192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



an honest article. I am afraid that is so. Now, I have de- 

 clined to test anything of that kind for any fertilizer-man, I 

 don't care who he is. If I wanted to test a fertilizer I should 

 go into the market and buy some of it, and test it for my own 

 satisfaction, as I do everything else. I do not want President 

 Clark to test anything for me. I can tell what suits my land. 

 I will l)uy some of the article and test it for myself. What 

 I buy will be what they sell to the farmers generally ; but I 

 do not propose to lend my name to mislead the farmers of 

 Massachusetts. I say that any man who tests these articles 

 upon samples sent for him to try, wrongs the farming com- 

 munity. It is the leading, influential farmers of the State who 

 do that, and they are helping these men along, to-day. I 

 hope they will not do it any longer. 



I have used various fertilizers, and some of them to a profit. 

 I use Peruvian guano every year for strawberries, because I 

 know what will be the result of Peruvian guano. I have 

 found it as safe as anything I can use. I have used for the 

 last two years considerable quantities of lobster-waste, ground 

 up, that I got of jMr. Underwood. I am satisfied that I get 

 my money's worth there. That has not been adulterated so 

 far, I think. Perhaps it won't pay for adulteration ; it does 

 not cost very high. I have used that lobster-waste at the rate 

 of a thousand pounds to the acre. I sowed it on a half acre 

 of ground that was seeded down a year ago last fall, where 

 the growth was less than fifteen hundred pounds to the acre, 

 and I have cut three heavy crops of grass this year from that 

 application. Now, when I first proposed to purchase some 

 of that fertilizer, I took the analysis to a friend in Boston, 

 who is a rising chemist, — Mr. John M. IMerrick, — and asked 

 him if I should buy some of it. He told me that from that 

 analysis he did not think it worth anything ; but he was per- 

 suaded to try some of it himself, and he told me the result 

 was wonderful, and greatly surprised him. Says he, "It only 

 shows that we chemists do not know much about agriculture, 

 after all." That is what I have been thinkinc: for a good 

 while. After all, I would rather test a thing myself. If it 

 does well, I will use it ; if it does not do well, I won't. I do 

 not believe any chemist can analyze a plant and then analyze 

 the soil, and tell you what you want in that soil in order to 



