THE STOCKBRIDGE FORMULAS. 145 



have been laid down ; rules have, at the college, been grad- 

 ually, little by little, developed, until we have come to see 

 that certain elements, compounded in certain proportions, 

 will produce, if applied to the land, certain results, or approx- 

 imately certain results ; and these rules have come to be 

 called "formulas," and, in common parlance, through a large 

 portion of the Commonwealth, and in the papers of the 

 country, "the Stockbridge formulas." Now, I understand 

 that during the past year, certain scientific men, or certain 

 men who would appear very scientific, in certain quarters, 

 have said that those formulas, drawn down to scientific rule, 

 were incorrect. It has been said, and it has been published, 

 that those formulas or rules must be a humbug, because they 

 have been changed ; that the formula of 1875 was not like 

 the formula of 1874, and the formula of 1874 was not like 

 the formula of 1870. These statements have been publicly* 

 made, and I feel justified now in saying a word about the 

 formulas or rules which have been laid down for compound- 

 ing chemicals to produce various crops. Had a brother 

 farmer come to me in 1869, and asked me, "What are you 

 doing in the way of experiment ? " I should have told him 

 honestly exactly what I was doing. If he had asked me, 

 "What are you using?" I should have told him honestly and 

 plainly what I was using, and how I mixed it. If the same 

 farmer, or another one, had come to me in 1870, and said, 

 "What are you doing? What are you using? How do you 

 compound the materials?" I should have told him, and I 

 should have told the farmer in 1869 one story, and the 

 farmer in 1870 another. In 1871, I should have told him 

 another story ; in 1872, I should have told him another story ; 

 in 1873, I should have told him another ; but in 1875 and 

 1876, I should have told them all the same story, — the fact 

 being, that farmers and the public broke in on me in my line 

 of march and investigation. That is the fact. While other 

 men were talking about investigating, or basing their inves- 

 tigations on the investigations at the college, it should be 

 remembered that the investigations at the college were 

 moving right straight along, bound by no rule, bound by no 

 theory, but getting at the determined facts of each year's 

 experiments. We were inquiring in a new field, as it were, 



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