No. 4.] COMMERCIAL PLANT FOOD. 77 



a(lvanta<i"e that which actually reaches the Moil? Tii this 

 illustrative case, the plant food brought into use annually 

 would cost over $700. What proportion of this is wasted, 

 to be recovered by a cash purchase, if recovered at all? I 

 leave these questions with you, without further comment, 

 for it was not my purpose to discuss in detail this side of 

 the fertilizer question. 



Allow me in closing to express my pleasure at meeting 

 with a New England audience. I am not insensible to the 

 honor which this opportunity confers, and I trust that the 

 attitude of criticism which I have felt impelled to take will 

 be charitably interpreted, and that I shall be credited with 

 endeavoring to promote the interests of agriculture in this 

 Commonwealth. 



The Chairman. The subject which you have heard so 

 well and so fully presented, as shown by the fixed attention 

 of the audience, is open for discussion. 



Mr. B. P. Ware (of Marblehead). I have been much 

 gratified with the boldness, justice and truthfulness of 

 this lecture, and I consider its argument in favor of the 

 farmers buying the raw materials and mixing them them- 

 selves unanswerable. I know by experience that in that 

 way farmers may save thirty-three per cent of the cost 

 of mixed fertilizers, and may procure the proportions 

 of the different elements of plant food that they believe 

 they need, which they cannot do in buying the mixed 

 fertilizers as put upon the market. It has been said by 

 dealers that the thirty-three per cent is necessary to make 

 up the loss of bad debts, to pay the expenses of trav- 

 elling agents, etc. That may be true, but who of us 

 are under oljligation to pay that thirty-three per cent? 

 I do not feel that I am. It is my duty to myself to fer- 

 tilize and produce my crops at the least possible cost. I 

 know by my own experience that it is only necessary to 

 have a barn floor, a good reliable man and a shovel, and 

 you can mix your material for fifty cents a ton, and do it 

 well. When that address has been published, you may 

 refer to it for details with the assurance that the advice is 

 sound and may be relied upon. The speaker objects to the 



