36 CHARLES ANTHONY GOESSMANN 



satisfactory and reliable fertilizers can be obtained, 

 as they were in Germany, by strictly adhering to 

 the chemical control adopted, and by providing for 

 chemistry what it needs for efficient work both 

 confidence and ample means.' Professor Atwater 

 called the report a very valuable pamphlet upon the 

 sources of supply and quality of the more important 

 fertilizing materials used in Massachusetts. 



* Stable-manure,' says Goessmann in this report, 

 'is still the main fertilizer in ordinary farm operations, 

 yet its peculiar value to-day rests more on its beneficial 

 influence on the physical condition of the soil than on 

 its effect on the chemical composition of the latter.' 

 By a tabular statement of the ingredients he shows 

 that, although the most complex of our common fer- 

 tilizers, it is a complete manure only in exceptional 

 cases, and that the permanent improvement of the 

 soil depends almost entirely upon the introduction of 

 other substances, such as the guanos and phosphates. 



'All friends of the College,' said President Clark of 

 the second report, 'ought to be grateful for the pro- 

 duction of a paper which combines most happily scien- 

 tific knowledge with practical wisdom.' Hon. Marshall 

 P. Wilder declared, that these two reports were ' worth 

 more to the Commonwealth than all that had been 

 expended for the maintenance of the Board since its 

 first organization.' Among the well-known members 

 of the Board of Agriculture at that time were Louis 

 Agassiz, William S. Clark, Charles L. Flint, Charles G. 

 Davis, William Knowlton, George B. Loring, Charles 

 S. Sargent, Levi Stockbridge, Joseph N. Sturtevant, 



