WHAT SCIENCE HAS DONE. 63 



large superphosphate manufactories now exist in all parts of 

 the country, while a great variety of other special fertilizers 

 are made and offered for sale , some of them no doubt of great 

 value, and others comparatively worthless. 



COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 



In order to realize how immensely important these fertil- 

 izers have become in our modern agriculture, it is necessary 

 to consider that the South is greatly dependent upon them, 

 more dependent than the North, on account of the want of 

 facilities for making and economizing farm-yard manures 

 which the system of stall-feeding implies ; but it is also fast 

 getting to be recognized that they must come in as a necessary 

 adjunct to farm-yard manures in high farming everywhere. 

 And hence if the exact statistics could be known, and the 

 extent to which they are used in all parts of the country, the 

 figures would be truly astonishing. 



The official inspector of fertilizers in Georgia, for example, 

 estimates that the planters of that State alone pay over $10,- 

 000,000 a year for fertilizers, while it is stated, by those in a 

 position to know, that in four months, from December, 1869, 

 to April, 1870, more than 300,000 tons of fertilizers passed 

 through the city of Charleston, South Carolina; that over 

 100,000 tons passed over the Georgia Central Railway and 

 other points in tliat State ; that over 6,000 tons, valued at 

 $7,000,000, are manufactured at and sent from Chicago, on 

 an average, every year. It is estimated that fully a half 

 million dollars' worth are used in the State of New Hamp- 

 shire every year. There are many single towns in Mas- 

 sachusetts that use from $25,000 to $45,000 worth, on 

 an average, every year. There are several large fish-guano 

 establishments in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 

 necticut, New York, New Jersey, and Virginia, one of which 

 is known to make over 7,000 tons a year. These, it is true, 

 are but isolated facts, but they serve to mark the changes 

 which science has already introduced into our practice. A 

 thousand other facts might be mentioned to show what science 

 has done to throw light upon the labors of the farm, and what 

 progress has already been made in studying the composition 

 of soils, of manures, of feeding substances, and of plants, 



