STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 423 



from it, it is reduced down until a pound represents a wagon 

 load. The soil then produces what it did when it Avas virgin 

 soil. A man that produces, year after year, crop after crop, 

 without fertilizing, is a robber. Fertilizers have become in 

 many parts of the country an indispensable article. The South 

 to-day would not be worth much if it were not for fertilizers. 

 We are rapidly drifting to that point ourselves. It is our duty 

 as an agricultural State to turn our attention to these fertilizers 

 and make them a study. 



Mr. Hodgson. It is true that we are in some respects robbers 

 when we crop land year after year without putting something 

 into it. After we have drawn all the deposits that nature placed 

 there, we must then ourselves make deposits before the land will 

 honor our drafts of wheat, corn and potatoes. 



Mr. Smith. The most important point to be considered is that 

 these fertilizers can be used at times when it is not practicable 

 to use the coarse manures. It is safe to say that cow manure 

 and horse manure will not show much effect before the first of 

 July. They do not get into a condition when they will be of any 

 benefit before the hot weather. The fertilizers act immediately. 

 It is a question of very great importance to us and to the whole 

 State, and members of our society should, during the coming 

 year, make some careful experiments, manuring with stable 

 manure such as is ordinarily obtained, taking account of the 

 amount used and the cost, and then on an equal amount of ground 

 use some of the concentrated fertilizers and very carefully note 

 the results. In this way, in another year we can determine the 

 relative cost and advantages of the different kinds of fertilizers. 

 I don't see how we can get anything definite in any other man- 

 ner. The iQore concentrated the form of the fertilizer the greater 

 the percentage of profit the farmer will derive from it. We 

 ought to determine what particular kinds of fertilizers are best 

 adapted to our soils and climate. I am satisfied from what ex- 

 periments I have made that on wheat and corn in this State we 

 can add a very large percentage to the profit of the crop by 

 using some particular fertilizer adapted to that particular crop 

 and the soil that it grows on. I have no doubt but that by the 

 liberal use of fertilizing salt the wheat crop of Minnesota could 

 be increased thirty per cent, and of that you gain at least twenty 

 per cent profit. Wherever the salt has been used the result has 

 always been beneficial, and yet I presume there is not one farmer 

 in a hundred in this State that will use fertilizing salt this year, 



