174 Fertilizers 



are now termed "standard brands," which are, as a rule, 

 low-grade in the concentrated sense. This tendency 

 will come, first, because intensive practice requires a larger 

 use of all of the constituents, and second, a greater need 

 in the growth of certain crops of specific or dominant 

 elements, and thus better results are obtained from the 

 application of single constituents, or the use of special 

 formulas, than in "extensive" practice, in which the ob- 

 ject is more to supplement the soil supplies than to fully 

 provide for all the needs of the plants for food. 



The tendency toward cooperative buying on the part 

 of small farmers will increase as it has done in those coun- 

 tries in which there is a larger use of fertilizers than here, 

 though the method is already in successful operation in 

 certain sections of the country, and with very gratifying 

 results. In this method of direct purchase, the manu- 

 facturer and the consumer are brought into closer rela- 

 tions with each other. Transactions are based upon the 

 transfer of a definite number of pounds of a specific kind 

 and form of plant-food, rather than upon some myste- 

 riously remarkable qualities that are claimed, and are by 

 many supposed to be inherent in certain mixtures. 



