234 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



But chemistry can never furnish it in that form, neither can 

 it supply the mineral constituents required by plants, precisely 

 as found in manures ; but this must not lead us to disparage 

 science and reject its teachings. We will accept what it does 

 teach with sincere thankfulness. We will use as a medicine the 

 best forms of iron it suggests, and they arc many and of great 

 efficacy ; we will employ those fertilizing agents which it has 

 pointed out as possessed of merit, and they, also, are many. 



The impression entertained by some that chemists underrate 

 and disparage barn-yard manure, is an erroneous one. It has 

 no foundation in fact. They labor to multiply sources of this 

 material, and the most important service rendered by it to the 

 farmer is in the methods'it points out whereby it is economized, 

 and its efficacy preserved. In this particular, chemistry has 

 accomplished much for agriculture. Would that soil-cultivators 

 gave heed to its suggestions ; then, indeed, would there be less 

 demand for other agents. 



But, secondly, let us consider what it has done in the way of 

 furnishing a supply of these. Here we find the evidences of 

 the exercise of a wonderful intelligence and industry, — a per- 

 sistent scientific labor hardly excelled in any other field of 

 research. It has analyzed and demonstrated the great value of 

 decayed vegetable matter, as peat or muck ; and given reliable 

 directions how to fit it for manurial uses. There is scarcely a 

 substance upon the land or in the sea that has not been made 

 the subject of careful examination, with the view of ascertain- 

 ing if it contained those principles capable of nourishing plants. 

 As the results of these labors, we have a class of substances 

 which, in contradistinction from animal excrement, or barn-yard 

 manure, are called " special " or " chemical " fertilizers. Per- 

 haps no article of the class has received more attention in this 

 country and in Europe, than bones, and they have become a 

 standard article of commerce. They are presented in the nat- 

 ural condition, as found in animals, or in that of a powder of 

 variable fineness. Dissolved in acids, before or after calcination, 

 they are called " superphosphates," and in this form are largely 

 employed in agriculture. The term " superphosphate " is a 

 popular one, and advantage is taken of this to palm off upon 

 unsuspecting farmers all conceivable compounds of meadow- 



