1884.] QUESTIONS. 233 



phosphates most economically supplied to the soil by using 

 pure ground, raw bone ? Is it not economy for farmers to 

 buy the ingredients and mix their own fertilizers ? 



Mr. Cables. Last winter we bought a piece of land about 

 two miles and a half from home. It had been kept in grass 

 for twenty years, perhaps, the grass mowed and sold, and, in 

 the fall, the land pastured. When we bought it, it grew only 

 weeds and low moss, and looked as though it was very 

 sterile. The question with me was, " Can I buy barn-yard 

 manure and fertilize this land ? As it is now, it is no use to 

 me or any one else." I made up my mind that, as it was on 

 the top of a high hill, it was no use for me to entertain the 

 idea of carting barn-yard manure there, and to get posted in 

 regard to what I should use, I bought "Harris on Fertilizers," 

 and read up during the winter. He gave me an index to buy 

 fertilizers by, and it has worked very satisfactorily this sum- 

 mer. The index was this : Buy the fertilizer you can buy the 

 cheapest. He says : " Figure nitrogen at 17i cents a pound ; 

 figure phosphoric acid at 12^ cents ; figure potash at four 

 cents. Send to the different dealers in fertilizers and get 

 their guaranteed analyses, and upon that basis figure them 

 up, and if you can get them at these figures (that is, if the 

 fertilizer does not figure above that, or perhaps five dollars 

 more a ton), you can safely buy it; but you can buy the 

 chemicals and put the fertilizers together yourself cheaper 

 than you can afford to pay more than five dollars profit for 

 putting it together." He says, " I have the impression that 

 you can buy Peruvian guano more economically than any 

 other fertilizer, and know from personal use, that Peruvian 

 guano is more easily assimilated by plants than any other fer- 

 tilizer." He started me on that idea, and I wrote to the 

 Mapes Formula and Peruvian Guano Company of New York, 

 and asised them to send me their circular giving the guaran- 

 teed analysis of all their fertilizers, and of Peruvian guano. 

 They sent me a circular and also a letter. In the letter they 

 gave me an analysis of Peruvian guano, but said, " We do 

 not guarantee this analysis." But as I understood it was an 



