RAIWTS ^ 
Until 
You Get This 
MoneySaving 
Book 
PjERFECTlO'' 
120 
When Buying Acid Phosphate 
T he statement is often made, “Acid 
Phosphate is all alike; anyway, it is 
only 16 per cent.” Now, 16 per cent 
acid phosphate is not all the same. 
There may be as much difference be¬ 
tween two makes of 16 per cent acid 
phosphate as between black and white. 
Some acid phosphate will contain a max¬ 
imum of 10 per cent moisture, or no 
more than 200 pounds to a ton, whereas 
some of it will contain from 300 to 350 
pounds of moisture. One product may 
be thoroughly cured, doubled, milled and 
screened, well seasoned; the other, a 
product that is shipped out as soon as 
it is made, screened but once, gummy 
and sticky, undrillable, and saturated 
with free phosphoric acid, which will 
cause it to rot and to eat the bags. 
The grade of phosphate rock from 
which acid phosphate is made will 
largely determine the quality of the 
ultimate product. If an excess of iron 
and alumina is present in the phosphate 
rock, it will tend to make the acid phos¬ 
phate gummy and sticky, which de¬ 
stroys the drilling qualities of the 
goods. 
Policy of Penny Wise, Pound Foolish 
If a fertilizer does not drill easily 
and uniformly, it is the most wasteful 
material that the farmer can handle. 
He will lose valuable time with it dur¬ 
ing the planting season, when time is 
his greatest asset. He will be unable to 
distribute it equally over each foot of 
surface and consequently gets nine- 
tenths of a crop instead of ten-tenths. 
He may have saved $1 per ton in the 
purchase price. If he used one-tenth 
of a ton, or 200 pounds to the acre in 
his application, it means that in the 
first cost he has saved 10 cents per 
acre. For the sake of this 10 cents he 
has sacrificed several hours of his val¬ 
uable time and fertilized nine hills of 
corn where he should have fertilized ten. 
Going further into the manufacture 
of acid phosphate, a cheaper grade may 
be manufactured by using in the process 
what is commonly known as “sludge 
acid,” or sulphuric acid, which has been 
first used in refining petroleum. As a 
result, the acid phosphate may be 
gummy and sticky, and otherwise unde¬ 
sirable. It is not a safe investment if 
the price should be $2 per ton lower 
than that of acid phosphate made with 
“clear” or unused sulphuric acid. 
What Constitutes Good Material 
This brings us to the point of what 
constitutes the best acid phosphate ob¬ 
tainable. The answer is obvious. To 
be sure that he is obtaining the best 
Don't 
a 
0 / 
FENCING 
I mean every word of it — I want you 
to see the EXTRA low prices I am mak¬ 
ing this season—I want you to get my 
new Bargain Book before you buy Fencing, 
Gates, Roofing or Paint. I want you to see how 
much Jim Brown’s Freight Prepaid, Factory Prices will save you. It 
will cost you only 2c to mail the coupon — Fll send you my big 104-page 
book by return mail—it will save you many dollars. I don’t believe such wonderful bar¬ 
gains as I am making this season in My New Bargain Book, have ever before been offered. 
750,000 Farmers Buy From Jim Brown 
For years I’ve been saving my customers big money. I’ve been giving them bigger, better'values 
than they -could get elsewhere. That’s why over 750,000 farmers continue to send their orders to Jim Brown whenever 
they need Fencing, Gates, Roofing or Paints. Read what a few of them say. I get thousands of letters just like these. 
Saved Nearly Half 
"Received my order of fence and roofing and 
am more than pleased. You have sure acted 
fair and square with me. It is the best fence 
and roofing I ever saw. I saved nearly half on 
my order." C. L. RAMBO. 
Steubenville, Ohio 
Saved $14*40 
"Your paint is much better than I expected, in 
fact, I don’t believe it can be beat; I didn’t ex¬ 
pect to get such good paint for so little money. 
I saved S14.40 on 10 gallons by buying from 
you.” S. A. ELWELL, 
Punta Gorda, Fla. 
Saved 30cts a Rod 
"I received my fencing all O. K. I find I saved 
about 30c on a rod by buying my fence 
from you and besides yours is 
much better fence.” 
HARRY COFFEEN. 
Champaign, Ill. 
Now just a word about quality. Low prices don’t mean anything unless the quality is right. That’s the point 
I want to emphasize. I believe I make and furnish my customers with the best quality Farm Fence, Farm 
Gates—Lawn Fence—Steel Posts—Paints and Roofing that it is possible to produce. My fence is made 
from Basic Open Hearth Steel — Double Galvanized. My Wear Best Paints can’t be beat and my 
Asphalt Roofing lasts for years and years. Not only do I give better quality at lower prices but— 
I Also Pay the Freight 
That’s another big saving—my low rock-bottom prices are all you pay—I pay the 
freight charges to your railroad station. I ship direct from my three big fac¬ 
tories at Cleveland, Ohio, Adrian, Mich., Memphis, Tenn.,—also from Ware¬ 
houses at Kansas City, Mo., and Davenport, Iowa. Everything you buy 
The 
Brown 
Fence 
& Wire Co. 
Dept. 3017 
Cleveland, Ohio 
Send yonr New bargain Book 
Showing Low Factory Prices on 
Fencing, Gates. Hoofing and Paints 
Name. 
from Jim Brown is backed by Jim Brown’s Iron Clad Guarantee- 
you take absolutely no risk. Send for my Big New Bargain 
Book Now—see for yourself what a nice bunch of money 
you can save by buying from 
Jim Brown, President 
The Brown Fence 
and Wire Co. 
Dept. 3017 
Cleveland, Ohio ^ 
p. o. 
R.F. D.State. 
American Agriculturist, February 10, 
quality of acid phosphate, the farmer 
should insist upon acid phosphate made 
only from phosphate rock containing a 
minimum of the oxides of iron, and 
alumina and “clear” sulphuric acid, or 
sulphuric acid which has not been used 
previously. He should insist upon the 
goods being thoroughly cured, milled 
and screened, free from an excess of 
free phosphoric acid, and containing 
a maximum of not over 10 per cent 
moisture. 
I might emphasize the point of “mill¬ 
ing and screening.” In their anxiety 
to meet competition, manufacturers of 
acid phosphate sometimes ship goods 
directly from the original pile made 
when the goods were taken out of the 
acidulating dens. Acid Phosphate in 
the first curing process after it is re¬ 
moved from the dens has a tendency to 
harden and Itecome lumpy. It is pos¬ 
sible to eliminate this by milling and 
screening the material before shipment 
is made and after the goods have been 
thoroughly cured and seasoned. The 
farmer, of course, is the loser when he 
buys Acid Phosphate that has not been 
milled and screened because he runs 
great danger of delays at planting time 
and of an uneven distribution of fer¬ 
tilizer over his land.—W. L. Gay. 
BUILDING UP THE PASTURES 
H. H. LYON, CHEMUNG COUNTY, N. Y. 
Pasture improvement is being made 
something of in New York, although 
but few farmers seem to be actually 
trying it out. Occasionally a man 
makes the attempt, and in all cases 
that I know where thoroughness is fol¬ 
lowed there/has been satisfactory return. 
Improving pastures is not a creap proc¬ 
ess. It may not be worth while where 
land can be purchased at low values 
that is convenient to use and is produc¬ 
tive. In other cases it pays to improve 
pastures. I have never regretted any 
such improvement that I have attempt¬ 
ed. This season I know of only one at¬ 
tempt in this line in my vicinity. It is 
a five-acre piece and was plowed last 
fall. It is much easier to improve a 
piece that can be plowed, than one too 
steep or stony or rough for plowing. 
In this case the work was a pretty 
thorough job. Cultivation was well 
done and thirteen tons of lime were 
used on five acres. In seeding with 
oats, about 300 pounds of fertilizer 
were used. It seemed to me that a little 
more fertilizer mig'ht have been an ad¬ 
vantage, but the oats crop was splendid 
and the seeding was excellent. Sweet 
clover WHS added to the regular pas¬ 
ture mixture, and it showed up in fine 
shapo this last summor. Tho growth 
was almost too good for the oats crop, 
although if the oats had been used for 
hay it would have been all right. Even 
if allowed to ripen there would be no 
particular difficulty. It looks as though 
that five acres of pasture would be 
something of real value another sea¬ 
son. Let it get a good start in the 
spring and not graze too closely, and 
it will furnish an enormous amount of 
feed next summer. 
SOWING SWEET CLOVER AND 
VETCH 
tut? waeu 13 me Desi 
D-fiiir? vviatei’ vetch in wheat both foi 
Si’eeu manure? Also let me know 
aomething about sowing sweet clover?—S W 
A iNtjw I ork. 
Sweet clover is most satisfactorily 
sown in fall wheat or rye at any time 
from January to March. In general 
practice, two pounds per acre will suf- 
fice. Sowing with a spring grain such 
as barley or oats is less satisfactory, as 
the ground is too loose. Furthermore, 
the hard sweet clover seeds are not so 
quickly acted upon by the action of the 
frost when sown with a spring grain. 
For that reason the stand is often poor, 
and therefore heavier applications of 
seed are recommended when planted 
with these spring grains. 
Vetch, on the other hand, gives most 
satisfactory results when sown in the 
late summer or early fall, particularly 
from July 15 to September 15. If vetch 
is sown after a later date it will make 
very little growth. Although the small 
plants will live over the winter, never¬ 
theless the cover crop will be so weak 
that it will be of little value. In fact, 
experienced growers find that to get the 
most satisfactory results they must get 
their seedlings in early. When sown 
alone, from thirty to sixty pounds per 
acre are required. 
k 
