“ry, 
| New York AGRicuLTuRAL Exprriment STarion. 27 
At present these commercial fertilizers are generally known and 
spoken of as “ phosphates,” and many of our farmers would hardly 
recognize the term as misapplied, even if the sample offered them 
for sale contained no phosphoric acid whatever. 
As a matter of fact, there is scarcely one in twenty of these 
so-called phosphates that does not contain a considerable amount 
of both potassium and nitrogen in one form or another, and in 
large measure its market value and*crop-producing value as well : 
is determined quite as much, or more, by these latter-named con- 
stituents than by the phosphorus it contains. 
It is desirable therefore that our farmers shall come to appre- 
ciate, so far as agricultural science can indicate, the relative 
functions, need and importance of these fundamental elements of 
plant food, in order that they may more intelligently and economi- 
cally apply them as their several necessities demand. 
_ It is hoped therefore that at the next session of the Legislature 
there will be provided the means necessary for carrying forward 
this very important work. The means required are a suitably 
equipped laboratory and the chemists for Poe ane the neces- 
- gary analyses. 
A Datry ScHoot. 
In view of the great importance of the dairy industry in our 
State, the wide range in the quantity as also in the quality of the 
manufactured products as shown by the intrinsic and market 
value of butter and cheese, these differences being due almost 
entirely to ignorance of the fundamental principles of milk, but- 
ter and cheese production, or a failure on the part of those 
engaged in this industry to appreciate the importance of a care- 
_ ful observance of these principles, it seems to me that it would be 
wise if there should be established a, dairy school somewhat 
similar to those already established in several of the leading dairy 
sections of Europe. In this school, excluding military instruc- 
tion, the classics and modern languages, there should be given 
instruction only in those technical branches directly relating to 
the science and practice of dairying. 
Such a school should be located upon a good dairy farm, pro- 
vided with cows of several breeds, with facilities for giving daily 
. instruction by personal inspection ahd study, on the part of those 
in attendance, of the several technical operations of the dairy. 
_ Such a school might be made nearly, if not quite, self-support- 
ing, and would, I have no doubt, be welcomed by many young men 
