CROPS AND SOIL IMPROVEMENT 



The unmixed materials should be kept in a dry 

 place until the mixing is done. If there are any 

 coarse lumps, a wooden tamper can crush them on 

 the barn floor, and the material should be passed 

 through a sand-screen. The material of largest 

 bulk should be spread on the floor, and the other 

 materials should be put on in layers. Three 

 careful turnings with a shovel will secure good 

 mixing. Scales should be used to secure accuracy 

 in desired amounts of the materials. 



Buying Unmixed Materials. Acid phosphate, 

 animal bone, and tankage can be bought of any 

 fertilizer agent, but when one pays cash, he does 

 well to get quotations from various leading manu- 

 facturers. The names of dealers in nitrate of 

 soda can be secured from the New York agency 

 which keeps its address before the public in agri- 

 cultural papers. This is likewise true in the case 

 of the syndicate controlling all the potash. When 

 the addresses of leading distributors of all needed 

 materials have been secured, quotations should 

 be obtained on a cash basis. The best terms are 

 obtained by groups of men combining their 

 orders. 



[208] 



