[f. prec. + -ER1.]
1. One who or that which fertilizes (land).
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Kent, II. (1662), 57. Saint-foine, or Holy-hay … being found to be a great Fertilizer of Barren-ground.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., I. 377. The agency of snow as a fertilizer in preference to rain, may admit a more rational explanation.
1815. W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XXXVIII. 500. The torrent, now the fertilizer, now the ravager of districts.
1872. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. lxv. 11. The march of Jehovah, the Fertiliser, may be traced by the abundance which he creates.
b. said esp. of manures.
1846. J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 61. Nitrate of potash … when employed as a fertilizer, is generally sown by hand.
attrib. 1893. Act 56 & 57 Vict., c. 56 (title), The Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act.
2. An agent of fertilization in plants.
1844. Darwin, in Life & Lett. (1887), II. 30. Flies are good fertilizers.
1880. A. R. Wallace, Isl. Life, 473. Those which did find suitable fertilisers and other favourable conditions would soon become modified into new species.
