442 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ing to some fertilizer company or through some local agent purchase fine bone 

 meal, containing about 20 per cent of available phosphoric acid at a cost of 

 from $30 to 840 per ton. Another way is to dissolve the bones that you may 

 collect with sulphuric acid. But by the time you have pounded up the bones 

 without suitable apparatus, by the time you have dissolved them iu sulphuric 

 acid that has cost 2c per pound, by the time you have ruined one suit of 

 clothes with the same acid, and by the time you have made a poor fertilizer 

 of a good pair of boots, you will have wisely concluded that it is better to send 

 all the materials to a good fertilizer company and have them manufactured at 

 a cost of $2 per ton, or more wisely still, that you will save the freight on 

 the substances one way and purchase the fertilizer of the company ready 

 manufactured. 



From the fact that the commercial fertilizer has proved itself such a friend 

 to the husbandman, especially of the older northern States and nearly all of 

 the southern States, that it has made its power felt, that it has developed 

 qualities of usefulness that it was not believed it possessed, from all these 

 facts it might be expected that the fertilizer industry would develop rapidly, 

 and so it has. Twenty-five years ago the industry was in its infancy. To- 

 day over $30,000,000 of capital are employed in the manufacture of commer- 

 cial fertilizers which turns out yearly over 600,000 tons of the manufactured 

 product. The amount yearly used in the different States varies all the way 

 from 70,000 tons used in Pennsylvania to only a few tons on the rich western 

 prairies. Michigan uses as little as almost any State in the Union, and thus 

 far the amount used has not paid the fertilizer companies for the cost of 

 advertising in the State. "We do helieve that commercial fertilizers might be 

 used to great advantage and profit on thousands of Michigan farms and gar- 

 dens. And it is with growing apprehension for the future welfare of these 

 tillers of the soil of our own cherished State that we note the fact that in so 

 many counties the practice of raising some special crop is gaining ground, 

 for by this repeated cropping draft after draft is made upon the soil until it 

 fairly groans under the torture. Among the worst of these is the great 

 potato industry that is fast assuming such prominence, and which will soon 

 drain the best soil of all available potash. I do not anticipate nor hope that 

 the millennium of wealth, comfort and ease will come to the farmers and horti- 

 culturists of this State through the universal use of commercial fertilizers. 

 But without a doubt a more wide-spread, judicious use of this kind of plant 

 food will bring to the farmer and gardener of Michigan 



' ' More of comfort, less of care ; 

 More to eat and more to wear ; 

 Happier homes and faces brighter, 

 All their burdens rendered lighter." 



The paper was discussed by Messrs. TVatkins, Pierce, Coryell, Ilolloway 

 and B.iker. The experiences were so varying with regard to the use of com- 

 mercial fertilizers that no one could formulate an opinion based upon the 

 statements made; all agreed, however, that the superphosphates were well 

 calculated to give plants a running start in life, and shortened the period of 

 maturing. 



The secretary read the following note which closed the morning session: 

 While it may be a question with farmers whether it will pay to use com- 



