CHAPTER XV. 



A FEW REMARKS ABOUT FERTILIZERS. 



Brand and Trade Names. — There are too many farmers who 

 purchase feitihzers on the brand or trade name and not on the 

 plant food these fertihzers contain. The manufacturers are well 

 acquainted with the importance of selling their fertilizers under 

 attractive names. Some of the manufacturers even go so far as 

 to have their brand names copyrighted to prevent their com- 

 petitors from using them. Some of the older brand or trade 

 names are well known by all the farmers in the locality vvhere 

 they have been sold from year to year and many of these farmers 

 purchase Dixie Cotton Fertilizer, Great Western Wheat Fertili- 

 zer, Home Mixture, Standard Special Tobacco Manure, Cele- 

 brated Potato Fertilizer, Royal Corn Special, etc., from year 

 to year without ever knowing their plant food content. The 

 name sounds good to these farmers, the fertilizer has a good 

 strong odor, the right color, and with some farmers the proper 

 taste. These are brand and ton farmers and not plant food 

 farmers. These farmers will tell you that their fathers used 

 these same fertilizers. 



To show that the name is no indication of the composition and 

 suitableness of a fertilizer for a crop, the following data is sub- 

 mitted. In the state of Massachusetts for the year 1909, 

 out of 66 brands sold as potato fertilizers, 46 contained potato 

 as the only crop name, and 20 were sold in conjunction with other 

 crop names as potato, hop, and tobacco ; potato and root crop ; 

 potato and tobacco ; potato and vegetable ; corn and potato ; 

 potatoes, roots and vegetables ; onion and vegetables. Twelve com- 

 panies put out 2 brands, 5 put out 3 brands, and 3 put out 4 brands. 

 The nitrogen guaranteed varied from 0.80 to 3.71 per cent., the 

 available phosphoric acid from 4 to 9 per cent., and the potash 

 from 2 to 10 per cent. All of these potato fertilizers could not 

 have been the best for the farmer to purchase. The manu- 

 facturers evidently cater to the trade and some of them put out 

 2 to 4 brands so as to be able to sell one of them to the farmer, 



