IMPORTANCE OF KNOWLEDGE. 187 



Coinmonwcaltli that these experiments should be tried by the 

 difterent agricultural societies in the State, and I hope they 

 will be. It has been suggested that the manufacturers of fer- 

 tilizers might sell one thing for these experiments, and some- 

 thing else for general use. I would recommend that a sample 

 of every one of the lots bought be retained, which the State 

 Assayer can analyze ; and when those results are recorded in 

 each part of the Commonwealth on ditierent soils, in different 

 temperatures, and with different rainfalls, and certified to 

 (because these are always the groundwork, the foundation on 

 which you are hereafter to build), then, to prevent any mis- 

 take, in any way, go to your chemist, an impartial man, and 

 ascertain the actual component parts of these things. When 

 you know that on a certain soil, with a certain temperature, 

 with a certain rainfall, certain ingredients pi'oduce certain 

 results, then you have a foundation on which you can 

 build. 



President Clark . ]\Ir. Ward has more faith in manufac- 

 turers of commercial fertilizers than I have. He thinks the 

 fault is in the farmer's io;norance : but here we come aoain to 

 a matter of opinion. He takes one side. He thinks the 

 farmers are all wrons; and the commercial-fertilizer manufac- 

 turers are all right. A^"ell, some of us think the other way; 

 that the farmers are all right and the commercial-fertilizer 

 manufacturers all wrono;. So we come rio-ht back to the 

 point where we started. What we want is knowledge. It is 

 not Mr. Ward's opinion, or your opinion, but positive hnoicl- 

 edge, and that knowledge can be obtained as certainly as you 

 can tell the time of day by taking your watch out of your 

 pocket and looking at it. Professor S. W. Johnson, of the 

 Sheffield Scientific School at New Haven, has published a 

 book upon manures, which I think every farmer ought to have. 

 He says that when he began the business of investigating, 

 under the direction of the State Board of Agriculture of Con- 

 necticut, the composition of commercial fertilizers as sold in 

 the market, he analyzed a sample of the most celebrated, — 

 Coe's superphosphate, — and found that they were actually 

 selling a manure which seemed worth more than they asked 

 for it. At the price wdiich the chemist takes for the different 

 valuable ingredients, he was doubtful whether it could be 



