THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 21 



&quot; Well, Jotham, can you tell me if they used anything 

 else besides fish for manure ? &quot; 



&quot; No, they didn t. You see fish was so plenty in Peconic 

 Bay, all along the shores of Southold, that they thought 

 it was of no use to cart dirt into their yards.&quot; 



&quot; Well, that was the trouble with them, Jotham, and 

 the reason that the land run to sorrel and moss. Deacon 

 Smith has studied into this matter a little more than I 

 have, and the Deacon says that if we only use muck with 

 fish, or if we turn in green crops occasionally, the land will 

 grow better all the while, and produce great crops. He 

 says the fish stimulate the soil to produce great crops of 

 corn, oats, hay, etc., and immense quantities of carbona 

 ceous matter are carried off, and the soil is soon exhausted, 

 unless we put back the carbon in some way.&quot; 



&quot; I don t believe a word about your carbonates, Tim 

 Bunker, and the other stuff you and the Deacon get out 

 of the papers. I tell you fish will pizen the land, and 

 Hookertown will be a desert in less than five years if you 

 keep carting these stinking fish into town.&quot; 



&quot; But if fish spoil the land, Uncle Jotham, why do they 

 keep using them on the Island? One town over there 

 raised twenty thousand bushels of wheat and corn last 

 year, rye and oats in great quantities, and it was just 

 where they used fish in greatest abundance.&quot; 



&quot; I don t believe a word on t. That wheat crop, you 

 see, was growed on paper. You can t raise wheat in this 

 part of the country. The sile is too old.&quot; 



&quot; Well, Uncle Jotham, I see you are dead set agin the 

 fish, but I have made up my mind to buy them, and I 

 think I shall show you they won t spoil the land.&quot; 



Timothy Bunker, Esq., touched up his span and ended 

 the conference ; while Uncle Jotham struck his cane upon 

 the ground with great emphasis and tugged off, muttering 

 as he went : &quot; Who would have thought it ! Tim Bunker 

 using bony fish ! It s no use ; they pizen the sile.&quot; ED. 



