FARMS. 115 



Mr. B. has a mile of under-ground drain. Ho estimates his 

 crops to be worth 83,000, and says it has costs about $3,000 to 

 carry it on. But interesting as it might be to dwell on a case 

 of successful farming, regard to brevity forbids it further. 



After visiting several farms, and preparing to report them 

 after the plan adopted last year, it occurred to the undersigned 

 that more good would result from giving attention to a single 

 point, and reporting fully upon that. In selecting a subject, 

 that of manures presented itself as being paramount in impor- 

 tance to all others. And knowing that guano and super- 

 phosphate of lime were attracting attention, it seemed desirable 

 to ascertain, as far aS possible, the extent to which they had 

 been tried ; the kind of land to which they had been applied, 

 the particular crops upon which experiments had been made, 

 and the results. 



Continuing the alphabetical designation of gentlemen whose 

 farms have come under notice, that of Mr. C. is next in order. 

 He took fifty loads of meadow mud from the bog last fall, and 

 allowed it to remain for the action of the frost, till spring, upon 

 the spot where it was thrown out, or perhaps drawn up, not 

 however composting it with any thing. In the spring he pur- 

 chased seven bags of DeBurg's super-phosphate of lime, and 

 applied four and a half of them to his field of corn, in connec- 

 tion with the meadow . mud. The mud was in a fine mellow 

 state at planting time, and a good shovelful was put in each 

 hill. A large spoonful of the lime was then put in each hill 

 and stirred into the mud, being in quantity at the rate of just 

 about 400 pounds to the acre. Four acres were planted in this 

 manner, and the failure may be called a total one. On the 19th 

 of September, I went over the field with the gentleman whose 

 experiments will be described next. There did not appear to 

 be five bushels of handsome corn upon the whole four acres. 

 The stalks themselves were meagre and stinted in height and 

 size. 



The causes of the failure are not easy to be discovered. The 

 land was not rich, indeed, but it was land from which the pre- 

 ceding owner usually took about thirty bushels of corn to the 

 acre, when putting on about twelve ox-cart loads of barnyard 

 manure. The amount of acid in the meadow mud was small, 

 very small, hardly coloring the litmus paper with which it was 



