214 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



for making up these mixed fertilizers, shows that in the last two 

 years consumers have paid from 18 to 20 per cent more for the 

 plant food in the former than in tlie latter, or the raw materials ; 

 or, stated in another way, about $33 expended in the raw materials 

 would buy just as much and just as valuable plant food as would 

 cost $40 in superphosphates or specials. These figures represent 

 the average difference in favor of getting the raw materials directly ; 

 sometimes the superphosphate is sold at such low rates that its 

 plant food is almost as cheap as in any other form in the market ; 

 but, on the other hand, the difference is sometimes very much 

 larger in favor of the raw materials. For instance : in one case a 

 Connecticut farmer was asked to pay, and perhaps he did pa}', $45 

 for a certain quantity and quality of plant food that would have 

 cost him but about $26 in the raw material. These raw materials 

 are such as nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, dried blood, and 

 dried and ground fish-waste, an}' of which may be used for charging 

 a fertilizer with nitrogen ; plain superphosphate — that is, without 

 am* nitrogen — for supplying the soluble phosphoric acid ; and potash 

 salts for the potash. 



A Connecticut farmer tried this home mixing last 3'ear, using 

 four tons of dissolved bones, one ton of muriate of potash, and 

 one ton of sulphate of ammonia, making thus an excellent and 

 really ammoniated superphosphate ; it cost him, including mate- 

 rials, freight, and labor, $36.20 per ton ; analyzed at the Experi- 

 ment Station, it was reported to be worth, at current prices, $45, 

 which was a very much better showing than was made by any one 

 of the fifty samples of superphosphate anal3'zed at the same sta- 

 tion during the year. The consumer had at the same time the 

 great advantage of knowing just what the mixture was made of; 

 that, for example, its nitrogen was in the form of sulphate of 

 ammonia, the most costly and the most valuable form of nitro- 

 genous plant food, and not of roasted and ground leather waste, an 

 utterly worthless form of nitrogenous plant food. Other farmers 

 of that State have done likewise, and with good results also, both 

 in the analysis and in the field. 



Instead of closing with some flourish of a peroration, it will I 

 think be more in keeping with the character of my lecture if 

 I should sum up in a few words the main points which I have 

 attempted to explain or illustrate : — 



1. That if the elements needed for the food of the gardener's 

 or horticulturist's crops cannot be obtained in sufficient quantity 



