MIXING FERTILIZERS ON THE FARM 87 



mix the goods, and at a cost that will not be felt at all. According to the 

 organ of the fertilizer makers the cost of mixing and putting their goods on 

 the market is about $6 per ton, and the same paper figures up this cost by 

 adding up drummers' salaries, postage, telegrams, travelling expenses and 

 a lot of other items, none of which the farmer mixing his own goods would 

 have to pay, but which are really paid by the manufacturers and those who 

 buy from them ready mixed goods. So the fact is that the farmer can not 

 only get the materials at retail for less than they are charged for them in 

 the ready mixed articles, but he can also mix them far cheaper than the 

 factories can. The same bulletin to which we have referred above, says in 

 regard to the guarantees and claims of the fertilizer makers: "Guarantees 

 are often designedly confusing and convey wrong impressions. Nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid and potash are what make fertilizers agriculturally and 

 commercially valuable. They are often expressed, however, in guarantees 

 as ammonia, bone-phosphate of lime and sulphate of potash. This is done 

 to make a semblance of giving large percentages of plant-food. Thus ni- 

 trogen equivalent to ammonia 2.50 per cent, promises really only 2.06 per 

 cent, of nitrogen; available phosphoric acid equivalent to bone-phosphate of 

 lime 21.80 per cent, promises but 10 per cent, available; and potash (sul- 

 phate) 3.70 per cent, but 2 per cent, of potash." Buyers should remember 

 these facts, and ignore in the guarantee everything except the lower figures 

 for nitrogen, (not ammonia or nitrogen equivalent to ammonia), available 

 phosphoric acid and potash (not sulphate of potash, or potash sulphate, or 

 potash equivalent to or equal to sulphate). The law in the State of North 

 Carolina, which in most respects is the best in the country and the most 

 rigidly enforced, allows no sliding scale of percentages on the bags, but re- 

 quires that the sack shall have printed on it the actual percentage of nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid and potash. Only this and nothing more. If all the 

 States would pass a similar law there would soon be an end to the long so- 

 called analyses printed on the bags, simply for the purpose of befogging the 

 farmer into the belief that the sack contains a great deal more than it does. 



We have at hand from a correspondent a sample of a commercial fer- 

 tilizer, on which is printed the following: 



GUARANTEED ANALYSIS. 



Ammonia 2.10 to 2.50 per cent. 



Total phosphoric acid 8.50 to 9.50 per cent. 



Available phosphoric acid 7.40 to 8.40 per cent. 



Potash (actual) 2.15 to 2.65 per cent. 



Equivalent to potash sulphate 4.10 to 5.25 per cent. 



Magnesia, organic matter, etc 60 to 70 per cent. 



