82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



begins to freeze nights and mornings, and it has not been 

 ploughed since 1821. I have top-dressed it with all kinds of 

 manure and I get two good crops off of that land every 

 year, — two tons and a half to the acre for the first crop, and 

 one ton the second, — and turn my cows in afterwards. I 

 top-dress it with coarse manure at any time between Novem- 

 ber and INIarch, and sometimes in May, when I can get on to 

 it. I do not think we try experiments long enough. If a 

 man would come and tell us how he made a complete failure, 

 he would do more good than by telling us of fifty successful 

 experiments. If we will gather up the leaves in the woods, 

 mow our bushes, and take care of all the waste materials 

 about the house and barn, we can make all the manure 

 necessary to carry on farming well. 



Capt. Moore. I will speak of one point to which Dr. 

 Nichols referred, and which has since been alluded to by Mr. 

 Flint ; and that is, upon the application of manure in the 

 fall. Dr. Nichols says, that, to have manure formed into 

 plant-food, 3'ou must have putrefaction, and JMr. Flint says 

 about the same thing. How are you going to get j)utrefac- 

 tion when you apply it late in the fall, when it is cold ? ' Is 

 it not a fact patent to every farmer, that if he ploughs a 

 piece of sod-land in the fall, and ploughs another piece 'in 

 May, the sod that is turned under in May rots quicker than 

 that which is turned under in the fall ? If that is so, if the 

 manure is applied in the spring, and the sod turned in the 

 spring, you get putrefaction quicker, and that is what rots 

 the sod : you make your plant quicker, and you do not run 

 the risk of loss. Therefore it seems to me that it is better to 

 apply manure in the spring rather than in the fall. 



Mr. Flint. In May than in September ? 



Capt. Moore. Well, you may, if you plough in September, 

 have the sod as rotten the next August as sod ploughed in 

 May. 



Mr. Flint. My experience has been, that, on many soils, 

 the sod ploughed in September will be very much decayed 

 by May. 



Capt. Moore. The way that this was put to the meeting 

 was, " in the fall," and I think it was distinctly stated so : 

 " Apply youT manure in the fall, before the ground freezes." 

 I don't believe that is the best way. I believe you run the 



