168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Now, as to the subject before the meeting, — manures and 

 chemical fertilizers. The professor has devoted most of his 

 time to the Stockbridge fertilizers, which is all very well ; 

 I have no fault to find with that. High culture is a necessity, 

 in my judgment, to make New England farming profitable. 

 You cannot have high culture without an abundance of manure, 

 and the trouble you encounter on the farm is, that you are not 

 able to get manure enough from the wastes of the farm to 

 supply this want, and hence the necessity for chemical fertil- 

 izers, sometimes called "commercial fertilizers," but "chemi- 

 cal fertilizers" is perhaps the more proper name. In my 

 judgment, farmers generally will be unable to get manure 

 enough without resorting to chemicals. First, you must use 

 all you can make and save on the farm, and then you must 

 resort to chemicals. 



This matter of chemical fertilizers was brought very clearly 

 to my mind some twelve or fifteen years ago, by the transla- 

 tion of M. Ville's French work, issued by the Massachusetts 

 Society, which laid down the doctrine that plants took from 

 the soil certain amounts of phosphoric acid, potash and nitro- 

 gen. Those were the principal ingredients ; there were some 

 others, — magnesia, etc. Those theories of M. Ville were 

 substantially the theories of Professor Stockbridge, as nearly 

 as I can understand them ; I may be mistaken. I made a 

 great many experiments for my own satisfaction in connection 

 with these theories, years ago. I think it is true, that you 

 must supply substantially what the plant takes from the soil, 

 and to do that, as I have said before, you must resort to 

 something more than you are able to get on the farm. 



Now, the fertilizers of four or five years ago were very 

 unsatisfactory to farmers. In the first place, they were abom- 

 inably adulterated. I say "abominably." I don't know as 

 that expresses it strongly enough. But since the enactment of 

 the law which was passed a few years ago, these fertilizers have 

 become very much better, under the demands of the people, 

 and under the analyses which have been made by Professor 

 Goessmann, as the chemist of the Board of Agriculture. And 

 I will say here, that the passing of that law was due to some 

 members of the Board of Agriculture and to the president 

 and faculty of the Agricultural College. I think they all had 



