86 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



water-soluble nitrogen. Laboratory methods seem to indicate that somewhat 

 inferior forms of nitrogen were used in certain cases, notably in some low 

 grade goods, and by some companies. The phosphoric acid was, in some 

 cases, quite largely in the insoluble or reverted forms, indicating apparently 

 either -imperfect manufacture, old goods, or more or less use of (agricultur- 

 ally) inferior forms of this article. Sulphate of potash is claimed to be 

 present in nine-tenths of the brands, but was actually found in less than 

 one-eighth of the entire number. 



The average selling price approximated $28.75, and the average valua- 

 tion $17.39. Two dollars in every five paid for fertilizers met costs of man- 

 ufacture and sale. The same amount of plant-food which cost a dollar might 

 have been bought at retail for cash at the seaboard for 56 cents in average 

 low priced goods, for 61 cts. in average medium grade brands, and for 66 cts. 

 in average high priced goods. In one-third of the entire number of brands a 

 dollar was charged for amounts of plant-food which might have been bought, 

 in the manner above stated, for 55 cents or less. Cheap fertilizers are usually 

 the most expensive to buy. Buying mixed goods on time is a far more 

 costly method of getting plant-food than is home mixing or buying on 

 special order." 



Low grade fertilizers, or complete fertilizers sold at low price, are always 

 the most costly to the farmer. Several years ago a dealer in one of our cities, 

 who was having fertilizers made for his trade by a chemical firm, sent me a 

 package of the burnt sand and iron oxide left in the manufacture of sulphuric 

 acid from iron pyrites, and wished to know if it had any fertilizing value, 

 as he found that the manufacturer was using 500 pounds of it in a ton of low 

 grade goods made for his sales. I, of course, told him that it was perfectly 

 valueless. The farmer who bought these goods was attracted by their appar- 

 ent low price, when, in fact, he was paying a high price for all the article 

 contained of value, and was then paying freight on one-fourth of the bulk 

 in an article that was of no use to him whatever. 



In some States, notably in North Carolina, the law in regard to fer- 

 tilizers is so rigid and so strictly enforced, that manufacturers are compelled 

 to fully come up to the guarantee printed on their bags, and in these States 

 the farmer is pretty sure to get what he buys, and the only objection is that 

 the prices charged are entirely too high. 



The great argument which the manufacturers of fertilizers have used 

 against home mixing has been that the farmer cannot mix the goods as well 

 as they can with their machinery, and that if he could do so, they could with 

 their machinery mix them more cheaply. The fact is that with the materials 

 at hand, the farmer can mix in any proportion fully as well as the factories 



