CHAPTER X. 



COMMERCIAL AND SPECIAL FERTILIZERS. 



TN preparing and enriching the soil, and especially in 

 subsequent cultivation, concentrated fertilizers are very 

 useful and often essential. In dealing with this subject, 

 however, I think we tread upon uncertain ground. There 

 is a great deal of apparent accuracy of figures and analyses, 

 carried carefully into decimals, but a wonderful deal of 

 vagueness, uncertainty, and contradiction in the experiences 

 and minds of cultivators. 



It is well known that many commercial fertilizers are 

 scandalously adulterated, and those who have suffered from 

 frauds are hostile to the entire class. In their strong prej- 

 udice, they will neither discriminate nor investigate. There 

 are others who associate everything having a chemical sound 

 with '' book farming," and therefore dismiss the whole sub- 

 ject with a sniff of contempt. This clique of horticulturists 

 is rapidly diminishing, however, for the fruit grower who 

 does not read is like the lawyer who tries to practise with 

 barely a knowledge of the few laws revealed by a Umited 

 experience. In contrast, there are others who read and 

 theorize too exclusively, and are inclined to assert that con- 

 centrated fertilizers supersede all others. They scout the 

 muck swamp, the compost heap, and even the barnyard, as 

 old-fashioned, cumbrous methods of bringing to the soil, 

 in tons of useless matter, the essentials which they can de- 

 liver in a few sacks or barrels. On paper, they are scientific 



