298 Practical Farming 



This has caused many farmers to imagine that for every 

 crop planted or sown they must have a specially devised 

 fertilizer mixture, and they have gotten the idea from what 

 many station directors have said that the only use for the 

 commercial fertiHzers is for the increase of the particular 

 crop to which they are applied, without any regard to the 

 effect on the future productiveness of the land. 



It is against this notion that I have fought unceasingly 

 for many years. This plan of using fertilizers merely to 

 get a Httle more to sell off the land through their direct 

 influence, has brought poverty to thousands of acres, and 

 has made thousands of farmers poor. 



While investigations may show what are the special 

 food needs of certain crops, they do not mean that we can 

 always profitably supply those needs direct by the appUca- 

 tion of artificial fertilizers only, nor do they show that the 

 appHcation of the needed plant food on a poor soil that is 

 deficient in humus will produce the result desired. In 

 fact, as the experiments at the Ohio Station show plainly, 

 such appHcation can never prove profitable. While on 

 the potato crop it will pay to use a complete fertiHzer in a 

 liberal manner, even there it will depend largely for its 

 results on the presence or absence of humus-making mat- 

 ter in the soil, and will have a far better effect if a clover 

 sod is turned for the potatoes. We give some of the 

 formulas advised by the experiment stations for the potato 

 crop, while those for grain crops are, we suppose, intended 

 for use where there has been no legume crop preceding. 



The following formulas have been suggested by the 

 Rhode Island Station for the home mixing of fertilizers 

 for the potato crop : 



