Norwich bulletin., 1914-10-10

of the fact that he used to be himself /, in the business of selling fertilizers, 1t may be assumed without too harsh a straining of credulity that he buys l them mighty close. He mixes 800 pounds of basic slag, 600 pounds of nitrate of soda, 300 pounds of nitrate of potash and 200 pounds of tankage, getting something which analyzes about 8 per cent. ammounia, per cent. phoSphoric acid and 10 per cent. pot 1 ash. He uses this as top dressing
 at the rate of 500 pounds to the acre as early in April as the soil will take | it up. This, as has already been said, he reports costs him about $10 an acre. I have figured up what 600 pounds of those exact ingredients, as priced to me by cooperative buying associa- tion selling below market rates, would
 have cost me last spring at my rail- | road station. It would. have come to $11.34 instead of S10. This in ton, not carload lots. At retail the same in- gredients- would have cost nearly $15 To this, if one wants to know the real expense of the fertilizer to him, must be added the cost of hauling from the
 railroad, and the cost of mixing on the barn floor. This last varies with vary ing conditions, but in my case wou.i
 have amounted to about $2.50 a ton. Now the average farmer can't buy fertilizer with quite as much shrewd- ness, nor quite so low, whatever the quantity, as a man who was brought up in the fertilizer business and knows all it's inside tricks from years ex-
 perienee as a seller. That's where MT. Mortimer has one advantage over the rest of us. Furthermore, the average farmer can't buy his ingredients in | carload lots. Why, a single 40-ton car load of nitrate of soda would have
 cost considerably over $2,000 at last
 seasons pricesI The most of us have | got to buy in ton or even in bag lots, | and pay the big difference. :. l In other words. if every little farmer | in Worcester county should go to
 raising hay by the Mortimer method,
 the ruling price for their hay would
 at once fall by at least S4 ton. This
 would bring the apparent profit down
 to about $10 a ton. Then the average small farmer would have to pay about l S5 ton more for his ingredients thal the Mortimer cost, as given, which
 would cut the apparent profit to $5 a l ton. If, as in my case, 1t cost him | $2.50 a ton to get the stuff from the
 railroad and have it mixed, this would I again cut the apparent profit to $2.5O | c ton. Taking one year with another, l
 have found that it costs me just about l $3 @ ton to cut, dry and barn my hay. I Charging this $3 up against that extra l ton the fertilizer would bring, 1t figures
 out a net loss of 50 cents on the ton.
 And this leaves wholly out of consid-
 eration the extra cost of hauling that | extra ton, to market, loading 1t at the
 born and unloading it at delivery. & a,1 Now, I don't want to be understood
 a9 criticizing or doubling one of Mr,
 Mortimers figures. Not even as crit | icizing his method of raising hay. Not even as questioning it's perfect wisdom for him, in his exceptional circum- ] stances, and considering his manifest 1 ly exceptional business ability and un- usual business opportunities.
 Far from it.
 T I assume that MT. Mortimer knows his own business a vast deal better than I do. and conducts it with ad- mirable wisdom.
 But do not believe 1t reasonable te
 think that what one exceptional Nor.
 timer can do. seven thousand common l everyday John Farmers on seven thou
 sand little seven-by-nine tucked LII
 farms can do.
 Any one of us may well learn som, lessons of detail from his success, ,wtici shall suggest to us plans by which, il our quite different environments, W, may somwhat enlarge our own outputs That idea of earlier spring top dress ing for hay is one thing worth irwin, out a little.
 ,k If we could only, get over our mar row individuaism and cooperate il both buying and selling, we could conn , nearer to MT. Mortimer's economies il fertilizer cost. But there seems to b about as little prospect of that as 0 :. the millennium in northeastern France Most of us are too durned afrai, . somebody else might save 0 dollar t, be Willing to save couple of our owl !, with his aid.
 I've done considerable expsrimentin. r with commercial fertilizer, in a smal . l way and with small quantities such a. ? a small farmer can get money to pa, for. They are mighty useful and prof itabfe. rightly used, Thsy are might
 extfavagRpt. wrongly used.
 For garden and truck crops. on ol,
 ground, intensely cultivated. ana pro , ducing stuff selling at truck price couldn't get along without them.