120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



what further tasks may be laid upon his ample shoulders I would 

 not dare to prophesy. I would not dare to set anywhere a limit, 

 and say, beyond this nothing shall be asked of him. One thing 

 I fully believe. The forces which are to do the work of the 

 world in the future are to be chemical, rather than mechanical 

 forces. 



It is a mistake to think, as we are sometimes inclined to, that 

 there is little or nothing left for those who come after us to dis- 

 cover or to conquer. Alexander wept because there were no other 

 worlds to subjugate, but he who attempts the conquest of the 

 hidden forces of nature has no occasion to weep for any such 

 reason. 



Nature is an expression of the infinite God, and in all its parts, 

 as well as that called man, it was made somewhat in His own 

 image, after His own likeness. It all partakes of the infinite. It 

 has no further boundaries. Push discovery as far as you may, 

 something higher, better, and more difficult of attainment lies still 

 beyond. No small portion of the value of every attainment is to 

 be found in the vantage ground it gives us in this unending 

 struggle with the mystery round about us. 



The subject of this paper is Commercial Fertilizers, and it may 

 occur to this audience, as it does to me, that the connection 

 between the subject and the line of thought into which I have 

 allowed myself to be drawn is not very obvious. And yet there 

 is a connection. The introduction and general acceptance of 

 commercial fertilizers in common farm practice was the intro- 

 duction of a new force in agriculture. How far its influence will 

 reach, and what changes it will bring about we can see in part, 

 and at present only in part. The main purpose of this paper is 

 to direct attention to these changes ; to note and outline those that 

 are most obvious; and thinking of these I was led to think of 

 the wonderful results which other causes had drawn after them 

 along the track of progress. A glance at some of them seemed 

 to form an appropriate introduction to the consideration of this 

 cue. 



The term commercial fertilizers is hardly capable of exact 

 definition. As commonly used, it comprises all fertilizing 'sub- 

 stances offered in the markets. The list is a constantly increasing 

 one, and includes some substances long used as manures and pur- 

 chased for that purpose, so that it is only in a qualified sense that 

 the use of commercial fertilizers can be said to be of recent 



