VALUATION OF MANURES. 381 



ard of the sort can be set up. But it is believed to represent 

 more nearly than any other which has fallen within my observa- 

 tion, the actual commercia,! values of the more important con- 

 stituents of manures at the present tin^. 



It is further believed, that if buyers will enforce the law, and 

 will refuse to buy unless the contents stated, and by responsible 

 parties, too, show a fair approach to the price demanded, every- 

 thing like serious fraud, or imposition, in the sale of commercial 

 manures may be wholly banished from the State. 



Mr. Taylor. I have used these superphosphates some, and 

 have compared the different kinds. I would like to make a single 

 inquiry of Mr. Goodale. Bradley's "XL.," as it is termed, has 

 been used pretty freely in the neighborhood where I live, and I be- 

 lieve the testimony respecting it is pretty uniform : that applied to 

 corn, it produces a healthy, vigorous growth of stalk, and a wide, 

 dark-colored leaf, but seems to lose its strength just about the 

 time the ear sets. We get a great growth of stalk, but a small 

 ear, in proportion. What I want to ask is, what is the deficiency 

 which causes it to fail before the ear is formed ? 



Mr. GooDALE. Assuming that the fact stated is uniformly ob- 

 served, which may be doubted, for I have heard favorable opinions 

 expressed in regard to the earing of corn manured by Bradley's 

 phosphate, — assuming the fact to be as the gentleman has stated, 

 with this or any other manure, it may be accounted for in this 

 way : Perhaps you noticed the remark in the lecture that in my 

 opinion the function of nitrogen in manure is to supply force 

 rather than to feed. In common language, it stimulates growth. 

 If you apply a manure containing a large per centage of ammonia 

 to any grass (for corn is a grass, a large species to be sure, and 

 having a very different seed from others, but it belongs to that 

 family, and in regard to its wants there are decided points of sim- 

 ilarity,) if, I say, you apply to corn a sufficient amount of nitro- 

 genous manure, you get a very vigorous growth of stalk and leaf, 

 but unless the plant can get, at the same time, mineral constitu- 

 ents to help fill out the eaps and mature the seed, yoii will find a 

 deficiency in the ear at harvest time ; so that, if a manure pro- 

 duces the efi'ect which the gentleman says is produced by Brad- 

 ley's XL., the fact would indicate that it contained a suffibient 

 amount of ammonia, with too small a proportion of phosphate, or 

 else that the phosphate was in an insoluble condition, which would 



