82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



were perfectly satisfied with it. It was harvested about the 

 25th of September, and husked about the last of November, 

 and, of course, it is still hanging to dry. The experiments at 

 the College have been made by drying the corn and weighing 

 it in December, but in order that I might report here, I have 

 estimated seventy pounds in the ear to the bushel, and I 

 make the statement on that basis. The result was, that the 

 plot of land without manure produced thirty-four bushels to 

 the acre, the plot of land with manure which it was stipulated 

 would make fifty bushels more to the acre, made 83.28 

 bushels to the acre. That is, it did not come up to the state- 

 ment, by a little less than three pecks to the acre. It should 

 have made exactly fifty bushels, and it made 49.28. That is 

 the result of the experiment this year. 



So much, gentlemen, for the experiments with corn. Now, 

 I wish to detail some other experiments that have proved 

 absolute failures. Experiments have been tried in various 

 places, the materials having been sent out from the College to 

 Northfield, to Southampton, and other places, and every one 

 of them has proved a failure. Now, before detailing these 

 experiments, let me say that Dr. Goessmann, the chemist of 

 the College, and for that matter, the chemist of the State, 

 has assisted us by his counsel and advice wherever his help 

 was needed, and for the experiments on the College farm, has 

 himself made the phosphates, and he has compounded the 

 materials as I requested him, from time to time, when I 

 wanted them to apply ; so I knew, except in one case, what 

 I used, how it was mixed, and that there was no mistake 

 about it. Now, I come to where he made a mistake, where 

 I made a mistake, and where a series of experiments failed, 

 and I detail these experiments because, if anything, they 

 prove absolutely that I am on the right track, and if I can 

 learn anything by the failure of an experiment, it is worth 

 just as much to me as though I learned it by its success. We 

 must have nitrogen, potash, and phosphoric acid just in the 

 proportions to feed the plant that the plant mixes them when 

 it makes itself. Now, we must know what our potash is, 

 what our phosphate is, and what our nitrogen is, and we must 

 know that these are absolutely soluble. The potash was pro- 

 cured in Boston, coming to us with the certificate of a Boston 



