FERTILIZATION. 153 



green crop, then you get land that will run for five or six 

 years ; but if 1 should turn over my soil, as the last speaker 

 has described, and sow grass seed on top, without any cul- 

 tivation, I should not get rid of the pest of wild grasses and 

 weeds. 



Mr. Mason. I have failed to get an answer from our 

 friend from Lowell. As I understand, he produces from 

 one to three tons of hay without manure of any kind. If he 

 has such land as that, he of course has not brought it up by 

 commercial fertilizers. I have been throuo'h Massachusetts, 

 New Hampshire and Maine somewhat, and I have failed to 

 find a farm brought up from a low state to a high degree of 

 fertility by commercial fertilizers alone. 



Mr. Emery. I will answer that I have done it, for one, 

 and it does not cost so much as manure. The cost of the 

 commercial fertilizers will be about as one to three com- 

 pared with manure. That is, if the manure ran out in three 

 years, you could keep it along with these fertilizers. 



Mr. MuNSON. The essayist spoke of seeding muck lands 

 and takinor off the coarse s^rass. I wish to ask him what kind 

 of o'l-ass he would sow after the coarse o;rass is taken off? 

 Also, what he would consider the fair market value of the 

 hard-wood ashes that he spoke of, to be used in agricul- 

 ture, in raising farm crops — corn or potatoes ? 



Mr. CusHMAN. In the case to which I have referred, I 

 had to chop the peat with a broad axe, and cut it up with a 

 large hoe that I have made for the purpose, turn it with a 

 fork, and then cart on, when it was frozen, a light coat- 

 ing of sand. After that, I put on fine, ground bone, usu- 

 ally in the spring, or early in the fall, if I can get to it. 

 But this work is done in the winter, as I remarked, and I 

 sow red-top and herds-grass, but no clover. 



I take a different view of this matter from my friend Mr. 

 Emery. My experience in the use of nitrogeneous manures, 

 especially stable manure, on land of that character, has not 

 been satisfactory, from the very reason that it has caused 

 my grass to lodge. It would fall down long before it 

 would mature any such crops as that gentleman speaks of — 

 two and a half or three tons to the acre ; whereas, when I 

 manure with fine, ground bone, the stalks have more strength 



