174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



do Dot repeat till the laud is exhausted. The better way 

 is to give it in more moderate quantities, and repeat it 

 often. 



The quantity used will vary according to the nature of the 

 soil, the quality of the manure, and kind of crop. 



The best mode of application is to spread the manure as 

 early as possible on the surface of the ground, at a time when 

 it is not saturated with moisture or bound up with frost, but 

 in a season of frequent showers. 



The soluble organic and mineral ingredients will in from ten 

 to fifteen days, according to the amount of rain, be washed 

 into and retained by the soil, and the insoluble matters can 

 then be covered by the plough. 



The method of depositing the manure on the field in heaps, 

 and leaving it so for a length of time, is a bad practice ; the 

 soluljle matters are washed into the ground, under and im- 

 mediately adjoining the heaps, and cannot afterwards be evenly 

 distributed by rain through the soil ; hence, the result is in- 

 equality in the crops of such fields. 



On light soils, mineral manures which contain their phos- 

 phates and alkalies in the most solul^le state, should be applied 

 in the spring ; on heavy soils it will answer to apply them in 

 the fall, but before the ground freezes. 



It has been thought advisable to have varied and thorough 

 trials of mowing and other machines under the auspices of 

 the state or county agricultural societies, and the eft'ect has 

 been of benefit to the agricultural community, and productive 

 of no injury to the manufacturers, and all our interests have 

 felt the benefits conferred. Would not still greater benefits 

 follow by a thorough and systematic course of comparative 

 experiments of manures and crops, which will be practical 

 and all can see and understand? 



If the State Board of Agriculture suggest it to the county 

 societies to institute them, with a recommendation also to the 

 societies to offer liberal premiums to the various farmers' 

 clubs to carry out the same experiments, no doubt it would 

 be done by many, if not all, and we should have many reports 

 from difierent parts of the State on different soils, tempera- 

 ture and rain-Ml, and the results would furnish a foundation 

 from which the farmers could build an actual knowledge, and 



