14 THE RURAL LIBRARY. 



trampled down so that it does not firefang or leact out. When the 

 ground freezes so that we can drive over the strawberry bed, we load 

 the manure right into our Kemp's spreader, and it is an easy matter to 

 put it over the berries. That spreader has saved us an immense 

 amount of work. Our strawberries usually follow corn." 



Advice About Using Fertilizer. 



" How do you use fertilizer ? " 



" We have a McKenny drill with boards arranged underneath so as 

 to drop the fertilizer in bands about two feet wide where the beriy 

 rows are to be. We use both manure and fertilizer on the berries." 



" On what crops have fertilizers given you the best results .' " 



"I should say on potatoes. My soil is not good potato ground 

 naturally, yet with fertilizers I grow large crops of good quaUty. 

 With stable manure alone we cannot grow good potatoes ; they are 

 strong and rank and " smell like a cow yard " when cooked. I would 

 never use stable manure except on corn or as a mulch for fruit." 



" I noticed a Western paper advising a farmer to try 150 pounds of 

 potato manure on an acre to test it. What do you think of that ? " 



" Perfect nonsense. If they had said 1,500 pounds, there would be 

 more sense in it. I believe that 150 pounds per acre will do more harm 

 than good. The crop may be stimulated a little at first, but will not 

 be permanently helped by such a little dose. Think of a mac putting 

 one load of manure on an acre and expecting good returns from it. 

 That is what 150 pounds of fertilizer amounts to. If a man would only 

 stop a moment and think that a bag of fertilizer means no more than 

 one big load of manure, he would see how foolish it is to expect big 

 returns from a small dose of fertilizer." 



"How do you figure out the difference between fertilizer and 

 manure ? " 



" Take it with potatoes : Three tons of stable manure will supply 

 all the nitrogen needed for 100 bushels and tops. This leaves to be 

 supplied in chemicals 60 pounds of phosporic acid and 150 pounds of 

 potash. If nothing but stable manure is used, it will take 18 tons to 

 supply the necessary amount of potash for the crop : 18 tons at $2, 

 equal $36. Or three tons at $2, equal $6 ; 60 pounds of phosphoric acid 

 at 12 cents, equal $7.20 ; 150 pounds of potash at 4i cents, equal $6.75— 

 $19.95. Balance in its favor, $16.05. Not only is there a saving of 

 almost half in manures, but I know from repeated trials of chemical 

 fertilizers in growing potatoes, both in combination with stable manure 

 and alone, that there is a gain in quality and in freedom from scab and 

 rot. I have raised four successive crops of potatoes on the same 

 ground by the use of Mapes Potato Fertilizer, alone, and all were 



