64 The Bulletin. 



but we can buy these materials and mix them at home for a great deal less 

 than the difference between the actual value of the plant food and the selling 

 price of the ready-mixed goods. 



Another disadvantage in using the low-grade, ready-mixed fertilizer is the 

 expensive handling of a quantity of sand or filler in each ton. The manufac- 

 turer cannot make this low-grade goods and give us full weight without putting 

 in some sand. We do not expect them to use the low-grade materials, as 

 the cost of handling is the same per ton. For instance, it costs the same to 

 handle a ton of kainit as a ton of muriate, and the muriate is four times 

 as much potash. We will mix a ton of 8-2-2 as an example : 



1,000 lbs. of 16% acid gives 160 lbs. or 8% of 2,000 lbs. 

 533% lbs. of 7%% cotton-seed meal gives 40 lbs. ammonia or 2%. 

 80 lbs. of 50% muriate gives 40 lbs. potash, or 2%. 



1,613% 



It will be readily seen that the requirements of the law are met as the 

 number of pounds to fulfill the formula have been added, and yet, instead of 

 a ton there are only 1,613% pounds of material. The manufacturer knows 

 the trade will not be satisfied with this amount, and he also knows he cannot 

 afford to add any more material of value, so he sends and gets a carload of 

 sand, that costs practically nothing, and piles it in one corner of the mixing 

 shed and calls it filler or make-weight, being the material used to make up 

 the deficiency in weight. 



How much better would it be for us farmers if we would buy the raw 

 material and for a ton of 8-2-2 mix up the 1,613 pounds and use it on the 

 same land we would have used the ton of 8-2-2. We would thus eliminate the 

 cost of handling, mixing, bagging and freight on this amount of sand, all 

 of this cost being charged up to the farmer in the end. 



We pay from $3 to $5 a ton for mixing fertilizer, when we can do it with 

 our farm labor for not more than 50 cents per ton. We can mix the material 

 just as well as the people at the factory, and could do it usually at times 

 when we would be doing nothing — rainy days, before breakfast, etc. 



The farmers of the country are waking up to the folly of buying low-grade, 

 ready-mixed fertilizer, and each year more farmers are mixing their fertilizers 

 at home. One of the most satisfactory evidences of the economy and prac- 

 ticality of home mixing is, whenever a farmer gives it a thorough trial he 

 never goes back to the use of manipulated goods. 



If any man is determined to use ready-mixed fertilizer and cannot be induced 

 to mix his own fertilizer, I want to urge him to buy a higher grade goods 

 than 8-2-2. The elements of plant food are always more expensive in the 

 low-grade goods, and, furthermore, there is less danger of getting sand or 

 make-weight in the better grades. 



We, farmers of North Carolina, are wasting annually over a million dollars 

 by the unintelligent use of fertilizer, and it is to be hoped that we shall soon 

 wake up to the necessity of thinking for ourselves, especially along this line of 

 commercial fertilizers and their uses. 



THE HEAD OF THE HERD. 



By WM. G. CHRISM AN, State Veterinarian. 



The selecting of the head of a herd is a question which deserves much 

 more thought and consideration than the average farmer thinks when the 

 subject first presents itself; and yet it is one of the most important questions 

 with which the breeder has to deal. Why? 



