113 ^ BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



barn yard. I think the Board of Agriculture would confer a favor on the 

 cotnmunity, if they would publish the result of their researches and experi- 

 ments in the application of manures to the corn crop, &c., and at what price 

 a farmer might expect a remunerating return in the crop." 



J. Adams, "West Newfield. 



" Three hundred per cent., simply by a proper cultivation of the soil. Land 

 may as well yield four thousand pounds, as one thousand per acre." 



Aaron IIoag, Gardiner. 



" It might be increased to almost any extent, by reclaiming bog lands, the 



free use of muck, and such other fertilizers as we have among us, together 



with a judicious system of cultivation." 



AcGusTtrs Sprague, Greene. 



" I have found, by many years experience, that sward land plowed four to 

 ten inches deep, twenty to twenty-five loads manure (fifty bushels to the load) 

 thoroughly incorporated with the soil, planted with corn or potatoes ; second 

 year seeded with grain and grass seed, gives us the best crops of corn and 

 grain, and a succession of good crops of hay. "We receive much heavier crops 

 by prosecuting this mode, and continue to work over larger breadth of land, 

 and keep the soil in a higher state of cultivation. We have increased our hay 

 crop by this mode from a half ton to two tons per acre." 



Joseph Frost, Elliot. 



" By thorough draining, deep or subsoil plowing, and the use of bone-dust, 



with a careful husbandry, and the use of the sources of fertility on and about 



the farm, the crop of hay can be profitably increased from the present average 



of half a ton, to two tons per acre." 



W. D. Daxa, Perry. 



" It can be increased one-half, and that profitably — not by sending to Boston 

 or New York for fertilizers — but let every farmer treble his amount of manure 

 every year. There will be enough to doubt this, and I will just show you 

 "what I am doing, and ask if I have not some reason to believe that I shall 

 double my quantity of grass in a very few years. I have a cellar under my 

 barn, where all my manure is deposited until wanted for use. I keep there 

 one hog to every two or three head of cattle, and haul in three loads of all 

 kinds of material that will absorb moisture, to one made by the cattle ; and 

 in spring I have three loads of good manure, instead of what would have 

 been one of ordinary, if it had been thrown from the window. Some will say 

 it costs a great deal to keep hogs, and so it does ; but if you have any to sell, 

 they bring a great price. Now, I say, instead of laying out money for fertil- 

 izers, buy corn and feed it to hogs, and make your own manure. This is the 

 best way to make a compost heap that I know of. I will add, that my cellar is 

 BO warm in winter, that it never freezes so but the hogs can work in the manure 

 just as well as in summer." 



John C. BLA^'c^ARD, Searsport. 



