1882.] COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. Ii7 



other hand, I think they are as productive to-day as they were 

 twenty-five years ago. The farming that was practiced in 

 that region twenty-five or thirty years ago was very largely 

 sheep husbandry, the fattening of cattle, and the raising of 

 grain both for home consumption and for export. This rais- 

 ing of grain caused them to plough their fields extensively, 

 and they got large crops of timothy and clover for a short 

 period succeeding tliis ploughing of their fields. We know 

 that sheep husbandry, properly conducted, increases the fer- 

 tility of the land ; so also does the fattening of cattle. Now 

 that they have gone into the milk business, they have ceased 

 to plough, to a very great extent, and perhaps to some extent 

 the crops of grass are diminishing from the neglect of plough- 

 ing ; but the opinion of farmers in our vicinity is that their 

 lands are in a more fertile condition to-day, have more capacity 

 of production, than they had thirty years ago, and are really 

 producing more. We have had a succession of unproductive 

 seasons the last five or six years, and they are no criterion of 

 the grass-producing capacity of Litchfield, or Duchess county. 

 We must take that into account. With a return of good 

 seasons, it is my opinion that the Harlem valley, through 

 Duchess county, will show that it has not deteriorated under 

 the system of purchasing grain and selling milk. I merely 

 wanted to suggest this correction of Mr. Sedgwick's state- 

 ment. ^ 



Mr. Sedgwick. Mr. Gold, in the main, is undoubtedLy 

 right, but it is a fact — I have it second-handed, but from exi- 

 cellent authority, Mr. Reed — that they do not raise so much, 

 there, they do not get as large crops of hay, as they did twen- 

 ty-five years ago. It may be due to the fact, as Mr. Gold 

 suggests, that they do not plougli their land as much as they 

 used to, that they do not cultivate their land. I cannot speak 

 of that section called the " oblong valley," but so far as the 

 lower part is concerned, say from Pawling down, where the 

 land is more gravelly and hilly than it is in the eastern part 

 of Duchess county, I have heard others say that their crops 

 are not so large as they were before the introduction of the 

 milk business ; but how largely it is due to the seasons, or to 



