CHAPTER XVIII. 
HOME-MIXING OF COTTON FERTILIZERS : SAVING THE 
manufacturer's PROFIT 
Home-mixing of fertilizers deserves much more 
attention than it receives. The fact that standard 
brands may cost from five to fifteen dollars a ton 
more than the commercial value of the several in- 
gredients of plant food; the fact that fertilizing 
materials are standard articles of trade and may be 
purchased as such; and the fact that the many manu- 
factured brands are only composed of materials 
such as the farmer may purchase himself, all suggest 
the wisdom of farm-mixing rather than factory- 
mixing. 
The claim has been constantly advanced, but 
principally by agents of factory-mixed goods, that 
home-mixing is not advisable and that the work 
here cannot be done properly. This claim is 
altogether untrue, so far as the principle of home- 
mixing goes. That some fertilizing materials have 
been mixed hastily and poorly on some farms, 
we have no doubt: but so has plowing on some 
farms been poorly done; so have seeds been im- 
properly selected; and so has culture of the grow- 
ing crop often been neglected, or the wrong prin- 
ciples followed. But shall we abandon tillage and 
seed selection because someone else is thoughtless 
or because he fails ? Rather, if the principle is cor- 
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