144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the waste that comes from the cotton factories. There i& 

 undoubtedly some cotton-seed in that, but I use it as an ab- 

 sorbent. I put it in the gutter behind the cows, and by- 

 putting in two or three inches it retains all the urine. Then, 

 in addition to that, I buy seventy-five cords of horse manure, 

 and last year I bought ten tons of commercial fertilizers. I 

 am as firm a believer in commercial fertilizers as I ever was, 

 but as 1 have this manure, I save it and put it on my land. 

 There is a stable adjoining me where they keep hogs ; I buy 

 their manure. 



On sandy land, on a porous soil, I would not use barnyard 

 manure, for corn or for rye ; I would use commercial fertil- 

 izers. If you put on stable manure as you would put on the 

 other, you will lose it; it dries up; the earth will not hold 

 it. You put that on your low lands and j'^ou can keep it 

 there. I seldom put on anything else but commercial fertil- 

 izers for corn or for rye on sandy land, and I always get very 

 good crops. The fertilizer costs me about twenty-three dol- 

 lars per acre for a crop of corn ; perhaps, if I bought it 

 mixed, it would cost more. I buy my muriate of potash 

 and ground bone of H. J. Pecker of New York, the largest 

 importer of commercial salts that there is in this country. 

 I buy them in ten-ton lots. I also use nitrate of soda. I 

 took the formula that I use out of Vielle's book, and I save 

 from twenty-five to thirty per cent. — not over thirty, and 

 not less than twenty-five — by mixing it myself. I intended 

 to apply this mixture to my pasture last fall, but the weather 

 was so dry that I did not put it on, because I knew I should 

 get no result if I applied it. I use these commercial fertilizers 

 on sandy soil. I also keep mixed a formula for grass. I go 

 over my fields and wherever there is a place that looks as 

 though it was a little naked, I have that fertilizer spread on 

 that place, and in that way keep the field up even, unless 

 there is some other cause below that the fertilizer does not 

 affect. For top-dressing I should say that a commercial fer- 

 tilizer was a good deal cheaper than manure. I can top- 

 dress for seven dollars an acre, and with a good season 

 obtain very good results. If you do not have a good season 

 you cannot get anything from your manure, anyway ; but if 

 you have a good season, you will get a ton and a half to the 



