HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 201 



that the adaptability of plant food is of no practical conse- 

 quence, and is too fine a thing for any one to attempt to 

 fathom. That it is a great problem, there is no doubt, but 

 the scientist who- contends that it is impracticable, or beyond 

 us, must also admit that his occupation, so far as further 

 experiments with fertilizers are concerned, is at an end ; for 

 if there is nothing to be determined in the direction of the 

 chemical functions of plant food, what is the use of further 

 work in this field ? We have learned what we have not to 

 learn again , — that nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash are the 

 three leading elements of plant nutrition. We have found 

 that they should be available for the best results. But this 

 is not all. The work now in hand is to determine the adap- 

 tability to crop production of the various forms in which 

 these essential elements occur ; and not alone this, but also 

 to ascertain if there are not other compounds valuable as 

 plant food, with their special oflSices in this great field. 



We have already made great strides in this direction. For 

 example, we know that certain forms of potash are more 

 beneficial to certain crops than are other forms. In Germany, 

 they have found that the sulphate of potash is better than the 

 muriate for the sugar beet, increasing the percentage of sugar. 

 Valuable and extensive experiments with grapes, conducted 

 by our own Goessmann, than whom there is not a more ori- 

 ginal and painstaking observer in the land, point to the prob- 

 able conclusion that the sulphate of potash will produce a 

 sweeter grape than the muriate, and therefore is to be recom- 

 mended for this crop. In the treatment of the peach tree, 

 Goessmann, in connection with Professor Penhallow, tells us 

 that chloride of potash and magnesia, together with phos- 

 phoric acid, is an excellent mixture to apply to peach trees 

 as a means of preventing the yellows, and developing a 

 healthy Avood. This, then, is adapting the form of plant 

 food to the crop, or, in other words, is special feeding of the 

 sugar beet, grape vine and peach tree. In writing on this 

 subject. Dr. Goessmann says, in a paper read before the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1882, " The result 

 of these experiments affords an additional illustration of the 

 opinion that special fertilization must be considered a factor 

 of more than ordinary importance in fruit culture." 



