302 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



for the benefit of the honest manufacturer as the farmer, for he has to con- 

 tend with an unfair competition. 



Recently the peddlers of secret formulas for fertilizer mixtures have 

 been very active in the South, where the farmers buy fertilizers largely, and, 

 by extravagant tales of what their fertilizers will do and the cheapness of the 

 mixtures, they have been able to sell a good many of their recipes to those 

 who think they cannot afford to take a paper, and who never think of calling 

 on their Experiment Station for tire proper formula, which they could get 

 free of charge. One of the most recent circulars issued by these humbugs 

 and sold to farmers reads as follows : 



HOME FERTILIZERS. 



Recipe price, $5.00. 



The greatest fertilizer known for the fanner. 

 Results much better from using the home fertilizer than any other made. 



Cost, $3.00 per ton. 

 Box to hold one ton four feet square. 



INGREDIENTS. 



No. 1. Stable manure one inch thick. 

 No. 2. Chemicals one gallon on layer. 

 No. 3. Lime one-eighth of an inch thick. 

 No. 4. New dirt one inch thick. 

 No. 5 Ashes one-half inch thick. 

 No. 6. Salt 60 pounds per ton. 



CHEMICALS FOR ONE TON. 



Potash, 8 pounds: nitrate of soda, 4 pounds, coperas, 4 pounds, 

 muriate of ammonia, 12 pounds; phosphate acid, 5 pounds Mix 

 with 12 gallons of warm water 



, Agent 



The name of the concocter of this mixture is not given, but at the bot- 

 tom is written "John Green, Agent, from Sullivan Co. Tenn." Now as to 

 the ingredients of the mixture. Muriate of ammonia is never used for fer- 

 tilizing purposes, for the nitrogen in it can be had far more cheaply in other 

 forms. The chemicals are to be mixed with warm water. This would make 

 the ammonia be set free by the potash, and be lost. Copperas (which the 

 ignoramus spells "coperas") is the sulphate of iron and of no use as a fertil- 

 izer. Nitrate of soda is, of course, valuable, but it, too, would be lost in the 

 mixture, and if not, the amount of it in the ton would, as one chemist has 

 said, be about equal to three dead cats per acre. Commercial potash is not 

 used as a fertilizer ingredient, since its caustic properties would set ammonia 

 free, and the lime would not only have this effect but would revert the little 



