92 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



average crop?" "Very seldom, not oftener thau once in ten years." We 

 must have an average crop oftener thau once in ten years, and this average 

 must be a large one. 



We have plenty of cheap nags that will trot a mile in ten minutes, but it is 

 the horse that trots a mile in two and a fraction that brings the extra price, 

 and the smaller the time the greater the price. It is the farmer that regu- 

 larly produces five bushels an acre more than his neighbors who is on the road 

 to wealth. The soil, like the ten-minute nag, is capable of producing moderate 

 results without exhaustion, but the soil that produces extraordinary crops 

 must have unusual natural powers, or be handled with uncommon skill and 

 be sustained by high feeding. This uncommon skill is the keen intelligence 

 of the farmer, and the high feeding is manure. 



OBJECT OF MANURES. 



A few weeks ago I received a letter from Sec. Garfield, asking me to read a 

 paper before the State Horticultural Society on the subject of manures, in 

 which he said : "I have been wishing some time that you would give us some 

 advice on the manure question ; for in watching the proceedings of the various 

 local societies, there seems to be less of settled purpose in the use of fertilizers 

 than in anything else connected with the management of orcharding. Fruit- 

 growers keep very little stock, and thus manufacture a very small proportion 

 of the manure they should use. It is grave question where to get the remain- 

 der. They buy salt, lime, ashes, stable manure made up mostly of shavings; 

 dig marl, clay, muck; and still there seems very little of definiteness in their 

 views of the comparative value of any of these. Quite recently, a good many 

 have been dabbling in commercial manures. There is a general questioning 

 upon these matters, and I think you could do us a deal of good if you are 

 willing, with all you have on your hands, to lend us a hand." 

 ' I think if some David should "number the people" on this manure 

 question, that quite a number of farmers would be found in the same con- 

 dition of uncertainty. The chief office of manures is to furnish assimilable 

 salts and combined nitrogen for the immediate use of growing crops, and 

 thus supplement the natural food supply existing in the soil. 



THE IDENTITY OF PLANT-FOOD. 



It was long supposed that the food of such a variety of plants, and of 

 such different properties as are found in different parts of the world, must 

 necessarily be different — almost as different as the properties of the several 

 plants. But chemistry has shown that the food of all plants is very much 

 alike, though certain classes of plants must be supplied with certain sub- 

 stances in greater abundance than others. 



There are only thirteen elemental substances concerned in plant-growth, 

 and I will call your attention to some of the properties of these, and then 

 speak of their relations to agriculture. 



I. Gases. Four are gases when in their uncombined state. Here is this 

 yellow gas, chlorine, which has such a strong affinity for certain metals that 

 when their powder is sifted into the gas it takes fire at ordinary temperature. 

 On account of its strong affinity for other substances chlorine is never found 

 in the free state in nature, but in combination with sodium it is found in 

 large quantities as common salt. 



The other three gases all look alike, but they are very different in their 

 properties. One is very combustible, and burns with a nearly colorless but 



