156 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



under the horse stable, which is shoveled into the hog-sty once 

 a year. We keep two horses, six or seven cows, three hogs ; 

 manure and cultivate eight acres, and mow eight acres. 



Second. Application. — We mix all our manure with the soil, 

 and use no top-dressing, except plaster and ashes. We sprinkle 

 each load of manure with plaster, and each heap, when dropped ; 

 if it is to stand in heaps some days, each one is sprinkled with 

 loam ; when spread for ploughing, a small breadth is spread at 

 a time, and immediately sowed with plaster, thus holding all 

 the gasses until covered by the plough. When we stock down 

 with English grain, wheat, rye and oats, we apply oyster shell 

 or refuse lime, from ten to one hundred bushels to the acre. 



Third. Results. — We have raised, of wheat, on an acre, in 

 1858, thirty and one-fourth bushels ; 1859, thirty-seven. We 

 have raised, of corn, in 1858, seventy-five bushels ; 1859, not 

 harvested, probably sixty. Of cabbage, three thousand heads, 

 about ten tons, sold for $200 ; of potatoes, two hundred bushels ; 

 grass crop, from two to three tons per acre. The result of lime 

 sowing on grass lands is an abundant crop of clover, without 

 sowing any seed. We sow one peck of Timothy and one peck 

 of red-top to the acre, and for the first two years the clover 

 takes the lead. We use about one hundred pounds of guano 

 mixed with plaster, on cabbage, annually sprinkled about the 

 roots, and immediately hoed in. 



Holyoke, October 12, 1859. 



PLYMOUTH. 



Compost Manure. — What bank capital is to the merchant, 

 the compost heap is to the farmer ; only the investment of the 

 capital stock of the latter is found to be generally far more 

 sure, safe and reliable, than that of the former. 



It cannot be too strongly urged upon our farmers, in the lan- 

 guage of the old Roman agriculturist, Cato, " Study to have a 

 large dunghill." With it, the farmer can accomplish every- 

 thing that others have done before him ; without it, he is as 

 though his hands were tied, he can do nothing. In the first 

 place, it ought to be the duty of farmers to gather together all 

 the materials and to permit no waste. Instead of permitting 



