436 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



seur in fertilizers revels in the inexhaustible field of perfume, as a gardener 

 among his roses, for there he finds the " friend that sticketh closer than a 

 brother." 



The program of this meeting brings for your consideration numerous and 

 varied forms of the pleasing developments of horticulture, including even 

 ** The Ethics of Horticulture." Hence it is fitting that in the beginning we 

 should strike at the root of the whole matter by a generous application of 

 our attention to the subject of commercial fertilizers. (Feeling a lack of 

 knowledge in regard to this important and growing branch of industry, I 

 wrote to Dr. Caldwell, of Uf)rnell university, asking him to recommend to me 

 some book or pamphlet on Fertilizers, their application, use, etc. His reply 

 was, "There is not such a work in the English language.") Hence I have 

 been obliged to fish for information, wherever there was the shadow of a 

 stream. 



In order to understand the value and use of a fertilizer, let us glance briefly 

 at the composition of plants, and what they require as food. Chemical analy- 

 sis show that plants are composed of water, organic and inorganic elements. 

 The organic elements are carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. The inor- 

 ganic elements are phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, iron, 

 chlorine, sulphur and silicon. In order that the plant may fully develop there 

 must be an adequate, accessible supply of each of these elements, for the 

 plant can not change one of these substances into another, nor can it use one 

 in place of another. The carbon, oxygen and hydrogen of the organic ele- 

 ments are abundantly supplied to the plant from the air, while the nitrogen 

 and all of the inorganic elements must be obtained from the soil. The poor- 

 est soil will supply an abundance of sodium, iron and silica, and generally a 

 suflicient amount of sulphur and chlorine for the complete growth of all 

 plants. 



Now if we could thus easily account for the rest of our family, the cor- 

 rector of these erring children, the much abused fertilizer, would rest undis- 

 turbed in oblivion to-day. But we feel thankful that these six, magnesium, 

 sulphur, calcium, potassium, phosphorus and nitrogen, are the only unruly 

 elements we have to deal with and that even these may be coaxed into sub- 

 mission by a wise use of manures and fertilizers. 



The first three of these, magnesium, sulphur and calcium, require but lit- 

 tle notice, although they are generally present in the fertilizer, especially if it 

 is a superphosphate, yet they do not concern the analyzer, nor do they figure 

 in the estimated value of the fertilizer. In superphosphates and all bone fer- 

 tilizers there is an abundance of magnesium to supply any want there maybe 

 in the soil for this element. 



The second, if any sulphur is needed by the soil the fertilizer will be able 

 to meet the demand, it having obtained a supply of this element from the 

 animal matter of which the fertilizer was made, and from the sul2:)huric acid 

 used in the process of manufacture. 



The third, calcium, is a chief constituent of the bones and minerals from 

 which fertilizers are made; a large amount is therefore present in the manu- 

 factured product. If this element is still lacking, after the use of the fer- 

 tilizer, it may be easily added by an application of plaster or lime. 



The three remaining elements of plant food, potassium, phosphorus and 

 nitrogen, increasing in importance in the order in which they are named, 

 form the invincible triumvirate that dictates the bounds of all vegetable 



