HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 213 



Mr. Myrick. Mr. Bowker, being a Yankee, answers one 

 question by asking another. 



Mr. Bowker. I do not believe that formers can test their 

 soils satisfactorily. They certainly cannot by analysis, and 

 I do not believe they can by raising crops. In the first 

 place, they are not close enough observers. They have not 

 been trained to observe all the conditions. I think that the 

 testing of soils by crops should be left largely to our Experi- 

 ment Stations. But in this matter of applying fertilizers 

 we must all remember one thing, that the ability of our soil 

 to produce crops (this is a truism, and it is coming out in 

 the years to come) is tested by the minimum quantity of 

 the elements of plant food in it. For example, we may 

 have plenty of nitrogen, plenty of potash and plenty of 

 phosphoric acid, but if the minimum quantity of soda, even, 

 is not present, then all that nitrogen, all that potash, all that 

 phosphoric acid has no value at all. We forget that some- 

 times ; and therefore that is why I feel that in fertilizing our 

 soils we should give them all the leading ingredients of 

 plant food, and then, further than that, we should apply 

 them in the form best suited to the plant, which time 

 will develop. We do not know to-day the forms of plant 

 food best suited to all crops. That is what our Experiment 

 Stations will bring out, we hope. When I think of what 

 we did not know when the Board came here fourteen 

 years ago, what we do know to-day, and what we may 

 know fourteen years hence, with all these Experiment Sta- 

 tions starting up, I can but feel that we are jirst on the edge 

 of this great field of plant feeding. 



Mr. Slade. Dr. Goessmann told us two or three years 

 ago, in an analysis, that asparagus consisted largely of mag- 

 nesia. We had always considered that the three essentials 

 of plant food were potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and 

 we had the idea that if we put them on asparagus we were all 

 right. Now, inasmuch as it appears that asparagus consists 

 largely of magnesia, is it not fair to suppose that in fertiliz- 

 ing asparagus year after year for twenty years we have 

 exhausted that magnesia, and that the plants need a special 

 application of it? 



Mr. Bowker. Yes, sir, I think so. I think if you have 



