nature or value of the "so-called" complete fertilizers. £™^ or 

 More than that, the Nitrogen is not only costly but _ 

 calls for greater farming skill in its use, lest the yields 2 3S 

 and quality of the produce be unfavorably affected. 

 The Activity as well as the Availability of Nitrogen in 

 materials like leather scrap, hair or peat is but one- 

 fifth to one-tenth as much as that in Nitrate of Soda, 

 and we can therefore realize the necessity of complete 

 knowledge as to the agricultural use of Nitrogen. 



It is conceded by all authorities that more accurate 

 knowledge in this direction may be secured by the prac- 

 tice of HOME-MIXING, that is, by the purchase of 

 the straight fertilizers and their mixing at home on the 

 farm in amounts and proportions best suited for any 

 particular soil and crop. 



Advantages of Home Mixing. 



The practice of home-mixing has its friends as well 

 as its opponents, but when all the arguments pro and 

 con are summed up the decision must be entirely in its 

 favor. The advantages claimed for home-mixing are : — 



1 . Better adaptation to soil and crop. Soils vary in 

 their chemical composition, and in their previous 

 history, as to cropping and fertilization. One soil 

 may be deficient in available Nitrogen, another de- 

 ficient in available phosphoric acid. In one in- 

 stance a heavy application of manure, a crop of 

 crimson clover, or alfalfa stubble may have been 

 plowed under; and in a second instance a thin 

 timothy sod. Evidently a crop of corn would not 

 find the same amounts and proportions of food in 

 these cases, and it is therefore idle to assume that 

 a so-called corn fertilizer, whatever its composition, 

 would prove as efficient in the one case as in the 

 other. 



Again, it is common knowledge that some 

 crops are particularly grateful for applications of 

 Nitrogen, while others are responsive to applica- 

 tions of phosphoric acid or of potash. Yet even 



