68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and I desire to say, in justice to the Charleston superphos- 

 phate, that any man who visits the factories there, and sees it 

 in the process bf manufacture, will come away with the con- 

 clusion that the superphosphate, as it leaves the factory, is 

 unadulterated. Not only will he come to that conclusion from 

 the character of the men who are interested in it, but he will 

 see that there is no chance for adulteration ; there is no mate- 

 rial about the factory with which they can adulterate it. It 

 is simply the ground rock, treated with dilute sulphuric acid, 

 and then mixed with dried meats, or guano, or potash salts, 

 according to the market to which it is going. There is no 

 further addition to it, and no chance for any further addition. 



As to the use of it in the South, I will say that in 1872, as 

 one travelled from Charleston through Georgia, until he 

 reached Tennessee, he would not pass a station without see- 

 ing bags of superphosphate lying upon the platform, or with- 

 out noticing the smell of it as it entered the car windows. 

 If any superphosphate is good, this Charleston superphos- 

 phate must be good; if any is pure, that is pure. I only 

 wonder that it has not been introduced more extensively into 

 foreign markets. If any person desires to get a superphos- 

 phate, if he gets this article of an honest dealer, and gets the 

 material which leaves the factory in Charleston, he may be 

 certain that he has a pure article ; I have not the slightest 

 question of it. I think, moreover, that this superphosphate 

 is furnished by the factories about as cheaply as we can expect 

 to obtain it. It was stated to me as a fact, by an authority 

 which I cannot question, that up to 1872 more money had 

 been lost than made in this superphosphate business there. 

 Some factories had been successful, but the larger part had 

 either failed entirely or were running at a loss, hoping for 

 better times. 



The Chairman. I desire to state to the meeting, as a 

 matter of justice, that the committee of arrangements have 

 laid out a certain programme of proceedings, which is liberal, 

 large and ample. They have provided for this morning a 

 lecture on "Fertilizers and their Application," which you 

 have just heard with so much interest, and also a "Report 

 upon Experiments with Fertilizers at the Agricultural 

 College," by the Professor of Practical Agriculture, at the 



