52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



destroyed. I have got from half to three-quarters of an acre 

 that is worthless, apparently, that I intended to harvest for 

 winter-marketing. Supposing, at one time, that the diffi- 

 culty could be obviated by sowing later, I tried the experi- 

 ment; but I find the same trouble on the spinach that is 

 barely up. If any gentleman will tell me what it is, and 

 what will prevent it, it would gratify me very much. 



As to instructing anybody, I am in the same condition as 

 Mr. Rawson. I cannot tell any such story as that in the 

 "Ploughman," about my farm; but I have one satisfac- 

 tion, — when we get together Thanksgiving-day evening, 

 there is a good crop in the house. I have got that ; and, if 

 it is worth nothing to anybody else, it is worth very much 

 to me. 



Dr. Wakefield. I have had some experience in years 

 past; and I gave the result last year of some considerable 

 number of experiments made on roots with different kinds 

 of fertilizers compared with barnyard-manure. 



I have satisfied myself on this point, from my experience in 

 years gone by, — that every farmer should husband his barn- 

 yard-manure, and make, from every possible source that he 

 can, additions to his manure-heap. He should not lose any 

 thing because fertilizers are cheap, or because he can hasten 

 a crop, and bring it to maturity by them alone. I believe ex- 

 perience has taught me this, — that, having saved and utilized 

 all liis manure, any farmer can use fertilizers to advantage. 

 I have no doubt, indeed I know from experience, that many 

 of these fertilizers do not possess the properties which they 

 are stated to possess, and they are failures; but I believe 

 that the principle enunciated by the professor at Amherst is 

 a correct one, — that each crop takes out from the land certain 

 ingredients, and that those have to be furnished, if they are 

 not in the land. Soils contain a certain amount of the in- 

 gredients which every crop takes up; but, if the land has 

 not enough of them, — and no land within my knowledge has 

 enough of them to last forever; the prairie-lands of the 

 West, or the rich bottom-lands of Massachusetts, will not 

 stand cropping forever, — they must be supplied by man or 

 nature. Take the wheat-lands of New York, which, when I 

 was a boy, produced much larger crops than they do now ; 

 take the tobacco-lands of Virginia, which, years ago, pro- 



