104 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. "Wetherell read from M. Ville's sixth lecture, — " First : There 

 exist four regulating agents par excellence in the production of vege- 

 tables, — nitrogenous matter, phosphate of lime, potassa, and lime. 

 Second : To preserve to the earth its fertility, we must supply it 

 periodically with these four substances in quantities equal to those 

 removed by the crops." Also from his first lecture : " The anal3'sis 

 of aU known vegetables, or the products extracted from them, leads 

 to this very unexpected fact, — that fifteen elements only concur in 

 these innumerable formations. These fifteen elements, which alone 

 serve to constitute all vegetable matter, are divided into two 

 groups: — First: The organic elements, which are encountered 

 only in the productions of organized beings, and the source of 

 which is found in the air, and in water. They are carbon, hydrogen, 

 ox3^gen, nitrogen. Second : The mineral elements, which resist 

 combustion, and which are derived from the solid crust of the globe. 

 They are potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, silicium, sulphur, 

 phosphorus, chlorine, iron, manganese, aluminium." 



Mr. Wetherell said it was taken for granted that all but the four 

 substances named are contained in the soil ; and Prof. Stockbridge 

 had said that chemicals will do just as well as barn-3'ard manure in 

 making crops. The speaker alluded to the sanguine gentleman 

 who predicted a time coming when the manure for an acre of 

 ground could be carried in the waistcoat pocket, and was answered 

 by another gentleman that when that time came the crop could 

 be carried in the other pocket. Mr. Wetherell asked, "Why 

 should we handle barn-yard manure if plant food can be furnished 

 equally well with so much less bulli ? If Ville and Professor Stock- 

 bridge are right in claiming what they, especially the latter, do, viz. : 

 apply a given amount of fertilizers and harvest a given amount of 

 corn per acre, say sixty or ninety bushels, then has farming become 

 well-nigh an exact science. If the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- 

 lege has reached this point it has made a valuable discovery, and 

 only two uncertain points remain : one is atmospheric influences, and 

 the other is the insects injurious to vegetation. If these two points 

 can be settled as certainly as that relative to fertilizers, then farm- 

 ing would be an exact science. Mr. Wetherell concluded by saying 

 that lie owned a small farm, and if Prof. Stockbridge confirms his 

 hypothesis, as stated, he should consider the value of his farm more 

 than doubled. 



Nathaniel T. Allen mentioned a visit which he paid to an exper- 



