The Mena weekly star., 1922-03-02
How to Buy Fertilizer.


 To intelligently buy commercial fertilizer requires study of the ele- ments of plant food and knowledge of some of the fertilizer materials.
 It has too long been the custom of | farmers to buy a certain number Of sacks" of fertilizer without any re- gard for what these sacks contain. The state fertilizer inspection law re- quires each sack of fertilizer sold in the state to bear a tag stating the guaranteed analysis. All that is nec- essay is for the purchaser to look at the tag to see what he is getting.
 Farmer Swindles Himself.
 It is a well known fact that low grade fertilizer is far more expensive than high grade. Fertilizer compan- ies have been trying to increase the demand for high grade fertilizers but have been forced to put out large amounts of the low grade to satisfy the demand of those farmers who in sist on buying the kind which costs the least money per sack. Now to make a low grade fertilizer we take about 1900 pounds of basic fertilizer substances, pulverize them and mix together in the proportions desired. Sand, road dust or some other cheap filler is then added to make the mix ture weigh a ton. It 1t then ready for market and the farmer who buys it's pays the usual price for the high grade fertilizer constituents it con- tains plus a charge for mixing and freight on the filler which has been added.
 The farmer should know how to mix his own fertilizers for any desired formula. It may not always be prof. table to resort to home mixing but usually it is so. The writer has re- gently figured the cost of number of standard grade and high grade fertil- izers from this seasons price list and finds that in every case there IS saving of at least $10 per ton.
 Intelligent home mixing must be based on a knowledge of the three fertilizing elements. Nitrogen is the element most often needed and most expensive to buy. Nitrogen promotes a luxurious growth of foliage, leaf and stem. If your plant is under size and of yellowish color it is starving for nitrogen. Too much nitrogen re- tards maturity and flinders the set I ting of fruit. The most common bas- ! ic fertilizers furnishing nitrogen are as follows:
 l Cotton seed meal, 69o nitrogen. ! Nitrate of soda, 159o nitrogen.
 Sulphate of ammonia, 209o nitro gen.
 i Phosphorous is the second fertiliz- l ing element. 1t is essential for the i formation of fruit and seed. It is | helpful in hastening maturity and is | therefore very essential in cotton fer I tilizers. 1t is commonly deficient in our soils and is supplied thru the use of acid phosphate which contains 16@o of phosphoric acid.
 Potassium, the third of the fertil- izer clements is the most seldom need ed. It is most often deficient on sandy subsoils where it is dissolved and carried out of the soil by excess sive rains. Potassium is necessary for the assimilation of starch. When present in large quantities it assists in making the plant resistant 10 dis ease. It also makes fruit sucn as strawberries more firm. Potassium is most commonly supplied thru kainit or muriate of potash. Kainit con- tains 12159o potash and muriate of potash contains 502o potash.
 Fertilizer formulas are commonly designated by the figures which cor respond to the per cent of the differ ent fertilizer clements they contain The first figure designates the per cent of phosphoric acid, the second figure the per cent of nitrogen and the third figure the per cent of potash. Thus a 10-1.65-1 fertilizer contains 10fo of phosphoric acid, 1.65qo nitro gen and 19o potash It will be noted that an 8-4-4 fertilizer and 6-3-3 fertilizer are mixed in the same pro- portion but the former is worth just 33 e more than the latter. The most economical sources of plant food this year are nitrate of soda, acid phos- phate and muriate of potash. Cotton seed meal is unreasonably high priced considering the plant food it contains.