FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 173 



the glass. Did the water get up there by capillarity? What made the 

 water up there? Why was the water pouring down on the inside of the 

 glass? Only because the vapor from the steaming beds condensed on 

 the inside of the glass and ran down; that is common sense. Now, I 

 believe that this same law applies in the matter of cultivating the soil. 

 Whenever the soil is cooled to a degree, whenever you cultivate your soil 

 and loosen up the surface, it cools it, and the vapors accumulate there, 

 like dew. It is dew on the plat of grass, it is the cooling of the blades of 

 grass that catch the vapor. 



Mr. Kellogg: But I would like to ask why there is no dew on a cloudy 

 evening; that may throw some light on the question. 



Mr. Glidden: There is a philosophy for this also. The atmosphere, 

 under different pressures, holds more moisture that at other times. 

 When it is cloudy weather, it is not proof that under those conditions 

 water does not accumulate on the grass blades. 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS— IS THEIR USE PROFITABLE 

 FOR THE GENERAL FARMER? 



PROF. F. S. KEDZIB, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



In talking of this subject, I have this purpose: I think that in a great 

 many farmers' minds, at the present day, there is this idea: After having 

 talked with the commercial fertilizer people in various parts of the State, 

 representing different firms, many times the farmer has arrived at the 

 conclusion that, if he could only find the right kind of a commercial 

 fertilizer to put on his soil, adapted to his particular needs, it is just what 

 he wants and is suffering for. 



I will begin at the beginning of this commercial fertilizer matter, and 

 show you how it appears in my mind, and then I .would like to have you 

 take it up if you will, and adapt it to your own conditions. In the first 

 place, in order to consider any question with reference to the manuring 

 of ground, we must understand a few simple principles of chemistry, as 

 related to the soil. We see before us here, for instance, samples of corn, 

 beans, wheat and so on. Now it just happens that these crops take from 

 the soil three substances, which we chemists call elements, and which hap- 

 pen to be the substances in the soil which exist in the smallest amounts. 

 These substances are taken from the soil by the crops that we grow in 

 the greatest amount, and, as I say, they are the elements which are there 

 in the smallest amounts. The elements, therefore, to which we must pay 

 particular attention, are those three — nitrogen, potash and phosphorus, 

 and we speak of them usually, when we are talking of a manure, as nitro- 

 gen in the form of ammonia, and potash, which is just what it is, and 

 phosphoric acid. 



BARNYARD MANURE. 



We will first take up the question with which most of us are well 

 acquainted, barnyard manure. Take a ton of barnyard manure. When 

 we draw out that ton and put it on the land, how much of these three 

 elements do we take out there in that ton? I have made a little diagram 



