FERTILIZATION. 155 



so much stable manure as Indian corn. If I appl}^ potash, 

 phosphoric acid and nitrogen in the form of stable manure, I 

 will put it under Indian corn. If I have those elements in 

 another form, and I wish to have them act instantly, I will 

 put that fertilizer immediately under the little rootlets of 

 some plant that I want to force ahead quickly. But let us 

 remember all the time, that it does not make an}' difl'erence 

 whether we carry these elements of plant-food in carts, or 

 casks, or sacks. It makes no difference what we name them ; 

 the onlv thins; to be considered is, whether we have the phos- 

 phoric acid, the potash, and the nitrogen there, and if they 

 are there, let us use them, and know that we can l)uild up 

 any land and raise almost anything that we wish to raise. 



Now about ashes. I sometimes go to a family that I know 

 burns good hard wood, oak or hickory : I sajs " I want your 

 ashes." " What are you willing to pay for them ? " "I will 

 pay just what you ask ; I will pay you double what the 

 soap man will pay you, if you will save them and be sure not 

 to put in any coal ashes or soft-wood ashes." If they do 

 not ask over seventy-five cents or a dollar a barrel, I take 

 them. 



Mr. Paul. I do not wish to enter into any controversy, 

 but I hardly think that Mr. Cushman meant to say that it 

 did not make any difference in what form phosphoric acid, 

 potash and nitrogen were applied, because they are readily 

 available in some forms and not in others. Acted upon by 

 sulphuric acid, of course bone is available immediately, but 

 if not broken down, it is not readily available as plant food. 



I think we may make mistakes in regard to what we call 

 exhausted land. I have in mind now a field which has been 

 a matter of a good deal of interest to me. The owners of it 

 were engaged in catching menhaden, and whenever they re- 

 turned from their fishing expeditions, they sold what they 

 could, and perhaps they would have ten or twenty barrels 

 left, more or less, and it was applied to this field of four acres. 

 They applied the fish there year after year, and the crops 

 Avere enormous. Finally, the field became exhausted, appar- 

 ently ; it produced nothing ; it did not even grass over ; 

 weeds did not grow upon it to any extent. It had been 

 lying in this condition some few years, and the owner 



