1902.] BUSINESS METHODS IN" BUYING FERTILIZERS. I49 



have commercial fertilizers, and when we have them all in 

 proper amount we are sure of a reasonable crop without any 

 other fertilizers than farm manure. Boughten fertilizers are 

 the last thing to be used, and only after all the rest has been 

 well done. They just put the razor edge on the natural fer- 

 tility of the soil, which tillage and drainage or irrigation, as 

 the case may be, have made the most of. 



They are, I think, chiefly useful in getting a full stand and 

 an early and vigorous start for crops. 



They are one source of plant food, but, after all, our main 

 reliance must generally be on tlie natural plant food in the 

 soil, to be made available by the plow and the cultivator. 



I am, as I have said, a firm believer in commercial fer- 

 tilizers, and in the profitableness of their use and in the ex- 

 tension of their use. But extravagant ideas of the necessity 

 of them and a wrong use of them may check this extension 

 of their use, as the senseless claims of some of those who first 

 used silage put off the day of its final triumph. 



But now, assuming that our land and our market are in 

 condition to warrant the use of commercial fertilizers, and 

 that we have decided about how much plant food we want to 

 buy, and of what kinds — how do we buy it ? Some of us, 

 many of us, buy it to good advantage. Others of us buy it 

 in this way : When it is about time to put in our crop, we go 

 to our neighbor, who is a local agent, and buy through him 

 of some fertilizer factory as many bags of factory mixed 

 goods as we think we need. We don't pay for it when we 

 take it; we don't give a note for it. A good many of us 

 don't even pay for it by the first of the next November, but 

 at that time we grudgingly give a note for four months with 

 interest, but usually without an indorser as security. And 

 some of us, when the note comes due, can't pay it, but have 

 it extended. 



This is not fanciful. It is a true statement of the way in 

 which a good deal of the fertilizer business is going today. 



The fertilizer manufacturer is doing two very distinct 

 kinds of business, and one of them very much against his will. 



Firstly, he is making and selling fertilizers ; that is his 

 legitimate business ; he likes it ; he is well fitted to do it ; his 

 factory and equipment and trade connections are suited to 

 that business. 



