POTATO CULTURE. 29 



hardly resist the temptation to order a carload of the fer- 

 tilizer there was such a difference in the potatoes (in the 

 picture)! This is not told to condemn the use of all com- 

 mercial fertilizers, but rather to induce farmers to experi- 

 ment more, and know what they are about, and whether a 

 thing pays or not, and not to trust to theories and fine cir- 

 culars, or even the experience of others entirely. I have no 

 doubt that fertilizers in bags sometimes pay ; but do they 

 pay you ? that is the question. Figure and experiment 

 carefully, and see. A thousand pounds of complete potato- 

 manure, put oh an acre, would cost, in Ohio, perhaps $25.00. 

 It is a big question, whether you can not better get the same 

 amount of fertility, and in a shape that can always be de- 

 pended on, in $25.00 worth of wheat-bran and oil-meal, to be 

 fed out with your straw and corn fodder. Then you will be 

 your own manufacturer, and you will get the feed value for 

 your labor in the winter when there is not much else you can 

 do. 



I am perfectly willing to go on record for all time as 

 advising this plan; but in regard to the use of fertilizers, 

 please remember me as cautioning you to kee;* your head 

 and know certainly whether they pay you before investing in 

 them to any great extent. They certainly can not always be 

 depended on like good stable manure. I do not stand alone 

 either in this view, by any means. At the best, fertilizers 

 are expensive for the mass of farmers, who get common 

 prices. My advice to such is, to do just as 1 have done 

 arrange to save all the manure you do make, with great 

 care, and grow clover for all it is worth. I believe you can 

 thus avoid buying nitrogen, at least for a long time. In the 

 older-settled localities, mineral matter may be needed now, 

 or soon. When it is, experiment and get it in the best way 

 you can. 



Granting that fertilizers are as truly and surely plant-food 

 as good stable manure, growers near large cities, who get 

 about two prices for their products, can well aiford to us 



