COMPARATIVE COST. 183 



the action of air and of the fragments upon themselves, they 

 are instantly reduced to an impalpable powder. 



The rich nitrogenous principle of the bones used upon my 

 farm, the gelatine, was secured and composted with dry peat and 

 bone dust, and this was found to afford a most efficient top 

 dressing- for grass lands. Thus, in the process of steaming 

 nothing was lost. The cost of preparation was about equal to 

 the original cost of the bones, and hence I have estimated it at 

 twenty-five dollars the ton. The present market price of bone 

 dust is sixty dollars the ton, which affords a wide margin 

 between the expense of my bone material and that obtained 

 through commercial channels. The unground bone material 

 can now be bought for about twenty dollars, and it can be 

 ground for ten dollars. Why do our bone grinders persist in 

 charging one hundred per cent, profit upon this most important 

 fertilizing agent ? We need a reform, and are we not prepared 

 to say we ivill have a reform in this matter of exorbitant prices 

 for commercial fertilizers ? 



The whole sum expended for special fertilizers during the 

 past seven years, is seven hundred and ninety dollars, or, in 

 round numbers, eight hundred dollars, which, applied to twenty- 

 five acres of land, gives as the cost of renovation, about thirty- 

 three dollars per acre. The price of fair stable manure in the 

 city of Haverhill has, during the past seven years, ruled at about 

 six dollars the cord. Add to this the cost of loading and haul- 

 ing to the farm, about four dollars, and we have, as the en- 

 tire cost of stable manure in the field, ten dollars the cord. 

 Eight hundred dollars, the sum expended for special agents, 

 would have provided me with about eighty cords of ordinary 

 long manure. This would have given to each acre a little more 

 than three cords ; and now the question arises, could I have 

 secured, by the expenditure of eight hundred dollars for stable 

 manure, fertilizing efifects of equal value with those afforded by 

 the plan of treatment pursued, costing the same ? I think not. 

 1 am confident that to have started my farm and put my fields, 

 by purchased manure, in the high tilth in which they are at 

 present, it would have cost perhaps double the sum which has 

 been expended. 



The amounts and cost statements presented are not exact, 

 but sufficiently so to answer all the purposes of this discussion. 



