American Agriculturist 
FARM—DAIRY—MARKET-GARDEN— HOME 
Agriculture is the Most Healthful, Most Useful and Most Noble Employment of Man ”—Washington 
Reg. U. S. Pat. Off. Established 1842 
Volume 111 
f 
For the Week Ending March 24, 1923 
Number 12 
The Relation of Lime to Farm Prosperity 
A Story of a Professor Who Would Talk Lime But Not Sell It 
The Retailers Problem Hits Home 
The experience has given me an 
understanding of the problems and 
the economic value of the retail mer¬ 
chant which differs from the notions 
I entertained previous to engaging in 
this enterprise. I will say that I 
honestly believe Credit to be the great 
curse of rural business. I am strongly of 
the opinion that it would be best for all 
concerned if it were made impossible for 
any man to buy a load of feed or a ton of 
fertilizer on any other terms than cash on 
the spot. 
In my first season at the work I was 
considerably interested in the fertilizer 
trade, and soon discovered that my busi¬ 
ness in this line could only be increased by 
actual farm-to-farm canvassing and the se¬ 
curing of signed orders. In connection with 
this I could, if I had the ability, write a 
long and interesting book on the various 
schemes and complicated tactics employed in 
persuading the farmer to ac¬ 
tually sign his John Han¬ 
cock at the bottom of an 
order sheet. His attitude 
in regard to the matter was 
one of extreme procrastina¬ 
tion. He would “drop in 
and see me later,” or prom¬ 
ise to “come down in a few 
flays,” when he had figured 
out just what he wanted. 
Promises Mean Nothing 
Very early in the game I 
learned to discount these 
promises heavily, because 
a matter of fact if I went 
away without closing a deal 
I would not, in 90 cases out 
of a 100, ever hear from my 
triend again in regard to 
the subject. This was not 
because the average farm- 
A Salesman of a Different School 
Easier Than by Hand, and More Uniform 
lime I’d have an order for you. Lime is what 
we need.” This statement blocked my path 
again and again, and being of an accomodat¬ 
ing and adaptive turn of mind I resolved that 
if they wanted lime, lime I would sell them. 
Accordingly I began an exhaustive corre¬ 
spondence—at least it was exhaustive to me 
—with lime-producing companies, agricul¬ 
tural colleges and experiment stations, in a 
search for the true Philospher’s Stone of 
soil-sweetening. These literary efforts were 
carried on intermittently through a period of 
several years, and supplemented by personal 
observation of the effects of various kinds 
of lime on the soils of my section, and eventu¬ 
In his little lectures he removed 
the subject entirely from the plane 
of commercialism, and elevated it to 
that of soil improvement and farm 
prosperity. He rode with me from 
early morning to late evening for 
three days, and in that time I took 
orders for better than twenty car¬ 
loads of lime for subsequent delivery. 
Professor Jones, as we will call him, 
did the talking, and when he had finished I 
was right on hand with the order book. I 
will attempt to give a conversation between 
him and a farmer, touching upon the most- 
discussed points of the lime question: 
“Good morning,” I used to say. “This is 
Professor Jones, who works for the so- and- 
so lime company.” 
“What kind of lime are you selling?” 
asked the farmer. 
“Not any kind,” replied the professor. 
“I am merely explaining its value. How¬ 
ever if you wish to purchase some, Mr. 
Conway will, I believe, take your order for 
whatever you wish. Have you used any?” 
“Yes, I put half a ton on 
two acres of seeding last 
year. It didn’t show much 
results.” 
“Lime is Not Fertilizer” 
“Many farmers,” said the 
professor, “make the mis¬ 
take of thinking that lime 
is a fertilizer, and should be 
used in amounts approxi¬ 
mating those of a fertilizer 
application. -It is a soil ele¬ 
ment, and where deficient 
should be returned to the 
^oil at the rate of one to 
two tons per acre, in the 
ground limestone or ca - 
bonate form, or quantilies 
of equal lime value in the 
burnt or oxide form. On 
lands as badly soured dow?^ 
(Continued on purje :^60) 
Lime Did It 
By J. C. CONWAY 
er’s word was of little value. It was simply 
a part of an interesting and entirely legiti¬ 
mate game, entitled “getting rid of an agent.” 
There was one agent-routing argument 
that I found especially hard to get around. 
“No, I don’t want any phosphate,” said the 
farmer, “but if you would come along selling 
ally I came to consider myself something of 
an expert. When I sold out in 1919, I had 
built up a trade a^veraging better than 100 
carloads per year, shipped into my own and 
three or four nearby stations, and consist¬ 
ing almost exclusively of ground limestone. 
I think it was in the second season of my 
canvassing that a lime company with which 
I had corresponded, sent to my assistance an 
expert agronomist. This old gentle¬ 
man was, as a matter of fact, an ag¬ 
ricultural college professor whom 
they had engaged during his sum¬ 
mer vacation to talk lime to the 
farmers. The old agronomist was 
not much of a salesman; in fact I 
think he had stipulated with the com¬ 
pany that his mission was to be only 
that of an educator, but he certainly 
was the ablest assistant I ever trav¬ 
eled with. 
I N the spring of 1911, I was able, by an 
unusual stroke of luck, to sell my farm, 
located in a hilly township of Northeast¬ 
ern Pennsylvania. Moving to the vil¬ 
lage I bought the stock and good will of a 
dealer in fertilizers and general farm sup¬ 
plies, and entered on what I had previously 
supposed to be the unobstructed career of a 
prohteering middleman. The stock on hand 
at the time of my purchase of the 
business was not of any great ac¬ 
count, consisting mainly of a few 
shop-worn farm tools and perhaps 
five tons of commercial fertilizers of 
various mixtures and conditions of 
bag-rot and ossification. I soon 
found, also, that the good will of the 
trade was not to be seriously de¬ 
pended on, and although in the 
course of the eight years that fol¬ 
lowed I made a moderate success, 
it was done at the cost of as stub¬ 
born a struggle as was ever carried 
on with a mortgage-encumbered farm. 
