36 TRUCK-FARMING AT THE SOUTH. 



values are not exact. The result of their use depends 

 upon too many contingencies. These trade values are 

 based upon the value of the ingredients in a fertilizer 

 of assured merit. 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



Appreciating the great importance to Southern agricul- 

 turists, that they should make no indiscriminate and 

 wasteful use of commercial fertilizers, nor be swindled 

 by the knavery of dishonest manipulators, I enumerate 

 below the conclusions, as advice, of one better able to 

 tender it than myself. 



Prof. Atwater, of the Connecticut Experimental Station, 

 reaches the following conclusions with respect to the use 

 of artificial fertilizers: 



First. Soils vary widely in their capacities for supply- 

 ing crops with food, and consequently in their demand 

 for fertilizers. 



Second. Some soils will give good returns for manur- 

 ing; others, without previous amendment, by draining, 

 irrigation, tillage, or use of lime, marl, etc., will not. 



Third. Farmers cannot afford to use commercial fertil- 

 izers at random, and it is time they understood the reason 

 why. 



Fourth. The right materials in the right places, bring 

 large profits. Artificial fertilizers, rightly used, must 

 prove among the most potent means for the restoration 

 of our agriculture. 



Fifth. The only way to find what a soil wants, is to 

 study it by careful observation and experiments. 



Sixth. Success in farming, as in other business, re- 

 quires the use of brains. 



The controversy between the advocates of home-made 

 manure and of artificial fertilizers may be reduced to the 

 following rules: 



