No. 4.] SOIL FERTILITY. 141 



ally failing to make an intelligent study of the needs of their 

 particular farms, and were buying such fertilizers as the 

 manufacturers ha})pened to put in their hands, without any 

 clear conception as to whether these mixtures were efficiently 

 and economically strengthening the fertility of the soils under 

 their control. Eight years have now passed, and I must 

 confess that there has not been that improvement in the gen- 

 eral practice pertaining to the use of fertilizers that I had 

 hoped to see. The only general proposition which to my 

 remembrance has ever been made concerning the feeding 

 of plants, and which appeared to be based upon scientific 

 facts, was made by the late Professor Stockbridge, who 

 advocated the compounding of manures in accordance with 

 the amounts of ingredients withdrawn from the soil by crops. 

 On this basis mixtures known as the Stockbridge manures 

 were placed upon the market. They were of high grade in 

 texture and quality, and certainly were efficient, but of 

 doubtful economy. L^nless I mistake the tendencies of agri- 

 cultural practice, the trend of opinion has been away from 

 these mixtures during the past several years. 



It is clear, I think, in view of our new factors of knowl- 

 edge, previously referred to, that we should very largely 

 abandon the mathematical basis of feeding plants. There 

 is no force, certainly no business wisdom, in the proposition 

 that we shall add potash to a soil rich in potash, for fear that 

 it will some time become exhausted below the point of luxu- 

 riant crop production. When the soil needs potash, let us 

 add it, but not until then. The rational thing for the farmer 

 to do is to so maintain the land mider his control that it is 

 prepared for the i)roduction of the crop which he desires to 

 grow. In other words, he is to make good the deficiencies 

 of the soil when used for a particular purpose. The needs 

 of the plants to be grown must be considered, of course, 

 but our work is to prepare our fields to meet these needs. 



But I am met with.the old and somewhat stale objection 

 that farmers do not know the needs of their land, and cannot 

 learn them. What a low ideal this is to present to agricul- 

 tural practice ! The fact is, some of our more intelligent 

 agriculturists, especially those producing fruit, are buying 



