HOW ABOUT THE PROFITS? 191 



afford to spend at the corner groceries and grog-shops. It 

 would be the ruin of every man. They would fall into habits 

 of idleness, have bad associates, and lots of them, and it would 

 be their present and eternal ruin." Now, on the other hand, 

 you put an equal number of Dutchmen from the Mohawk 

 Valley in Barre, and every soul of them would starve to 

 death in three months. 



The CiiAiRMAX. The forming community may not know all 

 the steps to be taken in solving these problems in relation to 

 manure, but there is one thing that we farmers would like to 

 know in regard to these commercial fertilizers. It has been 

 stated that a good article of superphosphate is worth fifty 

 dollars a ton ; that it requires three or four hundred pounds 

 to the acre, and that the application is required every year. 

 Now, we want to know what per cent, interest we are going 

 to get for that amount of money invested ; whether we are 

 going to leave the soil in such a condition that we shall get 

 the result for a long term of years, and get a good per cent, 

 from year to year. If we cau invest fifteen dollars per acre 

 for a long term of years, and still keep the land in just as 

 good condition to produce grass one year and another, and 

 we can get a good interest for that investment, we are very 

 well satisfied. These are things that the farming community 

 want to know, and the scientific men will protect us with the 

 laws we have. 



Mr. J. B. Moore, of Concord. I do not know as I cau say 

 anj'thing that will add to what has been said upon the subject, 

 except, perhaps, a word or two in regard to these certificates 

 that come with the fertilizers. These fertilizer-men 2:et let- 

 ters from the best farmers, certifying that their fertilizers are 

 good articles. The men who give these certificates are very 

 much to blame in this matter. They do not give them under- 

 standingly. I do not mean to say that they do not state what 

 is true, but I know there is hardly a month passes over my 

 head that I do not have an application from some man who 

 is manufacturing fertilizers, saying that he desires to send me 

 a bag or a barrel that I may test it, and send him the result. 

 Now, when they send out their fertilizers for the purpose of 

 getting these certificates, they send an honest article, and that 

 is the only time, the first time and the last that they do send 



