88 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Chemicals. 



The polic}' outlined "will surely and with moderate rapidit)' allow 

 of broader and better eultui-e. The farmer, like the business man, 

 should push his business to its utmost verge of prosperit}*. Why 

 should the farmer, alone of all the industries, be content with a 

 narrow business when plainly greater possibilities lie within his 

 reach? Why? In our day three years of former existence is 

 crowded into one ; and it is not enough to know how to accomplish 

 a given result, but how to accomplish that result the quickest way 

 consistent with econom}'. While yard manures ma}' be the cheaper 

 source of manure, yet, if in addition to this source it can be shown 

 that chemicals can be used at a good profit, then they are most wel- 

 come aids to the slow methods of New England farming. With a 

 small per cent, of exceptions the most successful farming cannot be 

 carried on in N. England without chemicals. Yard manure and chem- 

 icals combined will give more and cheaper crops than either alone. 

 Chemical manures have a popular reputation among farmers of being 

 stimulants, exciting the soil to give up of its stores of nourishment, and 

 that the gi'owth made is made at the expense of the soil and not of the 

 fertilizer. Science has demonstrated that ninety- to ninety-eight per 

 cent, of the weight of a crop is drawn from the air and water. The 

 small bulk of chemicals used to grow large crops in contrast with 

 the large amounts of 3'ard manure used, has given color to the opin- 

 ion that chemicals are stimulants. Science has shown that of this 

 two to ten per cent, not gathered from the air and water, one ton of 

 yard manure contains but 31 lbs. of matter that we value, and that 

 this 31 lbs. can be supplied in 133 lbs. of chemicals. There is no 

 juggler}^ in nature. Law has no exceptions. If one wheat plant 

 can be grown in pure water with added chemicals then a million can. 

 The growth of one b}' pure chemicals in pure water proves chemicals 

 plant food. Plants have been frequently so grown and also in 

 calcined sand. What sa}' field tests? For thirty-five 3'ears a farm 

 in Germany has grown its crops by chemicals alone, and to-da}- cuts 

 more of oats and rye than a neighboring farm well treated with 3"ard 

 manure. Ville, ot I'rance, has used them for I think over thhly 

 j-ears, and holds a low opinion of yard manure. For forty years 

 the world's benefactor, Dr. Lawes, who has expended fortunes in 

 experimenting for the world's good, has used chemicals in various 

 combinations in competition with ysLvd manui'e. For twenty-seven 



