102 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



remainder of the field. The tract where the fertilizer was applied 

 covild not be distinguished from that where it was not. It was 

 applied early in the spring and followed by abundant rains. This 

 failure, however, had not shaken his confidence in the general cor- 

 rectness of Prof. Stockbridge's theor}-^, for the road to success is 

 through failures. 



Robert Manning gave an account of an experiment similar to 

 that made by Mr. Merriam, which resulted more satisfactorily. In 

 a mowing field an acre was carefully measured, and the Stockbridge 

 formula for English hay and clover was applied. The increase in 

 the crop on this acre over that where no fertilizer was applied was 

 very plainly perceptible, but the whole crop having been sold stand- 

 ing, the exact difference could not be ascertained. He was quite 

 sure, however, that the increase in the crop of last year was not 

 sufficient to pa}" the cost of the fertilizer. 



Mr. Moore agreed with Prof. Stockbridge as to the value of the 

 articles named as fertilizers, but in his view the theory could not be 

 carried out. The formula for potatoes is, to produce one hundi'ed 

 bushels per acre, and in like proportion for other quantities. Sup- 

 pose 3'ou wish to produce four hundred bushels per acre, and apply 

 four times the quantity named, to soil extremely rich in nitrogen. 

 In that case the potatoes would all run to tops, and jou would not 

 get any tubers at all. The effect would be precisely the same as 

 every one has seen when potatoes were grown on the site of a ma- 

 nure heap. Mr. Moore agreed with Prof. Stockbridge, that a soil 

 could not be analyzed so as to afford any valuable results to the 

 farmer. Prof. Mapes would invite farmers to send him a little of 

 their soils to analj-ze, and he would engage to tell them from it 

 what fertilizer to use. Suppose the sample happened to be taken 

 from a spot where cattle had dropped manure ; it would then be 

 impossible to arrive at any correct result. Or if you took an aver- 

 age sample there might be half a dozen different kinds of soil in one 

 field. Analysis might show potash where there was none available 

 for plant food. He thought that Prof. Stockbridge had done a 

 great deal of good l)}- bringing about the agitation of this subject, 

 but he could distinguish no difference between the Stockbridge 

 theory and that of Prof. Ville, which was promulgated many years 

 ago. He had used all the articles of which the Stockbridge fertili- 

 zers are composed, for 3'ears. 



Prof. Stockbridge was confident that four hundred bushels of po- 



