physical condition is
bad, increasing drouthiness.

CHAPTER XVIII

PURCHASING PLANT-FOOD

Necessity of Purchase.--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.

[Illustration: In the Lebanon Valley, Pennsylvania.]

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.

Fertilizer Control.--The dreams of the patent-medicine vender never
pictured more favoring conditions for his activity than were found by
fertilizer manufacturers and agents before state laws provided for
inspection and control. Men who wanted to do a legitimate business
welcomed protection from the unscrupulous competition that dishonest
men employed. The memory of some of the frauds perpetrated lingers, and
causes a questioning to-day that is unnecessary. All fertilizer-control
laws afford