CONCENTRATED FERTILIZERS. 165 



when my l^rothers took one of the horses and drove in to look 



after onr interests tliere, on Sunday. On Monday, the horse 



was driven back again, and on Tuesday the disease broke out 



in our stable, and has attacked all our horses in turn. But 



these few facts prove nothing ; they only give countenance to 



one view or the other. 



Adjourned. 



THIRD DAY. 



Thursday, December 5, 1872. 



The Board met at half-past nine o'clock. 



Mr. Newton S. Hubbard, of Brimlield, was requested to 

 occupy the chair ; and, upon taking his place on the platform, 

 said : I thank you for the compliment of calling me to preside 

 over your deliberations to-day. We have been feasting for 

 the past two days on strong meat, and from the programme 

 before us to-day, which closes the exercises of this meeting of 

 the Board, it seems that we are to have yet more of the same 

 sul)stantial food. We have with us one who will speak upon 

 the manufiicture and application of fertilizers. These form 

 the ground-work of all our farm operations in New England. 

 Without these fertilizers ftirming would be entirely useless. 

 I introduce to you Mr. Andrew H. Ward, of Boston, who 

 will speak to us this morning upon that subject. 



MANURES AND FERTILIZERS. 



It is well known that in the early settlement of Massachu- 

 setts the land produced without manure much larger crops 

 than we now raise with manure, and the reason given is that 

 the crops grown have taken vital elements from the soil which 

 are needed to produce the crops, and that more of the ele- 

 ments have been abstracted than have been returned, and 

 most of the land has been decreasing in agricultural value, and 

 now we cannot compete with the West, except in such crops 

 as are low in price and bulky, on which the freights enable us 

 to retain our market for these products. 



This state of things is not confined to jMassachusetts. The 

 same system has pervaded the Union. Not many years since, 

 probably within the recollection of all here present, our best 

 wheat was produced in the Genesee Valley, New York, but 



