460 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



A Member: Do you use any fertilizer? 



MR. MARTIN: We are going to out out the fertilizer. We have 

 gradually increased to IDUO pounds of 4-8-12 per cent, home mixed 

 fertilizer that costs |32.00 per ton ; but we are lowering it down now 

 to SCO pounds per acre on potato ground. We expect the time is 

 coming, aud we feel sure the time will soon come when we can cut 

 it out entirely, when we go from clover to alfalfa complete. That is 

 it will require twelve years to complete this cycle, 1907-1918, from 

 twenty-five per cent, alfalfa to one hundred per cent, alfalfa. 



In traveling around New York State 1 come across various brands 

 of fertilizer, and up in the northern part of the State I came across 

 this advertisement. 1 will just read it: "Analysis, ammonia, 13 per 

 cent. ; potash, 36 per cent. ; phosphoric acid, 33 per cent." I figured 

 that out. The ammonia would be worth |39.00; potash, |32.40 and 

 the phosphoric acid |29.70 a ton, total for the ton, |101.10, and that 

 fertilizer was offered for |10.00 a ton. Now, that is one illustration 

 of the fertilizer situation. When a person practices home mixing he 

 informs himself; he gradually becomes enlightened on the subject, and 

 he hardly is aware of it at the time, but he gets enthusiastic in study- 

 ing and figuring it out. I remember my wife used to say to me: "What 

 in the world do you stay up nights for, figuring so on the desk here 

 covering that paper with figures," and so on. And I told her I was 

 figuring out fertilizer analysis and forgot myself. A person will get 

 interested in the problems and soon arrives at a f)oint where no 

 fertilizer agent can fool him. It is not difficult to mix fertilizers. 

 It costs about fifty cents a ton to mix, and a man can mix it as good 

 as any fertilizer company can if you take the pains, the saving will 

 range anywhere from |2.00 to |8.00 a ton and you get better goods 

 and know what you have, avoiding paying freight on a lot of stuff 

 from New York that is of no value to you. For instance, if you 

 wanted potash on your place it would be cheaper to buy it in the 

 form of muriate or sulphate of potash rather than in the form of 

 kainit and similar goods on which you would be paying freight on 

 a lot of useless stuff and getting only a small per cent, of actual 

 plant food. Here is another one that I came across in the State of 

 New York: "Guaranteed analysis, 8 phosphoric acid, 4 potash, and 

 sold for $15.00 a ton. That fertilizer was worth to the farmer 

 $11.80. In that ton were 491 pounds of filler. We don't need a filler. 

 We can put that in at home. What I would recommend for potatoes 

 would be, say, 1500 pounds rock phosphate, 14 per cent, and 500 

 pounds muriate of potash ; and this would make up an analysis of 

 10^ phosphoric acid and 12^ potash, and would cost somewhere about 

 $20.00. An application of 500 lbs. to 800 lbs. to the acre is a good 

 one. As I said before, I would not invest in fertilizer until I had 

 worked out the other problems first. By all means test out the 

 fertilizer and use it intelligently. 



Now, we grow just that one variety, Sir Walter Raleigh. We 

 plant a seed plat each year and select the very best potatoes and 

 soil for it, usually containing tAvo to three acres. The seed for 

 the seed plot is treated with formaldehyde to destroy the scab 

 germs. The number of bushels run from 50 to 75 of ideal shaped 

 potatoes that are carefully selected. They are planted by themselves 

 in the potato field. There are several advantages in that. You can 

 give better attention and spray and fertilize better. About the middle 



