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been reduced by the addition of other material to a condi- 

 tion to be used for a fertilizer. On land well manured, su- 

 perphosphates in the hill are good to start potatoes. Hog 

 manure is a good and quick fertilizer for potatoes, and hen 

 manure, mixed with ashes and muck, is good to give corn a 

 start. In dry seasons, he found that commercial fertilizers 

 worked better than barnyard manures. 



Mr. J. J. H. Gregory, of Marblehead, endorsed what 

 Mr. Hersey had said about experimenting with fertilizers 

 and the value of such experiments to those who engaged in 

 them. We should avail ourselves of the knowledge of 

 what is tried at the experiment stations, and learn the 

 meaning of the few terms necessary to understand it. We 

 should not only know what the land is naturally, but keep 

 a debit and credit account of what is put on and its status 

 each year. The first crop produced on a virgin soil after 

 wood had been cut from it takes a richness that is never re- 

 placed. The decaying wood may give a fertility to the land, 

 but the speaker thought that the shading of the land might 

 have more to do with it, for it is a well established fact that 

 land shaded by trees or covered with boards acquires a pe- 

 culiar richness of its own. 



a Mr. B. J. Balch of Topsfield, asked if slips from potato 

 vines, starte d in greenhouses and then set out, would pro- 

 duce tubers. Mr. Hersey and Mr. Gregory both replied 

 yes, but said the method was too expensive to be of practi- 

 cal utility. In response to another question by Mr. Balch, 

 Mr. Hersey replied that he had never tried commercial fer- 

 tilizers in solution, or known of their being tried, and should 

 hardly think there would be any advantage in it. 



Mr. William Walch of Topsfield, evidently took no 

 stock in fertilizers and didn't think it paid to use them. 

 Mr. Nathan A. Bushby of Peabody, believed with Mr. 

 Walch that barnyard manure must remain the great staple 

 fertilizer, though the commercial article is a good second- 

 ary element for starting the vegetables. He did not agree 

 with a statement by Mr. Hersey that fertilizers would do 



