HEN-MANURE AND ISIUCK. 185 



Question. How did you apply it ? 



Mr. Lewis. I composted it with muck, if I planted on the 

 upland. 



Question. In what proportions ? 



Mr. Lewis. About one part hen-manure to three of muck. 

 But never mix it before you are ready to use it, and as soon 

 as you use it cover it up. I put a hoeful of dirt between 

 that and the seed-corn, and drop it no faster than I cover it 

 up. If you mix dry hen-manure with muck, if the water is 

 not all dried out, you will soon set the ammonia free. Heat is 

 developed by putting them together, and that throws the 

 ammonia, the fertilizing material, right out. So cover it as you 

 go. I have used hen-manure on the beet crop, and made ten 

 tons of beets for one bushel of hen-manure. 



Mr. Ward. Pardon me for rising again, but I want to 

 reply to President Clark. I will state, in the first place, that 

 in my experiments I have left a space between the plots, so 

 that the crops would not run together; In regard to the 

 analyses of various fertilizers, I will say that my remarks were 

 general, and merely to establish certain principles in the ap- 

 plication of manures. I was afraid the discussion would run 

 to particular fertilizers rather than on general principles. It 

 has always been supposed that having ascertained the com- 

 position of the various kinds of fertilizers by analysis, you 

 would then know their efiects on the soil ; but all manures 

 produce their elfects by contributing directly to the nutriment 

 of plants, by improving the texture of the soil, and by acting 

 as chemical agents on the inert matters in the soil, by which 

 they are transformed into a state fit for plants. Now, by a 

 chemical analysis of a manure, you do not ascertain how it 

 acts on the inert matters in the soil. Then I will state another 

 thins: in regard to what President Clark has said. It is a 

 common occurrence with those persons who buy these various 

 superphosphates in the market (and nearly all the fertilizers 

 in the market are superphosphates, combined with nitroge- 

 neous matters, to some extent) , to find that the first year they 

 produce great results, and the second year they apply the 

 same thing, and the results are entirely inadequate. Then 

 the farmer immediately turns upon the manufacturer of the 

 superphosphate and says, " Why didn't you sell me as good an 



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