FACTS, NOT OPINIONS. 189 



scientific principles of agriculture and their application to 

 farmino- of all kinds in various localities. 



Mr. Lewis. Train them up to get a good living and make 

 money in Barre, and they will make money anywhere else. 



Mr. Ward. One remark made by President Clark might 

 leave the impression that I said that the manufocturers of 

 fertilizers were not ignorant, but farmers were. What I 

 wanted to say was, not only that farmers are ignorant of what 

 they ought to use for their crops, but the manufacturers of 

 fertilizers have not had sufficient judgment and knowledge to 

 make fertilizers adapted to these different crops. I do not 

 profess, in what I have said here, to know all things. Far 

 from it. I feel that we are just at the entering point. Presi- 

 dent Clark stated that we wanted practical results ; we 

 wanted facts. I agree with him t'nUy, and that is why I 

 want to have these experiments made. That is the only way 

 in which we can get at these facts. One person's opinion 

 may be taken by some, and another person's opinion by 

 others ; but that amounts to nothing. We must devise 

 something to "prove all things, and hold fast that which is 

 good." 



Colonel Stone. I have only a word to say. This war 

 between farmers and the manufiicturers of commercial fertil- 

 izers is nothing new. I have heard it for many years. I 

 thought three years ago that ^ye had given to the farmers an 

 opportunity to protect themselves. If I recollect right, I 

 served on the Committee on Agriculture in 1869. There was 

 great ado made in regard to this very matter. Many farm- 

 ers came before the committee and said that the fiirmins: com- 

 munity and the agricultural interests of the State were very 

 much injured by the spurious fertilizers that the manufacturers 

 were imposing upon them, and they asked for a law for their 

 protection. We worked hard ; Ave got all the facts we possi- 

 bly could ; we framed a law, and if I mistake not, friend Clark 

 w\as consulted in the matter. He acquiesced in the general 

 fault-finding, acquiesced in the necessity for a law for the pro- 

 tection of the farming community, and I think he almost 

 promised that if the legislature would enact a good and suffi- 

 cient law for the protection of the agricultural interests, they 

 would analyze these fertilizers at the Agricultural College. 



