1884.] QUESTIONS. 283 



Mr. Gold. Mr. Hall was at that time in tl)e dried fish 

 business largely, and I presume that dried fish was the 

 material principally used. 



Mr. Chamberlain. I was on Mr. Hall's ground at the 

 time, and I asked Mr. Gold to state what the fertilizers were 

 that he used, for my own memory failed me in the matter. 

 I remember this, however, that he told me he used one ton 

 of dried kelp to the acre, besides a generous addition of his 

 own fertilizer. 



Mr. Webb. Let me say on the kelp business, that every- 

 one who bought it did not consider it worth five cents a ton. 



Dr. Jenkins. That question suggests another, and that is, 

 the method of cultivation. I should not be at all surprised 

 if the ton of kelp to the acre which was put on the Walling- 

 ford sand would be a better application for that land, with a 

 proper system of tillage, than a stiff dose of Peruvian guano. 



Question. Will some one give his experience in planting 

 chestnuts for timber ? 



Mr. Skilton of Morris. In the town where I reside, some 

 fifty or fifty-five years ago, a man took it into his head to see 

 what he could do with chestnuts. He ploughed up a piece of 

 ten acres and sowed it with chestnuts. Last year, that piece 

 of timber was sold to a man to cut off the wood for ties. He 

 got some times seven ties from a tree. He cut off two 

 thousand from less than half of it, and took the poorer part. 

 There are trees now remaining, as he told me this week, that 

 are eighteen inches to two feet through at the butt — nice, 

 straight, chestnut trees. 



Prof. Brewer. In what part of the State was that ? 



Mr. Skilton. That was ih the town of Morris, bordering 

 on Bantam Lake. 



Mr. Augur. What was the value of that land before it 

 was planted ? 



Mr. Skilton. The land adjoining that, which is nearly of 

 the same character, is worth not to exceed twenty dollars an 



