having studied the subject, now know how to treat the Food for 

 land intelligently. In the United States there is a vast Plants 

 area that has not known the need of fertilizer, but in 2fil 

 the older States, the ones along the Atlantic, where the 

 land has been in cultivation 100 or more years the soil 

 has been worn out and needs reinforcing or it is prac- 

 tically valueless for crops. 



Unfortunately for the United States, a large num- 

 ber of the farmers, neither knowing the needs of their 

 lands, nor the properties that go to make the best 

 fertilizer, think any kind of fertilizer will do. They 

 buy blindly and let it go at that. As a general thing 

 they are actuated by the price. Good fertilizers are 

 costly. The cheap may do just as good, they reason. 

 Sick or worn-out land needs as careful treatment as 

 an ill or worn-out human. To cheat the land is not 

 good business, and does not bring good results. You 

 cannot fool nature. 



No fertilizer is of much account unless it contains 

 the three great essentials nitrogen, phosphoric acid 

 and potash. When all are present the fertilizer is said 

 to be complete. When they are not, the fertilizer is 

 incomplete, lacking in energy, and the result from its 

 use is not satisfactory. 



The materials that furnish nitrogen are Nitrate of 

 Soda, nitrate of lime, sulphate of ammonia, calcium 

 cyanamid, dried blood, tankage, fish scrap, cotton seed 

 meal, horn and hoof meal, hair and wool and leather 

 scrap. 



The materials that furnish phosphoric acid are 

 Thomas slag, acid phosphate, bone meal, phosphoric 

 guano, fish scrap and bone tankage. 



The materials furnishing potash are potash salts 

 and unleached wood ashes. 



A pure fertilizer law is needed as much as a pure 

 food law. The development of agriculture in the 

 United States is retarded by the use of inferior fertilizer. 



Evidently the American tendency to palm off 

 "something just as good" has been in evidence in the 

 fertilizer trade. 



At a luncheon given in Chicago on January 9, 1914, 

 by a committee of the National Fertilizer Association, 



