1902.] BUSINESS METHODS IN" BUYING FERTILIZERS. I47 



AFTERNOON SESSION, 2 p. m. 



Convention called to order at 2 p. m., Vice-President 

 Seeley in the chair. 



The President. You will notice on our program this 

 afternoon that we are to have an address entitled " Business 

 Methods in Buying Fertilizers," by one of our own scientists, 

 in whom we all have the highest confidence. I am very 

 happy to introduce to you Dr. E. H. Jenkins. 



BUSINESS METHODS IN BUYING FERTILIZERS. 

 By Dr. E. H. Jenkin's, 



Director of the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station. 



Business methods are the results of educated and alert 

 common sense applied to business. They are the ways in 

 which successful business of any kind is managed. 



It is common to think or speak of farming as something 

 quite distinct from business. We often hear expressions like 

 this : " One son stayed on the farm, the other went into bus- 

 iness " ; as if the two things were quite distinct. Now, staying 

 on the farm is one thing, but successful farming at the present 

 day is a wholly different thing, and farming is business. 

 Farming is just as real a business as making cotton cloth or 

 selling steel. The underlying principles are alike, the general 

 methods are alike, the causes of success or failure are the 

 same, whether we produce and sell peaches or armor plate. 



The same things which take most attention in any factory 

 business are exactly the things needed for successful farming : 

 Knowledge of what the market wants, and when it wants it ; 

 running machinery, or other productive forces, at fullest ca- 

 pacity whenever it can be done at any profit ; fixing exactly 

 the cost of production ; buying stock at the lowest rates, by 

 paying cash when possible, by taking advantage of any com- 

 petition, and by buying in as large quantity as is practicable ; 

 use of all waste or by-products, and selling products where 

 there is most demand and least supply. 



