FERTILIZERS MIXED WITH BRAINS. 51 



plenty of manure to start with, and then a sufficient quan- 

 tity of the fertilizer adapted to the special crop that I am 

 going to grow; and the question as to what fertilizer is 

 adapted to the crop must depend, I think, upon the farmer 

 himself. Knowing his land, and following what Professor 

 Goessmann and the chemists tell us of the wants of the dif- 

 ferent crops, he must judge of that himself, and buy those 

 fertilizers in a crude form, use them, and find his own 

 brains. I do not know any other way. No man can do it 

 for him. I do not "believe you could have it done even by 

 Professor Goessmann, who is, perhaps, the most talented 

 chemist, certainly in the agricultural way, that there is in 

 Massachusetts, to say the least. 



Question. Are you able to tell us whether you made 

 any money on those potatoes that you carried into Boston, 

 and sold at seventy-five cents a barrel ? 



The Chairman. I got as much as anybody did. I 

 found other persons did not get as much as I did, and went 

 home perfectly satisfied. 



Question. Did you make any money out of it ? 



The Chaieman. I did not. 



Question. Did you make any money on the butter you 

 sold for twelve or thirteen cents a pound ? 



The Chairman. No ; but I had to take it. 



Question. But you laid the foundation for making 

 money ? 



The Chairman. It taught me better than to sell in that 

 way. 



Mr. CooLiDGE. There is one thing I wanted to ask dur- 

 ing this discussion, when the gentlemen were talking about 

 mildew on spinach and other crops. I have been afflicted 

 severely the last two or three years with a disease among my 

 spinach, very much resembling, in my judgment, the mildew 

 on lettuce, although I can discover nothing that looks like 

 mildew. I have got a great deal of spinach sown, and that 

 which I sowed earliest, with the intent of cutting and har- 

 vesting it for winter use, looks as it will sometimes in the 

 spring of the year, only a good deal whiter. Three-quarters 

 of it, I think, is dead, to all appearance. It commences to 

 turn yellow after it gets through its growth ; and the trouble 

 increases on the early -grown spinach until it is entirely 



