64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



MANURES. 



ESSEX. 



[From the Report of the Committee.] 



* 



The details of the experiments made by the applicants for 

 premium, as well as by Mr. Smith, are very interesting and 

 valuable. The experiments were very similar in their 

 nature, all of them being trials of the relative value of barn- 

 yard-manure and Stockbridge fertilizer, and in two instances 

 Darling's fertilizer. The past season, owing to the extreme 

 drought, was very unfortunate for experiments with commer- 

 cial fertilizers. The wonder is, that they were heard from at 

 all. Notwithstanding this drawback, the experiments seem 

 to give like results in each case, and are quite convincing. 

 The whole subject of commercial fertilizers is of immense 

 practical importance to farmers ; and any reliable collection 

 of facts showing their relative value as compared with barn- 

 yard-manure, or with each other, is of great value, and will 

 be eagerly sought. It costs something to try experiments ; 

 and the fault with them usually is, that the details are not 

 kept with sufficient exactness. Probably, in a majority of 

 cases, the farmer does not intend to make an experiment to 

 be reported when he enters upon it ; but after its completion, 

 knowing it to be of value to himself, he thinks it will be to 

 others, and he then narrates the details from recollection. 

 The value of many of the statements concerning crops 

 raised and offered for premium is materially lessened by the 

 evident fact that they are estimates of cost made up after 

 the crop is raised, rather than statements of details k(;pt 

 during the progress of its culture and growth. It is likely, . 

 that, in the item of labor, there is generally more time actual- 

 ly laid out in the cultivation of a crop than appears in the 

 statement, for the reason that the cost is estimated^ and this 

 because the farmer does not, in the beginning, expect to 

 report his experiment. 



