302 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Agricultural College will keep this in mind, and make some 

 observations tliat will assist in sustaining my theory, or 

 overthrow it. 



QuESTiox. How about fertilizers ? 



Dr. Fisher. I have had a belief that fertilizers would not 

 be necessary, but have come to the conclusion now to use 

 them. I have been trying careful experiments for three 

 years, and I have got at the practical influence of some 

 special fertilizers. I have taken a vineyard, consisting of 

 thirty-five rows. To four of them I applied nothing ; to the 

 next four I applied nitrate of potash ; to the next four, air- 

 slacked lime ; to the next four, commercial potash dissolved ; 

 to the next four, sulphate of ammonia ; to the next four, 

 sulphate of magnesia ; to the next four, nitrate of soda ; to 

 the next four, a compound that I made. That compound was 

 this : I bought finely-ground bone, not ground so fine but 

 that I could detect adulterations (because I know that the 

 men who deal in such things are not all honest) , and I bought 

 commercial potash. There is no fraud in that. I think that 

 commercial potash is a profitable article to purchase. It is 

 cheaper for me to buy five pounds of potash, and pay fifty 

 cents for it, than it is to undertake to collect a bushel of 

 ashes containing five pounds of potash, when potash is what 

 I am specially after. I have treated my bone in this way. 

 I have taken, say one hundred pounds, and dissolved fifteen 

 pounds of commercial potash in a small quantity of water, 

 and wet that bone with the dissolved potash. It will not do 

 to have too much water, because, if you do, you make your 

 bone pasty, and if it has once become pasty, you cannot 

 make anything of it afterwards. There should be just water 

 enough to moisten every particle of the bone, but still, not so 

 much that it shall not be friable and easily separable. The 

 effect of the solution is to soften the bone, and it gives off 

 fumes of ammonia at once upon its application, which can be 

 retained by the use of plaster or some other absorbent. 

 After allowing this mixture to stand two or three weeks, I 

 have applied it to the vines, and the result is this : where I 

 applied commercial potash, I got an increase in the strength 

 of the wood, in the size of the clusters, and in the size of the 

 berries, without any tendency of the vine to make long- 



