38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



ful, well tamped in, morning and night, and the same quan- 

 tity at noon, dry. With my mode of cultivating corn and 

 feeding the stover, I have found it the most profitable crop 

 raised on the farm. 



Dr. E. L. Sturtevant. Last spring, the Sturtevant 

 brothers found themselves in the condition of very many other 

 farmers. They desired to put in quite a large area of corn, 

 and they only had the manure for a small portion. Accord- 

 ingly, I, with one of my neighbors, went up to Amherst and 

 had a conversation with Professor Stockbridge in regard to 

 his corn-crops ; and the Professor very shortly convinced us 

 that we could use chemical fertilizers with advantage on our 

 farms. In speaking of chemical fertilizers, I do not wish to 

 be understood as comparing manure and fertilizers. That is 

 not the question that lam talking al)out. The question which 

 occurs to most farmers, is, as Professor Stockbridge has very 

 well put it, "After all our other manure is used up, what are 

 we to do? Can we use chemical fertilizers with any profit?" 

 We returned from Amherst immediately, and laid in our stock 

 of chemical fertilizers. We tried two experiments. The first 

 in order was an experiment with the manures ; the second with 

 fertilizers ; and the study of these corn-crops this year has 

 opened up many interesting features. The first field con- 

 tained in the aggregate 2^^ acres. It was planted in the 

 ordinary way, at the proper season, before the drought of 

 this year, and was manured with 5^^ cords per acre of the best 

 cow-dung. The field had been in grass previously, and was 

 only bearing perhaps from one-third to one-half of a ton of 

 hay per acre. It had only borne about one-half a ton the 

 preceding year, and we had thought that the field was 

 exhausted. We planted two varieties of seed. Of the first 

 and best variety we had but eight quarts. We could not get 

 any more of the same seed, and, therefore, we got elsewhere 

 our supply of seed for the rest of the field. The corn was 

 cultivated in the usual way, and, at harvest-time, a por- 

 tion of it was topped, and a portion was stooked, as was 

 dictated by convenience. The committee of the Middlesex 

 South Agricultural Society viewed it, and recorded a yield of 

 one hundred bushels to the acre. One portion of this field. 



