FERTILIZERS. 537 



ate its practical value, in the minds of farmers generally. On 

 many soils it has been shown that very large additions of vari- 

 ous potassic compounds fail to increase, in any way, the growth 

 of the crop. There may be coastwise soils, of a sandy charac- 

 ter, and tertiary or more modern origin, lacking potash, and 

 upon which potassic fertilizers may be made to pay. On good 

 clay loams, containing much decomposed feldspar and mica, it 

 is a mere waste to apply potash. One of the best and most 

 experienced farmers in Piedmont, Virginia, informed the writer 

 that he had applied the German potash salts to his land, to 

 various crops, and in various quantities, ranging as high as 

 1000 pounds per acre, without the smallest perceptible effect in 

 any case ; or upon any crop, grass, legume, cereal, root, or to- 

 bacco. He said he would not give $2 a shipload for it, delivered 

 in his barn-yard. And yet the old statements are everywhere 

 repeated by misled scientific men, without any effort at verifica- 

 tion. The time of the experiment stations is largely given to 

 analyzing and reporting after the old fashion, and the pretence 

 is still advertised, that millions are hereby saved to the farmers, 

 by driving out of the markets worthless goods. No such thing 

 is true ; but it is true that a tax is laid upon the fertilizer trade, 

 ultimately paid by the farmers, which tax goes mainly to pay 

 the salaries and other expenses of the station. There never 

 was any difficulty in detecting gross fraud in a fertilizer, either 

 by analysis or without it, from results in the field. But as' the 

 matter now stands, the dealer has only to make the stuff analyze 

 well, and, backed up by the station certificate, he goes into court 

 and enforces collections for utterly worthless trash. This whole 

 subject has been worked onto a false basis, and it needs to be 

 reformed from bottom to top. 



There is no room to doubt that, for twenty years past, there 

 has been a pretty steady decline in the crop-producing value of 

 manipulated commercial fertilizers ; due, in part, unquestion- 

 ably, to the exhaustion of the organic matter from our soils, by 

 neglect of fallow crops and animal manures, and continual 

 dependence upon fertilizers ; but due, in greater measure, to 

 the use of inferior materials, which analyze well in compounding 

 the manipulated goods. This result has been encouraged, and 



