QQ MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



more fertilizer was applied than is generally recommended'; 

 and the question arises, whether any of it still remains in the 

 land for the next crop, or whether the extra quantity has 

 been washed down too deep in the land to be available ma- 

 nure, on account of its greater solubility than stable-manure. 

 In my figures I have made no deduction for the value of any 

 fertilizer that may remain in the land for next year's crop. 



Had six bags only of the fertilizer been used (the general 

 amount recommended by Bowker & Co., the makers), with 

 the same result, which would theoretically have been possi- 

 ble, and I given credit for the extra three bags, the cost 

 would have been nineteen cents and four-tenths for a bushel 

 of corn on cob. The corn I used for seed was the eight- 

 rowed variety. 



In harrowing, cultivating, and hilling, some saving could 

 be made by employing an intelligent boy to drive or ride the 

 horses ; and, in the second cultivating and the hilling, one 

 careful man with a good horse would be all that is needed, 

 the corn being high enough to perfectly mark the track for 

 the horse. I also see in " The American Agriculturist " that 

 three cents a bushel is the price to be paid for husking, which 

 would decrease that charge one-half, where it could be done. 

 My experience has been, that about twenty bushels per man 

 in ten hours was the amount husked. 



I should state that I used the Ross machine, which sowed 

 my corn in drills, and dropped the fertilizer immediately 

 after the kernels, in such a manner that they did not fall 

 in contact with each other ; and the former has in no way 

 seemed to have been injured by the latter. The Ross hiller 

 has also done me good service. By these machines I have 

 been able to cultivate more land with my labor than I other- 

 wise could. 



Next year I intend to raise corn on a similar kind of land, 

 with six bags of fertilizer to the acre, and shall hope to tell 

 the result next year. 



Three acres and 31,424 feet of Indian corn were on land 

 which was run out in the previous year, excepting 21,329 

 feet, where potatoes were raised with manure in 1877, and 

 whi'ch was in 1878 only enriched with fertilizer in drill : the 

 remaining three acres and 10,095 feet were manured with 

 stable-manure at the rate of six cords to one acre, -with 



