AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 23 



profits alone, as some suppose, but in the transportation of a 

 vast amount of absolutely worthless material, iu agents' com- 

 missions and in credit. 



There are two classes of farmers who claim that it does not 

 pay to buy the unmixed or incomplete materials : First, those 

 who use very small quantities; and, second, those who act as 

 selling and advertising agents. In the first case less favorable 

 terms are quoted for unmixed materials, and the expenses 

 of freight and handling are proportionately increased, thus 

 adding materially to the cost of actual fertilizing elements. In 

 the second case specific brands are bought direct from the manu- 

 facturer in large lots at low rates for cash, thus saving in freight, 

 commission and credit upon personal supplies. The majority of 

 farmers, however, especially those who make farming their sole 

 business, do not belong to either of these classes, and hence 

 these arguments lose their force, though not their influence, on 

 such farmers as are not progressive and do not study closely the 

 matter of economical buying. Still, if manufacturers would 

 treat all buyers as they do their agents and sell to them direct, 

 and farmers could be made to realize the importance of co-opera- 

 tion and of cash purchases, the trade in complete fertilizers 

 would be more satifactory to both producer and consumer. 

 Under present conditions, however, the evidence gathered by the 

 Station is manifestly in favor of the buying of unmixed materials 

 and applying direct, as needed, or mixing to suit the varied needs 

 of crop and soil." 



Among the causes which should receive emphatic mention as 

 producing the high prices for mixed fertilizers sold by agents, is 

 the credit system, and for this the farmer is himself largely 

 responsible. A cash system would make a saving of so large a 

 per cent, of the cost of fertilizers as to render it profitable for 

 farmers to hire money at sis per cent, in order to pay down for 

 their goods. Still further advantage would be secured by 

 co-operation in the buying of large quantities. 



Unmixed fertilizers such as plain superphosphates, nitrate of 

 soda and muriate of potash have been mentioned as furnishing 

 plant food more cheaply than the mixed goods, but this is not 

 necessarily the case. It so happens that the former materials are 

 the ones which can be purchased without the intervention of the 

 travelling and local agents, whose interests must be protected by 

 the manufacturer, and these are the goods to which the more 



