146 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



Mr. Smith. Could you be certain that that application was 

 beneficial to the corn ? Not having left any part of that field 

 without that application, how could you know certainly that 

 the fertilizer which you applied to that corn was so very 

 beneficial ? 



Mr. Augur. I am aware that I should be considered lame 

 in that point, but I applied that fertilizer broadcast, which I 

 think is the best way to apply fertilizers, and I was so confi- 

 dent, from previous experiments on the same kind of land, 

 that phosphoric acid was what my corn crop needed most, 

 that I made a liberal application of that, for two reasons : I 

 calculated to apply more than my corn crop needed, for I had 

 a peach orchard coming on, from which I have picked fruit 

 the past seven years, and I did not feel afraid to put in phos- 

 phoric acid rather liberally. But I admit the force of the 

 suggestipn made by the gentleman ; I should have left a row 

 or two without any application ; but I have seen the* difference 

 so strikingly, tliat I know that on most of my land phosphoric 

 acid is the element tliat I want more than anything else, per- 

 haps. As I remarked, I made the application broadcast, and 

 I think there is a great advantage in applying commercial 

 fertilizers liberally enough so that you can afford to put them 

 on broadcast. If you put a spoonful of super-phosphate in a 

 hill of corn, how long is it before the roots of the corn have 

 gone away from it and covered the whole ground. I believe 

 that in top-dressing our orchards, or in manuring our corn 

 fields, or, in fact, almost anything else, the very best way to 

 apply any fertilizer is to do it broadcast over the entire 

 surface. 



Mr. Gold. Mr. Sedgwick says that the farmers on the 

 Harlem road have been shipping milk for some twenty-five 

 years, that they have been buying considerable quantities of 

 grain, and that their farms have not improved, but have de- 

 teriorated under this practice, and hence that the purchase of 

 grain does not tend to improve the fertility of farming lands 

 when managed as they commonly are. I somewhat question 

 his statement that their farms have deteriorated ; on the 



