PRICE OF SUPERPHOSPHATE. 149 



but I do uot doubt he is dealing fairly. He and I would 

 proba1)ly agree in regard to superphosphates, although we 

 might differ in regard to the merits of dried beef. 



Question. What is the name of the gentleman's article? 



Mr. Lawrence. Wilson's superphosphate, manufactured 

 in Rhode Island. It contains 8| per ceut. of ammonia, and 

 11.51 per cent, of phosphoric acid, 10 per cent, of which is 

 soluble. Now, if any of you gentlemen are in the habit of 

 working at figures, just make the calculation, and see how 

 many pounds there are of acid, and how many pounds of am- 

 monia, in a ton. 



Question. What is your price per ton ? 



Mr. Lawrence. We sell it at $79 a ton. It figures up 

 forty cents a pound, commercially, not agriculturally, ac- 

 cording to the best figures Avhich we can get from Germany : 

 16| cents a pound for soluble ashes, 13|- cents a pound for 

 reduced ashes, and 7 cents a pound for potash, — although 

 you cannot buy it for that money now. Nevertheless, as I 

 have said, the fertilizer-men are cursed all the way through ; 

 and as I have a little English blood in my veins, and want to 

 see fair play, I thought I would stand up here and make my- 

 self a target for all your eyes in regard to this matter. 



And let me say, further, that, if men will study tlje princi- 

 ples of fertilization, if they will study their own manure- 

 heaps, if they will study how to save their manures, both 

 liquids and solids, as Dr. Loring says, and mix them all to- 

 gether, until they have got them into a proper condition for 

 use, and then apply them to their soil, and mix them with the 

 soil until every square foot of it has its fair proportion of ma- 

 nure, they can raise almost any crops they choose. 



Now, I am acquainted with a farm of a thousand acres, — 

 the soil is a loose, light, gravelly loam, — which is being 

 worked right over every year. The proprietor of that farm, 

 who knows four times as much as I do about farming matters, 

 and, perhaps, twenty times as much, made up his mind that 

 he must introduce some new elements into that gravelly soil. 

 What did he do? He bought a muck swamp, took off the 

 top and made peat of it, and then he went to work and took 

 out a cord of the muck, and dried it a year ; let it freeze and 

 thaw until it was perfectly friable and easy to work, — no wa- 



