172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



on his sandy loam, where he raises the very best vegetables 

 and roots that are grown anywhere, he ploughs in raw horse- 

 manure. Where land has been cropped, and the vegetable 

 matter gone, the application of this strawy manure has a 

 mechanical effect upon the land which enables the farmer to 

 raise much better crops than he can with decomposed manure 

 alone. 



Dr. Sturtevant. I agree in part with Prof. Stockbridge. 

 In all the details of his theory there are a good many things 

 I find we agree upon, and there are some things we do not 

 agree upon. But those things that we do agree upon are 

 things which have been determined by experience and practi- 

 cal results. I do not see that we gain anything by talking 

 about chemical manures and barn-yard manures as if they 

 were opposing substances, and necessarily in conflict. I do 

 not look upon the question in that way at all. Barn-yard 

 manures are good, are excellent ; we all know it. There is 

 no use discussing it. We all wish we had more of them than 

 we have. We can usually apply them to a profit. Wherever 

 any manure is worth anything, there barn-yard manure has a 

 value. There is nothing to be gained by underrating barn- 

 yard manure. . But what have we done? Our agricultural 

 meetings have talked of phosphates ; whether they were bet- 

 ter or worse than barn-yard manure. We have talked about 

 potash salts ; whether they were better or worse than barn- 

 yard manure. What is the result of this whole matter? Sim- 

 ply this : that barn-yard manure is a complete fertilizer. We 

 apply it to our soils, and we furnish to the plant all the food 

 elements that it requires, and we get our crops. We apply a 

 potash fertilizer to a soil which has an abundance of potash in 

 it, and which is deficient in the other elements, and the result 

 is failure; and a good many people say, "Well, that only 

 proves that potash is not as good as barn-yard manure." The 

 fact of the case is, that the two should never be compared 

 together. The only fair test is to compare one complete 

 manure with another complete manure, — barn-yard manure 

 which contains all the elements of plant-food with a chemi- 

 cal manure which contains all the elements of plant-food. 

 Then the question is, Which will produce the most, the chemi- 

 cal manure or the barn-yard manure? We want to use all 



