120 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Three hundred pounds per acre is probably about the usual rate of 

 application. This means 3.69 lbs. of nitrogen, 24 lbs. of phosphoric acid 

 and 9 lbs. of potash per acre. Now, an acre six inches of soil will 

 weigh from 2,000,000 to 2,500,000 pounds, but for the sake of convenience 

 and to be conservative we will say that the fertilizer has been mixed 

 with 1,000,000 pounds of soil or we might say it has been diluted 

 1,000,000 times. If we express this amount of added plant food in 

 terms of percentage of soil it would be approximately the following: 



.0004% Nitrogen 

 .0024% Phosphoric acid 

 .0009% Potash 



Any good soil should have 100 times more plant-food than these 

 figures represent. In the face of these figures it almost seems absurd 

 to think that the value of commercial fertilizers depends alone upon the 

 plant-food. 



In just what way fertilizers do act upon the soil is not definitely 

 known but we do know that thej must have a chemical and physical 

 action upon the soil itself. 



I wish it understood that I am not a disbeliever in the use of ferti- 

 lizers or that I am attempting to discourage their use. On the contrary 

 I thoroughly believe in artificial fertilization but desire to impress 

 upon you that it should be done with more thought and study than has 

 been true in the past. 



A great deal of myth and tradition have been connected with the use 

 of commercial fertilizers and many people have conceived the idea that 

 they are a cure for all the sins of omission on their part. But I want 

 to imjiress upon you that fertilizers cannot take the place of tillage, 

 drainage, rainfall and sunshine, careful preparation of the seed bed 

 and the selection of the seed. These are absolutely necessary functions 

 in successful agriculture. 



In order to get the best results you must give the plant the very best 

 surroundings possible. To illustrate this point we may take examples 

 from animal life. Compare if you please the boys and girls living in 

 the unsanitary, foul smelling slum districts in our large cities with the 

 boys and girls living in the small country towns where fresh air and 

 clean surroundings abound. Again, if Ave desire to fatten a herd of 

 cattle we know that in order to get the best results we must first make 

 their surroundings as comfortable as possible, so it is with the plant, 

 we must first get the soil in the very best physical condition posible, 

 so that the roots may easily penetrate it and the movement of the soil 

 water be unobstructed. When this condition of soil has been brought 

 about, I would strongly advise the use of commercial fertilizers and I 

 firmly believe they will prove beneficial on the majority of soils. 



The farms of this country are way below maximum production. We 

 know this to be so because once in a Avhile we receive authentic reports 

 of extremely large yields from soils that had previously only yielded 

 average crops. Only a few weeks ago, I received the report of a corn- 

 growing contest in New England where the winner harvested 160 bushels 

 of shelled corn per acre. Commercial fertilizers were not responsible 

 for this large yield although they contributed to it. It was the labor 

 and care used in putting the soil in the best possible condition that 



