The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-01-23
HOME MIXING OF FERTILIZERS


The Progressive Farmer for two or
sbree years past, in season and out of
season, has been preaching the value
of home mixing of fertilizers. This
method, which would save to the farm.
ers of North Carolina many Thousand
dollars annually, is steadily growing IN
popularity and the increased prices de
manded by the fertilizer trust will
doubtless make home mixing even
more popular. The following article
from an exchange gives the results o.
tests of home mixing at all the leading
experiment'stations OF the country and,
while long, is not too long, the import
ance of the subject being considered:
In the battle for the interests Of the
farmers the Practical Farmer is being
ably seconded by the agricultural ex-
pertinent stations every where. In no
station in the country has the fight for
nome home mixing received more
hearty support than in the OHIO Sta
Gioo. from which we have just received
the second bulletin on this subject
This is e most exhaustive treatise on
the whole matter, and goes at length
into the elementary information SO
badly needed by farmers in general as
to the exact nature Of the materials
used in the manufacture of fertilizers
and the methods used in the mixing
In this bulletin Prof. Thorne says that
il certain portions Of this bulletin
seem to some readers to be exce ssively
elementary in character, the excuse
must be that the extensive correspond
ence, following g the publication of bulle
5in SO. has shown that many farmers
hare not found the directions in that
bulletin sufficiently explicit for their
needs " THIS is just what we have all
touud who have had @ general cOrre-
spor derc9 with farmers on this sub.
Jet, and the matter cannot be made
100 elementary until farmers every.
where get o full understanding Of the
relative Importance Of the several
forms OF plant food used and the mat
ters in which each Of them are found
in commerce. Farmers who have
reached middle life now have hardly
any Cf them had the instruction in
their gchool boy days that is common
now in the elementary instruction in
scientific matters, and things that
81 EN- TO scientific men the simplest
thiv 81 are often pl zzles to men Of fair
general education. The stations we're
esta olished for the dissemination of in
formation among the farmers as the
results Of their Investigations, ard to
make these results plain it is necessary
TO reduce them to the language Of the
paople. In the experiments made at
the Ohio Station, four brands Of manu-
I tac3ured fertilizers were used, and
each was duplicated by home made
mixture of similar composition. When
these were used on corn and each was
compared with the un'eFtili8 d plats,
in every instance the home mixed
goods gave better result than the fac
tory mixtures of the same ar nalysis On
wheat the average increase from the
factory mixed goods waa 9 "a bushels,
and the average increase from the
home mixed goods was II S. bushels.
The otjct was to make a complete
duplicate by actual a. alysis of the fac
tory made goods, and not to make a
superior fertilizer, assuming that each
was derived from equally good sources.
Tankage, or the refuse scraps from the
houses, is largely used by