152 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



MANURES. 



HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN AND HAMPDEN. 



Statement of Moses Stebbins. 



Guano. — Having entered for premium crops of wheat and 

 rye, also experiments with Peruvian guano, I herewith present 

 a statement for your consideration. The field on which I have 

 used guano, contains eight acres, situated at the foot of Sugar- 

 loaf mountain, consisting of loam, sand loam, with a coarse 

 sand subsoil, clay loam, and red gravel, commonly called 

 Sugarloaf gravel ; each variety of soil has been treated alike 

 with guano for five years in succession. It has been in pasture 

 prior to 1848, when I broke up one acre for an orchard, planted 

 with potatoes, with plaster in the hill. 



In 1849, I ploughed one and one-half acres more, making 

 two and a half acres, which 1 planted with potatoes as before. 

 In May, 1850, 1 spread 6,000 pounds lime, fourteen bushels salt, 

 six bushels plaster, on the two and a half acres, harrowed it, 

 and set one acre to apple trees, and planted the whole with 

 potatoes ; harvested a fair crop. In 1854, I set the remainder, 

 one and a half acres, with trees, and planted it with potatoes. 

 In 1855, I added five and a half acres more to the field, 

 making in all eight acres of land inclosed. 



In May, 1855, I purchased 4,800 pounds of guano, at a cost 

 of $54 per ton in Boston. I sowed 4,000 pounds of the same 

 on the eight acres of land, or 500 pounds to the acre, and 

 ploughed it in from six to eight inches deep, harrowed well and 

 planted with corn, excepting the orchard, where I planted three 

 rows potatoes by each row of trees. I hoed the crops three 

 times, and harvested by estimation, 400 bushels of corn and 

 40 bushels potatoes. 



In April, 1856, I sowed 150 pounds of guano to the acre, 

 and ploughed as before ; sowed two acres of wheat and six 

 acres of oats. Harvested in July, -]Q bushels wheat, 200 bush- 

 els of oats. 



In September, 1856, I sowed 1,200 pounds guano, ploughed 

 in as before, and sowed five acres of wheat and three acres of 



