CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS. 129 



There was some reason for giving Morse and Howe patents for in- 

 ventions which they had labored dining a whole lifetime to perfect, 

 but to come forward and patent these old ideas was ridiculous, and 

 beneath the dignity of an institution endowed by the State for pro- 

 moting agriculture, and in which the patentee was a professor. 

 Why might we not apply the elements to produce a hundred and 

 fifty bushels; or even two hundred, as had been grown in South 

 Carolina ; or two hundred and sixty-three, as in Ohio? He did not 

 know that there was any limit to the amount that could be pro- 

 duced, if you once admit it can be increased exactl}^ fifty bushels. 

 He agreed with the gentleman w^ho had spoken of the large pro- 

 portion of plant food derived from the air. We cut down a wood 

 and burn it and get a large quantit}'- of charcoal ; does this ail come 

 from the fertilizer? A rich soil, if not ploughed more than three 

 inches deep, will not produce a good crop. Jethro TuU believed 

 that by thoroughly' and constantly stirring the soil, crops might be 

 produced continually, without the application of 'manure. The 

 statement made by Dr. Sturtevant in regard to the different efl["ects 

 of an P^nglish and a New England winter on the soil, explained 

 the general superiority of English lawns over our own. 



Mr. Wilder thanked Mr. Hove}^ for what he had said. In the 

 remarks which he had himself previously made, he wished to disa- 

 buse the public mind of the idea that the Agricultural College had 

 any connection with these fertilizers. 



Eobert Manning thought that while the fact remained that these 

 formulas were put forth b}' a professor in the Agricultural College, 

 and were the result of studies in the service of the college, the 

 public mind would not be reconciled to the idea of a patent for 

 them. 



Leander Wetherell asked if the Agricultural College did not 

 indorse the Stockbridge fertilizers. 



Mr. French replied by reading the following passage concerning 

 them, from the "• Thirteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural College," page 15 : " If one-half of the apparent 

 results shall be substantiated by the future experience of the 

 farmers of the country, then the mone}^ expended upon the College 

 will yield a larger rate of interest than any other investment which 

 the State has ever made." 



Mr. Wetherell deemed it fair to presume that the crop would 

 take up all the fertilizers put on to produce the additional fifty 



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