INDIAN CORN. 71 



never- failing source of treasure — the farmer's mine — commonly 

 called muck, peat, or mud, I compost it with unleached ashes, 

 or lime slacked with brine, when it is deemed necessary to in- 

 crease the bulk of the compost heaps, and when it can be con- 

 veniently obtained. The wash, ley and suds of the house, are 

 saved from week to week, in barrels, and thrown on the muck, 

 which is, by the way, an excellent absorbent. As I find it next 

 to impossible to ferment our manure in the cellars, it is hauled 

 out in large heaps in the barnyard or fields, early in March, for 

 commingling together the horse, cattle and pig manure, and 

 pulverizing the lumps, as well as fermenting slightly the whole. 

 I have for some time past found great benefit in the use of oil 

 meal fed to cattle. While its alimentary properties are equal 

 to those of Indian meal, its chief value consists in doubling the 

 value of the excrements of cattle,' a fact which ought not to be 

 lost sight of by our Old Colony 'farmers ; it also possesses the 

 property of protecting cattle from ever being troubled with lice 

 while fed with it. 



I have made and applied during the season, up to the present 

 time, in my barn cellars, 248 loads of valuable compost manure, 

 of forty cubic feet per load. 



INDIAN CORN. 



ESSEX. 



Statement of James Day. 



The piece contains 21^ acres, of light, sandy interval, on the 

 Merrimack River, and had been neglected until it produced only 

 about nine or ten bushels of winter rye per acre, once in two 

 years ; in the intermediate years running to golden rod, &c. 



In 1854 it was ploughed in the month of May, and again in 

 October. Last spring it was ploughed crossways with a Michi- 

 gan plough, deep into the subsoil, and sixteen cords of compost 

 manure were spread upon one-half of the piece, made as follows, 

 namely : three cords of summer dung, and about the bulk of 

 two tons of hay of dried potato vines and weeds, four casks of 



