FERTILIZERS. 97 



exhibitions at Chiswick were looked for, and said tliat tlie reports 

 of our own exhibitions in the ' ' Transcript " were read with much 

 eagerness. He thought it desirable that they should contain the 

 names of varieties in prize collections. 



Other gentlemen made some remarks on this subject, after which 

 Professor Levi Stockbridge, of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege, was introdviced, and delivered a lecture, of which the substance 

 is here given, on 



Fertilizers. 

 Prof. Stockbridge expressed his feeling of obligation to the 

 Society for the opportunity to give his views on a subject which he 

 regarded as of the highest importance to the nation. The first idea 

 • that strikes an individual in considering the subject is that it has 

 been discussed year after year and the same questions repeated 

 under no new circumstances. The inquiry arises whether in this 

 matter there is anj'thing settled. Something ought by this time to 

 be finished and made a rule of practice. In endeavoring to arrive at 

 certaint}' in regard to this subject, we find, first, that there is in the 

 United States, especially in the seaboard states, which have been 

 longest settled, absolute necessity for artificial fertilization. The soil 

 has been tilled so long, and so much has been carried away in the form 

 of crops, that it is far less fertile than when cultivation began. This 

 point being established, it follows, secondly, that the same state of 

 things will alwa^^s continue, unless the soil is assisted by artificial 

 means. By Nature's processes, all crops decaying on the soil, it 

 becomes marvellously fertile, but when we come we product an 

 eutirel}^ difterent state of things. All the agencies of Nature work 

 together to prepare plant food, but our power to remove is greater 

 than Nature's to prepare, and will so continue. 



The third point is. How shall we supply by artificial means the 

 deficiency which we have artificially created ? 



The first thing to do is to aid nature in developing plant food by 

 tillage, under which term the speaker included all physical opera- 

 tions on the soil. The next is to put back, as far as possible, all 

 material carried away. We find after using our crops that there is 

 a certain amount of refuse left, and to put that back is the most 

 natural way of supplying food to our crops. This brings us to 

 barn-yard manure, the best fertilizer, for all the general purposes of 

 the farm, that we shall ever find, for it not only feeds the plant, but 

 produces important physical eSects on the soil. 

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