IDEAL FERTILIZERS 37 



Chapter VII 

 Home Mixing 



We were speaking of the grower considering the matter 

 of mixing his own fertilizer. Personally, I place home 

 mixing of fertilizers on the same level as making one's 

 own furniture, tools, clothes, sugar, soap, etc. In the 

 twenty-one years I lived on the farm here in Florida 

 there was no "home mixing" or "special mixtures" used 

 or even straight- chemicals with the exception of a little 

 nitrate of soda. I always did believe in taking all I 

 could get for nothing. When I can get the experience 

 of many people for many years and all the excellence 

 of expert work for no addition on cost of material, I 

 take it. 



Aside from the trouble that may come from improper 

 combinations and proportions, chemical analyses show 

 that even though home mixing be done according to the 

 best directions, the results are far from uniform; that 

 labor with the equipment of the farm cannot compete 

 with the efficiency of a modern factory. H. C. Moore of 

 Atlanta, Ga., has given this subject an extensive study. 

 His compilation of analyses from crude mixing facili- 

 ties is most interesting. For instance, four different 

 samples of a should-be 0-2-3 formula run from 8.18 to 

 15.35 per cent, available phosphoric acid, from .56 to 

 2.81) per cent, ammonia, and from .43 to 3.27 per cent, of 



