114 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
raised by the use of these crabs composted with earth. It has 
been thought by some that they injure the ground for the suc- 
ceeding crops of corn or grass, and that they promoted the 
growth of sorrel. Many persons, however, have continued their 
use for years in succession, with success. A resident of Fishing 
Creek used them, in compost, every year with the best effects on 
early potatoes. A remarkably fine and thrifty young orchard of 
his was manured principally with crabs in their raw state. 
Another resident of Dias Creek used them for a number of 
years, composting them with saw-dust, coal-pit bottoms, mud 
and barn-yard manure. With a compost of 7,000 crabs, 22 
loads of mud, 2 coal bottoms, 7 or 8 loads of old hay and manure, 
applied on 6 acres of sandy loam, he raised 151% bushels of 
wheat. On another field, where the crop succeeding that manured 
with crabs did not look thrifty, he sowed a light dressing of 
quick lime. ‘The crop immediately began to improve, and turned 
out to be an excellent one. A resident of Dias Creek had an acre 
and a half of sandy loam on which was raised all the corn and 
wheat needed for the family use for fifteen years. He had it in 
two fields, and raised corn in one and wheat in the other, every 
year giving each field a two years’ rotation. Occasionally he 
ploughed in the wheat stubble and raised a crop of buckwheat, 
thus getting three crops from the same ground in two years. The 
straw and stalks were all taken off the field, and the only manure 
that was applied was a compost of 2,000 crabs, with eight or 
nine loads of sods from the fence corners each year. The compost 
was all put on the wheat, the manure being used on the corn. 
The sorrel grew very rank in the corn, but was kept down by 
hoeing. His first crop of wheat on ninety rods of ground was 
16 bushels, weighing 65 pounds to the bushel, and his wheat 
usually yielded at the rate of from 25 to 30 bushels to an acre. 
His corn crop was at the rate of 30 to 50 bushels an acre. When 
he stopped gathering crabs and used lime his crops were not as 
heavy as before. He thought they were falling off while using 
crabs, but others thought they had not fallen off more than was 
due to the variation in seasons. ‘These cases are sufficient to 
show the value of the manure. Allowing the king crabs to lie 
in piles and decompose themselves is very wasteful, and the com- 
