No 4.] COMMERCIAL PLANT FOOD. 89 



shall insure a crop, so far as man is able to do it. But 

 until we do find something which is better, I, for one, shall 

 hold ftist to the principle which makes the living crop and 

 not the dead soil its starting-point. 



Professor Jordan. After my friend Mr. Bowker com- 

 menced, I thought the lion and the lamb were going to lie 

 down together in the nicest way you ever saw, but he 

 quickly changed the atmosphere. If I get into trouble with 

 the New York Legislature next winter, I have found out 

 whom I shall send for to make my argument by taking 

 up the time trying to i)rove things that have no relation 

 whatever to it. I say that in admiration of the abilities of 

 our friend, rather than disparaging them. 



The physician is one of the poor abused creatures of this 

 world. He deserves it sometimes. If a physician finds a 

 disease to be typhoid fever, he treats it accordingly. I 

 stand on that platform. The thing which I will not do 

 is what some physicians do, — say that I do not know what 

 ails the patient, but I have a dose that will cure anything, 

 and, whether it kills or cures, I am going to put it into 

 him. Our friend tells us we station men must have a 

 standard. But, to go back a little, if my farm has typhoid 

 fever, I cannot cure it by applying remedies for diphtheria. 



We are told that we must present to these fertilizer 

 manufacturers a standard, and I am quoted as one who 

 presented to the State of Maine a standard. That is a little 

 unkind, because there were several hundred tons of Brother 

 Bowker's fertilizer sold under that standard, and I hope he 

 made something out of it ; and when he knows the olijec-' 

 tions I made to that standard, when he knows that I felt 

 it was irrational, when he knows I did not believe in it, 

 he comes in and introduces me as making a standard. I 

 say, friends, that is not fair. When the committee, the 

 State Grange of Maine, came to me and said, " We want to 

 contract with some reputable firm " ( they did contract with 

 a reputable firm) "for several hundred tons of fertilizer, 

 and we want you to make a formula," I said, "Don't ask 

 me." I did not want to give a formula, because I do not 

 believe that the same fertilizer is the best thing for every 

 man in the State of Maine. The farmers said, " We have 



