16 



Analyses of ground bone, tankage, dissolved bone-black, and special 

 manures are also reported. With the analyses are given the cost and 

 money valuation per ton, or data from which the valuation can be easily 

 calculated. The following table of costs of valuable ingredients is culled 

 from the bulletin : 



BULLETIN NO. 98, JUNE, 1889. 



Home-mixed fertilizers (pp. 1-7). 



This bulletin contains analyses of eleven samples of home-mixed fertilizers sent to 

 the Station this year, with such facts as could be obtained regarding their cost, etc. 

 The formulas by which the fertilizers were mixed are lirst given, followed by the table 

 of analyses and valuations, with some explanations and further remarks regarding 

 them. » * * 



The average cost of materials for the fertilizers referred to in this bulletin has been 

 $33.79 per ton, delivered at the purchaser's freight station. Two dollars will fully cover 

 the cost of screening and mixing. [From §1 to $1.50 is the estimate of those who have 

 done the work.] At the highest estimate, therefore, the average cost of these home- 

 mixed fertilizers has been $35.79 per ton. The average valuation has been .1538.83 per 

 ton. In no case has the valuation been less than the cost of the chemicals mixed. 

 The valuation of ready-mixed fertilizers, on the other hand, is quite uniformly less 

 than their cost. 



The advantages claimed for home-mixing are : 



(1) Each ingredient can be separately examined by the purchaser, and if necessary 

 sent to the Experiment Station for analysis. The detection of inferior forms of 

 nitrogen or phosphoric acid is much easier and more certain in a single article than 

 in a mixture. 



(2) It is self-evident that an intelligent farmer, by home-mixing, is better able than 

 any one else can be to adapt the composition of his fertilizers to the special require- 

 ments of his land as well as of his crop, and how greatly the soil requirements vary 

 in this State, even over a small area, is strikingly sbown by the held experiments an- 

 nually reported by our farmers through the Stations. 



(3) It is claimed that the same quautity and quality of plant food costs much less 

 in home-mixtures than in ready-made mixtures, because the cash purchaser of fertil- 

 izer chemicals deals directly with the importer or manufacturer, not with the middle- 

 man or retailer, and receives quotations without reference to the jjrices asked in his 

 neighborhood by retailers of the same goods. 



There is no longer any question as to the expediency of home-mixing in many cases. 



