PROFITS OP RAISING VEGETABLES. 135 



what they do next. They may vote, — if they will vote for the 

 right man, — or they may do anything they please. I say it in 

 all soberness. It is a most admirable work for them to enter 

 upon. 



In regard to the profit of raising vegetables, there is no ques- 

 tion. Where do the vegetables come from that are consumed 

 here in Fall River ? Where do the vegetables come from that 

 are consumed in the good towns of Essex County ? Do they 

 come from the adjoining land ? No. Strange as it may seem, 

 we are living in our towns and cities upon the refuse vegetables 

 of the Boston market. I have known barrel after barrel of 

 green pease to start from the town of Weymouth, go into Bos- 

 ton, be sold there, and then be consumed in the town of Taun- 

 ton. Those pease made two journeys over the same road. That 

 is a most extraordinary fact. They went to Boston first, and 

 they went to Taunton to find a consumer. That ought not to 

 be so. The profits that have fallen into the hands of those men 

 who supply the Boston market with provisions are enormous. 

 They are almost as rich as the Fall River mill-owners, and that 

 is about as much as can be said in this Commonwealth. 



Now, what applies to the region about Boston, applies to the 

 region about Worcester, Lawrence, Lowell, Springfield and 

 every other large city or town of this Commonwealth. There 

 is not a single acre of land within four miles of those towns to 

 which I have alluded, that could not be made, by a proper 

 application of skill and industry, profitable to the owner for 

 the purpose of vegetable growing. 



Dr. Durfee says I have used up my time ; I am afraid I have 

 used up your patience as well, and I must leave for the train. 



The Chairman. I disagree with the doctor totally upon the 

 corn-fodder question. He states distinctly what he means by 

 corn fodder: that is, what the farmers in our region, and 

 through the whole of Western Massachusetts call " corn fodder," 

 he calls " fodder corn," and there is not a farmer from Western 

 Massachusetts here to-day who will not say that he has fed out 

 his fodder corn this year with great profit, and that if he had 

 not had this fodder corn, he could not have carried his cows 

 through. I appeal to my friend here from Barre (Mr. Ells- 

 worth) and to any gentlemen from that region, who keeps a 

 dairy, to say if lie has not used fodder corn this season to great 



