210 GARDEN AND FARM TOPICS. 



in consequence ? I believe the same fate is soon to 

 overtake the "specials" in fertilizers. They may hold their 

 own, perhaps, for a time among a few amateur cultivators 

 of 7X9 garden patches, (men usually glib with the pen, 

 and who get in an ecstasy over their success with a dozen 

 Tomato or a score of Strawberry plants,) but few of the 

 hard-fisted gardeners or farmers, who live by the soil, 

 are likely to become converts. My business, as a seeds- 

 man, brings me in contact with many hundreds of farmers 

 and gardeners each season, but I have known of few who 

 think it necessary to use special fertilizers for special 

 crops. 



It would certainly be a misfortune for the Orange 

 grower of Florida, the Cotton planter of Louisiana, or 

 the Wheat grower of Ohio, if he were induced to freight 

 a special manure for his particular crop a thousand miles, 

 if he had as good a material in Bone Dust at his door. 

 If our law-makers at Washington had given that attention 

 to agriculture that its importance deserves, we would long 

 ago have had suitable grounds there to test such ques- 

 tions on a scale large enough and broad enough to deter- 

 mine whether or not the manure suitable for a Potato 

 was not equally suitable for a Cabbage. 



I beg to apologize for the time occupied in discussing 

 fertilizers, but the subject is one of the first importance 

 to every cultivator of the soil, be he farmer, market 

 gardener, nurseryman, or florist; and whether right or 

 wrong in my conclusions, if what has been said may cause 

 further investigation to get at the facts, I shall be satisfied, 

 whatever these facts may reveal. 



