The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-06-23
CECIL FARMERS CLUB.
rhe Regular Monthly Meeting at Mr.
CouuOn's. near rerrYyilie,


farmers Club was hold at "Ellerslie'
farm on Wednesday, the 10Th inst. 4
eleven O'clock, MIR. Thomas {. Bond, thI
president of the club, directed the call o
responded 10 lbeir names: William w
Moore, Henry S. CJndou, George "
Sutton, Joseph Coudon COT JOs), Adam
Il. Magraw, Col. Enoch Noyes, Col JohE
r. Bond, John ?. Wilson, Thomas c
Bond, Joseph Coudon COT Hy), aud II
r. Torbert. The visitors present by
invitation were the Rey. Giles 3 Cooke,
President i w Sylvester and Prot Jas
5. Robinson Of the Marylan Agricu!-
tural College aud Experiment Station,
Mr.. Wilson L. Coudon. of the Perry
vile Record, and Mr. Winston White.
The minutes of the last meeting
having been read and adopted,
there being no reports OF experiments,
and the essay being in order, MIR Coudon
said that 10 had tot prepared a paper,
but be mad done better thing-he had
invited President Sylvester and Prof.
Robinson to be present, and it afforded
him great pleasure to present them to
the Club
Captain Sylvester said it afforded him
great pleasure to meet tho members of
the Club, that he had expected to be a
| listener rather than a speaker at this
meeting, and had therefore como unpre-
pared to speak upon any suggested line
of discussion. pertaining to agriculture.
It was time, he thought, for the farm
ers OF the country to come together to
secure the largest benefits. to their
| interests.
He cited the fact of the wonderful
paralelism in ;he laws appertaining to
vegetable and animal life, aud that it
was properly so, because the same mum
| ficent hand directed them.
A plant whose growth has been
| checked by any adverse cause, is most
| liable to parasitic attack, and the purpose
of scientific agriculture was to ascertain
the cause and provide the remedy.
Upon the subject of fertilizers he said
by some error, a defect in former
fertilizer law, had rendered it practically
imperative, which defect had been prac-
tically cured in the law lately enacted.
There are in the markets of this State
over 1000 brands of fertilizers. He
thought the fertilizer law passed at the
last Legislature was one in the interest
Of every honest manipulation of fertilizers
in Maryland. The Station last year
analysed over 400 samples of fertilizers,
and had been frequently threatened with
suits for their published results, but IN
the interests of the farmers of Mary land
the Station would always stand upon the
right in the matter of fertilizers, in
seeing that they were up to the standard
claimed for them. In the analysis of the
fertilizers now on the market, the desire
and object Of the college was only to
protect the farmers OF Maryland, that
the published bulletins of the Station
should command respect, because these
analyses were made in duplicate, aad
corroboratiug each other, had an undeni.
able claim to correctness. 1t was true
the chemists of the college were young
men, but they were acknowledged ex-
perts, aud the time had passed when it
was a crime to be young man.
Dry up your theories, and the line OF
practical work will languish, was an
aphorism practically exemplified in the
successful scientific work of the times.
In regard to the college work, he could
say that the Maryland Agricultural
College was true to its name. Captain
Sylvester then outlined the courses at the
college, and said that the Faculty that
could not push such course would be
unequal to the demands of the hour
lie desired to emphasize the fact that
there was far better prospect of indie
pendence for the farmers son than in
any other avocation, when the intelligent
appliances OF the times were availed of.
He urged less land, and intensive ferti
lization as the true theory for successful
farming.
He then considered the proposition,
whether it would be possible to maintain
the fertility OF the land By the use OF
lime and clover only. He thought not.
Lands generally needed potash aud phos.
phoric acid. The latter can be got from
South Carolina rock when treated with
suiphurc acid, this ingredient of sui
phuric acid being al expensive one,
against the handling of which he eau
toned the farmer on account of its
danger, advising the us9 OF the dissolved
rock. Potash could be obtained cheap
est in the muriate, because the matter of
freight was to be considered when the
lower grades were bought,
He then spoke of the value of nitrogen
attainable through the use ofleguminous
plants, that four-ffths of the atmosphere
being nitrogen, the former estima-
tiou that it was simply diuent should
give place to the idea that it was the
source OF bountiful supply of POSSIBLE
ity for mans advantage.
In speaking of leguminous plants as
nitrogen gatherers he commended the
Southern COW pea, and III answer to
question OF Mr.. Sutton, he suggested its
use as preparation for fal! crop, and
urged Mr.. Sutton to try the pea, in com
parisou with other experiments he was
making. Mr. Sutton then asked if he
had time, and suggested that he had
sixty days intervening before fall plant
ing, which Captain Sylvester thought
was ample time in which to make the
experiment.
At the conclusion of his remarks, MIR.
Sutton asked him what his opinion was
OF the practice of turning down forage
corn. He replied hat there was nothing
in the corn TO restore more TO the soil
than it takes out of it. In other
words it supplies no extra plant food to
the soil, the reason being that it does
not absorb sufficient nitrogen from the
atmosphere to make it valuable as food
plant. 1t certainly improves the phys
ioal condition of the soil, but 1t cannot
in anything like the same measure as
Southern COW peas that cost from 90 to
70 cents per busheI. appropriate nitrogen
aud therefore restore the exhausted fer
tility.
Mr.. Joseph Coudou(of Jos) asked Capt
Sylvester if deep ploughing was not,
as a general thing, the best, his
theory being that the depth OF the