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respect to the greatest interests of agriculture. In the first 

 place, the materials experimented with should be definitely un- 

 derstood. In phosphates, the exact percentage of soluble 

 phosphates of lime contained in the fertilizer should be known, 

 and also the amount of free ammonia, or ammonia forming 

 constituents. If substances containing potash or soda are em- 

 ployed, a knowledge of the exact percentage of these alkalies 

 also should be had. With the best and most appropriate ma- 

 terials in our hands, we do not obtain in one or two seasons, 

 even a proximate knowledge of how much actual value they 

 may be to our crops. A dry season may prove entirely unfa- 

 vorable for the appropriation by plants of any one element or 

 compound, or a wet season may produce like results. If a 

 farmer should judge of the influence of a phosphate upon his 

 corn in a dry season, he might be led to condemn one year a 

 material, which in the next, would prove his most efficient and 

 prompt friend. When we bury in our soils a fertilizing agent, 

 it is quite uncertain when we shall receive back the value, or 

 thrice the value in increase of crops. If we are sure we have 

 got the genuine agent there, and in an assimilable condition, 

 we need have but little solicitude concerning ultimate good re- 

 sults. Five years is short time enough to conduct experiments 

 with fertilizers to reach ends, or obtain results worth publish- 

 ing to the world. Much of the confusion existing among soil 

 cultivators regarding the value of fertilizing agents, arises from 

 the incomplete, unfair, unscientific "trials," or experiments 

 made. The public taste is so perverted, that all statements of 

 this nature given in the agricultural papers, are read with a 

 peculiar relish. If a farmer is anxious to see his name in print, 

 let him buy a peck of " raw bone phosphate," or " patent 

 guano," sprinkle it in a few hills of corn, or in the turnip 

 drills, and in the autumn send the "results" to the nearest 

 journal. The fame, although short lived, will be cheaply 

 bought. With the care, accuracy, and completeness of detail 

 demanded of experimenters in every branch of science, in this 

 age of the world, it is a pity that we should not improve our 

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