DOWN ON MEADOW HAY. 133 



soluble salts in such form, that they are peculiarly adapted to 

 the soil into which they are introd.ced, and with proper 

 combinations they can be made the best material which we 

 now have for fertilization. 



Compelled as we are to use animal excretions for the fertil- 

 ization of our soil; compelled, I say, because the law of the 

 State of Massachusetts — ample as it is, regardful as it is of 

 the farmer's rights, liberal as it is towards the state chemist — 

 is not sufficient in itself to secure to us the most cheap and 

 reliable commercial fertilizers — what course shall we pursue ? 

 I have certain views which I have presented over and over 

 again to the Board, some of which have been accepted and 

 some not ; I am never disturbed when they are not, and I am 

 always pleased when they are ; I do not think it will do any 

 harm, therefore, to repeat some of them. Those that have 

 been rejected can be rejected again ; those that have been 

 accepted can be pondered upon wit i the usual diligence that 

 the farmer bestows upon all abstract questions presented to 

 his mind. I think that fertilizers can be made especially 

 applicable to the soil, and economically applicable, by a care- 

 ful and accurate choice of the materials with which they are 

 to be composted. Now, if I say anything wrong, I desire 

 the state chemist to say so, because I am a learner, like the 

 rest of you. I say the excretions of animals should be so 

 combined in the compost-heap as to be made applicable to 

 the soils to which they are to be applied. Now, nature has 

 provided us with cheap, bulky substances, of various descrip- 

 tions. In the first place, all the straw and refuse hay that is 

 used as the bedding for animals, is useful ; and the chemist 

 has told you how the straw itself, decomposed, furnishes cer- 

 tain materials, acting chiefly mechanically, but chemically as 

 well, upon the soil. I accept rye-straw and barley-straw, 

 the latter of which is pretty good food, and is a better fertil- 

 izer when it has passed through our animals than when simply 

 mixed in the compost-heap. Meadow hay I am opposed to. 

 I do not believe in it even as beddhig to work into the com- 

 post heap. I do not know why it is, but it disappears ; and 

 I am happy to know that it does disappear, for if it did not I 

 am sure it would do more harm than good. I do not think a 

 chemical analysis would show that ordinary coarse hay grown 



