92 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



two for indefinite time to come is assured in the deposits of 

 phosphates and potash salts alreadj' discovered. But the supply 

 of the nitrogen is still in question. This costliest of the fertilizing 

 elements escapes from our soils into the air and into the sea, and 

 is taken away b}- crops, and not completely returned. The artificial 

 supplies in commercial fertilizers promise to meet but a small 

 fraction of the coming demand. If, as some are inclined to 

 believe, the exhaustless stores of the atmosphere are not available 

 to plants, the outlook is dark enough. But if the farmer may use 

 his plants to gather it without money and without price, we may 

 dismiss our solicitude. With the assurance that plants obtain 

 nitrogen from the air, the dismal doctrine of Malthus, which 

 prophesies starvation for the over-populated earth of the future, 

 may, with other kindred forms of pessimism, be happily ignored. 

 That the research of the future will bring the brighter answer to 

 this problem, there seems to me to be most excellent ground to 

 hope. 



Discussion. 



William H. Bowker was called on and said that if nitrogen 

 could be procured more cheaply the fertilizers of which some 

 complain as being too high priced, could be sold much cheaper. 

 The discoverer of a method of supplying nitrogen cheaply will be 

 one of the greatest benefactors of the farmers. Perhaps the 

 Creator has withheld this knowledge for wise purposes ; if we had 

 possessed it we might not have utilized waste material as 

 thoroughly as we have. 



William C. Strong had been greatlj' interested in the lecture, 

 and felt that practical men ought to co-operate with scientists in 

 such investigations as Professor Atwater had described, although 

 he still thought they must be mainl}' in the hands of scientists. 

 Farmers have not the time to give to them. 



William H. Hunt was glad to hear that there are farmers who 

 have made such valuable experiments. Many experiments made 

 by farmers are of little value, because some important point is 

 left out. Still they can, b}' taking care, gain valuable information 

 from experiment. 



William D. Philbrick asked if there are any means by which 

 we can make use of the wonderful microbes which had been 

 described by the lecturer, and hasten their operations. 



