COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. 98 



day. I suppose it is unnecessary and will not be expected that 

 I should detain you with any remarks of my own, and I will 

 ask you, therefore, to proceed with the business of the meeting. 

 The first business of the morning is a discussion on Commer- 

 cial Fertilizers, to be introduced by Col. M. C. Weld, of New 

 York City, whom I have the pleasure of introducing to you. 



ADDRESS OF COL. M. C. WELD. 



Mr. President and Gentlemen^ — I was hardly aware, when I 

 accepted the invitation of your Secretary to open this discussion, 

 of the amount of preparation which really ought to be given to 

 it. Neither was I aware, not having participated in these dis- 

 cussions previously, of the manner in which they are usually 

 opened. I must beg your indulgence, therefore, if you find any 

 lack in the manner in which I present the subject. 



The subject which I selected, at Mr. Flint's request, for dis- 

 cussion, is announced as " Commercial Fertilizers." We under- 

 stand by commercial fertilizers substances purporting to be con- 

 centrated forms of manure, commonly offered for sale. And 

 though we might, properly enough, perhaps, include agricul- 

 tural lime, plaster, leached wood ashes and similar articles, 

 acting rather mechanically and chemically upou the soil, as 

 plant-food, we will not now consider them. There is also a 

 great variety of substances which may be purchased and em- 

 ployed as manure, such as the wastes of many manufacturing 

 establishments, accumulations which have been and are still 

 wasted, perhaps, but, with the ever increasing need for manure, 

 are one after another utilized. At first they are given away for 

 the removal, then they are sold at a low price, and as soon as a 

 little competition occurs they are bid up to their true value, or 

 pretty near it. This has been the case with woollen waste, horn 

 shavings, leather scraps and trimmings, &c. All those articles, 

 valuable though they are, and worthy subjects of purchase and 

 sale, are not included under the term commercial fertilizers, as 

 employed at present. I will name simply as types of the articles 

 under consideration, Peruvian guano and bone-dust. 



Before discussing the merits of the fertihzers themselves, it 

 may be well to consider ivhat need the farmer has to use them. 

 This question opens, to be sure, the whole range of agricultural 



