132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



rather than plant-food ; yet, if called upon, I should be com- 

 pelled to plead giiilty to not always putting in practice my 

 own theories, for I do purchase plant-food for immediate 

 use. For several years I have bought about twenty-five cords 

 of stable manure annually ; a large proportion comes from 

 Boston and costs me eight dollars per cord, delivered on my 

 farm. It is not always of the best quality, yet I consider it 

 as cheap as any fertilizer in the market, and it comes nearer 

 in kind and quality to that made in my own barn cellar. I 

 am often asked. Does it pay to buy Boston manure? or. Can 

 we get our money, paid for any fertilizer, back again ? My 

 answer is : I do it. I know that farming without ample 

 manure from some source is a failure ; my experiments in 

 that line have been conclusive. It is our business to pur- 

 chase it in one form and sell it in another. With equal reason 

 might the manufacturer expect to sell his goods without the 

 purchase of the raw material, as for the farmer to think of 

 selling the products of his soil without returning their equiva- 

 lent. In a cord of good manure, free from foreign substances, 

 we get the results of about two tons of hay, together with the 

 grain fed, less waste and growth ; and if judiciously applied, 

 the ground that receives this manure will yield these equiva- 

 lents with interest. The purchase of stable manure is 

 impracticable on many farms of our State. For the im- 

 provement of such, commercial fertilizers have been looked 

 upon as the only means. Now, while I have known men to 

 become wealthy by the manufacture and sale of these fertili- 

 zers, I have yet to learn of the common farmer who has 

 made much money by their use. I wish to be clearly under- 

 stood upon this point. I neither condemn the goods nor the 

 men engaged in their manufacture and sale ; that there are 

 many brands that are just what they purport to be, I have 

 no doubt, and no intelligent farmer at this day would en- 

 tirely discard their use or deny their usefulness. What I 

 would say is, I believe that the plant-food they contain can 

 be purchased cheaper in another form ; for at the price for 

 which they are sold there can be but little margin for profit 

 in the production of the common field crops. 



We are compelled to pay too much for the compounding. 

 Again, we may be buving elements and applying them to 



