MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 19 



have the applicants complied fully with the conditions requisite to 

 authorize the award of premiums. 



Imperfect statements are in most cases submitted, but in no in- 

 stance does the amount of crop obtained, or the process of cultivation, 

 as stated by the applicant, seem to your committee to merit very 

 high encomiums as serving to demonstrate the productiveness of our 

 soil, the perfection of our mode of culture, or the adaptation of our 

 climate to this class of crops. 



The indifference of the farmers of Maine to this all-important 

 branch of agriculture, can, in the judgment of your committee, be 

 attributed to no other cause than the neglect of the agricultural 

 societies in the State to offer premiums for the successful and ex- 

 tensive cultivation of root crops for winter feed for stock, commensu- 

 rate with its importance. 



No farmer can keep neat stock, or sheep, in good condition 

 through our long and severe winters, on dry fodder alone ; and it is 

 susceptible of demonstration, that all kinds of stock may be carried 

 through the winter in better condition, and at much less expense, 

 with a generous daily supply of roots, than upon hay and grain 

 only; while, at the same time, both the quantity and fertilizing 

 qualities of the manure are increased. 



It is an old axiom. " No cattle, no farm." The importation of 

 guano, and the manufacture of superphosphates, can never do for 

 the farmer what a full stock of well-fed and carefully-attended neat 

 cattle, sheep and swine, will do. 



Neither Professor Mapes, nor any or all other professors, can super- 

 sede Professor Nature in the production of fertilizers ; and the more 

 we encourage the natural production of stercoraceous substances, 

 the better farmers we shall be, and the better farms we shall culti- 

 vate. 



First premium to Nathan Redlon of China, for his crop of 418 

 bushels Jacksoa potatoes grown on two acres. His statement is as 

 follows : 



"My crop consisting of 418 bushels of 60 pounds to the bushel, 

 was grown on two acres, being at the rate of 209 bushels to the 

 acre. The soil upon which it grew was sandy loam ; light color ; 

 depth of plowing eight inches ; soil fine and light ; subsoil sandy ; 

 about eight inches to the subsoil ; taken up from pasture, broke up 

 the 3d and 4th of May, 1859 ; about four cords of barnyard manure 



