1882.] COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 131 



as any defense I can make is concerned. But it seems to me 

 that tlie object and purpose of the experiments which he has 

 made have been misapprehended. As I understand him, and 

 as those who know him and have talked with him on the sub- 

 ject, understand him, they are not undertalcen with the idea 

 of proving scientific truths absolutely, from the fact that they 

 are not conducted by men who are competent to do that kind 

 of work ; but they are intended to guide farmers in their 

 practice. I am confident that every one who has taken any 

 part in them, has found that they are valuable for that pur- 

 pose, and has learned something from them which is valuable 

 in his practice. 



Let me illustrate by just one point in regard to those ex- 

 periments. They have proven the fact, — they have not 

 demonstrated the scientific truth, understand me, but they 

 have proven sufficiently for farmers to accept the fact as a 

 guide in their practice, that the application of nitrogen in 

 large quantities to the corn crop is wasteful ; that the man who 

 buys a highly nitrogenous fertilizer, or applies a fertilizer to 

 the corn-crop that contains a large proportion of nitrogen, 

 throws his money away. The whole tenor of the experiments 

 conducted for three or four years, points directly, with very 

 few exceptions, to that fact. If that is true — and not only 

 these experiments, but all our farm practice, where these ex- 

 periments and the results of them have controlled it, seems 

 to justify that conclusion — if tliat is true, it makes all the 

 difference to us between cultivating at a profit and cultivating 

 at a loss. I do not know that that has any scientific value at 

 all, but it has a practical value, and that is what these experi- 

 ments are designed to have. We cannot wait thirty years 

 for the continual trial of these experiments on the same 

 ground, in order that we may get certainties : we must accept 

 probabilities. These experiments give us probabilities, and 

 they are of great value to us in that way. I think it is a mis- 

 take to judge them in the way I understand they were judged 

 by the lecturer this morning, that is, by scientific rules, as if 

 they were instituted for the purpose of proving truths of sci- 

 ence. They were not instituted for any such purpose at all. 



