152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



so) that is made by the action of acid on the meat ; then we 

 put in five hundred pounds of this refuse material ; then two 

 hundred pounds of sulphate of ammonia, and grind them all 

 together. Allow me to say, that from a product of three 

 hundred tons, five or six years ago, when I first went to. the 

 establishment, the production has increased to over four 

 thousand tons. 



Well, it is a hard matter if anybody, no matter what his 

 professions of honesty and straightforward dealing may be, 

 is liable to suspicion the moment he says a word in regard to 

 commercial fertilizers. That is not as it should be. If one 

 of you gentlemen come to me and show me an article that 

 you have manufactured, and I know nothing about it, I take 

 your word in regard to what it will do. I sometimes buy a 

 horse. I do not know that I ever got worse shaved in my life 

 than I have in buying horses. I would buy one that looked 

 straight as a string — all right — but nevertheless, he had a 

 strain running back to his father or mother, which, if I had 

 known, I would not have paid fifty cents for him, when per- 

 haps he cost me five hundred dollars. Is it right for me to 

 say, therefore, that every man who has a horse to sell is a 

 liar and a thief? Not a bit of it. 



Now, I will go back to the system of frauds, if you please. 

 Everybody has been cheated by these fertilizers, it is said, 

 and the whole business is a fraud. I am going to show you 

 that there is no fraud in the matter, and I will bring the state 

 chemist to prove it. In the first place, I will take the price. 

 I Avill take the last report of that gentleman, whom I honor. 

 It has given me great pleasure to hear him speak, and if he 

 has written a word that has got into print that I have not 

 read, it is because I have had no opportunity to get it. 



Capt. Moore. I want to suggest that there are a number 

 of gentlemen here who desire to speak on this subject, and I 

 do not see how they are going to get a chance, if Mr. Law- 

 rence keeps the floor. 



Mr. Lawrence. I am a Massachusetts man ; I never 

 lived out of the State of Massachusetts in my life ; and, 

 assailed as the parties whom I represent have been, I do not 

 think it is quite right for a member of the Board of Agricul- 



