224 INTRODUCTION TO GENERAL SCIENCE 



with plenty of available plant food, if the conditions of the 

 soil are not satisfactory. Ofttimes the improvement of the 

 texture of the soil would cause more productivity than the 

 addition of any commercial fertilizer. Then, also, the plant 

 requires water, air, heat, and light; and these conditions must 

 be supplied in sufficient amount, if the best results are to be 

 obtained. 



When a farmer is buying fertilizer, he should realize that 

 the cost of the labor of making poor fertilizer is just as great 

 as in preparing good fertilizer, and therefore the best is, after 

 all, the cheapest. There is no kind of fertilizer which improves 

 the soil as well as barnyard manure. Fertilizers as a rule do 

 not increase the organic matter in the soil. The manure 

 increases the amount of humus, supplies food for bacteria, 

 actually places bacteria in the soil, and contains the necessary 

 plant food. 



References : 



1. 1605 : 129-131. Complete Fertilizers. 



2. Farmers' Bulletin No. 44 : 28-33. Principles Governing Use 



of Fertilizers. 



3. Farmers' Bulletin No. 259 : 5-6. Use of Commercial Fer- 



tilizers. 

 a. 1606 : 98-100. Commercial Fertilizers. 



161. HOME-MIXED FERTILIZERS 



The great advantage of mixing fertilizers at home is that 

 the farmer knows what is in the fertilizer, and avoids all 

 danger of fraud. There is another advantage which comes 

 through cooperation, for, if he combines with his neighbors, 

 he may procure the material in very large quantities, obtain 

 carload freight rates, and produce a fertilizer with home labor 

 very much more cheaply than the cheapest and poorest 



