128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



or so mucli per ton, making, if I recollect right, about thir- 

 teen dollars per acre for the fodder : that leaves thirty-three 

 cents a bushel as the cost of my corn, on the average. Now, 

 I would like to say this : I have got from that Stockbridge 

 manure, on four acres, a crop of corn that cost me thirty- 

 three cents a bushel ; I have got all the fodder that comes 

 from four acres to feed to my cattle, and I shall have all 

 the manure that my cattle make to go on and increase my 

 crops hereafter : therefore it is only a matter of time to 

 bring up those farms that are adapted to concentrated ma- 

 nure to a standard where we shall not need such fertilizers, 

 having enough barnyard-manure to meet all the requirements 

 of crops. 



I think we have got up to a pretty good standard in rais- 

 ing corn. If you look at the statistics, you will find that 

 New Hampshire stands ahead of any other State in the 

 United States in the amount raised per acre. We stand 

 forty-two bushels and a half per acre, and no other State 

 comes up to forty bushels. One reason is, perhaps, that, 

 since we have agitated the question of raising corn, almost 

 every man who has the name of raising corn has striven to 

 get the most per acre at the least expense, and of course our 

 average is large. Mr, Walker of Concord (who owns a large 

 farm, and is an experimental farmer and very successful) 

 tried the experiment this year of ploughing his land up, and 

 putting on the usual coating of manure for a series of crops 

 five or six years. He took an acre right opposite this land, 

 of the same soil precisely, ploughed it, and put on no manure 

 except a little phosphate in the hill. From that acre, with 

 a little phosphate in the hill, he got as much within two 

 baskets as he did on the other piece which was manured in 

 the usual way for six years' crops. Why was it ? I went on 

 the ground and saw it. Where his land was manured for six 

 years, there was an immense growth of fodder, so that you 

 could hardly get through it : on the other, there was just 

 stalk enough to bear two ears of corn. Mr. Walker and I 

 are very good friends. He thinks I am pretty fast in this 

 matter, and he is inclined to be conservative. He tries one 

 experiment, and I try another ; and out of these experiments 

 we hope to get results that will be a benefit to New Hamp- 

 shire, and perhaps the benefit may extend out a little farther. 



