CHEMICAL FEETILIZERS. 141 



Disturb the shade only when water is required, or signs of mould 

 are Tisible, or the plants damp off; then give air for a short time 

 each day, wiping out the glass when it is removed ; this will gen- 

 erally remedy the trouble when practised a few times. When the 

 plants are in vigorous growth, and during the warm weather, give 

 considerable water, but withhold it almost entirely during the 

 winter, and give plenty of light at all tjmes. 



Discussion. 



No discussion of Mr. Halliday's paper was held, but the subject 

 of the last meeting — chemical fertilizers — was again taken up. 



John B. Moore said that the subject was a most important one 

 to farmers and market gardeners, and he thought Mr. French's 

 paper on the whole a very good one. Our main reliance must 

 always be on barnyard and stable manure ; the chemists will tell 

 us that that is the most perfect manure, and this will generally be 

 accepted. But, except in the neighborhood of large cities, no 

 market gardener who depends on this alone can raise his crops, 

 and consequently it must be supplemented with fertilizers, or we 

 cannot have the highest farming. All of us have used the so-called 

 superphosphates in years past, and all of us have been humbugged 

 with them. Their failure was due to two causes — improper manu- 

 facture and fraud. They are better now, for the law compels 

 every manufacturer to mark on his packages the quantity of each 

 of the ingredients, and this enables any man of common sense to 

 tell about what he ought to pay for the contents. 



Professor Stockbridge's idea is almost the same as that of M. 

 Ville — if there is anything new it is the exact specification of 

 quantities. Prof. Stockbridge claims to raise a certain quantity of 

 corn and stover more than the natural product of the land, and he 

 assumes that the fertilizers which he applies to produce this result 

 will, almost to a certainty, be all taken up by the crop, but Mr. 

 Moore believed that, however carefully they were incorporated 

 with the soil, some of them would not be used by the plants. Prof. 

 Stockbridge claims also that the soil is left in better condition 

 after applying the fertilizers and taking off' the crop, but this 

 would seem absurd, unless the powerful salts used have liberated 

 fertilizing substances already contained in the soil. Mr. Moore 

 said that he had himself doubled a crop of rye by applying guano. 



