46 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pul). Doc. 



farmers. Tliey must depend upon barnyard manure as their 

 chief source of supply, supplementing this when necessary 

 with commercial fertilizers. 



We now come to another question that has been discussed 

 here this afternoon, namely : Can crops be grown upon com- 

 mercial fertilizers alone ? Ten years ago farmers generally 

 looked upon the so-called commercial fertilizers as stimulants 

 and not as actual plant food. This idea is being slowly but 

 generally discarded. Plants in order to develop themselves- 

 must take potash, soda, lime, magnesia, iron, sulphuric acid, 

 phosphoric acid and nitrogen from the soil. Nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid and potash are especially lacking, and it has been 

 found necessary to supply them from some source or other. 

 Now, it matters not, other things being equal, whether you 

 supply these ingredients in the form of barnyard manures, 

 or in the form of commercial fertilizers. Give the plant 

 opportunity to get them in an available form and crops can 

 be brought to maturity, because these ingredients are nothing 

 more or less than the real plant food. I have time only to 

 call your attention to the beneficial mechanical effects of 

 barnyard manure, and cannot stop to consider the special 

 forms of plant food most valuable to certain crops or classes 

 of crops. Neither have we time to consider how stal)le ma- 

 nure can best be utilized upon the farm, and why it is better 

 suited to some crops rather than to others. I believe, how- 

 ever, that fully as good crops can be raised upon the farm by 

 applying the so-called commercial manurial substances, pro- 

 viding they contain in approximately correct proportions, 

 sufficient quantities of phosphoric acid, nitrogen and potash,, 

 as by the liberal applications of barnyard manure. 



I think the questions of economy and environment will 

 have to be seriously considered before we can fully settle in 

 our minds as to whether or not we shall use barnyard ma- 

 nures or commercial manures in growing our crops. You will 

 notice that I said that a ton of average stable manure con- 

 tained 70 per cent of water. In every ton of manure, 

 therefore, carted on to our fields, we are carting 1,400 pounds 

 of water, 10 pounds of nitrogen, 10 pounds of potash and 

 6 pounds of phosphoric acid. Now, we must all agree that 

 labor is a very important consideration in. a. successful farm. 



