190 MISSOURI STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fartlier the price was thirty-five dollars, thus ruining- the man by the 

 way for the benefit of the one at the terminus. oS^o merchant can 

 prosper here if they can undersell him at the end of the road. We are 

 too kindly with the railroad companies. They take all out of us we 

 can bear. The roads of this country have $7,000,000,000 of watered 

 stock upon which the people must pay dividends. That watered stock 

 is so much highway robbery as it would be to write a mortgage upon 

 your farm and compel you to pay interest upon it, you have to pay 

 dividends upon it because you have to ship over the roads to reach a 

 market for your products. If you submit to one wrong they will do 

 another greater. Let us demand justice, and right and square dealing. 



Dr. Gordon. — Let them pay taxes upon their watered stock. 



Mr. Follett. — That will not reach the case. If you give me a mort- 

 gage upon your farm I will pay the taxes on the mortgage. 



Mr. Irvine. — I don't believe we can control it by legislation. It 

 can be done only by the people rising up in their might and demand- 

 ing it. 



Mr. Lauglilin. — I spent five years of my life fighting a railroad 

 company. I know they procure and adapt legislation to suit them- 

 selves. It is a great danger to the liberty of the American people. 

 They are shaping the decisions of the courts, even to the Supreme 

 Court of the United States. The homes of thirty thousand people 

 were taken away from them and given to James F. Joy by a decision 

 of this court. 



SOIL CULTIVATION. 



BY NATT. STEVENS OT FORNEY, TEXAS. 



Mr. President : We have in this part of Texas a very black 

 waxy soil. This soil is of a consistency — of ingredients composing it — 

 to cause it to bake and crack in drying the moisture out of the soil 



