HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 211 



the door to that great but almost wholly unoccupied field of 

 "chemical ph3^siology, " or the specific action of chemical 

 salts and fertilizing ingredients upon plant growth ; in 

 short, the adaptability of fertilizers to crops, or plant feed- 

 ing with specific objects in view. 



Out of these many years of discussion, experiment and 

 practice the plant has come to the front, and says : " Con- 

 sider me ; soil, season, seed and cultivation are all important 

 factors, but study me and my WMnts. I sustain man ; know 

 then how to plant me, how to cultivate me, and above all 

 how to feed me, for if you feed me, I will feed you." I 

 believe that we are just at the threshold of discovery in this 

 field of plant feeding. Since I began the manufacture of 

 fertilizers, many new forms of plant food have come into our 

 market, and it must follow that some of these forms have 

 their special place in the chemistry of fertilization. The 

 new forms are, notably, sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of 

 potash, muriate of potash and sulphate of magnesia, — fer- 

 tilizing substances that were not known to farmers in this 

 country fifteen years ago, but which are consumed 

 in enormous quantities to-day. Who knows but that 

 fifteen years hence other new compounds, like phosphate 

 of potash, nitrate of ammonia, for example, now known 

 only to the chemist, will play an important part in the 

 economy of crop production, while some of those now 

 prominent may drop out entirely. Salt and plaster have 

 already taken a back seat ; other forms may follow sooner 

 than we expect; but whatever the outcome, it stands to rea- 

 son that all fertilizing ingredients, whether new or old, have 

 their especial place in the chemistry of fertilization, and it 

 remains for us to discover that place in order to put agricul- 

 ture upon a still higher and more rational footing. 



We, as manufiicturers, are compounding fertilizers accord- 

 ing to the best light we have, and the results show that we 

 have made great improvements over the past, enabling the 

 exhausted portions of our country to hold their own against 

 the virgin soils of the West. Nevertheless, we stand at the 

 door of the Experiment Station, with the question : " Tell us 

 something further of chemical economy in plant feeding, 

 that we may still continue to improve the diflerent fertilizers 



