“Then you produce on the farm all the manure you use,” suggested Percy, “but I think you mentioned hauling seaweed.”

“Yes, and I haul some manure, too, when I can get it; but usually there are three or four farmers ready to take every load of town manure.”

“You get it from town for the hauling?”

“Well, I guess not,” said Mr. Robbins emphatically and with apparent astonishment at such a question.  “I don’t think I would haul seaweed seven miles if I could get manure in town for nothing.  Manure is worth $1.50 a ton Iying in the livery stable, and there are plenty to take it at that right along.  I’d a little rather pay that than haul seaweed; but the manure won’t begin to go around, and so there’s nothing left for us but seaweed; and, if we couldn’t get that, the Lord only knows what we could do.”

“How much seaweed can you haul to a load, and about how many loads do you apply to the acre?”

“When the roads are good we haul a cord and a quarter, and we put ten or twelve loads to the acre for corn and then use some commercial fertilizer.”

“Do you know how much a cord of the seaweed would weigh?”

“Yes, a cord weighs about a ton and a half.”

“Then you apply about twenty tons of seaweed to the acre for corn?”

“Yes, but some use less and some more; probably that’s about an average.  Hauling seaweed’s a big job and a bad job.  We have to start from home long before daylight so as to get there and get the weed while the tide is out, and then we get back with our load about two o’clock in the afternoon; and, by the time we eat and feed the team, and get the load to the field and spread, there isn’t much time left that day, especially when you’ve got to pile out of bed about two o’clock the next morning and hike off for another load.”

“Then you use some fertilizer in addition to the seaweed?  May I ask how much fertilizer you apply to the acre and about how much it costs per ton?”

“Where we spread seaweed for corn, we add about four hundred and fifty pounds per acre of fertilizer that costs me $26 a ton, but I have the agency and get it some cheaper than most have to pay.  Then for potatoes we apply about 1500 pounds of a special potato fertilizer that costs me $34 a ton.”

“The fertilizer costs you about $6 an acre for the corn crop and $25 for potatoes,” said Percy; “and then you have the cost of the seaweed.  I should think you would need to count about $25 or $30 an acre for the expense of hauling seaweed.”

“Yes, all of that if we had to pay for the work, but of course we can haul seaweed more or less when the farm work isn’t crowding, and we don’t count so much on the expense.  It doesn’t take the cash, except may be a little for a boy to drive one team when we haul two loads at a time; and we don’t use seaweed for potatoes.  The corn crop will generally more’n pay for it and the fertilizer too; and the seaweed helps for three or four years, especially for grass.  There’s good profit in potatoes, too, when we get a crop, but they’re risky, considering the money we have to pay for fertilizer.”