134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



called " rotted manure ; " and it costs me at my place about 

 seven dollars a cord, — a fraction more. It has cost eight 

 dollars and six cents until this fall, when I have got a reduc- 

 tion on the freight (three dollars and twenty cents being the 

 regular freight) and also on the price. Mv. Dole charges 

 five dollars and a half a cord by the small quantity ; but, in 

 quantities of fifty cords for cash, he sells it for five dollars 

 and a quarter. I have bought of him for several years, and 

 have made a little better terms ; so that he sells it to me for 

 a little less than that, delivered on the car. 



Question. You spoke of having made mistakes in chan- 

 ging crops. Would you be wilHng to state what those crops 

 were ? 



Mr. Paul. One in particular. I raised onions previous 

 to the war, and it was my fortune to stop raising them at the 

 very time during the war when they went up to two dollars a 

 bushel in the fall ; and there were two years then when they 

 were sold as high, I think, as twelve or fifteen dollars a bar- 

 rel in the spring. I think they went from a dollar and a half 

 to two dollars a bu'shel during the season. There is one 

 vserious mistake I made. I omitted raising them for a few 

 years, and I have always regretted it. I think that is the 

 case with many farmers. We make changes at the very time 

 we ought not to make them, and we do it because prices are 

 low ; and everybody changes about that time, and the conse- 

 quence is, prices go up. My experience is, that you had 

 better continue to cultivate any crop that you raise. My 

 idea is, and I form my opinion from my own practice, that 

 the average price right through will pay, in almost any 

 department of farming we see fit to go into. I am fully per- 

 suaded of that. I was talking with my brother-in-law, who 

 has been into "New Hampshire and Vermont for cattle, 

 horses, and sheep, and he told me that he knew farmers 

 there who had raised cattle, horses, and sheep ; and some of 

 them who had been raising horses, when they were at a low 

 price, comparatively, and neat-cattle were at a high price, 

 would leave the horse-business, and go to raising cattle. 

 They sold out their horses at the time of low prices, and 

 purchased cattle for stock-raising when the prices were high, 

 and, by the time they were ready to supply the market, the 

 price of neat-cattle was down, and then they went into 



