Newport daily independent., 1902-05-23
FARMER AND PLANTER.
THE FERTILIZER LAWS.
The Farmer At the Mercy of the Manufacturers and Compelled to
 Pay Tribute to Him.

We desire to call attention to the situation as shown in Col Peek's communication in recent issue. The Georgia law, as interpreted By the attorney general, forbiGs any one selling fertilizers to farmers in bulk. This simply means that farmer can only buy fertilizers in sacks from manufacturers But the manufac- turers can buy in bulk. That means that the consumer can not buy with out paying the manufacturer for sacking, mixing, inspection and han ding.
 It places the farmer at the mercy of the manufacturer, and complies him to pay tribute to him.
 This is an iniquitous law. It pre- vents the farmer from buying the material in bulk and doing his own mixing. It compels him to pay sev- eral dollars extra for each ton of fer tilizers he uses. The farmers of Geor- gia use about 100000 tons annually. On 6his they pay at least four dollars per ton more than it would cost them if they bought the material and mixed for themselves. This is $1 ,600,- 900 each year that the farmers are forced to pay the manufacturers.
 This is an outrageous and enor- nous tax. Farmers, can you afford to submit to it? Will you submit to 1t?
 Rather than do so, you had better not use fertilizers at all.
 The law has been upon the statute books for many years, but was con strued to mean that the farmer could buy the material for his own use if he did not wish to sell again. Under that construction they were permit ted to buy and mix.
 But now the Virginia and Carolina Chemical Go. having secured control of the Carolina phosphate, refuses to sell to the farmers in bulk, and force them to buy their manufactured goods at higher prices.
 They claim that the law will not permit them to sell to the farmer. The attorney general sustains their claim.
 So the poor farmer, who uses all the fertilizers, finds himself at the mercy of this one company. Tied hand and foot, he must tamely sub init to be robbed.
 There is no secret value in ma chine-mixed fertilizers. Experience shows that any farmer can mix his own to better advantage with a shovel and hoe. It is not the mix ing, sacking. .tor tagging that gives value lse. fssaertilizers. That value de- pends entirely up the quantity and quality of soluble plant food which they contain.
 The farmer can get the same bene- fit from their use without mixing them at all. He can put in his cot ton-seed meal and get the same re- suits. The mixing only saves time and labor in distribution.
 We say the time has come when farmers must either buy the material and do their own mixing or use less fertilizers. They can not stand the enormous cost they have been paying. It now requires about four hun dred pounds of these ready-mixed goods to make good crop where two hundred pounds used to be enough.
 It is time for a rebellion or a strike or a boycot. We are opposed in prin- ciple to all of these, but sometimes nothing else will do.
 Demand of your several legisla- lures to change the law so as to give you a chance to purchase the raw material in open market at the same terms as any one else.
 If man is a manufacturer he can buyat a cheap price; if he is a farmer he must buy at a higher price.
 This we call class legislation of the rankest kind. This is protecting the wrong party. A great trust or cor poration, the Virginia & Carolina q Chemical Co.,, for instance, can buy pt the original market and the low est price, but the farmer can not.
 Any little factory that will set up a grinder and brand the sacks, can buy at the lowest figures, but the farmer can not.
 Better do away with the whole business of state inspection than protect the farmer in any such way The Virginia & Carolina Chemical Co is now entire master of the whole situation.-So Southern Cultivator.
 SAVING OF FARM MANURES.