KEXNEBEC SOCIETY. 165 



Mr. Watson succeeded ia growing eighty bushels of ruta 

 bagas on an eighth of an acre of soil similar to the above ; were 

 sown in drills four feet apart, and thinned to from four to eight 

 inches apart. He says : — '■' I had to plant them over four times 

 before I could get them to stand ; three times the powder bug- 

 cut them down as soon as they were up. The fourth time, which 

 was the 4th of July, they were not meddled with." 



Statement on compost. In preparing my compost manure, 

 the material used is muck, dug a year before using, and decom- 

 posed by mixing lime slacked in brine as strong as can be 

 made, four bushels to the cord, several weeks before using. 



My cattle are tied up during the summer, and each day, as 

 much of this prepared muck is thrown behind them as will ab- 

 sorb their urine. Once a week, the heap is leveled to the back 

 side of the shed, which is sixteen feet wide, covered with muck, 

 and wet with water from the wash-room, with occcasionally a 

 coating of plaster. 



Lime and ashes should not be used with rich manure. 



I have a space under my stable floor, some three feet deep, 

 which I fill with muck and exchange once a year. 



Of this manure I have made, with four cows and a horse, 



forty loads of forty-five bushels each, from the 1st of June to 



the 1st of November. 



H. Parlin. 

 East AVinthrop, December 8th, 1856. 



