No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 479 



about as cheap as we can afford to make it. I ask your help in 

 spreading these thiugs, so that the teachers may learn of them and 

 come to spend the last two weeks of June and the four weeks of 

 July at the College and still have the entire month of August left 

 for recreation. 



The next item is that the new school code, as passed by the last 

 Legislature, gives us four new assistants, to Dr. Schaeffer. One of 

 the.se assistailts is an expert in agriculture, and his subject is to 

 stud}' how to introduce agriculture in the public schools. Much will 

 depend on this man, and much will depend on the help you give him. 

 ^Ye have found the man ; first he has been a country teacher, and 

 later became a principal of a high school, at a salary of eighteen 

 hundred dollars, and then entered college as a man of mature years. 

 Now I trust you will all give Mr. Dennis, (this is his name) all the 

 help you can, so as to make him as useful as possible in studying and 

 establishing agriculture throughout the country. I commend Mr. 

 Dennis most heartily to 5'our consideration. 



I will not take your time in speaking of my favorite topic — educat- 

 ing the country boy to take an interest in the farm, instead of 

 leading him towards the city, as the present curriculum does. Once 

 he is convinced that it requires some brains to be a farmer as well 

 as a three dollar a week clerk in a store, he will want to stay on the 

 farm. 



I congratulate the State and the Board, the Secretary, and Mr. 

 Martin, and the host of Institute workers throughout the country, 

 on the strides agriculture is making. 



This Page bill also carries a provision that calls for an appropria- 

 tion of money according to the rural })opulation in ijroj)ortion to the 

 rural population of the United States. 



KEPORT OF COMMITTEE ON COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS 



By J. H. SCHULTZ, Chairman 



The writer of this report has been a farmer for thirty years, but 

 at present he is engaged in the manufacture of Commercial Fer- 

 tilizers; consequently this report is written from the standpoint of 

 the farmer, as well as the manufacturer. 



The last ten years have brought about great changes in the fer- 

 tilizer business. In the past when the farmer wanted to buy fer- 

 tilizers, he asked the dealer for a $15.00 or a |20.00 fertilizer, and 

 if the dealer had a brand that would sell for that price, the fafmer 

 would buy it without considering the analysis or the manufacturer 

 that made the goods, and, if the analysis entered into the deal at all, 

 it was only in a casual way, because in the majority of cases the 

 farmer did not know what analysis a fertilizer ought to have in order 

 to be of the greatest value to him. But with the aid of the State 



