192 
American Agriculturist, March 3,1923 
High Analysis Fertilizers Give Most Value For Money 
And the Same Principle Applies to Seed Purchasers 
M arked progress has recently been 
made in the development of mixed 
fertilizers of high analysis. For a 
great many years mixed fertilizers of 
extremely low analysis, such as 1-8-1, 
2-8-2 and other formulas even lower 
have been offered for sale and their 
sale pushed vigorously by various fer¬ 
tilizer manufacturers. This was due in 
a large measure to a desire on the part 
of the farmer to limit his fertilizer 
expenditures as much as possible. Now, 
however, betfause of the activities of 
the departments of agronomy at the 
various agricultural colleges and de¬ 
termined efforts on the part of some of 
the more progressive organizations sell¬ 
ing fertilizers, the practice of selling 
these low grade analyses has stopped 
to a certain degree. 
Cooperatives Back High Analysis 
A striking illustration of this devel¬ 
opment is the stand which has been 
by one of the large state-wide 
farmers’ cooperative organizations 
which has refused to sell to the farmers 
of the states in which it operates any 
mixed goods formula containing less 
than a total of 16 units of plant food. 
This presents a two-fold advantage. 
First—A considerable saving is ef¬ 
fected in the freight because with a 
high analysis, more plant food is pres¬ 
ent in every ton of fertilizer, and 
freight is paid on plant food carrying 
material rather than useless material 
having no plant food value. 
Second—Because of the concentration 
of the high analysis formula the appli¬ 
cation per acre need not be so heavy. 
For instance, if a farmer has been 
accustomed to using a 2-8-2 making an 
application of 300 pounds to the acre, 
he can now use a 3-12-3, which is in 
exactly the same proportion, and apply 
only 200 pounds per acre, securing 
exactly the same amount of plant food 
per acre that would be applied in the 
300 pounds of 2-8-2. Thus it is possible 
to eliminate the low grade mixture and ^ 
save money by using two-thirds of the ' 
higher formula. 
Fillers Reduced 
Hand in hand with “high analysis” 
fertilizers are to be found “no filler” 
fertilizers. Here again, similar extrav¬ 
agant practices have developed. The 
farmer has used mixed fertilizers con¬ 
taining a considerable amount of “filler” 
or “make weight” which has no plant 
food value. It has been necessary to 
pay ' freight on, this useless material 
from which no benefit could be derived. 
With the advent of the high analysis 
fertilizer, it has been possible to make 
nearly every formula without filler, 
thus making it possible for the buyer 
to purchase a ton of fertilizer and know 
that he is getting plant food carrying 
material in every pound of that ton. 
It is necessary this year for the 
farmer to be more conservative than 
ever in making his fertilizer invest¬ 
ment. He must get full value-for money 
invested. One of the surest ways to 
accomplish this is to insist on “high 
analysis,” “no filler” fertilizers.—W. L. 
Gay. 
CHEAP SEEDS VERY COSTLY 
Poor seed is responsible for a lot of losses 
and a lot of discouragement. There is little 
point in working a whole season to produce a 
crop only to have it result in failure because 
it did not get a good start. It ought to go 
without saying that cheap seed is dear at any 
price, and yet there are many farmers who 
annually save a few cents on their seed pur¬ 
chases and lose many dollars because of the 
unwise saving. Nothing that we have read in 
some time brings out this fact more clearly 
than a letter which we recently received from 
a large wholesaler in farm seeds. Because this 
writer is so absolutely right and the subject is 
so important we are publishing the letter for 
your benefit, hoping that it will make some 
difference i the quality of seed which farmers 
purchase for the coming season. The letter 
follows.— The ’Editors. 
From information gathered by our 
salesmen together with letters coming 
into the office combined with conversa¬ 
tions I have personally had, it seems 
that the very large bulk of seed oats 
which are offered, are recleaned stock 
picked up of grain dealers. The retail 
trade generally are willing to pay only 
about eight to twelve cents per bushel 
more for seed oats than for feeding oats. 
With many there seems to be a 
practice at this time of the year to get 
in a car of 34 to 38 pound oats which 
would be better than they usually 
bought and sell from this car for seed 
purposes, charging in many instances a 
dollar a bushel. Some of the parties 
doing this, run the oats over a cleaner 
before they put them out for seed. What 
they have left from the car they sell 
out for feeding purposes at no loss, 
while, on that sold for seed, approxi¬ 
mately 40 cents per bushel will be made. 
The Prices Go Up 
Other dealers buy of parties who 
make a business of picking up good 
cars of No. 2 oats, and reclean them, 
charging possibly from 10 to 15 cents 
per bushel over cost to them. Some of 
the dealers who are making a practice 
of recleaning these oats pay possibly 5 
cents per bushel over the market tor 
the ordinary run of oats, this being 
paid to assure offerings of attractive 
cars of oats when they come into the 
market. 
After the farmer has put in the ex¬ 
pense of preparing his soil and the 
expense of fertilizer, if he uses it, and 
after having the investment in his land 
and the crop to harvest, how can this be 
an economic proposition for him ? 
There are available pedigreed seed 
oats and pedigreed seed barley which 
have been introduced by different ex¬ 
periment stations and colleges after 
considerable expense and trouble. At' 
least the farmer purchasing these, 
knows what he is getting and can de¬ 
termine in a series of years whether 
the variety is adaptable for his loca¬ 
tion. In purchasing pedigreed seed he 
can know what happened to Ws crop.if 
he has a failure and will not be work¬ 
ing in the dark. 
Why Pedigreed Seed Goes Slow 
In approaching dealers relative to 
handling pedigreed seed, we find that 
in many cases they give as a reason 
that they have to extend credit for 
the seed, that they wish to have the 
least money possible invested in credits. 
Others state that farmers will not pay 
the difference and that any seed left 
on their hands, they cannot get their 
money back out of it. 
If farmers would order their seed 
early and insist on pedigreed seed there 
is no doubt but what the dealers*would 
stock pedigreed seed and I believe that 
we need the dealers in marketing seeds. 
At the present, however, the Plant 
Breeding Department of the N. Y. State 
College of Agriculture at Ithaca are 
issuing lists of recommended oats and 
barley, stating where they can be ob¬ 
tained. 
Needs More Publicity 
I feel that you can do the farmer a 
great service by putting in your paper 
at this time a strong article relative to 
pedigreed oats and barley as well as 
possibly certified seed potatoes. I do 
not doubt that it is ignorance on the 
part of the average dealer that he is 
offering to his clients the seed which he 
now is offering and there will be many 
cars of this seed distributed in New 
York State this year. Anything which 
you can do to change the demand and 
stop the flow into the east of the quality 
of seed oats and seed barley which are 
now being offered will be a great ser¬ 
vice to the farmers. 
Just this morning I had a phone from 
a party who stated that he had an in¬ 
quiry for Black Mill oats to sell for 
seed. As you doubtless know these are 
nothing but wild oats from the west.— 
M. C. Rumsey. 
■I 
I The BEST is the CHEAPEST! | 
s This Always ]Vas and Always Will Be True = 
I USE THE MAPES i 
j FAMOUS FERTILIZERS I 
M The Standard for Half a Century g 
I BASIS—BONE AND GUANO | 
s Availability Without Acidity g 
1 Choicest and Most Varied Forms of Plant Food § 
S We are pleased to announce that during the Fall and early Winter we have received two cargoes ^ 
= of the highest grade Peruvian Guano, and that ample stocks are assured for a long time to come. ^ 
M Send for Price List and Descriptive Circular S 
I THE MAPES FORMULA & PERUVIAN GUANO CO. | 
= Hartford Branch: 239 State Street, Hartford, Conn. 143 Liberty Street, New York City, N. Y. s 
■i 
