CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS. 127 



The fallow yield of a piece of laud is the practical measure of its 

 fertility'. 



Let us apply this rule, continued the speaker, to our supposition. 

 We apply to our highly manured field a further amount of fertilizer — 

 say for twent3^-five bushels of corn — and we obtain seventy-five 

 bushels of crop. We claim, for this illustration, twenty-five bushels 

 for the effect of the fertilizer applied this year, forty bushels for the 

 effect of the manure which has been applied in past years, and of 

 which sufficient still remains* to produce this result, and ten bushels 

 for the natural fertility of the land : for if we take a plot which is 

 too barren to produce corn, and plough and grub and scarify for 

 one year, the next year it will produce some corn, and the amount 

 may be ten bushels. 



Dr. Sturtevant said that he believed in the principle of the 

 Stockbridge formulas, because it is a system ; and a systematic 

 procedure always has an advantage over a hap-hazard procedure, 

 for it develops experience in its train. He thought it promised 

 great present benefit to the farmer, and very much prospective 

 benefit. Farm practice will soon remove it beyond its experi- 

 mental stage, and as its defects are brought to light, the experience 

 gained will stand ready as a corrective. He could not at present 

 endorse this system, for it is still in its experimental stage, but he 

 was willing to protect and cherish the chrysalis in the hopes and 

 strong expectation of the imago which might result. 



He concluded by saying that the matter is now beyond the over- 

 sight of the Professor, and that it became us all, before criticising 

 too harshly, to give it an experimental trial, for it would take but 

 a short time to test it b}' numbers, and to observe whether it would 

 stand the test ; that truth was mighty and would prevail, and that 

 it was for the present generation to say whether progress should 

 be present with them, for their benefit, or whether it should be 

 embalmed for their successors. He urged not to despise the un- 

 tried, nor to be too tightly bound by our prejudices, but to give 

 the new a welcome according to its promise, and to test the 

 Ijromise by care-taking, cautious experiment. 



Benjamin P. Ware said he had long been of the opinion that 

 farmers could not use the commercial fertilizers offered in 3'ears 

 past to advantage, and he had great hopes from the fertilizers 

 recommended by Prof. Stockbridge. There was one important 

 point omitted in Judge French's paper, and that is that nature has 



