FERTILIZERS. 71 



have to be modified to suit each particular case presented. 

 It is true that Professor Lawes says, that, after an experi- 

 ence of forty years, he knows little of certainty about the 

 soil ; what he has learned is, what plants feed on. This 

 seems to sustain the Stockbridge theory ; but when he 

 adds that he has learned, that, if he puts on an excess of 

 phosphoric acid or potash for any crop, he gets it back 

 in the next crop, his argument is one for the use of any 

 good fertilizer, rather than a formula. We all expect to 

 know more of the feeding-habits of plants, and the artificial 

 condition and natural character of soils, as years pass 

 on ; and, as this knowledge increases, the theory will have 

 the advantage of it, and be modified accordingly. The 

 Stockbridge theory gives us a starting-point. If we are to 

 wait, in all patience, until science points out a perfect way, 

 meanwhile we stagnate. 



Take the case of Mr. Bartholomew, the results of whose 

 soil-tests are frequently alluded to in the reports of the 

 Connecticut experiment station. By testing his soil, he has 

 really learned something of great value to him, though the 

 man of science may well say, that, as a scientific experi- 

 ment, it lacks lots of conditions. Now, can any one believe 

 that Mr. Bartholomew need rest simply on the fact that 

 phosphate is the ruling element needed in his corn-crop ? 

 Can he not, by studying the effects of combinations of 

 fertilizers, and the modifications they receive by different 

 crops on different soils, gradually work nearer and nearer 

 to just the best proportion of each fertilizer to use in each 

 combination he makes for each crop ? and is not this work 

 ing up to formulas ? Just as England, Scotland, and the 

 United States have each their man to thank for giving 

 vitality to the steam-engine, entirely aside from the man 

 who may have originated the elementary ideas, and will 

 always hold him in remembrance, though the relation be- 



