CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS. 145 



farmers of Massachusetts as the springs of their hills, and they 

 may go where they choose to buy their materials, and do their own 

 compounding. And with equal earnestness I declare, if there is 

 an}^ force in law, no man shall have the privilege of manufacturing 

 these fertilizers unless he is under m^'^ control, to the end that no 

 such fraud and scoundrelism shall be practised on farmers in this, 

 as have been practised in the case of some fertilizers. 



Levi Stockbridge." 



Mr. Bowker added that he did not assume to defend Prof. Stock- 

 bridge or his formulas. That the Professor was fully able to do. 

 He thought Mr. Moore's remarks very fair and candid, and fully 

 agreed with him that barn^'ard manure is the best of all fertilizers, 

 in that it seemed to be adapted to all plants, and also had a won- 

 derful mechanical and chemical effect upon the soil. But the sup- 

 ply is not equal to the demand, and the question is, how shall we 

 supplement it? It is impossible to know just what we have in our 

 soils, but Prof. Stockbridge assumes that they are barren, and ap- 

 plies what each crop requires, thus really feeding it as you feed 

 your animals. Is it not better, knowing what plants require, to 

 apply those substances, than to keep on in the hap-hazard course 

 which we have heretofore pursued, applying this thing and that, 

 regardless of their wants? The formulas do not pretend to be 

 infallible, and with further expedience will probably be modified. 

 With reference to Peruviau guano — that contains an excess of nitro- 

 gen and phosphoric acid, but only a small percentage of potash. 

 Is it not better, therefore, to apply a fertilizer containing all the 

 elements needed by plants, than a fertilizer deficient in either ? 

 The reason farmers have thought that fertilizers exhausted their 

 soils, is that they were deficient in one or more of the elements of 

 plant food, while containing an excess of others. 



Marshall P. Wilder said that our motive in discussing this sub- 

 ject should be to treat it fairl}^ and he was very glad to hear Mr. 

 Bowker say that Capt. Moore had done so. He was at first dis- 

 pleased with the idea of patenting these fertilizers, believing that 

 the public were entitled to all the information that could be acquired 

 by the College, but on reflection he found that Prof. Stockbridge's 

 patent only precluded the selling of these fertilizers under his 

 name and as prepared by him, and that no one would be prevented 

 from buying the ingredients and mixing them for his own use. 



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