No. 4.] COMMERCIAL PLANT FOOD. 63 



others, — all of which is undoubtedly true. They must 

 remember, however, that tliere is somethins; in names, and, 

 if their fertilizers bear those which smack of charlatanism 

 and fraud, they must not comjilain if their business gets a 

 corresponding flavor. To be sure, somewhat similar names 

 are attached to the various brands of flour ; but has not the 

 public come to declare that these difier only in the brand 

 mark, and that the barrels are all filled from the same 

 source ! I have no sympathy for or patience with such an 

 imitation of quack methods in matters which mean so much 

 to the agriculture of our country ; and I believe the manu- 

 facturers would advance their own interests, as well as 

 those of the farmers, if they would concertedly purge 

 their business of everything but appropriate and sensible 

 names. 



Again, there are many brands of fertilizers bearing 

 names which are not objectionable in themselves, but which 

 are misleading. I refer to the so-called corn fertilizers, 

 potato fertilizers, vegetable fertilizers. The fair inference 

 is, that, if a mixture is named potato fertilizer, it is spe- 

 cially adapted to potatoes, and would be less useful in 

 growing corn, but that for the latter crop a corn fertilizer 

 should be purchased. Alas for the inference ! Practice 

 has very largely lost its faith in the significance of these 

 names which imply special uses. Observing farmers now 

 freely remark that they cannot discover the specific efiect 

 which is claimed ; and why should we expect them to ? 

 While I would discard a fertilizer , containing potassium 

 chloride if I were growing tobacco, and would avoid an 

 excess of nitrogen if I were a sugar-beet grower, and in a 

 limited number of other cases would have reg-ard for cer- 

 tain facts of universal application, observation forces me to 

 the conclusion that the discovery of a mixture which every- 

 where shall be the Ijest and most economical fertilizer for a 

 certain crop is an utter impossibility. 



If the plant were the only factor to consider, then one 

 might compound a food to suit its needs ; but when the 

 largest ftictor of all in the problem is the soil, a factor which 

 experience shows to be extremely variable, how absurd is 

 the attempt to declare to the potato growers of an entire 



