EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 63 



The Chairman. President Greenoiigh is here not only to 

 instruct and interest you by his paper, but also to do some 

 missionary work, and he will answer any questions which 

 any of you may like to put to him in regard to the col- 

 lege. 



No question being propounded, the meeting adjourned to 

 the evening. 



Evening Session. 

 The Board re-assembled at seven and a half o'clock. 



The Secretary, John E. Russell, delivered a lecture 

 upon English Agriculture, which was listened to by a small 

 iiudience. It was not reported. 



SECOND DAY. 



Wednesday, December 6, 1883. 



The meeting was called to order shortly before 10 o'clock, 

 by Mr. A. P. Slade of Somerset, who said : — 



The first thing on the programme this morning is a lecture 

 by Mr. Pierce, on the subject of experiments with fertilizers. 

 I have the pleasure of introducing to you Mr. John W. 

 Pierce of West Millbury. 



EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 



BY JOHN W. PIERCE. 



Although so much has been said and written about fertil- 

 izers, that to many it has become an uninteresting subject, 

 still it is one of vital importance to every tiller of the soil 

 in the older States. It is generally conceded that the major- 

 ity of the farms of our State are in an impoverished condi- 

 tion. Many farms, which once yielded abundant crops of 

 hay, grain and potatoes, now produce but a meagre return of 

 those staples without a large expenditure for manure. On 

 7Tiany of them stable manure now fails to produce its former 

 results. The editors of our agricultural journals are con- 



