USE OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 223 



profits to all those who handle the fertilizer before the farmer 

 receives it. Often a ton of fertilizer has no more material in 

 it which can be used for the real plant food than, perhaps, 

 fifteen hundred pounds; the other five hundred pounds may 

 be merely dirt. This does not cheat the farmer, for the fifteen 

 hundred pounds contain all that he is buying, as is shown by 

 the analysis of the fertilizer. The loss is due to the fact that 

 the farmer must pay transportation expenses on five hundred 

 pounds of useless material. In addition to this, the average 

 farmer, instead of buying from a wholesaler, and saving un- 

 necessary profits, buys from some small retailer, who not only 

 makes a profit, but perhaps does not know much about fer- 

 tilizers. 



References : 



1. 1605:129-131. Complete Fertilizers. 



2. Farmers' Bulletin No. 44:8-11. Need of Commercial Fer- 



tilizers. 



3. Farmers' Bulletin No. 44: 11-22. Fertilizing Material. 



4. Farmers' Bulletin No. 79 : 5-7. Fraud in Fertilizers. 



5. Farmers' Bulletin No. 329 : 5-6. High-grade vs. Low-grade 



Fertilizer. 



a. 1602 : 40. Commercial Fertilizers. 



6. 1603 : 24-26. Commercial Fertilizers. 



c. 1608:128-137. Fertilizers. 



d. 1610:68-112. Artificial and Concentrated Manure and 



Fertilizers. 



e. 1611 : 143-147. Commercial and Mineral Fertilizers. 

 /. 1612 : 227-237. Buying Plant Food for the Soil. 



160. USE OF COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 



Whenever fertilizers are used, it must be remembered that 

 plants not only require plant food, but they require it under 

 particular conditions. Plants may die, even though supplied 



