CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS. 147 



have proved successful. He deemed their beneficial effects much 

 less dependent upon the character of the season than some of the 

 previous speakers thought. In an unfavorable season they would 

 give the plant a start which would be a great assistance in over- 

 coming injurious influences. He thought that the use of these 

 fertilizers would add twent3-five per cent, to the value of our poor 

 lands. 



Mr. Fuller asked whether an}- one ever heard of a general pre- 

 scription for sick men, without regard to their condition or needs. 

 He did not think it practicable- for every farmer to employ a 

 chemist to analyze his soil ; even analysis would be defective and 

 only approximate the truth, because the nutritiA'e substances in 

 the soil, to be available and effective, must have certain relative 

 forms and conditions, still unknown. But every farmer knows, at 

 least, whether his soil is full of lime, or sand, or peat, or clay, and 

 whether it is wet or dry, and its common aspect. He can then 

 determine how to treat it. But is ft not a fallacy to assume, as 

 Prof. Stockbridge does, that all soils are barren? If all we need 

 for a clay field is tillage, sand, and air, why should we bu}' and put 

 into it all the elements he prescribes ? Chemical analysis shows 

 that pipe clay has all the elements of a fertile soil, and yet it is 

 one of the most barren, because it is too compact and has not the 

 capacity to take from the air the oxygen and carbonic acid needed 

 by plants, and to allow fine roots to penetrate it : but b}' calcina- 

 tion such soils become fertile. AVill his fertilizer effect this? And 

 ought we to waste our mone^' for things not needed ? All his for- 

 mulas embrace nitrogen, potash, and carbonic acid — excellent 

 things in their proper place ; but all of these cannot always be 

 wanted, nor can they be often wanted in such quantities as he has 

 prescribed, for all soils are not barren or alike. 



Charles M. Hovey said that both Mr. Fuller and himself had 

 fallen into the same train of thought. He had discussed this sub- 

 ject many years ago in the "Magazine of Horticulture." He 

 thought a chemical analysis of a soil entirel}' unnecessary to a 

 man^of good judgment. Mr. French, in his paper, had stated that 

 the fertile soils of the Scioto valley, by analysis appeared scarcely 

 difierent from the fertile soils of New England. All cultivators 

 of plants in pots believe that a virgin loam is nccessar3' to success. 

 Much depends on the physical and mechanical condition of the 

 soil ; it must be aerated as well as enriched, and Mr. Hovey 



