26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ment. I will not stop to answer the question why. Dr. 

 Sturtevant can answer that. 



Now, I will give another experiment with corn, which will 

 perhaps answer this query, why the land yielded fifty-one bush- 

 els more of potatoes than the statement called for, and I will 

 answer another question which by and by will be asked me. 

 You will pardon me for this interruption of the direct course 

 of the experiments. Some men will say, "Ah, but supposing 

 you did do it, how does it leave the land ? Haven't you ruined 

 your land ? Supposing you did doctor this land up with some 

 chemical hocus-pocus material, haven't you ruined your land?" 

 Now, then, to explain the discrepancy in the potato experi- 

 ment, and answer this question at the same time, I will tell 

 you the result of another experiment with corn. In 1874 

 we were trying the experiment of growing corn according to 

 this principle, and we raised one hundred and four l)ushels to 

 the acre. In 1875 we took that same plot and planted it with 

 corn again, and did not give it any manure at all, the object 

 beino; to see if the land was ruined, or whether the manure of 

 1874 reached over into 1875, and atfccted advantageously the 

 crop of 1875. On that plot, this year, we harvested sixty- 

 four bushels to the acre, without any manure. The normal 

 bearing of the land in 1874 — that is, on the plot where 

 no manure was applied — was thirty-four bushels to the 

 acre. 



Now, then (if it will l)e accepted as such), the manure of 

 1874, after producing its one hundred and four bushels to the 

 acre, reached over into 1875, and gave us tw^enty-nine bushels 

 and a fraction of corn to the acre this year, as the effect of last 

 year's manuring. 



Oats. — A presumptuous statement was made in relation to 

 the growing of oats. The statement was made, that we would 

 grow fifty bushels to the acre, over and al)ove the natural 

 product of the land. I ought to stop here to say to gentle- 

 men who have never been at the College, and do not know 

 anything about the land selected for these experiments, that 

 we have got the poorest land, apparently, — rocky, drift soil, 

 discouraging in every way, — on which to try our exi)erimcnts. 

 The plot without manure gave us fifteen bushels of oats to 

 the acre. The statement was fifty bushels more than the 



