124 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grade. When filler is used yon mnst pay for the mixing, the freight and 

 profit upon something that is not going to do yon any good. 



Mr. Bassett — Is the intent that we bny ingredients and mix them our- 

 selves? 



Prof. Patten — That is what I would do. 



Mr. Bassett — That is what you would have us do. 



Mr. Patten — If you can get fertilizer manufacturers to tell you what 

 is in the fertilizer and the materials prove to be of high grade and what 

 your soil demands then their use is legitimate and all right. But when 

 some of the manufacturers as we know are mixing in this low grade ma- 

 terial, I think a man should not use them and I do not want to recom- 

 mend them. Our own figures — we have been buying co-operative ferti- 

 lizer — we have prices on ingredients and I figure that the 2-8-10 combina- 

 tion — to get that in a form of standard fertilizer, the best price is |2S.50 

 carload lots, or $29.75 in less than carload lots delivered. You can buy 

 muriate of potash, acid phosphate, and nitrate of soda and in order to 

 make it up two per cent you must have 40 of nitrogen. Nitrate of 

 soda contains 16 per cent nitrogen, strong, so you must use 25 pounds 

 of nitrate of soda, which at |50.00 figures |(i.25. For eight per cent 

 phosphoric acid, you want IGO pounds phosphoric acid. Then in order 

 to get 160 poimds phosphoric acid you must buy of 15 per cent acid 

 phosphate 037 pounds wliich at |14.00 figures |6.56. For 10 per cent 

 potash you require 200 pounds potash so you would need to use 400 

 pounds which at |45 per ton figures |9.00. This makes a total of |21.81 

 or what it would cost to mix this fertilizer at home out of the best 

 materials. 



Mr. Bassett — Does it make any ditference as to the grade of materials? 



Prof. Patten — You must use all high grade materials to get this re- 

 sult. The nitrogen in organic materials cost more than in nitrate of 

 soda, but if you will keep your soil well supplied with nitrogen by 

 cover crops I do not think the fruit grower, the apple grower at any 

 rate, need to spend much money on nitrogen. You can in this way keep 

 your soil well enough supplied with niti-ogen for fruit growing — with 

 the exception, perhaps, of small fruits; but I believe in orchards, peach 

 orchards, that you can keep the soil well enough supplied with nitrogen 

 by using leguminous cover crops. 



This morning while I was lying in bed Prof. Eustace handed me a 

 book which Mr. Smith gave him yesterday to read, the title of which is 

 "How to Grow a Hundred Bushels of Corn to the Acre." This book 

 takes up the very point I have been trying to tell jou about and elabor- 

 ates on it more fully. I believe that is one of the best little books I 

 have seen in a long while. It emphasizes these very points; the neces- 

 sity of turning under green manure, the necessity of thorough, constant 

 tillage, drainage and all these factors. The editor is William C. Smith 

 of Delphi, Ind., and it is published by the Smith Publishing Company 

 of Delphi. 



A Member — How do you consider a practical way of putting on ni- 

 trate of soda — if it is in lumps? 



Prof. Patten — The only thing you can do then is to break it up. 



A Member — Will it not loosen up in the sack when you roll it about? 



Prof. Patten — Usually it will pulverize up in pretty good condition. 



