70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



men who have largely used the new fertilizers. I think that 

 we have much to learn. I have found, that, in the examina- 

 tion of soils, we are not guided very accurately. I think, 

 that, so far as the analysis of soils goes, we have no guidance 

 to-day which is practicable ; that is, I think that any one 

 who should undertake to fertilize his farm upon the results 

 of an analysis of the soil would perhaps be disappointed. It 

 is very easy to detect the constituents of the soil, even 

 though but a trace exists of them ; but we cannot tell the 

 condition in which they exist in the soil : therefore I think, 

 that, in regard to the application of these new fertilizers, there 

 is considerable yet to be learned. We must avail ourselves of 

 all the experience of the past, and endeavor as far as we can, 

 every year, to get new light upon this very important sub- 

 ject. I think, however, that experience has shown that com- 

 binations of these different substances — nitrogen, potash, and 

 phosphoric acid — in all cases prove to be most valuable. We 

 can modify and change them ; and sometimes we shall receive 

 satisfactory results, and sometimes we shall not. 



Dr. Wakefield. Will the doctor tell us why it is objec- 

 tionable to apply a fertilizer at that season of the year when 

 the plant is not in active growth, how it is lost from the 

 fact that the plant is not in a state to take it up and use it 

 at once, whether it is lost by evaporation, or any thing of 

 that Idnd ? 



Dr. Nichols. I intended to pretty clearly define those 

 l^oints in the pages of the address which I read. There are 

 several sources of loss. If we apply them too late, we are 

 very likely, at times, to be caught by early frost and ice. 

 If they are placed upon fields inclining towards brooks, of 

 course they slide off into the brooks. That is one reason. 

 Another is, that it is very possible for these soluble salts, 

 if in retentive soils, to be carried to a low point; that is, 

 they are sinking, and the copious rains are dissolving them, 

 and pushing them farther down. Take a fall like this : if 

 those fertilizers were applied before these enormous rainfalls 

 (they are immediately soluble, you remember), they were 

 carried down so that they are, in a measure, beyond the 

 reach of the roots of some plants. ' 



Capt. MooEE. Perhaps Dr. Sturtevant can tell you 

 something about fertilizers sinking into the earth. 



