No. 4.] COMMERCIAL PLANT FOOD. 57 



however fertile it may be at the beginning, and maintain 

 it in a satisfactory condition without aid from outside 

 sources. The use of commercial phint food involves less 

 difficulties, at least to the sluggish. The farmer simply 

 takes a tri}) with his farm cart to the nearest village some 

 pleasant spring morning, carrying with him in many in- 

 stances a promise to pay for the goods when the crop is 

 harvested, and returning with the plant food he might have 

 saved, possibly. This very convenience and ease of obtain- 

 ing the raw materials for crop production has, I am sure, 

 caused a larger sale of commercial fertilizers than would 

 have otherwise been the case. We believe it is a propo- 

 sition that is true and somewhat generally applical)le to 

 the older sections of the country, that, because farmers 

 have been able so easily to supplement their su[)ply of 

 plant food by the purchase of commercial fertilizers, there 

 has been a tendency to ignore home resources ; and conse- 

 quently the methods of practice which are calculated to 

 save and increase the home supply of plant food have not 

 developed, as would have been the case had stern necessity 

 required. 



This is an explanation of the rapid increase of the sale of 

 commercial fertilizers from the farmer's side. The manu- 

 facturer is, however, partly responsible for it, and naturally 

 so. He has been for very ol)vious reasons a persistent, ex- 

 tensive and in some respects an unscrupulous advertiser. 

 He has sent agents, who as a rule have been shrewd advo- 

 cates, into every hamlet of New England ; and nearly every 

 prominent former of our best agricultural regions has 1)een 

 made the subject of a personal appeal to at least make an 

 experimental trial of some brand of fertilizer. The printing 

 press has been freely used, and through our agricultural 

 papers and by means of special pamphlets and advertising 

 placards the farmer has not only actually been helped in his 

 understanding of plant nutrition, but has been informed of 

 the extraordinary results that come from using commercial 

 fertilizers, has been told of the way in which they have en- 

 larged his neighbors' profits, and has been shown that his 

 only salvation was to be found in their use. No soap or 

 baking-powder manufacturer has been more active or ingen- 



