REPORTS OF DISTRICT AND LOCAL SOCIETIES. 535 



And here let me digress a little from my theme and say that many of us have come 

 to regard chick weed as a friend and benefactor instead of a noxious and troublesome 

 weed for this very reason. 



Rye should be sown early in September. I think we could sow rye to good advant- 

 age among our berries. By gettipg a one-horse drill we need not then scatter it in the 

 rows, but can sow close to them and then it can all be plowed under. All, I think, can 

 see the feasibility and practicability of this. Of course, rye is not so good, not as rich, 

 as clover, but for the fruitgrower it is more practicable, Not so with the grain-farmer. 

 He has the advantage of us in the use of clover. These two are the only green man- 

 ures, but we will do well to give heed to their utility. 



Now let us consider" the dry or solid fertilizers. First comes stable or barnyard 

 manure. With this and the mode of applying it, all are familiar. Some claim that it 

 it is better to compost it and apply to the surface of the ground, working it in with a 

 cultivator or harrow. Others say, spread it and plow it under in a coarse or raw 

 condition. Either way is good, but for the fruit- farmer I consider the first plan the 

 better. My neighbor, Mr. Bertram, is considered one of our best cultivators, and one 

 of our most successful fruitgrowers. He follows the compost plan, hauling the manure 

 out in the spring and scattering broadcast among the rows and working it in. There 

 is another advantage in the compost heap, in this, that the heat of chemical transform- 

 ation destroys many of the noxious seeds that abound in stable manure. I might say 

 a good deal more about stable manure and the manner of applying, but this a familiar 

 6ubject and all of you understand it. 



Let me say, use all you can get of it; compost it, or use it raw. 



I have lived in places where stable manure was a nuisance. In Kentucky I have 

 seen log stables taken down and moved for the sole and only reason that the manure 

 had accumulated in such quantities in and around them that to get the horses in or out 

 of the stables was next to impossible. 



I heard a farmer in Iowa say, " Dod rot the stuff; I'll never haul out any more of it; 

 it makes too many weeds grow." But not until Benton Harbor and St. Joseph each 

 shall have obtained city charters and greatly increased their population and extended 

 their borders, will the fruitgrowers have a sufficiency of this important fertilizer. 



Now, about the dry or solid fertilizers, and we have a host of them under different 

 names and brands, for they have come into such general use, and there is such a 

 demand for them, and such a profit in their manufacture, that the market is flooded 

 with all kind and conditions. I am disposed to regard them with favor, for while I think 

 many of them are almost or entirely worthless, very many of them are good. You all 

 know as much about them as I do, and many of you a great deal more. I believe the 

 basic ingredient in many of them is simply blood, and blood is a cheap commodity 

 in our cities. There are a great many different brands and a great many different 

 chemical analyses, and we can only tell which are the best by an actual test. One who 

 has used these commercial fertilizers to any considerable extent, is qualified to give 

 testimony in this case. It is not my aim to exhaust this subject, or to cover the whole 

 of the ground, but this paper is intended simply to give some of the writer's ideas and 

 to draw out discussion. 



A. J. Meery said that lie used some barn manure, spreading it on the 

 ground during winter and spring, but did not know that he had seen very 

 much benefit from it. When in the east he had seen commercial fertilizers 

 used on corn and wheat, with very beneficial results. He had used Lister's 

 fertilizers in the east, and found them good. 



B. F. Pixley: Dunbar's fertilizers are good. Nitrate of soda, which 

 costs $55 per ton, is good on any kind of vegetation. I use it dry, in the 

 hill. 



B. Morrill: I have used a ton of nitrate of soda, and have seen no 

 benefit. 



W. A. Smith: I doubt whether green rye plowed under is a fertilizer. 

 But ground exposed during cold winter will deteriorate, and anything that 

 will hold the snow is beneficial. Rye takes from the soil all that it returns 

 to the soil; but, plowed under in the spring, it has a good effect in retain-, 

 ing the moisture. The cow pea is a good crop to plow under. I tried 

 bone meal on potatoes — a handful of meal on each hill. It had a bad 

 effect, but that was because it was a dry season and the bone meal just lay 



