NECESSITY FOR FERTILIZERS. 155 



chase of phosphates. I hope that the salary of the chemist, 

 if he is retained in his office, will be so ample that he can 

 afford to take pains and be thorough in his investigations, 

 and that the farmer may be as well protected as the laws of 

 Massachusetts can protect him, and I believe they can protect 

 him. 



Prof. Stockbeidge, of the Agricultural College. I am 

 well aware that this discussion, on account of time, must be 

 soon brought to a close, notwithstanding the great interest 

 that centres about it, and were it not that I am unwilling that 

 it should cease, and no practical point of value to us or to 

 the manufacturers of fertilizers be brought out by it, I would 

 not impose upon you at this moment. 



We are all agreed, everybody is compelled to be agreed, 

 that if we are to support our present dense population, if we 

 are to supply them Avith food from our soil, in its present 

 condition, we must go outside of our home ftirm-resources to 

 do it. Then we must agree that the business of manuftictnr- 

 ing some kinds of fertilizers to go upon our lands is an es- 

 sential, a necessary, an honorable, and should be a profitable, > 

 business. The farming of the United States up to this hour 

 has not been a system of proper culture, but a system of' 

 spoliation, and our population in the future have either got 

 to starve or we must adopt some other course. 



Now, I know our friends Lawrence and Bowker well. I 

 do not object to the complaint that they make here, that fer- 

 tilizer manufacturers are everywhere denounced as dishonest 

 men ; but I tell you, — and they know it as well as I do, and 

 I know it as well as the manufacturers do, — that we farmers 

 have been most grossly imposed upon, jewed and cheated by 

 fertilizer manufacturers. There is no mistake about it. Mr. 

 Lawrence knows it, Mr. Bowker knows it, and we all know 

 it. 



Mr. Lawrence. Discriminate. 



Prof. Stockbridge. Of course ; I am going to say some- 

 thing more. I say, Avhile that is a fact, there is such a thing 

 as manufacturing an honest fertilizer. And another thing I 

 know just as well as this, that not more than half the farm- 

 ers, when they get hold of an honest fertilizer, know how to 

 use it so that it shall tell honestly. That is a fact, too. We 



