30 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



broken. I harvested, on the average, from the twenty acres, fort}-- 

 five bushels of shelled corn to the acre. That was estimating 

 seventy-five pounds to the bushel." 



Hon. A. C. Parsons, of Northfield, writes : — 



"I bought S30 worth of the material, as recommended, and put it 

 upon a sand bank that was a bar on the Connecticut River, where 

 the freshets washed repeatedly' across, leaving a bar of coarse sand. 

 It yielded one hundred and three baskets of corn, which I call 

 fifty-five bushels, to the acre, which was more than my best meadow- 

 land produced, freely manured with unleached ashes." 



Another farmer in Northfield says : — 



"I obtained from New York the material for three acres of corn. 

 I estimated the land would not bear anjthing ; I don't think it 

 would." 



He says : — , 



"I put on enough for fifty bushels of corn to the acre, and from 

 the three acres I took sixtv-five and a half bushels to the acre." 



He reports nearly the same result in relation to potatoes, 

 and further says : — 



"I have a magnificent crop of tobacco now hanging on the poles. 

 Of course I cannot tell what it will weigh." 



o' 



H. C. Comins, of Hadley, president of the Hampshire 

 County Agricultural Society, says ; — 



"I took one measured acre in mj' meadow, of good alluvial soil, 

 which, however, had not been ploughed or manured for six years. 

 I put upon it $20 worth of materials, and I have harvested from 

 that acre ninety-three bushels of shelled corn." 



Let that suffice, gentlemen, for the experiments. Now, 

 allow me to draw some conclusions ; and I would draw no 

 conclusion any further than my experiments have gone. I 

 would stand exactly on them ; I would be taught by them ; I 

 would advance no theory that the facts do not sustain. For 

 in these matters I have gone to nature with questions, and I 

 have tried to interpret the answer, and to interj^ret it in such 

 a way that we may make it practically available to all the 



