ALL DEPENDS ON APPLICATION. 49 



Dr. James R. Nichols, of Haverhill. I have been very 

 much gratified by the statements made by Prof. Stockbridge, 

 because they fully corroborate the experiments I have made 

 during the past twelve years. I think the gentlemen of the 

 Board will bear me out when I say that it is now very nearly, 

 if not quite, eight years since I presented to the Board state- 

 ments corresponding with those made by the Professor to- 

 day. And as it regards these new methods, as they are called, 

 of raising corn, I think they indicate one very promising 

 feature of the farming industry, because they indicate that 

 progress is making in the raising of cereal crops. 



Now, there seems to be a mystery about this to some of 

 our friends. I can very well understand how they feel about 

 these statements; but, after all, there is no mystery. The 

 application of the principles of chemistry to the growing of 

 crops is just as accurate as the application of the principles 

 of chemistry to any of the industrial arts. We, to be sure, 

 have many things to contend with, but we are from year to 

 year getting nearer and nearer to a knowledge of the nature 

 of these obstacles with which we have to contend ; and in 

 that, to my view, lies one of the most important principles 

 connected with agriculture. 



Now, in relation to the statements made here of the appli- 

 cation of manures to crops, I have found in my experiments 

 that that is of great consequence. I have every year, in the 

 "Journal of Chemistry," under my charge, endeavored to 

 enforce, and enforce rcpeatedl}^ the importance of the proper 

 application of manures to crops ; and I find that farmers will 

 read these statements and forget all about them ; they will 

 make mistakes in the application of what are called chemical 

 fertilizers, and lose their crops. I cannot quite understand 

 why it is so. In the application of chemical fertilizers, it 

 seems to me that it is — in fact, I know it is — a fundamental 

 principle, that you must place your fertilizer beyond the 

 place you deposit your seed. Any one who makes use of 

 chemical fertilizers in the hill, as I have usually done, and 

 places his seed in connection with the fertilizer, will be 

 sure to lose his crop. Now, I have raised corn on one field 

 for nine consecutive years, and my crop has never fixllen below 

 eighty bushels to the acre, and two years in succession I 

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