STOCKBRIDGE FORMULAS. 213 



it would average two tons and a half to the acre some 

 twelve years ago. I have managed it as well as I know 

 how ever since. I never have sold any hay or grain, but 

 have bought a great deal of grain ; never bought any hay. 

 But the fact is, I do not have much more than two-thirds 

 the hay now that I used to get. I am not willing to ad- 

 mit that we have run down and worn out our farms ; but, 

 from causes beyond our control, we do not get anywhere 

 near so much hay as we did formerly. My business is dairy- 

 ing wholly : I must have hay and grass. My pastures have 

 suffered worse than my mowings ; and it is rather up-hill 

 business. I have always kept twenty-five cows, and still 

 keep them by making up for the deficiency by soiling and 

 grain. My meadows, as I said, I do not think are run out at 

 all; but they fail to produce a satisfactory crop. Now, what 

 shall I do ? If a commercial fertilizer is good for any thing 

 at all, it is for my use. I want to turn those sods over. I 

 use all the manure I can near by ; and then I have other 

 mowings rather remote ; and the expense of transportation 

 is considerable. Last spring, — the last of April, or the first 

 of May, — I turned over two acres and a quarter of that 

 mowing-land (it had been down for seven years) eight inches 

 deep, with a swivel plough ; and, after it was all turned over 

 one way, there was one portion of it that was a little rolling, 

 I am sorry to say, as it proved. I applied two formulas. No. 

 22, of the Stockbridge Fertilizer, a formula to an acre, and 

 there were two acres and a quarter. I felt very anxious to 

 know what I could produce with the Stockbridge Fertilizer 

 for making corn. I applied, as I say, a formula to each acre. 

 I had a couple of boys with me ; and they chained off the 

 land that we ploughed up, so that we knew exactly how 

 much we had. I ordered the fertilizer from Bowker and 

 Company. We turned over two acres and a quarter. We 

 chained off exactly two acres for the two formulas : the 

 quarter of an acre had nothing. The work was all done 

 the same day; and every precaution was taken not to let 

 the fertilizer run over on to the quarter of an acre. On the 

 two acres we had seventy-two bushels of shelled corn to the 

 acre. The corn was weighed and measured. On the quar- 

 ter of an acre I do not remember exactly the yield ; but it 

 was less than forty bushels to the acre. I was determined to 



