Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-03-08

the grain it consumed, the race was doomed
to extinction.
Pref. W. O.. Atwater. of Middletown,
Conn, next spoke of Special Fertilizers. y
PROF. ATwATER's PAPER.
No plant will grow if there are not pres
eDt, in every case, certain ingredients. Put
wisp of hay in the oven and it parts with
q portion of its weight-that Is water, put
in the fire, and it loses most of the remain
ing weight, leaving only an ash. All these
parts which have been lost have, with one
| exception. been taken from the air those
remaining and the nitrogen carried oil came
| from the soil. The ingredients OF plant
| ioOd are potash, sodO, lime, magnesla, sui
| phuric and phosphoric acids, chlorine, iron
and nitrogen. Tho absence of any of these
will affect the crop unfayOrably, and in
some Of the more important ones will cause
it entirely to fa.l This fact was illustrated
by drawings of buckwheat plants raised in
| jars. The plant supplied with all the in
gradients grew luxurlantiy. Those lack Dg
only one OF the ingredients were very small
and some of them were almost invisible
Every one must determine for himst II,
| by experiment, what is needed on his
own soil. OF the ingredients named !,
most were present in sufficient quantities.
and only lime, potash, nitrogen or phOs-
phOric acid are generally wanting, and the
| lack must be determined by experiment
SuperphOsphates often fail because they are
poor-but Ottener because they are poorly
| used. Glover IL an excellent crop to pre-
| cede corn or wheat-lust why, we cannot
| tell, but 1t Is SO, and enc reason Is IN the
quantity and range of its roots. Chemical
anal y-is will not always determine what is
lackIng-we must put the question to the
soil with the fertilizer, and get cur answer
in the crop. lie gave the results of several
experiments made with various fertilizers,
made under his supervision, showing the
| different demands of soils for plant food
Different crops demand different fertilizers
in the same soils and the same crops call
for different fertilizers on different soils
He had found it to be impossible to draw
any generalization from these experiments,
but every one must try, and try for him
| self.
Prof. A.wateT's lecture, Of which We have
given very imperfect abstract, was given
with mneh spirit and was listened to with
close and gratifed interest
EXPERIMENTS IN VERMONT
President Buckham announced that the
University and State Agricultural Col
lece had matured plan for conducting a
number of experiments with different fertil-
izers. Assorted packages of these would be
sent to farmers who were willing to conduct
the experiments and report results, with
directions how to use them. Some twenty
farmers;had already agreed to conduct such
experiments, and the names of several more
were added to the list from those present at
the meeting.
Next followed an excellent paper by Col.
j. B. Mead. of Randolph, on
EDUCATION FOR FARMERS.
| lie favored the town as against the dis
trict system of schools, and urged that the
natural sciences should be part Of the cur
rieulum in such schools. The study Of the
natural sciences would tend to make our
children love farm-life. and they would stay
| at home, instead of wandering away and
engaging in other pursuits. Every child
in the land should have the largest pos
slble culture. lie especially urged teach
ing of courteous demeanor to the children
Hon. Alexis T. Smith, was for sticking
by the district system. lie alluded in terms
of high praise to Col. Meals worthy efforts
in the cause of temperance and education.
President Hubert was invited to speak,
but excused himself, saying that he came to
hear.
President Buckhan. being called for. said
he concurred in most of ths views in Col.
Mead's excellent paper. In education it is
important to start right. We do not often
find in the schools teachers competent to
teach tho natural sciences and atl5 to tell
the chill all about the plant or stone. A
few such are nov to be found 10 the col
leges. In time we shall have them in
the schools Ia what had been said
of the need of higher education for the far
mers he fully cOncurred. lie was sorry to
see so few young men in these agricultural
meetings. Why is this so? Is it because
of the prevalent impression that, while it
takes a good deal of learning to make a
minister or lawyer, it takes little to make
farmer? If | were farmer, said President
Buckham, | would not stand that. | would
give the boy that is to be farmer as good q
training as the one who is to go into a pro-
tession. When the time comes that all fetl
in that way, our young men will not be cal
culating how they can get off to the cities,
but will stay at home and make their call
ing honorable and honored.
Friday Evening.
At the evening session the attendance had
considerably diminished, many of those
present having left for their homes.
Sidney Fisher, ESD, of Know lton, P. q.
made some interesting remarks on
CANADIAN FARMING.
lie said that in the ST. Lawrence Valley
was formerly rich wheat-prOducing re-
gion, which now was merely thistle bear
ing tract. A custom which operates TO the
detriment OF the farming there is the Gus
tom of dividing the farm at the death of the
father, among ali the sons, by running the
lines through the length OF the farm, max
ing sometimes q tract one-haf acre in
width, on the highway, and thirty or forty
acres in extent, in length.
The old French farmers used no man ures
but when their yards became too crowded
with manure, used to draw it on the ice of
the river 30 it might be carried away and
when some Of the frugal Scotch farmers cane
and bought tracts of land they used to get
pay for drawing the manure on to their
own farms.
The water SUBJ ly is poor, it chiefly being
drawn from wells. He spoke of the value of
stock raising, The great fault of that re-
gion is slovenliness in doing the work. The
farmers have too much land for their
strength. lie expected great things from
the fruit interest there, where the seed
lings were quite numerous and very promis- |
ing, and he hoped an unity OF interest
might bring US nearer together to the |
benefit of both. The speaker closed by |
a desire to see an inter-colonial
exhibition in which We might Join and to |
the benefit of all.
The chairman then introduced Professor
Collier, OF the Agricultural Department at
Washington. who spoke concerning
THE WORK OF THE AGRICULTURAL BUREAU.
lie said he knew but little OF his topic |
The Commissioner OF Agriculture was in
yited to be present. but could not come.
The Department has not done what it might, |
but is doing better under the present com
missioner. Ii has been in the past an object |
of ridIcule. The present commissioner has |
gone to work TO make it worthy. The
speaker gave a humorous description OF the
former blunders made in the Department.
The press had criticised very severely the
action concerning the tea
business, but he had seen within a few
days tea leaves from trees as large as buckle
berry bushes that had stood zero tempera-
ture. though it might not be probably
raised at that degree, but he thought it
would prove success. as it was now raised
in, and the commissioner was using tea
from. South Carolina.
lie spoke oi the sugar interest, the amount
imported reaching 500 100000 per year,
md any industry here which shall. in whole
,r in part supply that lack would be
national blessing. lie was now analyzIng
welve samples OF grasses from Texas to as
,ertain their nutritlye value. and perhaps
ome one of them may be OF value here lie
Ilso spoke of other work being done by the
81 mi a al A !