62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



Secretary Sessions. If the soil is richer in one of those 

 ingredients than in the others, a special application of those 

 in which it is deficient may be of profit. Ought we not, 

 therefore, to find out the condition of the soil in that 

 regard ? 



Dr. Fisher. I think it is a waste of time to expend it in 

 that direction. If I have a merino mill and want to produce 

 some merino goods, I do not ask whether there is some 

 material stored away perhaps in one of the back rooms of 

 my factory, but I furnish the cotton and wool and make my 

 goods. If I want to produce a thousand yards of merino, I 

 must furnish to that factory the complement of cotton and 

 wool to make it with. If my factory happens to have a lot 

 of cotton on hand, it does not influence me at all, and it 

 does not influence me on my land. I do not ask my land 

 anything about it. 



Secretary Sessions. I do not believe that the doctor, if 

 he had plenty of cotton in his mill, would go to the expense 

 of duplicating the cotton as well as buying the wool. That 

 is the point I wish to make. 



Dr. Fisher. I might not do it for one year. Suppose 

 you had a quantity of cotton on hand ; you would furnish 

 wool enough to go with it, but you would not expect your 

 mill was going to furnish you every year with that amount 

 of cotton. That is the principle. 



Secretary Sessions. No, not at all. 



Dr. Fisher. A man experiments a little, and concludes 

 that his land does not want potash, and he never applies any 

 more potash in the whole course of his life. That is all a 

 mistake. Furnish to every plant just what the plant needs, 

 and call the soil nothing but the mere shell in which the work 

 is done. 



Mr. Paul. There is one very practical point with which 

 those who are cultivating asparagus have to deal, and that is 

 the beetle. The asparagus beetle appeared early at the 

 South, and worked its way into south-eastern Massachu- 

 setts. It appeared there a year before it was found in the 

 vicinity of Boston. I have a field of two acres, and the 

 beetles came into that field, and I had a great deal of trouble 

 with them. I think I expended one year in labor, and about 



