190 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



best scientific authority, and which I have found h}'^ practical ex- 

 perience to be substantially correct, making no allowance for the 

 slight changes in the market values of manurial elements, which 

 may have occurred since their publication. By these tables, we find 

 that a ton of decorticated cotton seed meal is worth $2G.29 for manu- 

 rial purposes, while a ton of oats, is worth $7.62 for the same pur- 

 pose. Were the food value the same, in proportion to cost, the 

 feeder would secure $18.67 worth of additional plant food as a 

 reward for his enterprise. 



Or, again, if the farmer has a bin of barley, he may profitably 

 exchange it for bran. The manurial value of bran is $13.25 per 

 ton while a ton of barley is worth for the same purpose but $6.76. 

 By this exchange he would secure $6 49 worth of manure. 



Please observe that I neither aflSrm or deny that the manurial 

 values given above are the actual practical values of the crops named 

 when applied to ordinary crop production. But they are substan- 

 tially the prices which the farmers must pay if he goes into the market 

 for his manures, and they are the only available standard of market 

 valuation. The illustrations given sho^v the comparative manurial 

 value of the crops named, which is the object of their presentation. 

 I will not follow this branch of the subject farther, as I only propose 

 to call attention to it, leaving the farmer to pursue the matter for 

 himself if he shall choose to do so. 



I trust that I need not say more in order to convince the thought- 

 ful farmer that there is here a wide field for investigation and 

 improvement, upon which the farmers of New England have scarcely 

 entered ; that we have within our reach those agencies which if 

 brought to bear upon our work will furnish us with the means for 

 raising any farm crop required for home consumption, to the pro- 

 duction ot which our soils and climate are adapted. 



The prevailing belief that grain raising is necessarily attended 

 with deterioration of the soil is a mistaken one. It is the sale or 

 waste of the elements of which the grain is composed which results 

 in this, and not their judicious production. The farmers of New 

 England can raise much more grain than they now feed, and that 

 with a constantly increasing fertility in their soils, if they understand 

 and apply the principles by which the business should be governed. 

 If they will but follow the example of our western brethren, and 

 provide themselves with the necessary appliances, where practicable, 

 for substituting horse power for man power, they can surely succeed, 



