140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



they cannot get along without the use of them. They are 

 profitable to a certain extent, particularly when used in the 

 manner which has been indicated by the two essayists. You 

 will remember that Mr. Pierce this morning advocated the 

 use of them quite freely, and stated that he had found them 

 profitable in his own experience ; but he also urged the im- 

 portance of farmers studying for themselves the condition of 

 their soils, and buying the materials in the market and mix- 

 ing them themselves, instead of buying the special fertilizers. 

 I was very much interested in one remark that Mr. Pierce 

 made, which was this : he said that in estimating the value 

 of these fertilizers and the cost of the product from them, 

 where he used barn manure he charged one half to the crop 

 and the other half he credited to the land, while in the case 

 of commercial fertilizers he charged the whole amount to 

 the crop. There is a great deal of meaning to that. I judge 

 that Mr. Pierce has discovered the secret of the use of com- 

 mercial fertilizers, as I have myself. I think they may be 

 of value in certain ways, to eke out the manures required for 

 special crops, but I claim that no farmer can afibrd to depend 

 upon commercial fertilizers as his source of fertilization. 

 Why? Mr. Pierce indicated the reason why, although he 

 did not state it so plainly as I Avish he had. Commercial 

 fertilizers have not the lasting qualities of barnyard manure. 

 They may do for the present, to get over a difficulty, but for 

 lasting quality, as a source of fertilization to be depended 

 upon, I think the farmer must rely upon barnyard manure, 

 as has been indicated this afternoon by my friend Mr. Cush- 

 man. 



I would state, in this connection, an experiment which I 

 made some years ago, which has established this opinion in 

 my mind quite firmly. Six years ago I started an experi- 

 ment with commercial fertilizers and barnyard manure against 

 nothing. To one half- acre I applied one kind of the pre- 

 pared commercial fertilizers, procured of one of the leading 

 firms in a neighboring State ; another half-acre I fertilized 

 with a fertilizer obtained from one of our prominent dealers 

 in Boston, putting the same value on each half-acre. To a 

 a quarter of an acre, which was as much as I felt I could 

 aiford to try the experiment on, I applied nothing. To an- 



