14 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



and reliable body of citizens, who can understand thoroughly 

 well, and appreciate the example and accept the rules and 

 moral force of those great lives to which he has alluded. I 

 congratulate you that we have been able to meet in a town 

 where such examples can be presented to us ; and I am sure 

 that the Board itself must be grateful to him for the picture 

 that he has drawn of New England life, and for the oppor- 

 tunity that New England life itself affords for such human 

 plants to grow up, the pride and glory of the Common- 

 wealth in which we live. 



The first lecture of the session Avill be of the description 

 which I have given you ; that is, the teachings of a practi- 

 cal farmer with regard to one of the most delicate and difii- 

 cult questions known to agriculture, — the application of 

 commercial fertilizers, prepared by science itself, to the cul- 

 tivation of the soil. I have the pleasure of introducing to 

 you Mr. Silas G. Hubbard of Hatfield, who will speak of 

 his experience with commercial fertilizers. 



EXPERIENCE WITH COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



BY S. G. HUBBARD OF HATFIELD. 



In the year 1845 I was a student in this goodly town of 

 Easthampton. About that time, if I am not mistaken, Dr. 

 Gray issued the first American book upon the subject of 

 agricultural chemistry, and it was adopted as a text book 

 in Williston Seminary. A farmer's boy, I was attracted by 

 the title of the book, and took it up in my course of study. 

 It furnished some of the facts, as I remember, about the 

 formation of soils, germination of seeds, growth of plants, 

 and generalized about the new idea that chemical science 

 could be made useful to agriculture. 



Although far behind the advanced thought and experience 

 of the present day, it secured a good purpose as a first step 

 in the right direction ; it stimulated thought, produced 

 a condition of mhid to welcome the advent of more advanced 

 ideas, and cultivated a spirit of eagerness to try new sys- 

 tems of agricultural improvement. 



Some of you may remember how, at that time, and even 

 later, ' ' book farming " was scofied at and ridiculed by 

 prominent farmers of that day, and how some of them lived 



