144 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



of winter's frost, except in a few low spots. "With the return 

 of spring the grass grew rapidly, vigorously and evenly. The 

 first return of hay was quite two tons to the acre ; — the year 

 following the yield was larger ; and for four succeeding years, it 

 has been, at no time, less than one and a half tons to the acre,- 

 with no other manure, during the time, than two light dressings 

 of compost. 



This field was distant from the farmer's barn nearly a quar- 

 ter of a mile, and he believes it would have cost more time, 

 labor and money, to have drawn and applied manure from his 

 barn, sufficient for the first outlay, than did the whole quantity 

 of guano and the subsequent dressings of compost require. 



To confirm this statement, he adds, that a second trial was 

 made, next year, on an adjoining piece of nearly similar land, 

 and with equally beneficial results. Here the efi'cct of the 

 guano is yet seen, after four years' cropping, in the earlier 

 greenness and growth of the grass, both before and after mow- 

 ing, compared with that on an adjoining piece of precisely simi- 

 lar soil, which was laid down one year later, and had received 

 the benefit of two years' tillage and two heavy dressings of 

 barn manure. 



The piece first mentioned has since been laid down anew, at 

 the same season of the year, with a fair dressing of barn ma- 

 nure, and in the spring following with a good dressing of plaster 

 and ashes, (guano not being found at the time in the market;) 

 but without any thing like similar results. 



Greatly beneficial results have been observed, by the same 

 farmer, from the use of guano, upon wheat and other small 

 grains, upon corn fodder, beans, peas, cabbages, squash, and 

 other vines, young fruit trees, currant and other bushes. In- 

 deed, there is no article of horticulture or field culture to which 

 the judicious application of this manure, would not, he believes, 

 be of great service. 



The experience and observation of this farmer lead him, 

 therefore to venture the opinion that our farms would be, in all 

 respects, benefited, and the expense of cultivation lessened by a 

 judicious and liberal use of guano, wherever barn manure, 

 though it were a gift, must be carted more than half a mile. 

 In this opinion he is confirmed by the extraordinary efl'ects 



