls and old plastering. Lime absorbed nitrogen from air
to form nitrate of lime, which was then applied at a rate of one ton
per acre. If used alone, it was not to be plowed under but mixed at
the surface. To yield phosphorus, bones could be broken into small
bits with a sledge hammer, crowbar, or large wooden mortar lined at
bottom with thick iron plate then thrown in heaps to ferment for months.
But it was best to dissolve bones in sulfuric acid diluted to 1/3
strength with water. The bones would dissolve into a paste, then,
mixed with 30 times the volume of water, could be used as liquid manure
or mixed with ashes, sawdust, or charcoal and applied three bushels
per acre. Animal hair and bristles were high in nitrogen and could
be applied directly to crops. Charcoal was good to absorb carbonic
acid gas and supply it to roots as acid. Refuse salt used for bacon
contained blood and juices of meat and could be applied directly to
asparagus at 6-8 bushels per acre in autumn, though it benefited all
garden crops. Of vegetable manures, hulled and dried cotton seed was
scarcely inferior to guano. Tanbark could be applied directly to strawberries
and to Irish potatoes.
Among the more unique sources of manure in the 1850s, White rated
several other materials that were higher in nitrogen than most animal
and vegetable manures. These included dried muscular flesh (14% nitrogen),
feathers (17%), cow hair (15%), woolen rags (20%), and horn shavings
(16%).
As for composting practices, White advocated that the most valuable
agent in decomposing organic substances was a salt and lime mixture.
He instructed readers to mix three bushels of slacked lime to one
bushel of salt dissolved in as little water as possible. Once the
lime had taken up all the brine, the mixture had a number of beneficial
applications. It would destroy the odor of putrefying animal matters
and retain ammonia. It supplied plants with chlorine, lime, and soda.
It helped decompose vegetable refuse of leaf mould, turf, straw, chips,
and tanbark. And it could absorb pig urine in pig pens.
A number of vegetable materials could be composted. Leaves or pine
straw could be thrown into stable yards, moistened, sprinkled with
the lime and salt mixture, keep damp, and turned once or twice to
yield good compost. Swamp muck mixed with the lime and salt mixture
and keep moist would compost in thirty days if covered with stable
manure to make up a four-foot pile, turned and mixed. The general
rule for all composting piles was to "keep moist but never leech."
Animal manures needed to be covered to prevent rain from leeching
out nutrients.
Other animal matter could be composted as well. Offal of slaughterhouses
and even whole dead farm animals could be buried in a deep pit layered
top and bottom with muck or loam and composted in a year. Night soil
and chamber slop could composted with charcoal, black wood mould,
and gypsum.
In addition to these fertilizing practices, White advocated using
green manures, what we call winter cover crops, which included spinach
and could be turned under in the spring. Finally, crop rotation and
succession, or planting crops at staggered dates, were practices available
to the "book farmer" of the 1850s. |
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Southern
Gardens
Thornton Jordan Ph.D.
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