120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



compreliGiisive plan which will shut out from it all that is not 

 really within its own sphere, and insist that that which belongs 

 to its sphere shall be of the best and amply provided for, then 

 you may look for complete success. 



Mr. Clift. I think I may say, in the light of the discussion 

 we have had upon the subject of commercial fertilizers, that the 

 State of Massachusetts will be fully justified in giving to Prof. 

 Clark all that he wants to carry out his plan of an agricultural 

 college. Our good farmers throughout New England are a very 

 prudent class of men, and they want to see beforehand that a 

 thing is going to pay before they embark their dollars in it. I 

 do not blame them. They have to work to get their dollars, 

 they come honestly by them, and when they make an invest- 

 ment they^want to see that they are going to get their money 

 back again. Now in this very item of commercial fertilizers 

 Massachusetts is going to get back all she invests in this Agri- 

 cultural College. If this college gives to the State a competent 

 agricultural chemist, who will tell the farmers just what they 

 are buying, Massachusetts will get back, every year, on these 

 commercial fertilizers, all that she has invested. There is no 

 class in the community that is so robbed and plundered and 

 sponged as our farmers are by these manufacturers of commer- 

 cial fertilizers. I will tell you how the thing is done. They 

 want to get up a manure that will sell for $45 a ton. That is 

 what a good superphosphate or Peruvian guano ought to sell 

 for — that is what it is worth to the farmer. They will buy up 

 fish guano for $20 a ton, and then mix it with charcoal, and 

 make a manure for $25 a ton, which they sell for $45, and 

 make a clear profit of $20 a ton, which comes out of the pockets 

 of the farmers. The farmers of New England and the country 

 are robbed of millions of dollars a year by just this process. 

 Now if we have these commercial fertilizers analyzed, and 

 farmers are satisfied that there is only $25 worth of superphos- 

 phate, or whatever is valuable in the manure, they will not pay 

 $45 a ton for it. This is what is wanted — the protection of 

 farmers by these analyses. This is what this college is going 

 to give you ; and I hope that when President Clark comes for 

 his endowment of tliis college — especially of this professorship 

 of chemistry — the farmers of the State, through their legisla- 



