Chemically Mixed 

 Fertilizers 



vs. 



"Dry Mixed" and "Home Mixed" 



Many people have the idea that the mixing of fertilizers is 

 a simple process ; that a laborer with a shovel and a screen can 

 do it ; and so he can. But should we be satisfied with that sort 

 of goods? The actual putting of the ingredients together is but 

 the last step in a long process. Before they are mixed, the 

 materials must be assembled, all of them ground and screened, 

 and most of them should be chemically treated; many of them, 

 also, should be thoroughly rendered of their grease, for grease 

 is bad in a fertilizer for two reasons: it furnishes no plant food, 

 and it causes the goods to be sticky, undrillable, and oftentimes 

 to burn. 



All these steps require a complicated chemical plant for this 



Chemical preliminary work without which no "home mixing" or **dry 



Blending mixing" would be possible. A cook can take flour, butter, 



sugar and eggs, and make cake, but somebody has had to make 



in advance the flour, sugar and butter; and the baking process 



must follow the mixing process. 



The chemical process of mixing fertilizers is one in which 

 practically all of the materials except the chemical salts are sub- 

 jected to chemical treatment in large revolving mixers, the con- 

 tents of v/hich are discharged into dens holding from 100 to 400 

 tons, and there allowed to mingle and compost in the presence 

 of a high degree of heat, which has been generated by the splitting 

 up and recombination of the chemical elements in the materials 

 used. 



In this complex chemical process, the insoluble phosphate 



of lime in bone or mineral phosphates is rendered water-soluble 



What and available, and at the same time the organic materials, such 



It Does as tankage, fish, etc., will have been converted, a part into 



chemical nitrogen, and the remainder into an available form. 



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