The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-23
Editor The Advertiser:

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 Through your widely circulated pa- per, I want to make plea. as farm CT, to the Legislature or Alabama for a far deaI wlln those who tiil the soli.
 As class. Aidpama mas iegisiated against us from the beginning ot the use or commercial. fertinzers up to tnis noun with a pretense to protect tne farmer. The consumers of commercIai fertilizers have been taxed millions or doliars to protect the manufacturers and dealers in putting on ana seiilnB any kind of worthless stun on the un- suspected tiliers of the soil--stun that has not fertilizing power of quality at all.
 The fertilizer laws as they now stand are as far from justice as the earth IS from the sun. Whether 1t was made so with malice aforethought to keep ] the farmers always poor, no disinter- the present law reads, fertilizers need not have an ounce Of producing value in them; 1t only requires that they have commercial value to make the con sumner pay for them whether they cause pound of cotton or an ear of corn to be produced. There is absolutely no redress for the fellow who bought it.
 Chemists say that all plants must or ammonia. to feed upon. and without either one of the three ingredients mentioned. that the plants will not thrive or bring forth fruit. They say
 
 SIS whether it Is in the soil or not, and Tn fertilizers the three are as essen tia! to the life of the plant as air food and water are to human life
 Again. our Experiment Stations say that to produce perfect plant or to secure remunerative crop, wc must have we'll or equal balanced fer tilizer. That we'll balanced fertilizer following formula:
 lQ per cent Phosphate.
 per cent ammonia
 | ] per cent potash. S
 And. for sake of argument, we will say 1t Is worth $20, per ton.
 Now, read Section and you will see that you may buy the above formula can leave out one or more of the ingre. dients and increase the other to $20 commercial value. and the purchaser has it to pay, under the Alabama law. Let me insert portion of fertilizer : "The consideration of this note Is commercial fertilizers sold me by the payee named above and furnished him payee expressly refuse to make any warranty of the same or any represen- cation as to its quality or value. leav- ing me to rely solely on fact that the \ with 1
 The balance of the note is as long as "Moses's law" and makes the signer wave all he@ has or can ever hope to
 Read the law carefully and you will see that from beginning to end it Is full of deception and misleading para
 As a rule, all 1o-a-2 guano and under contain about 800 pounds of filters.
 Ffllers.--By fllers we mean ground slate, mari, sand and numerous other things of non-producing value; which are not worth cent ear load to the farmer. In fact, they are burden to him; yet he pays for freight. sacking and inspection fees on the whole amount.
 Take the bulletins of the diff ferent States and you will find that in Alabama more low grade guanos are sold than in any other cotton State. tached to every bag Is a token that it is O. K. For the farmer? No: But for the dealers. for the law has been com- piled with. let 1t contain sand. phos- ps6er a Ras passsS the sp
 Yet that tagging which we got in 1906 cost the farmers $94.5oo. al- though there Is not 2 practical farmer commercia9 fertilizers are hardly worth theNfreight.
 Now comes the rub. Who gets this
 The Polytechnic Institute at Auburn.
 Each. of the nine District Agricul- tural Schools.
 TO Washtngtons school at Tuske- To Patterson's negro school at Montgomery,
 To Mon tsomery Fair 1906.
 To Selma Fair 1906.
 Tds che Support of the Department of AEfsHtlfture, etc. Fl
 Then ii any Is left it goes into the general fund.
 Remember all this Is tax on the farmers for the privilege of buying sand or anything sacked and called commercial fertilizers
 We are told that manufacturers are honest and honorable men. No one denies tliis assertion but the best of men make mistakes. and law makers should hedge against mistakes.
 Early last spring asked the Con- missioner of Agriculture to send an inspector to my farm at Centreville to Inspect my fertilizer material, which he did. Tn June wrote for the determination. It had not been made. I have waited until my note was due December 1, and paid and