Food for (he event of purchasing, it be sent as "Fertilizer," and that 

 5 it be marked "For Fertilizing Purposes." It has been the 

 custom of the railroad companies to discriminate heavily 

 against Nitrate of Soda by charging prohibitory chemical 

 rates, and it is hoped by correctly designating the material the 

 discrimination will not be practised. 



Farm newspapers generally are quite willing to publish 

 wholesale quotations on all those things which the farmer 

 has to sell, and they have not, as a rule, published wholesale 

 quotations on those articles which he has to buy. Among 

 the latter, agricultural chemicals occupy a position of prime 

 importance, not only as to actual effect on farm prosperity, 

 but as to the actual amount of cash which the farmer has to 

 spend, for his produce comes out of the soil and its amount 

 and quality is determined by the character of the chemicals 

 he puts in it. Agricultural journals generally, which profess 

 to be friends of the farmer, should make a continued effort 

 in the direction of enhancing his purchasing power, by 

 endeavoring to make him more prosperous. This cannot 

 be done under old conditions of helping to make him, at the 

 outset, pay such a large bonus for agricultural chemicals under 

 one pretext or another. 



The improvement of our water-ways, so long urged by 

 us, seems at last to be in sight; and farm chemicals 

 at lower rates may ultimately be expected, even at interior 

 points. 



You should buy your plant food in the best and cheapest 

 forms, and feed it to the plants as they require it. You can 

 buy available Nitrogen in Nitrate of Soda for about 18 cents 

 per pound. In so-called "complete fertilizers," Nitrogen 

 costs from 20 to 30 cents per pound, and even then only part 

 of it is likely to be available. Nitrate of Soda is the best 

 form in which to buy Available Nitrogen. Cheapest also 

 because quickest acting. 



One would not think of buying raw, unground phos- 

 phate rock for phosphatic plant food; why, then, should one 

 ever consider seriously buying the most expensive plant food, 

 viz. : Nitrogen in the raw and indigestible forms, which many 

 manufacturers and dealers endeavor to foist on our farmers. 



// only unavailable Nitrogen is all that is required, by 

 all means plow under a cover crop, and buy only a straight 

 acid phosphate as such. 



