Progressive Farming 
. . . by . . . 
The Practical Farmer. 
T HE use of Commercial Fertilizers has become so 
universal in all parts of the country where the 
fertility of the soil has been exhausted by long- 
continued cropping, that it is no longer a question with 
the intelligent and thrifty farmer whether he shall use any 
fertilizer, but rather what that fertilizer shall be. To be 
sure, there is now and then some skeptic, who, from an 
undefined prejudice and without practical knowledge to 
prove or disprove his notions, still clings to the old idea 
that barnyard manure is the only fertilizer that will restore 
the exhausted fertility of his land, and produce abundant 
harvests. The fertilizer skeptic is more often the retired 
merchant or professional man, who, having amassed an 
ample fortune, and wishing to retire from the harassing 
world of trade, returns to the haunts of his boyhood, seek- 
ing there that peaceful seclusion so coveted by men who 
have lived many years in the whirl of a business metrop- 
olis. If the successful merchant or lawyer would exercise 
the same sagacity in running his farm that brought him 
distinction in his business or profession, or if he would 
profit by the experience of those successfully engaged in 
the same pursuits about him, he would first ascertain what 
his prosperous neighbors are doing who pursue farming 
as a trade and not as a pastime. He would soon find 
that the thrifty farmer in our older States no longer 
pursues the expensive method of maintaining the fer- 
tility of his soil by keeping surplus stock, but purchases 
the plant food he requires, beyond the natural supply of 
barnyard manure from his own farm, in a much more con- 
centrated, efficacious , and economical form, in the shape of 
some good, reliable Commercial Fertilizer, which not only 
gives his crops a quick staid and insures early maturity , but 
also produces larger crops of superior quality and at far 
less cost than the best barnyard manure. Even with an 
abundance of manure, an application of fertilizer is indis- 
pensable to ensure these results. Average barnyard 
