228 



FERTILIZERS FOR THE GARDEN. 



Ceive an advance price for his superior product, and 

 when he does not he will continue to grow the ones 

 that give the most quarts per acre, regardless o£ size or 

 quality. The commission men are always on the look- 

 out for the man who has the largest berry fields or 

 orchards, and to keep his trade, in western vernacular, 

 they will " stand in with him/' In order to do this, they 

 usually manage to sell his inferior product at the same 

 price as they do some one of his neighbor's choice, 

 well-graded stock. That this is a fact, hundreds are 

 ready to prove. 



As to the packing of fruit, especially peaches, com- 

 mission men and buyers have done more to break up 

 honest packing on this peninsula than any one else and 

 have only themselves to blame for it. They positively 

 refused to buy peaches through the exchange last sum- 

 mer, because they claimed that a grower had no right to 

 put a price on his fruit himself and should accept just 

 what the buyer offered. As the result, some growers, 

 seeing their peaches were not dumped, packed in any 

 way so that the big fruit was on top, and the buyer got 

 the benefit of it. "When peaches were sold through the 

 exchange a sworn inspector dumped enough baskets to 



FERTILIZERS FOR 



"soil tests" SOURCE OF PL.VNT FOOD IN MAN 



it )|ERE IT not so aggravating it would 



vL- isS^ I amusing to hear some of our 

 j experiment station directors and 

 ^^^^^^1 I professors and editors and " insti- 

 Sv| I tute workers " talk about the ne- 



cessity of "soil tests." Those of 

 us who have waited patiently and labored earnestly 

 for the establishment of experiment stations, now 

 that we have at length got what we wanted, are 

 looking to have some of the doubtful points cleared 

 up by actual experiments. Instead of that, some 

 of the directors coolly tell us to make the experi- 

 ments ourselves, and that if we need any directions 

 for carrying them out they will cheerfully furnish 

 them. How kind ! 



These " soil tests" that we hear so much about 

 are merely an excuse for neglecting to make the 

 desired experiments at the stations. The idea seems 

 to be that soils differ so much that it is necessary 

 to make experiments or tests on every farm or in 

 every field or garden. This is essentially a miscon- 

 ception. At any rate, it is no excuse for neglecting 

 to make experiments on different crops with differ- 

 ent fertilizers on the different experiment stations. 



If a gardener has some good, carefully saved and 

 well-rotted stable manure, he does not need to make 

 "soil tests" to find out whether his land needs it. 

 What he wants to know is what crop will be most 



show the buyer that the fruit was honestly packed, 

 and he saw just what he was buying. Now he takes 

 them at haphazard. As a result, Wyoming, so long 

 celebrated for its finely-packed fruit, furnishes as much 

 inferior stock as can be found anywhere. As further 

 evidence that the grower is not fairly dealt with by the 

 commission man, a paper read before the New Jersey 

 Horticultural Society will show. The writer, Mr. W. 

 H. Goldsmith, heartly condemns the practice of selling 

 " different producers' goods in lump lots, and the pilfer- 

 ing allowed in the stores, in consequence of which the 

 value of many fruit packages is reduced one-half." 



Your correspondent says "shippers show the utmost 

 indifference to the whole matter." I cannot agree with 

 him. Some growers are indifferent, but as a whole our 

 best fruit-growers always inform the commission man 

 by telegram what he may expect and follow his advice 

 to the letter. Suffice it to say that if the commission 

 man will only return to the grower just what his pro- 

 duct sells for, the grower will gladly and promptly unite 

 with him in correcting such abuses as poor varieties and 

 bad packing. C. W. 



Sussex Co. . Del. 



THE GARDEN— VI. 



IRES BIG CROPS COST OF CHEMICAL MANURES. 



benefited by it and bring in the most profit from its 

 use. Furthermore, he would like to know if some 

 particular crop does not need a more liberal supply 

 of this or that ingredient of manure than other crops. 

 If, for instance, soluble phosphoric acid is not 

 specially favorable for the growth of turnips, let- 

 tuce, radishes, etc., or if nitrogen, as shown by the 

 experiments of Professors Voorhees and Bailey, is 

 not highly favorable for the growth of tomatoes. 

 We did not know this fact a year ago. And it can- 

 not be doubted that well planned and carefully con- 

 ducted experiments will furnish much needed infor- 

 mation in regard to the wants of many horticultural 

 plants. 



At the present time, we do not even know whether 

 carbonaceous matter is, or is not, necessary for suc- 

 cess in gardening. 



So far as wheat and barley are concerned, the 

 experiments of Lawes and Gilbert demonstrate that 

 carbonaceous matter is not needed. In other words, 

 if we take say 30 tons of stable manure and set fire 

 to it, and were able to retain the nitrogen, the ni- 

 trogen and the ashes would produce just as good 

 crops as the 30 tons of manure. This is a rather 

 loose statement, and may be open to criticism, but 

 it is essentially true ; we have not time now to allude 

 to the needed qualifications. The general fact that 

 carbonaceous matter is not needed for wheat and 



