U8 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



Question. In this compound, of which 18 per cent is 

 given, what is the other 82 per cent? Why not let us 

 have 360 pounds, for instance, and not compel us to take 

 2,000? 



Mr. BowKEii. I thinlv the doctor here can explain tliat 

 better than 1 can. I Avould attemj^t it, but he is here, and 

 he will give you the chemistry of it. 



Dr. Jordan. It isn't the lirst time that the fertilizer 

 manufacturer has appealed to the scientist to help him out 

 of a hole. You needn't lay that u}) against the fertilizer 

 manufacturer, though. There are some good things about 

 him. 



Wh}^, my friend, this is the explanation. You see, he 

 sells you nitrogen, but he has got to have that hitched to a 

 lot of other stuff, in order to hold it. He sells you phos- 

 phoric acid and he sells you potash, but if he were to sell 

 you actual })hosphoric acid and actual potash, it would burn 

 the skin all off your fingers, and would play all sorts of 

 tricks on the crops ; so he has to have them hitched to some- 

 thing that makes a pleasant compound to handle, and that 

 the plants are willing to take. That is why you get the 

 rest of it, with the exception — now I am going to answer 

 that question just as I please — with the exception that 

 when the manufacturers gather the sentiment of the farmers 

 that buy a low-priced fertilizer, then they put in something. 

 The}^ do it because they believe it expedient in trade, be- 

 cause the farmer asks for it. 



Mr. BowKER. We sometimes make it from a low-grade 

 material. 



Dr. Jordan. Yes, that is true. 



Mr. E. A. AYaters (of Worcester). I want to ask one 

 (juestion, but before, I want to state a case about alfalfa. 

 Some five 3'ears ago we cleaned up an old wood lot and cul- 

 tivated it for two years, — I think it is three years since we 

 seeded it. 1 don't know Just the time of sowing that alfalfa, 

 but some of it came up there and fiourished, has done well. 

 If we farmers here in Xew England would raise more alfalfa, 

 soy beans, peas and oats for our stock, we wouldn't have to 

 discuss this fertilizing question so much ; we would be put- 



