374 (Assembly 



years taking this element away from our soil. We have not 

 returned it. We have sent off to other countries millions on 

 millions of this phosphate in wheat, corn, pork, beef, &c. We 

 have also exportetl very large amounts of bones to Europe. Fif- 

 teen or twenty years ago, farmers hereabout quitted growing 

 wheat. They thought that owing to some malaria or to some- 

 thing else, the fly, &c., wheat would no longer give fair crops; 

 they knew nothing of this phosphate of lime. Long Island made 

 use of large masses of fish, called Manhaden, or Moss Bunkers, 

 for manure. They put them on or near the surface. The odor 

 from them was excessive, and even pernicious to health — occa- 

 sioning in cases, the prevalence of locked jaw. Now, the old 

 notion that all the manure leached down caused all this trouble 

 and an immense loss of the fertilizing properties by this evapo- 

 ration and escape into the air. If they had put the fish down 

 deep all this would have been saved. But, nevertheles-s, they 

 got one crop by it of sometimes fifty bushels of wheat an acre. 

 As soon as our farmers applied bones all the wonderful malaria 

 disappeared. The supply of moss bunkers is unlimited. 



Dr. Church. — And cheap too, for they are often sold on the 

 beach for ten shillings a wagon load. 



Dr. Underbill. — We do now return to the country from our 

 city a considerable amount of the fertilizers. Guano is a concen- 

 trated manure made of fish. The use of it is not well known 

 generally. I have injured plants by using guano too strong. It 

 must be well diluted ; my workmen would not at first obey my 

 instructions on that point. That the newly discovered mines of 

 phosphate will prove of vast importance is certain, and it is pro- 

 bable that other mines of it will ere long be found. But, un- 

 doubtedly our farmers ought to be furnished with it at a clieap 

 rate, to make it a blessing. 



Mr. Van Wyck. — Professor Johnston in his lx)ok of travels in 

 North America, speaks of these mines of phosphate of lime both 

 in Canada and the northern part of New-York, imbedded " in the 

 shape of metamorphic limestone, unusually rich in phosphate of 

 lime." The professor in his book states the conversation he had 

 with a practical farmer of Syracuse, in Western New- York, who 



