FARM EXPERIMENTS AT LAKESIDE. 105 



explicitly, and thus avoid the possibility of any mis- 

 understanding, the farm was raised from its unpro- 

 ductive condition, during the first three or five 

 years of the experiment, by special fertilizers, so 

 that by increase of products it has been made capa- 

 ble of sustaining a herd of animals, which animals 

 now supply all the fertilizing material needed, and 

 the manufacture and use of chemical fertilizers have 

 been in a large measure suspended. In short, the 

 experiment has practically come to an end through 

 its perfect .success. 



In bringing about these results, fifteen tons of 

 bones, one hundred bushels of unleached ashes, 

 four tons of fish pomace, two tons of Peruvian 

 guano, five hundred pounds of crude potash, one 

 ton of oil of vitriol, ten casks of lime, and several 

 hundred pounds altogether of sulphate of magnesia, 

 nitrates of soda and potassa, chloride of sodium, 

 oxide of manganese, sulphate of iron, sulphate of 

 ammonia, etc., have been employed. Eight tons of 

 the bones have been made on the farm into what is 

 known as " superphosphate," by dissolving them in 

 the condition of fine powder in oil of vitriol ; three 

 tons have been combined with unleached wood 

 ashes ; and the remaining four tons have been used 

 in various ways, one portion in the raw or natural 

 condition, another by rotting in contact with moist 

 soil or peat, another for obtaining phosphoric acid, 

 and in other forms for experimental purposes. 



