90 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



were giving the different elements of a ration at different times; as for 

 instance, when we apply superphosphate and muriate of potash to wheat in 

 the fall and follow with nitrate of soda in the spring. This point, of the 

 essential difference between those operations which are legitimately called 

 manufacturing and those which are simply mixing, should be clearly under- 

 stood. When the farmer learns that he can mix his own fertilizers and 

 thereby materially reduce their cost, the use of fertilizing materials will be 

 largely increased, and the final outcome will be a benefit and not an injury 

 to the legitimate trade in fertilizers." 



This is just what the writer has been insisting upon through the agri- 

 cultural press for years, but such is the short sighted policy of the manu- 

 facturers of fertilizing materials, who are generally at the same time mixers 

 of the materials in any number of fancy brands, many of them identical 

 except in name, that they put all sorts of obstacles in the way of the farmer's 

 getting the raw materials for mixing his fertilizers at home, and constantly 

 endeavor to make the farmer think that their process of putting these ma- 

 terials together is a matter of great skill and experience, and cannot be done 

 without the use of expensive machinery. 



Machinery is used, of course, in the mixing on a large scale, as a matter 

 of economy, and to increase the profit to the mixer. 



Bulletin No. 173 of the New York (Geneva) Station showed that the 

 average selling price of mixed fertilizers in that State per ton averaged 

 $6.25 more than the separate ingredients could be bought for at retail. Inas- 

 much as this was far higher than the actual cost to the large mixer, it can 

 easily be seen that the profits of mixing on a large scale must be large, and 

 that the wise farmer can easily save, even in buying in retail quantities, a 

 considerable sum. 



Bulletin No. 45 of the Maine Station says; "One of the claims which 

 fertilizer manufacturers are making for the superiority of their goods over 

 home mixed fertilizers is that the former are manufactured. This should 

 mean, if it means anything, that the goods are more evenly mixed, and 

 therefore, more uniform. In the tables given on the previous pages it will 

 be found that in some instances in which two samples of the same brand have 

 been taken and analyzed, that they differ from each other quite materially. 

 The samples were taken with a great deal of care by experienced men from a 

 large number of packages. It would not seem difficult to make home mixed 

 fertilizers which should run as uniformly as some of the brands here re- 

 ported upon. 



Bulletin No. 79 of the Kentucky Station says in regard to the selection 

 of the proper fertilizers, "Their profitable use will depend upon a knowledge 



