HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 215 



row of my asparagus, and no man could see through the sea- 

 son one particle of difference between the rows to which 

 it was applied and the others. That shows, that while it 

 might do well on another man's land it would not do well 

 on mine. It shows that every farmer has got to have intelli- 

 gence of his own. He has got not only to learn what is 

 good for a particular i)lant, but he has got to learn what his 

 land is deficient in. The farmer, therefore, must place him- 

 self on a higher plane than where he now stands if he is to 

 use these fertilizers to the best advantage, and therefore I say 

 to my friend, who, I acknowledge, is far better acquainted 

 with the results of fertilizers than I am, that he must not 

 recommend the use of nitrate of soda for asparagus. He 

 should say, " Possibly your land may have enough of it and 

 may not need it." We have got to take that matter into 

 consideration, for I certainly lost the money which I paid 

 him. 



Mr. Slade. Is there any way by which you can tell 

 whether your land needs it or not? 



Mr. Hersey. I found out last year that it did not need 

 it ; I don't know but next year it may need it. You see 

 at once the difficulty. This is an important subject, and it 

 is one which we at the present time do not fully compre- 

 hend, and I feel that a large portion of the money which we 

 spend for these things is lost for the want of that knowledge. 

 I have not the least doubt of that. AVhen we fully under- 

 stand how best to use commercial fertilizers, I think they will 

 be the cheapest things that we can apply to our soil . Of 

 course we must always make use of our stable manure. We 

 shall put that on our farms where it can be applied the easi- 

 est, and on those portions of our farms that are at a distance 

 we shall use entirely commercial fertilizers, when we get 

 so we fully understand them. I know men now in Mas- 

 sachusetts who understand them well enough so that they 

 can afford to buy them and use them, and can use them to a 

 profit ; but the time is coming when they will use them to 

 still greater profit, and I believe that this paper which we 

 have had here to-day will lead us to inquiry, will inform us 

 of what we did not know before, and will stimulate us to 

 endeavor to obtain a better understanding of this subject, 



