168 THE BUSINESS OF FARMING 



Now, the using of this peat as filler by manu- 

 facturers of commercial fertilizers is a very profit- 

 able operation for the fertilizer manufacturer. It 

 is selling this peat at from sixteen to forty dollars 

 per ton and the user applying it in the manner usu- 

 ally applied gets no value in return for its use. 

 Even assuming it has a value, would it not be more 

 economical for the farmer to buy the peat in car 

 or wagon loads and save the immense profit made 

 upon it when sold as commercial fertilizers? 



Commercial fertilizers at their best are but soil 

 or crop stimulants. Physicians use certain medi- 

 cines as stimulants or aids in curing the diseases 

 of men. But they never hope to make a perfect 

 or permanent cure with their use alone. No soil 

 can be built up, or its fertility even maintained, 

 by the use of stimulants. They may be used as 

 valuable aids, but like men, soils must be fed with 

 the food from which real soil tissue can be builded. 

 So the constant use of commercial fertilizers 

 alone makes the soil "poorer and poorer. " No 

 permanent system of agriculture can be builded 

 upon the foundation of commercial fertilizers 

 used alone. When honestly compounded, and 

 used with animal and green manuring, we do not 

 condemn their use, but some times wonder whether 

 their constituents can not be obtained for the 

 soil in other ways and at cheaper prices. 



NITEOGEN. 



Nitrogen is one of the three soil elements, the 

 most precious, the most costly, and hence, one of 

 the greatest aids to the business of farming. And 

 yet contradictory as it may seem, it can be secured 



