DECEPTIONS OF MANUFACTURERS. 129 



growing crop. Nay, some of them, not even 6 

 Ibs. to the 100, and are barely worth the price 

 of the bags and transportation ; the good results 

 that sometimes attend their use can only be ac- 

 counted for by a favorite expression of a leading 

 manufacturer of just such manures, well known 

 to the writers, viz : "Nature does a great deal 

 for us>" Our farmers too often give these man- 

 ures the credit for doing what is done by the 

 ingredients contained in their soil; just as the 

 patient oftentimes has far more faith in the 

 medicine than the doctor, who generally trusts 

 to nature and a strong constitution to effect a 

 cure. How much better would it be to purchase 

 the 6, 10 or 20 Ibs. of the really valuable and 

 only needed part of these dilute, milk-and-water 

 fertilizers ; and if it is desired, increase the bulk 

 at home, thus saving the cost of bags and trans- 

 portation ? 



These manufacturers are very careful to tell 

 you how much soluble phosphoric acid, and how 

 much insoluble that will become soluble in the 

 soil (they forget to say in ten to twenty years), 

 and how much potash and ammonia their article 

 contains, or more correctly speaking, should con- 

 tain ; but they are careful not to report the 

 amount of water, salt cake, and land plaster that 

 is mixed with it. Like the Pharisee, they 

 loudly proclaim their good qualities, but the 



