SOUTH KENNEBEC SOCIETY, 1G<) 



this experiment. I guess that double the cost of the manure 

 applied to this crop, to wit, $28, expended for labor in hauling 

 and applying such stable manure as is sold at $2 per cord 

 within three-fourths of a mile from my place would not have 

 given me so heavy a crop as was produced with the manures 

 used; and that quantity of stable manure would have cost me, 

 besides hauling, $30. If guessing is proof, this experiment 

 shows that it is better to buy guano, super-phosphate and plas- 

 ter at present prices, than to take stable manure at the distance 

 of three-fourths of a mile, and have half the labor of hauling 

 and applying performed gratuitously. 



As to the value of roots, my opinion is formed from consid- 

 erable experience in feeding neat stock. I think people who 

 pay $14 or $15 per ton for roots, pay more than their actual 

 value as compared with the prices of stock, or of other feed ; 

 twelve and one-half cents per bushel was all they were formerly 

 worth to feed to beef cattle or growing stock. I do not believe 

 that at times when beef sold in this section at $3 or $4: per 

 hundred, and store stock at proportionate prices, the producer 

 received in the form of beef and growth of stock twelve and 

 one-half cents for roots or fifty cents for corn fed to cattle ; 

 neither do I believe, that now, when beef and stock has advanced 

 one hundred per cent., and feed in the same proportion, that 

 they receive twenty-five cents for roots and $1 for corn. At 

 these prices they must look for a part of their remuneration in 

 the increased quantit}^ and improved quality of the manure 

 heap. 



This last consideration is one to which farmers do not gener- 

 ally attach sufficient importance. If farmers would raise roots 

 (I will not quarrel about the kind, though I have decided pre- 

 ference,) in sufficient quantities as to allow each of their store 

 cattle a peck a day during the whole time they are kept on dry 

 food, and enough in addition to put such animals as they want 

 to dispose of in the highest condition for beef, the improved 

 condition and increased value of their stock, together with 

 the increased number they will be able to keep on the same 

 acres, I have no doubt would largely increase their income 

 above that from feeding wholly on dry food. By this means 

 all the coarse fodder, straw, meadow hay, cornstalks, &c., may 



