1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 105 



among some of the farmers in the sections where I am best 

 acquainted. No doubt there are some who save and utilize 

 the liquid manure, which contains sixty-five per cent of the 

 manurial value of the whole ; but you see that if this is not 

 saved, and the solids are thrust out of doors, exposed to the 

 sun and rain, you have only to lose ten per cent by leaching 

 and evaporation in order to make up the seventy-five per 

 cent. This is a matter which farmers very generally neglect ; 

 and where farmers in the State of Maine are saving and 

 utilizing their liquid manure, they are not obliged to use 

 such large amounts of commercial fertilizers in the growing 

 of special crops. This waste must be checked before we 

 can find profit in agriculture. 



Prof. Roberts. Did you ever know a man to get poor 

 cutting lodged grain? 



Dr. Twitchell. No, I don't know that I ever did. A 

 farm that will yield lodged grain is a pretty good farm to 

 have. 



Mr. Hickox. My experience teaches me that we can- 

 not raise potatoes in Massachusetts as they are raised in 

 Aroostook County ; we must raise something which will 

 return to the soil the fertilizing elements, and to do that we 

 must use fodder and stock. 



Dr. Twitchell. I do not think any gentleman here felt 

 for a moment that I was advising you to follow Aroostook 

 County in your business. I intended to make prominent 

 this thought, — that every man must be a law unto himself, 

 with his own farm, his own conditions ; and that he must 

 use his intelligence, study his farm,- and learn what that 

 farm is best adapted for. I believe that a man should know 

 his land, what his land will respond to most readily; and 

 then, by applying that knowledge in the management of his 

 farm, he will secure success. 



This leads me to give expression to another thought, and 

 that is, that a man must always do something for which he 

 has a liking. I believe there is much in that. Take any 

 young man who has a liking for a trotting horse, who wants 

 all the time to be in a sulky, and give him the best Jersey 

 cows to be found, and in five years he will have them in the 

 harness. You cannot transform an individual as easily as 



