178 BOARD OF AGRICULTUliE. [Pub. Doc. 



We have a laro^e flat field that is rich in leo;umes and vea:- 

 etable matter, almost clay-like, and we used nitrate of soda 

 there with satisfactory results. 



I will tell you something about the soil where the bone 

 meal gave good results. It is a kind of a medium loam : a 

 good fair amount of clay, — between what you might pick 

 out as the best of corn land and the best of grass land ; a 

 good soil for average crops. It is well drained. That soil 

 with bone meal applied since 1884 gave us a crop of corn 

 amounting to over thirty tons to the acre. 



Mr. Andrew H. Ward (of Boston). I concur with the 

 speaker fully in what he said in his able address. It covered 

 the ground fully so far as the use of commercial fertilizers is 

 concerned. But there is one point to which the professor 

 has not referred ; that is, the cost of fertilization, and that is 

 an all-important point to the farmer. Manure to the farmer 

 is what capital is to the merchant. A farmer can no more 

 carry on farming operations profitably without manure than 

 a merchant can carry on business without capital. The mer- 

 chant may go into the market with borrowed capital to do 

 his business, but, if he has to pay an exorbitant rate of 

 interest, it is only a question of time when he will fail. The 

 farmer may go into the market and buy fertilizers, and, if 

 he paj^s an exorbitant price for them, he does not get value 

 received, and is running deeper and deeper into poverty as 

 lono; as he goes on. 



I will refer to the report of our former secretary. He 

 said in one of his reports that at the price farmers were 

 paying for commercial fertilizers in the market, the manure 

 from one well-fed cow for twelve months was worth more 

 than forty-five dollars. It was no mean addition to the milk 

 and butter product of the cow, and should be counted as a 

 part of the income. The farmers can see from this that they 

 are paying three times the amount of money for fertilizers 

 that they should pay. Take our experiment stations that 

 our farmers so thoroughly rely upon, and that have done so 

 much good in various lines and in other lines have done so 

 much harm. The experiment stations add twenty per cent 

 to the market values of fertilizers. Do the farmers get 

 twenty per cent added to the market quotations of their 



