SECRETARY'S REPORT. 65 



more extensively (so far as my knowledge extends) than in any other 

 part of the State. Some fields on the farms of the brothers Lincoln 

 in Dennysville, were similarly treated when laid down to grass 

 eight years ago, except that on alternate strips an application of 

 ground bone was made at the rate of eight to ten hundred pounds 

 to the acre. On these the grass, ready to cut when I saw it early 

 in July, promised a heavy crop, whil^ the strips to which no bone 

 had been applied was yielding not more than a third as much. 

 This was shown me as a fair sample of the results attending its 

 use in numerous instances. The Messrs. Lincoln prefer it, weight 

 for weight, to the best Peruvian guano. Such has been their suc- 

 cess, that one of them has erected an apparatus for crushing or 

 pounding bones, (consisting of three heavy iron mortars and pestles, 

 the latter bein^ lifted by water-power,) and he purchases all which are 

 brought to him, at fifteen dollars per ton, or he will crush for others 

 at the halves. Some sixteen miles ■ distant, I saw a quantity of 

 bones which had been collected and loaded, ready to be carried to 

 mill, crushed and returned ; and here I learned that their efiicacy 

 had been proved to be such as to render this operation a very 

 profitable one. Perhaps one reason why bone manure has been so 

 very successful here, may be found in the fact that when the lands 

 were first cleared, the wood, instead of being burned upon the spot 

 and thus returning to the soil a good quantity of phosphate, was all 

 carried off — the merchantable cord wood to be shipped to Boston 

 and the remainder for fuel for home consumption. One other fact 

 mentioned in connection with their experience is not so readily 

 accounted for, namely : that while before the application of bone- 

 dust it was impossible to get good crops of hay, (even with liberal 

 application of ordinary farm yard manure,) there was no special 

 difficulty in obtaining satisfactory crops of grain. 



At Perry, in this vicinity, guano (Peruvian) had been used with 

 highly gratifying results, proving itself a cheap and eifectual manure. 

 It had been applied in quantities varying from one hundred and fifty to 

 one thousand pounds to the acre. The result of experiments indicated 

 three hundred pounds as the preferable quantity, that amount doing as 

 much good as more, and lasting as long, its effect being visible for 

 several years. The soil here is apparently of granitic origin, and 

 overlies a red sand stone formation, which occasionally crops out. 

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