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Necessity Of Purchase

Categories: PURCHASING PLANT-FOOD

The necessity of buying plant-food in the form

of commercial fertilizers is a mooted question in any naturally fertile

agricultural region just so long as crop yields do not drop to a

serious extent. The natural strength of the land and the skill that

enters into the farming are important factors in determining the

profitableness of recourse to purchased plant-food. The free use of

organic matter to maintain the supply
of humus defers the time when

commercial fertilizers should be used. Good tillage frees the potential

plant-food of the soil, and delays the day of necessary purchase. The

farm so situated that it can have all its products fed upon it is

longer independent of outside help. The profitable use of

feeding-stuffs from other farms is a safe way of escaping the direct

purchase of fertilizers, although it is a transfer of fertility to the

farm as surely as the employment of fertilizers, and is not a method

that may have general adoption.






The organic sources of fertility, such as slaughter-house refuse, are

containers of plant-food as surely as is stable manure. The inorganic

sources, such as acid phosphate and muriate of potash, are containers

of plant-food as surely as is animal bone or blood. There is no line

that may be drawn to debar any substance that supplies plant-food

profitably and contains no compound harmful to the soil.



The purchase of plant-food should begin whenever profit is offered by

it, and in connection with its use there should be good tillage,

organic matter, and healthful plant conditions in every respect. The

use of a fertilizer pays best when the conditions are such that the

plants can avail themselves of it in the fullest degree. Good farming

and the heavy use of commercial fertilizers go consistently

hand-in-hand.



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