110 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



season may produce like results. If a farmer should judge of 

 the influence of a phosphate upon his corn in a dry season, he 

 might be led to condemn one year a material which in the next 

 would prove his most efficient and prompt friend. When we 

 bury in our soils a fertilizing agent, it is quite uncertain when 

 we shall receive back the value or thrice the value in increase 

 of crops. If we are sure we have got the genuine agent there, 

 and in an assimilable condition, we need have but little solici- 

 tude concerning ultimate good results. Five years is short time 

 enough to conduct experiments with fertilizers to reach ends, or 

 obtain results worth publishing to the world. Much of the con- 

 fusion existing among soil cultivators regarding the value of 

 fertilizing agents arises from the incomplete, unfair, unscientific 

 " trials " or experiments made. The public taste is so per- 

 verted, that all statements of this nature given in the agricul- 

 tural papers are read with a peculiar relish. If a farmer is 

 anxious to see his name in print, let him buy a peck of " raw 

 bone phosphate," or " patent guano," sprinkle it in a few hills 

 of corn, or in the turnip drills, and in the autumn send the 

 " results " to the nearest journal. The fame, although short- 

 lived, will be cheaply bought. With the care, accuracy and 

 completeness of detail demanded of experimenters in every 

 branch of science, in this age of the world, it is a pity that we 

 should not improve our methods in all departments of hus- 

 bandry. Before scientific agriculture can rise to a point worthy 

 to command confidence and respect, this must be done. 



In behalf of the Committee. 



James R. Nichols. 



Statement of Win. R. Putnam. 



It is with some reluctance that I make public my experiments 

 with manures. I regret that my crops were not seen by the 

 Committee earlier in the season ; coming as you did, just after 

 the severe gale, you had not so good an opportunity to judge of 

 the effects of different kinds of manure as you would have 

 had before the gale. 



If I rightly understand the object of the society, in offering 

 this premium, it is to collect and publish such information upon 



