Convention — iitbridizino. 
225 
Friday Morning. 
Mr. Gill said, “ Save the waste of our farm ” should be our motto, 
but we must not spend more to save this waste than its value. He 
liked the ideas advocated in the paper, but thought there was too 
great a loss of straw; stock should be stabled, and much of the 
straw spoken of as used for bedding could be used as feed. The 
idea of saving all the manure which could be made upon the farm 
was important. 
Mr. Smith stated that he made compost heaps, and if they got 
too dry and hot, put on .water; worked his heaps over once or twice. 
Gas would sometimes escape, but no injury was done if the manure 
was not burned. Mr. Smith asked if any one could inform him 
where ground bone could be obtained in the west. He knew a 
farm at the east so run down by continual cropping that it was im¬ 
possible for the owner to longer obtain a living upon it, and who 
could find no one to take it as a gift, until his youngest son said 
he would accept of it. The land was deeded to him, and in a few 
years, by the application of twelve hundred pounds of bone dust 
per acre, he had made the farm very productive, hay averaging two 
tons per acre, and corn and wheat crops excellent. 
Mr. Wood: Phosphoric acid is necessary to vegetable growth. 
The farm spoken of by Mr. Smith may have been deficient in phos- 
# 
phates, but rich in all other elements of plant food, hence the ben¬ 
eficial results from the application of bone dust. Others might be 
disappointed in its use, hence should experiment with care. Clo¬ 
ver was the great fertilizer for general soil improvement. 
HYBRIDIZING TO IMPROVE VARIETIES. 
BY GEO. P. PEFFKri, PEWAT7KEE. 
On this subject I have talked and written before, and some of 
my thoughts were published years ago in the transactions of the 
State Horticultural Society. I now desire to ask if any one has 
experimented upon the suggestions then thrown out, and, if so, 
what progress has been made, and whether any new light has been 
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