148 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



any of it but what gives me more than two tons to the 

 acre. 



Mr. Edson. I think we are getting to a point in this 

 debate where it is very interesting. The discussion of this 

 subject, will give us more information than all the essays we 

 can get. My experience in putting on manures is that one 

 load put on in the fall and ploughed under in the spring 

 is better than two put on in the spring and ploughed under. 

 I haul out all the manure I have in the fall and spread it 

 upon the land. 



My farm is in grass, nothing else. I allow it to lie on the 

 ground just as long as I can in the spring before I plough it. 

 About the last of May I generally break up ihe ground and 

 plant with corn in order to get it back to grass. By the time 

 that I am ready to plough, the manure has got half way 

 through the sod, and the grass has started, so that in addi- 

 tion to the manure I have as much green crop as can be turned 

 under with the manure. You have to put a chain upon your 

 plough-beam in order to turn it under and make clean work 

 of it. Then plant your corn, and your grass does not get a 

 chance to come up before your corn comes up, and it is but 

 little work to take care of it. After your corn is off, put in 

 rye ; then in the fall haul out your manure in the same way, 

 let it soak in until the 20th of May, and the last of May you 

 will have your rye up so that it begins to head, and you 

 have got another green crop to turn in, and you have got 

 your land in such condition that it will give you two or 

 three tons of hay to the acre for six or^ seven years. I 

 do not believe in top-dressing. When a field gives out, 

 I want to put in the plough. By that mode of proceeding, 

 in twenty-one years I have brought a farm up which was 

 worn out when I took it. It kept a yoke of oxen, two 

 cows and a horse, and I had to buy hay the first year I 

 was there ; and year before last I kept thirty head of cattle, 

 four horses, and sold hay from that same farm. I have cut at 

 the rate of four tons to the acre upon some of that ground. 

 I have brought it up just in that way, keeping all the cattle 

 I could. As the gentleman says, keep all the stock you pos- 

 sibly can. Perhaps I was a little fortunate in having a market 

 where I could get more than two or three cents a quart for 



