TOBACCO AND ITS CULTURE. 167 



the cost of fertilizer has been reduced to such an extent as to 

 make that difference ? 



Mr. Graves. I think that with the present experience of 

 tobacco growers, the land can be as well fertilized for fifty 

 dollars as it could be at that time for one hundred dollars. 



Mr. Paul. I am unable to get it at any lower price than 

 I did years ago, and some of the elements of plant food, if 

 anything, are higher than formerly. 



Mr. Graves. Manure with us is sold at a much less 

 price than it was a few years ago. The price of raising 

 tobacco per acre at that time was one hundred dollars, and 

 it is now fifty. 



Mr. S. G. Hubbard of Hatfield. I suppose I was the 

 man referred to by Mr. Smith in his very fine essay. Mr. 

 Smith was probably misled by me in one statement that he 

 made. He said that I estimated the value of my crop at 

 twelve cents a pound. I was then taking into view the effect 

 of this recent introduction of Sumatra tobacco, which I 

 thought would reduce my wrappers to the condition of bind- 

 ers. But I will say that I have got a very fine crop of 

 tobacco, equal to anything that I have raised for the last 

 three or four years. I am informed that the price has been 

 put at seventeen cents per pound, and there is no reason 

 why my crop should not be worth as much as that, at least. 

 That would very materially modify the statement of the 

 profits. 



Mr. Smith. I meant to make my statement with refer- 

 ence to Mr. Hubbard's tobacco sufficiently clear in my paper. 

 He did not state any price per pound, but Mr. Porter did in 

 his paper, and I understood him to state what was a fair 

 nominal price, and I took the same price for Mr. Hubbard's 

 tobacco ; not because he gave it to me, for he did not give 

 me any figure as the price. He gave me the cost of raising, 

 and the amount of tobacco he produced to the acre. I said 

 I presumed it was seedling Havana, and would bring more, 

 but in making the comparison between the two, I put in the 

 same price per pound. 



In answer to Mr. Ware, I will say that those two crops to 

 which he referred were not taken as premium crops at all. 

 There were merely representative crops, raised by represeu- 



