PROCEEDINGS OF THE FARMERS' CLUB. 431 



unworthy of cultivation when I went on it, and 34 bushels of oats 

 was the product of a seven acre field. And now having under- 

 drained, sub-soil plowed, and put on 600 weight of phosphate 

 per year to the acre, I say, without fear of contradiction, that 

 artificially adding ammonia, in any shape whatever, will be wholly 

 unnecessary, as a full supply will be received from the sources 

 indicated. You have given me a premium here for 100 bushels 

 of shelled corn, and 400 bushels of potatoes to the acre. By the 

 increased facilities afforded by improved implements, my labor- 

 ers have been diminished from twenty to seven, (four boys and 

 three men) who do the whole wprk on the farm, from 52 acres of 

 which the profit is mainly derived. 



In the earlier part of my practice I was employed to examine 

 farms, and advise modes of treatment ; the first thing I did in . 

 such cases was to carry a paper of bone dust, and scatter it in 

 front of the cattle, and if they lapped it up, or if their young 

 calves were toddling beside them for want of bone making mate- 

 rial, I knew that that farm needed phosphate of lime. I have 

 not found more than five per cent, of farms that were not in that 

 condition, or where phosphate of lime or potash would not im- 

 prove the soil, and have never discovered the amount to which 

 you can use it without increased profit. I am constrained, how- 

 ever, not to use an amount beyond that which others would be 

 tempted to adopt. When they ask, "How much phosphate do 

 you use for that crop ? " I tell them 600 pounds, but if the reply 

 was 6000 pounds, they would say, "I am not going to spend that 

 amount of money," although it is not as much as they would have 

 to pay in using an equivalent in barn-yard manure — particularly 

 in Massachusetts, where it would generally cost $5.00 a cord. 

 I believe that a farmer should endeavor to invest his money in 

 the increased fertilization of his farm, rather than by loaning it 

 at Y per cent. 



In relation to the use of phosphate on dwarf pear trees — many 

 of you have seen small trees on my place, bearing 200 pears, 

 which had been fertilized solely with phosphate at an expence 

 not exceeding five cents per tree annually. 



It should always be mixed with several times its bulk of some 

 divider, charcoal, muck or earth, and it would be well to mix it 

 with more, if it were not for the labor. Apply it to the upper 

 strata of the soil, for it is not volatile, and cannot be lost. Place 



