256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the amount used can not be considered excessive until the most profitable 

 amount has been exceeded. 



Good fertilization and good management will do much to secure a crop 

 from the orchard every year. This means a supply of fruit to sell in off 

 years when prices are the highest and profits the largest. 



The question is sometimes asked whether fertilizers have any influence 

 on the diseases of plants. While there is no very conclusive evidence on 

 the direct effect of fertilizers in combating plant diseases there is no 

 question that a properly nourished plant is in better condition to ward off 

 the attacks of plant diseases than is a plant that is partially starved. 



Formerly it was diflScult to obtain the raw material needed to com- 

 pound such fertilizers as are mentioned above. Now the State provides 

 by law for a registration and efficient inspection of all fertilizer materials 

 used in the State, and under this law all the materials have been regis- 

 tered and can be purchased in the markets of Indiana. Purchasers should 

 refuse to receive any fertilizing material unless it bears the tag of the 

 State Chemist showing the guarantee, for this label fixes the legal guar- 

 antee of the grade of the goods, and unless it is attached to every package 

 the person, seller or buyer, in whose possession the goods are is liable to 

 rather heavy fine. Rational feeding will do as much for plants as for ani- 

 mals, and a few comparatively inexpensive experiments will convince any 

 careful farmer that he can convert an unsightly and unprofitable orchard 

 into the most paying part of his property. 



DISCUSSION. 



President Hobbs: As we have another subject to come before us this 

 session, we shall give only a few minutes to the consideration of this 

 topic, and I trust you will be very brief in your discussion of this subject. 



Mr. Rockhill: I would like to inquire if this could not be purchased 

 in the proper amounts and mixed by the farmers themselves, and thus 

 save some expense. 



Professor Huston: Of course it can be done by the farmers them- 

 selves. I see no reason why you can not mix, as well as anybody else, 

 if you take the pains to do so, this material we have been talking about 

 today. If you buy anything like this from a fertilizer house, they take 

 what they call "stock stuff" and put so much potash into it. They will 

 tell you about the marvelous and wonderful means they have of mixing 

 It, and make you think you can not mix it yourself; that the mixing 

 could not be done at home, by the way these people talk, when, as a 

 matter of fact, common stock is made up and in most cases the potash 

 is added from time to time as the orders come into the house. If you 

 know what you want and take the pains to buy it from reliable people, 



