No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 525 



tendency among many of our farmers is to use only potash and 

 phosphoric acid and spending- money for nitrogen, which is the most 

 expensive ingredient, and which can be obtained through k'guminous 

 phints. 



It is estimated that our farmers sustained a loss last year of a 

 million dollars in the United States in neglecting to properly care for 

 barnyard manure. Let it be suggested as a means of preventing the 

 escape of one of the most valuable elements (nitrogen), that our 

 farmers resort to hauling out barnyard manure daily and that 1^ 

 pounds per animal of land plaster be used as an absorbent to pre- 

 vent the escape of the nitrogen. Phosphoric acid is also used to 

 good advantage during the season, spreading it over the manure. 

 It is very much more to the advantage of the farmer to use land 

 plaster and thus save the escaping ammonia, than to buy commer- 

 cial fertilizers on the market. Commercial fertilizers are very 

 helpful to increase crops when judicioush^ used, but too much 

 money is unwisely spent by the farmers of our own State. We 

 spend annually in the United States over |50,000,()()() for commercial 

 fertilizers. 



Home mixing of commercial fertilizers is practiced to some extent, 

 but not as much in Pennsylvania as in New Jersey. The annual 

 saving to the farmers in New Jersey in one year by home mixing 

 of fertilizers is estimated at nearly |500,000. This is an item too 

 large to be overlooked and it would be well for the farmers of 

 Pennsylvania to experiment a little more along the line of home 

 mixed fertilizers. 



Our Department of Agriculture or Experiment Station might, 

 with advantage, co-operate with farmers along the line of home- 

 mixed fertilizers and prove thereby to be a saving to the farmers. 

 In New Jersey the truckers and farmers saved from 25 to 40 per^ 

 cent, in the purchase of commercial fertilizer plant food. Farmers 

 are beginning to more closely follow the advice of our Experiment 

 Stations relative to values of feeding stuffs and commercial fertili- 

 zers. Too much reliance ought not be placed upOn commercial fer- 

 tilizers to the extent as to neglect to use fallow crops and animal 

 manure. 



We commend the Department of Agriculture for the efficient 

 methods of having commercial fertilizers analyzed by the Experi- 

 ment Station, thus enabling the farmer to intelligently understand 

 just what the value per ton of all brands of fertilizers purchased. 

 No better money-saving act was ever passed for the benefit of the 

 farmer, than was the "Act regulating the manufacture and sale of 

 commercial fertilizers" in our State. This act is self-sustaining- 

 through the license paid by the manufacturer. However, be it said, 

 that the enforcement of the violation of the requirements of said 



