The Work 

 of the 

 Manufac- 

 turer 



Farmers' 



Stock 



Rations 



How to 

 Secure 

 Value in 

 Fertilizers 



it from caking. Understand, these dryers do not reduce the 

 amount of the plant food guaranteed in a ton, for that is a 

 known, fixed quantity which the manufacturer must state, 

 guarantee and supply, or be liable to prosecution. These dryers 

 rarely make up bulk, for they usually contain plant food them- 

 selves, such as phosphate and carbonate of lime. Some of the 

 best known dryers are the "soft guanos" which come from the 

 islands in the southern seas. 



As manufacturers of fertilizers are expected to gather and 

 make available all sorts and conditions of materials which 

 contain plant food, in the interest of economic agriculture, they 

 cannot pick and choose, but must utilize everything; hence 

 "all things are fish which come to their net." To assemble them, 

 to prepare them, and to put them in available form and perfect 

 mechanical condition for easy distribution and quick field 

 results, is the work of the manufacturer. It is no small work, 

 and it requires well-equipped plants, comprising powerful mills 

 as well as complicated chemical apparatus. 



The prudent manufacturer endeavors so to balance his 

 materials that no dryers are necessary, for everything which 

 goes into a mixture, if it does not carry its share of nitrogen 

 or potash or phosphoric acid, is just so much additional material 

 to provide for and prepare; hence dryers are not used from 

 •choice, but only from necessity. A farmer does not feed all 

 liay or all grain from choice, but a proper proportion of each; 

 and if he is out of corn meal and shorts to mix with his gluten 

 meal, which is very concentrated, he feeds a larger amount of 

 hay. The result is practically the same, provided he supplies 

 the same required amount of digestible food. 



* 'To state what one sells and to sell what one states " should 

 be the underlying principle of all business transactions. As the 

 fertilizer industry and all the fertilizer inspection laws are now 

 based on this principle, the farmer can feel reasonably sure of 

 getting what he buys as to the quantity of plant food in a ton 

 of fertilizer. Unfortunately, official inspection, which is rigidly 

 enforced in every state, while it reveals the quantity of plant 

 food in a ton, does not and cannot, in the present state of chemi- 

 cal knowledge, reveal the quality, that is, the degree oi availability. 

 For the quality the buyer must still rely upon the integrity of 

 the firm with whom he deals. Touching this point, the remarks 



16 



