146 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The question for us to solve is, how much each plant needs, and 

 how much we shall apply, and he hoped that every gentleman 

 present would apply these fertilizers which have been recommended 

 by Dr. Sturtevant, Dr. Burnett, and Mr. Bowditch, and report the 

 results. He believed Mr. Moore to be one of the firmest friends of 

 the Agricultural College. Notwithstanding its imperfections there 

 is not another institution of the kind on the continent that will com- 

 pare with it. If it has been drawn into the support of these 

 fertilizers it is very unfortunate. 



Mr. Moore expressed the opinion that chemical analyses of soils 

 are extremely deceptive. With his powerful agents the chemist 

 will find potash in a soil when plants cannot possibly find it. If 

 a farmer has an analysis made of a sample of his soil he cannot 

 be sure that it is an average specimen, and if he takes a little here 

 and a little there how is he to make a prescription to suit the 

 different portions of his ground? 



Leander Wetherell, alluding to the experiment in applying 

 guano to rye, mentioned by Mr. Moore in his previous remarks, 

 asked why, if the guano contained all the elements of the rye, it 

 did not continue to grow rye year after year? 



Mr. Moore believed that there was something in the growth and 

 vital action of plants beyond the reach of anj' analysis that the 

 chemist had yet made. 



Josiah W. Talbot remarked that all chemists acknowledge that 

 rye needs potash, and that probably the failure of Mr. Moore's 

 rye was owing to the fact tliat the guano supplied none. Prof. 

 Stockbridge puts in all the elements needed. 



Mr. Moore asked how it would be supposing there was plenty 

 of potash in the soil. 



Mr. Talbot replied that if there was plenty of potash, in a state 

 to be taken up by the roots of the plants, there would be no need 

 of adding it, but if he could get a crop of rye by applying potash 

 in addition to other elements, he would be the gainer. In regard 

 to the patent, it is only intended to prevent dishonest persons 

 from mixing up a lot of spurious substances and selling them as 

 the Stockbridge fertilizers ; that is all there is about it, The for- 

 mulas furnish what the people want, and though they may not be 

 new they are not the less valuable. Prof. Stockbridge says that 

 here are formulas which will produce certain definite effects, and in 

 ninety-six cases out of a hundred where they have been trild they 



