SUBSTITUTE FOR ASHES. 139 



operation, and by and by our manufacturers of commercial 

 fertilizers will try and keep up with you, and will try to do 

 exactly what you are doing. Take the matter into your own 

 hands, and it will not be long before you can buy superphos- 

 phates just exactly as you can the purer articles, which now 

 escape adulteration, because they cannot be adulterated and 

 made safe. That is my view of it. I approve of the law. 

 I have no doubt it will be made useful. It is a law 'which 

 will attract attention among manufacturers of commercial 

 fertilizers. It is a law which will stimulate farmers to be 

 more careful in looking after their own interests ; which will 

 encourage the manufacturers of these things to be honest, and 

 will teach chemists, if they want encouragement, that the 

 great Commouwealth of Massachusetts appreciates their en- 

 deavors, and all they have got to do is to come to Mas- 

 sachusetts and they will get their pay for those endeavors. 



I have said all I intended to say ; I have done my share, I 

 think in the discussion of the subject of fertilizing material ; 

 I have tried to be as sensible as I know how. I have en- 

 deavored to escape any heresies, and shall be most happy if I 

 have ; and if I have contributed a single word to the interest 

 of this meeting, I shall be more than satisfied. 



Col. Wilder. It occurred to me, as Dr. Loriug has rec- 

 ommended the purchase of ashes from the east, the west, 

 the north and the south, whether we could find any one who 

 would sell ashes. That is the trouble with me. I have sent 

 fo the State of Maine, and got some car-loads of ashes. 

 Those cost me fifty cents a bushel, but I have found it very 

 difficult to get them even there. I think it would be a very 

 difiicult thing to purchase any large quantities of ashes from 

 any portion of our country. That they are the very quin- 

 tessence of manure, for all purposes, no man can doubt. That 

 our soils have been deprived of them, especially in the older 

 portions of the country, is also undeniably true ; and the 

 potash can never be restored in quantities, except by the ap- 

 plication of ashes, or by that fertilizer in some some shaj)e or 

 other. I should like to ask Prof. Goessmann if we can pur- 

 chase potash by the cask, and use it instead of ashes. 



I will state my own experience. You are well aware that 

 I am not much of a farmer, but I had two little farms, and 



