now ABOUT BEANS? 27 



land would uaturally produce. The yield of the manured 

 plot was sixty-two bushels to the acre, or three bushels less 

 than the statement ; the land with manure producing sixty-two 

 bushels, the land without manure producing fifteen bushels. 



Hay. — Two plots of land were selected for the experiment 

 with hay. The land had not been manured or ploughed for 

 man}^ years. The statement was, that there should be made 

 on that land one ton of hay to the acre more than its 

 natural product. The elements were accordingly applied, 

 by top-dressing in the spring, which was wrong perhaps. 

 The 3'ield of the unmanured land for both crops was one 

 thousand seven hundred pounds to the acre ; the yield of 

 the manured land was three thousand six hundred pounds to 

 the acre, or one thousand one hundred pounds to the acre 

 less than the statement. 



Beans. — The statement with regard to beans was, that we 

 would make twenty bushels to the acre more than the natural 

 product of the land. Twenty bushels of white beans is a 

 pretty good crop to the acre ; but that was the statement, — 

 twenty bushels to the acre over and above the natural product 

 of the land, which it was supposed was nothing, the land 

 being about as poor as could be. The result was, that the 

 land without manure yielded four bushels ; the land with 

 manure yielded twenty-five bushels. AVe got one bushel to 

 the acre more than the statement. 



I believe that completes the record in relation to the exact 

 experiments that have been tried on the farm. Now, I sup- 

 pose, very likely some fiirmer may sa}-, "This may all be 

 true ; it may be all very well to take a few small plots of 

 laud" (and our plots are either quarter acres or one-eighths) 

 "and with the chemist of the Board of Agriculture to watch 

 the kinds of material that you use, and a professor of agri- 

 culture who hasn't anything to do but try experiments, — 

 with all these things combined, you might probaI)ly succeed 

 in doing something in this little, silly, boyish way ; but if 

 you should go out on the land, and take an acre, and apply 

 the materials in the ordinary way of farming, you would 

 miserably fail." 



Now, to meet that objection, we have been out on the land, 

 and tried it in the ordinary way ; and I will give you the 



