A FAMILIAR CHAT 
FERTILIZERS AND OTHER THINGS. 
In preparing this little treatise on potatoes the writer is confronted 
at the outset with the thought that, as the pamphlet is to have a na- 
tional circulation, he must talk to growers in all parts of the country 
and so conform to a multitude of circumstances and have something 
interesting and profitable for each. 
It would be very misleading and harmful to lay down any definite 
method of growing potatoes, or any other crop, for that matter. 
Consequently it will perhaps be best for us to look over many meth- 
ods and ideas and see what good wetcan find in each. 
Any farmer to attain success to-day above that of the proverbial 
“ plow-jogger” must be alive, up to the times, ready to meet any 
new competition, insect enemy, or foe in disease, by a new manifes- 
tation of yankee ingenuity (which by the way is not now confined 
within the walls of old yankeedom) together with the aid of modern 
science, with a due sprinkling of good old “horse sense.” which 
most successful farmers are credited with possessing. 
Every farmer ought to be an experimenter to some extent. With 
the exception of such farms, which are fast growing scarce, as do 
not have to be manured in any way, the fertilizer problem is one of 
the most serious. With probably more than nine-tenths of all ex- 
tensive potato growers the great question is, how to fertilize with the 
least money for the greatest returns. Each farmer must answer this 
question for himself, as probably no one can do it satisfactorily for 
him. 
All sorts of conclusions will be arrived at and all perhaps correct. 
These would be a few of the results, — nitrate of soda, sulphate of 
potash, superphosphate of lime, barnyard manure, green crops plowed 
under, some one of the many special potato fertilizers, or some of 
the complete commercial fertilizers. 
The soils which would afford success with these different fertilizers 
would be vastly different in their resources and wants, and the 
different soils and fertilizers could not change places with one another 
and give any success. 
For instance, — the soil that gives a crop with nitrate of soda alone, 
lias a present supply of potash and phosphoric acid and is perhaps 
Don’t fail to examine carefully every page of this book, as 
there is money for you, in here somewhere. 
