CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS. 117 



called to the subject, by men of the highest scientific attainments, 

 and careful and long continued experiments have been con- 

 ducted by those most capable of affording accurate results. In 

 our own State, we have at the present time, almost forced upon 

 our attention, the claims of a new series of fertilizers, to which 

 at the request of your Committee, I propose to giA^e some 

 attention. 



The Stockbridge Fertilizers. — These fertilizers are offered to 

 the public under circumstances so extraordinary as to challenge 

 the attention of agriculturists everywhere. Mr. Stockbridge is 

 Professor of Agriculture in the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege. His experiments have been conducted upon the college 

 farm, and his report on the subject occupies twenty-three of the 

 seventy-nine pages of the annual report of the college made to 

 the Legislature in January', 1876. The president of the college 

 alludes to the professor's valuable discoveries and says, " For 

 the continuation of his investigations the professor ought to have 

 Si, 000 per annum for ten years." Prof. Stockbridge announces in 

 the college report that he has " received a United States patent, 

 covering the right to manufacture and sell fertilizers prepared 

 according to these [his] formulas." 



The new report of the Board of Agriculture, for 1875-6, con- 

 tains, in a lecture by Prof. Stockbridge, substantially what the Ag- 

 ricultural College report contains, and so at the public cost, if not 

 under the express sanction of that Board, the claims of the Pro- 

 fessor are laid before the people. It is due to the Board of Agri- 

 culture, and its learned Secretary, to say that their report shows 

 no official sanction of the claims of Prof. Stockbridge, nor indeed 

 any allusion to them, except that his lecture at a public meeting 

 forms a part of their report. 



It is unfortunate that a patent has been taken for these formulas, 

 because, if it is valid, it prevents the use of them except by per- 

 mission of the patentee, and the payment of such royalties as he 

 may choose to exact, and, however fairl}'^ intended to prevent im- 

 position, gives the appearance of a pecuniary speculation to an en- 

 terprise emanating from a public institution, whose discoveries in 

 agriculture should be as free as air to all our citizens. 



Professor Stockbridge's Theory and Claims. — The general 

 statement of the value and effects of these fertilizers may be 

 found in the advertisement of the person named by Prof. Stock- 



