No. 4.] COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 47 



management, and I do not l)elieve that we can afford to haul 

 manure long distances. The cost of handling this bulky 

 material must be carefully considered by the farmer. 



Again, certain farmers may be so situated that it would be- 

 far more economical for them to depend perhaps almost ex- 

 clusively upon commercial fertilizers in growing their crops.. 

 Local circumstances and conditions will determine which 

 course it is wiser to adopt. In summing up I would say that 

 I am perfectly confident that crops can be grown successfully 

 on commercial fertilizers, providing they get the requisite 

 amount of food in the form of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and 

 potash to enable them to reach their full development. I 

 further believe, however, that it is for the best interests of by 

 far the larger number of our Massachusetts farmers to pur- 

 sue a mixed system of farming, turning their fodder articles 

 into l)utter and milk, and returning the elements of fertility 

 that these crops have taken from the soil back again, and 

 supplementing their manure produced upon the farm by a 

 rational use of potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen pur- 

 chased in the form of commercial manurial substances. 



Mr. Chambeklayne (of Bourne). Mr. Chairman, there- 

 is but one subject in connection with the use of artificial fer- 

 tilizers of which I know anything whatever, but to that I 

 have given the thought and consideration of a large numl)er 

 of years. I have prepared a statement for submission to 

 this meeting upon that aspect of the fertilizer qucvstion, and 

 I shall ask permission to state in brief the point which I am 

 endeavoring to place before you, desiring that the statement 

 wdiicli I have prepared may be taken as my remarks. The 

 only point — and I shall take l)ut a moment of your time — 

 is in relation to the very important one of fish as a source of 

 fertilizing material in plant food. I am afraid that all the 

 members who are before me do not recognize how absolutely 

 important that question is to our section of the State. It is 

 a question which we have to consider every year and all days 

 in the year ; and it is a question on which it is important 

 that legislation should be had. It is the farmers who are 

 going to decide what that legislation shall be, and one side 

 of that question has been very fully submitted to this Board 

 at its last annual meeting. Therefore, I desire, as repre- 



