EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 81 



my family is a good deal bigger than it was when I went on 

 to the farm. The farm is worth a good many more doUars 

 than it was then, and I am 2:ettin2r it in condition where 

 it will support me well. The past year has been a very bad 

 3'ear ; I have put in probably more than I can get out, but I 

 have not lost anything. I bought hirge quantities of chemi- 

 cals and many new tools ; they are all there, and I am satis- 

 fied that, taking one year Avith another, I am making a suc- 

 cess of farmino:. I claim that any youno" man who, with 

 poor health, little money and a family, can take a run-down 

 fiirm and make it support another family besides his own in 

 comfort, is making a success of his business. AVe are too 

 much inclined to judge of the profits of farming by a man's 

 financial condition. If a man has poor health, if ho has a 

 large family, if he has much sickness, if he has a mortgage 

 which, perhaps, in some instances is more than the farm is 

 worth, on which he has to pay interest. — if he has any of 

 these varying causes which arc a drain on him. you should 

 not say, because he does not make money under such circum- 

 stances, that he does not make his farm pay ; but you should 

 say it is because he works at a disadvantage. If his farm, 

 as a farm, pays, he makes his business pay ; although he 

 may be owing a mortgage of several thousand dollars, and 

 may not be able to lay up much. 



Mr. IIiLLMAN. If I manure a field of ground that is in 

 fair condition with say five cords of stable manure, spread 

 upon the surface, and then add 800 pounds of a chemical fer- 

 tilizer, spread also upon the surface, harrow it in thoroughly, 

 and plant corn, how am I to give credit? What proportion 

 should be given to the stable manure and what proportion to 

 the chemicals? 



Mr. Pierce. It has been my custom, in making ray esti- 

 mate of these experiments, to charge half of the stable 

 manure to the first crop and all the chemicals. But this is a 

 very difficult problem. As I have said to you, farming can- 

 not be made an exact science, and you cannot figure these 

 things out exactly ; but I think that you are inclined to under- 

 estimate the value of the chemicals. I find that the chem- 

 icals which I use exert an influence for a number of years. 

 Where I planted cucumbers this year and put fertilizers in 



