F Piants ^ e cou ^ &i ye man y additional recommendations 



of home-mixing, but it will suffice to state that of 37 



280 Stations heard from, 35 advocate this practice. 



Frequently fertilizers mixed in the factories, upon 

 being analyzed, show a considerable variation and the 

 claim of "uniform mixed" is not a valid one. In order 

 to secure uniform mixture it is just as necessary to 

 observe care in the factory as on the farm. 



The claim made by fertilizer manufacturers that 

 they only enjoy a monopoly of the custom and habit of 

 being careful and painstaking in their work is not 

 justified by the facts. Frequent practical trials of 

 home mixing by farmers show variations of less than 

 two-tenths of one per cent, as between calculated and 

 actual percentages found by analysis. 



Moreover, the composition of ready-mixed fer- 

 tilizers varies with the opinion of the manufacturer. 

 For example: In New Jersey there have been over 

 fifty different fertilizers for potatoes offered as being 

 precisely the thing for the potato crop, yet varying 

 widely in their percentage composition. 



Bulletin No. 173 of the Alabama Experiment 

 Station states that Nitrate of Soda is the most effective 

 source of nitrogen for oats and that it should be applied 

 as a top dressing in March for that crop. 



When gold ore is sent to an assay office to be 

 analyzed the sender wishes to have the number of 

 ounces of gold per ton determined; in other words he 

 wants to know the percentage of gold in the ore. 



In buying a fertilizer the user ought similarly to 

 know the percentage of nitrogen (which is the gold of 

 the fertilizer) , for it is worth five times more in the open 

 market than any other constituent that the fertilizer 

 may contain. When you buy your fertilizer, therefore, 

 why not inform yourself of this very vital gold point. 



You can make as much money by careful pur- 

 chasing of supplies for your farm as you can in wise 

 marketing of what you produce. Insist on knowing 

 values and the nature and quality of the Nitrogen in 

 your goods, which is worth more than anything else in 

 the open market to you personally for use on your land. 



