196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



manure which is now brought to our notice, upon our pas- 

 tures and meadow-lands, and see what it will do. Prof. 

 Goessmaim thinks it will be more efficacious upon moist lands 

 than dry, because the phosphate, on moist lands, becomes 

 immediately soluble. Of course, it would be a great deal 

 better to try it upon laud that is drained ; but those who have 

 not drained land can try it upon moist pastures and meadows, 

 and see what the result is. After we have made our experi- 

 ments, let us report them to the next meeting of the State 

 Board, either by letter to the Secretary or by personal attend- 

 ance ; and Ave can in that way, I think, arrive at some results 

 which will be of more benefit to us than merely coming here to 

 be amused and instructed by these lectures, without putting 

 the instruction we receive to any practical purpose. 



Mr. T. S. Gold, Secretary of State Board of Agriculture 

 of Connecticut. I merely rise to say a word in explanation 

 of an apparent anomaly in the remarks of Mr. Harris, with 

 regard to the value of manure from the various articles of food 

 which he mentioned. Mr. Harris, you will recollect, made 

 out that the manure from a ton of bran w y as worth more than 

 the bran cost. To us farmers this appears to be an anomalous 

 and unfair assertion, and it needs a word of explanation. 

 The chemist does not profess to give us the actual value of 

 the different materials used as fertilizers, but the relative 

 value, and the phosphates may be worth a great deal more or 

 a great deal less than sixteen cents a pound, and the nitrogen 

 may be worth a great deal more or a great deal less, accord- 

 ing to the circumstances of our location, and the manner in 

 which we use these materials. I understand that in some 

 parts of Connecticut, for instance, the farmers pay fourteen 

 dollars a cord for common barn-yard manure to apply to 

 certain crops, while there are other sections of the State 

 where we cannot raise any crops that would enable us to 

 make any such expenditure as that. We must remember that 

 all the conditions are to be taken into account under which 

 we apply these fertilizers. If we apply them, and allow 

 w r eeds to grow and take the strength of the fertilizers, 

 you plainly see it is done at a loss. The prices of the 

 chemist must be taken with this explanation. They are only 

 the relative prices at which nitrogen, phosphate of lime, phos- 



