30 How THE FAEM PAYS. 



inches thick in the cattle or hog yard, where it can be trodden down 

 and amalgamated with the manure, the value of the manure thus 

 treated will be nearly doubled. 



In reply to questions that I receive by the hundred each season, asking 

 whether or not it is worth while to use the so-called special fertilizers 

 claimed to be suited to the wants of particular plants, such as the 

 "Potato Fertilizer," "Cabbage Fertilizer," "Strawberry Fertilizer," 

 "Rose Fertilizer," etc., I can only give this general answer, that while 

 these manures may suit the plants they are claimed to be " special " for, 

 I have no doubt that either one would suit equally well for the others, 

 or, if all were mixed together, the mixture would be found to answer 

 the purpose for each kind of crop, just as well as if kept separate and 

 applied to the crop it was named for. These hair-splitting dis- 

 tinctions are not recognized to be of any value by one practical farmer 

 or gardener in every hundred; for a little experience soon shows that 

 pure bone dust or well rotted stable manure answers for oil crops 

 alike, no matter what they are. These special fertilizers for special 

 crops are gradually increasing in number, so that some dealers now 

 offer fifty kinds, different brands being offered for plants belonging 

 to the same family. There is an ignorant assumption in this, and any 

 cultivator of ordinary intelligence cannot fail to see that the motive 

 in so doing is to strike as broad a swath as possible, so that a larger 

 number of customers may be reached. 



One of my neighbors called the other day, and informed me that 

 his lettuce crop, in his green-house, was failing, and asked me what I 

 thought of the lettuce fertilizer that was offered in a circular that con- 

 tained some fifty other "specials." An inquiry developed the fact, 

 that he had been keeping his lettuce crop at a night temperature of 

 sixty-five degrees in January, so that there was just about as much 

 chance of the special lettuce f ertilizer helping the crop, as there would 

 be of giving health to a man by feeding him beef-steak in the last 

 stages of consumption. I merely mention this incident to show 

 how, and in what manner, the sellers of these special fertilizers 

 obtain customers. 



Q. Have you had any experience, Mr. Crozier, with these so-called 

 special fertilizers to which I refer in the preceding article, and if so, 

 what opinion do you hold in regard to them ? I noticed in looking 

 at your crop of fodder corn, which you showed me yesterday, and 

 which you said was sown about five weeks ago, that the portion whereon 

 you hai used the special corn fertilizer, pure and simple, has had 

 to lower its flag to that portion of the field which was manured with 

 stable manure at a cost but little more per acre, the latter already 

 towering over a foot above that part of the field on which you used 



