Fertilizer. 
TRANSLOCATION OF PLANT FOOD CONSTITUENTS IN THE 
PLANT AND THEIR FUNCTIONS IN DEVELOPING AND 
MAINTAINING. GROWTH. 
By J. S. Carroll. 
Mr. President , Ladies and Gentlemen: 
Once upon a time, it is related that a 
priest was called upon by his parishioners 
to pray over their lands and bless them in 
order that they might yield abundant 
harvests. As he passed' from place to 
place pronouncing his benedictions upon 
the soil he came upon a very unpromising 
field. Surveying these barren acres with 
great despair, he exclaimed: “Ah! breth¬ 
ren, no use to pray here; this land needs 
manure.” 
From the writings of the earliest inves¬ 
tigators we find that it was the custom 
of man to assist nature in yielding abun¬ 
dant harvests by applying to the soil va¬ 
rious substances called manure. Little did 
he know or understand at that time the 
fundamental principles underlying their 
use, for little work of any consequence 
had been undertaken to pry into nature’s 
secrets or to attempt to interpret her im¬ 
mutable laws. As the years moved on¬ 
ward man became more interested in the 
processes of nature and many learned in¬ 
vestigators devoted years to the study of 
plant growth, the composition of plants, 
their food and sources of food supply, 
thereby laying the foundation and paving 
the way for our present knowledge of 
chemistry in its relation to agriculture. 
While the beginning of true scientific 
agricultural chemistry may be dated from 
important discoveries during the latter 
part of the 18th century by such scientists 
as Priestly, Scheele, Lavoissier, Caven¬ 
dish and Black, yet it is interesting to 
pause a little while to note a few theories 
advanced by some of the early writers as 
to plant growth. 
It was believed by the alchemists that 
manure acted in some mysterious way— 
that “spirits” left the decaying* manure 
and entered the plants producing a more 
vigorous growth. The worthless character 
of leached manure was attributed to the 
fact that the “spirits” had departed from 
such manure. From this source we have 
handed down to us such expressions as 
“spirits of hartshorn,” “spirits of nitre,’ 
and many others, showing the ideas then 
entertained as to the composition of mat¬ 
ter. 
