32 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Now, I have not told you anything new, gentlemen. Dr. 

 Nichols of this town proved, long ago, that a farm can be 

 renovated without the use of barn-yard manure ; and these 

 experiments have only gone to substantiate the fact which 

 was brought to the notice of the Board at the meeting in 

 Framingham. 



My next conclusion, as the result of these experiments, is, 

 that this method of feeding plants is the cheapest of all known 

 methods of producing them ; the cheapest in the world, — 

 cheaper than barn-yard manure, cheaper than anything known. 

 Of course, I am met by the question, "What does it cost?" 

 I have tried to put it into figures, gentlemen, so that it could 

 be understood. I should say, before reading this, — if you 

 will excuse me, — that in order to bring this matter to a rule, 

 a most extensive series of experiments and investigations have 

 been carried on at the College in the years prior to this year, 

 to ascertain the natural and healthy relations between the 

 straw of all our grains and the grain itself; between the tops 

 and tubers of all our root crops, etc., going round the entire 

 range of our crops ; and the present year the whole ground 

 has all been gone over again, that it might be verified, and all 

 mistakes corrected. In this estimate we put, of course, the 

 cost, not only of the grain, but of the stalks ; and, therefore, 

 in estimating the value, we estimate, not only the value of the 

 grain, but the value of the stalks. The nitrogen, potash and 

 phosphoric acid to make a bushel of corn, with its natural 

 proportion of stalks, costs forty-one cents. That is about the 

 price of the materials this year. Of course, these are com- 

 mercial products, and may fluctuate slightly. Now, if you 

 call a bushel of corn worth seventy-five cents, and allow 

 ninety pounds of stalks to the bushel (and, I suppose, Dr. 

 Sturtevant will say it is more), in marketable condition, and 

 call the stalks worth $8 a ton, the stalks are worth thirty-six 

 cents; so that the corn and stalks are worth $1.11, and the 

 materials for their production being worth forty-one cents, a 

 balance of seventy cents is left for your labor, for your taxes, 

 and the interest of your money invested in the land. Now, 

 gentlemen, don't get heated over that excessive profit ! 



One thing more, and I will relieve you. Take the state- 

 ment, now, and apply it to the result of the experiments which 



