188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



alluded to. I have a few words to say upon that. I culti- 

 vate a few acres of meadow-land, where I raise early pota- 

 toes for the market. I try to get them early ; and I have 

 found them a very profitable crop. I have tried fertilizers 

 on that drained meadow, which is rather peaty, with very 

 great success. Three years ago I manured the land with 

 horse-manure, ten or twelve cords to the acre ; and I got 

 a very good crop of potatoes, I should think two hundred 

 and fifty or three hundred bushels to the acre ; but, before I 

 could dig them, the rot struck them, so that I did not dig 

 them all. 



I planted the same land the next year with potatoes again, 

 and there was fertility enough in the land to carry the crop 

 without any additional manure. I think we dug about two 

 hundred and fifty bushels to the acre without any manure 

 applied. That was last year. This year I planted the same 

 land again with potatoes. I did not dare to trust it without 

 any manure ; and, as I was short of horse-manure, I applied 

 the Stockbridge Fertilizer by spreading it on the land, and 

 harrowing it in ; and I got very nearly as good a crop as I 

 did last year, and a very good quality of potatoes. My pota- 

 toes came off so early, that I concluded to plant cabbages. 

 I got the potatoes off about the 15th of July, and immedi- 

 ately bought the Stockbridge Fertilizer for Cabbage for one 

 acre ; and on that land I set late cabbages. I thought I was 

 going to have a pretty good crop of cabbage ; but — for some 

 reason which I cannot explain, but which I hope will be ex- 

 plained by some scientific man — the well-known disease, 

 club-foot, struck the field, and I had no cabbages fit to carry 

 to market. I did not attribute it to the fertilizer, for I think 

 it is a good thing ; and I shall apply it again. 



Mr. MuEEAY of Waltham. About the year 1836 or 1837 

 a company was formed for the purpose of converting the 

 sewage of New York into poudrette. I read the circulars 

 that they sent out all over the country ; and, according to 

 their statements, the results from the use of this poudrette 

 were perfectly enormous. I was fool enough to believe all 

 I read ; and I sent to the company, and bought a hundred 

 barrels. It was brought to Boston in a jpacket-ship ; and I 

 sent teams in to bring it out to Waltham. I tried that pou- 

 drette upon various crops, both of the farm and garden, and 



