130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



only touclied lightly and for which there is no .such thing as 

 exhaustion. I refer to the wastes of civilized life. It has long 

 been known that they contain valuable fertilizing material. It 

 has long been known that they were dangerous to the public 

 health. Given on one side the imperative necessity for their 

 removal, and on the other the need for the fertilizing elements 

 they contain, and the ability to pay for them and it needs only 

 skill and business talent to bridge the gap and confer a bene- 

 fit of inestimable value upon both parties. Can anyone doubt 

 but that the requisite skill and talent will be forthcoming ? Not 

 just yet, perhaps, but when the need presses, when sources which 

 are our present dependence shall fail, when an increased popula- 

 tion demands increased production, and larger supplies of plant 

 food are required to meet the demand. The matter of cost will 

 regulate itself. Food must be had, and the necessary cost of 

 production must be paid for it. "We may as well give full recog- 

 nition to this new department of productive industry. 



The preparation of plant food is a trade. The business of 

 supplying it to those who feed plants is of sufficient importance to 

 stand alone. It will give large employment to labor. Capital 

 and skill will find wide scope therein. I welcome the new auxil- 

 iary to agriculture. The field which it occupies is an important 

 one. It has demonstrated its right to exist. It has fully deserved 

 its recognition. In every direction its work and influence have 

 been beneficent. It has that rare quality of beneficence which 

 recreates offensive and dangerous elements and makes of them 

 willing and useful servants of our common need, and thus it 

 renders a double service. 



The new departure in agriculture has many phases of interest, 

 but of all its developments, I think no other promises such far- 

 reaching results or opens up such a vista of change and improve- 

 ment as this. It marks a step forward toward the golden age, 

 when everything on earth shall find its place and use, and no man 

 miss his work, or fail of his reward. 



Mr. Sedgwick. When I came into the hall this morning, 

 almost the first word I heard was the name of Prof. Atwater, 

 and the remarks of the speaker struck me as something like 

 an attack upon him. I do not feel called upon to defend 

 Prof. Atwater as a scientific man at all. I think he is fully 

 able to defend himself ; if he is not, he must go down, as far 



