DIGEST OF STATE EEPOETS. 407 



at an expense of 75 cents per head for lumber and nails, and it was all 

 made portable, so that it could be taken down and packed up during 

 the summer. Some of bis experiments, showing the profits of judicious 

 manuring, are given as follows : 



On a piece of laud put in our bauds to T7ork last spring was a field of 21 acres, which 

 the owutrs wished to have sowed to oats and seeded to clover. The field had been 

 cropped several j'eavs without manure. The soil was of an average fertility all over 

 the field. A crop of corn planted on it the previous year had made about an equal 

 growth in all i)arta, and rJl so poor that it was considered not worth husking, and was 

 led in the stalk. On the farm was a pile of manure one year old, left from a cow-stable, 

 which we were directed to put on this field. The pile would have made about 20 or 2.5 such 

 loads as wo buy for a dollar per load. I estimated it to be worth $35. After the ground 

 had beenplovt'ed we spread this manure as evenly as possible over 12 acres on one side of 

 the field, at an expense of $15 for handling the manure. The 12 acres manured yielded 

 543 bushels, or 49 Imshels to the acre ; the 9 acres unmauured yielded 180 bushels, or 

 20 bushels to the acre. The manure increased the crop 29 bushels to the acre, or 303 

 bushels on the farm, worth 50 cents per bushel, or $151.50. The cost of preparing 

 ground, seed, sowing, and reaping was the same per acre on the whole field. The cost 

 of binding, drawing, and thrashing was more on the manured portion, but as the straw 

 was twice as heavy wo will let that balance the extra work. The manure and drawing 

 cost $60 ; therefore, $50 expended in manure made an increase in the crop of $151.50, or 

 a profit of $101.50 in one season. In addition to this, the clover made a good catch on 

 the manured land, while on the rest it hardly grew at all. 



As to the beneficial effects of marsb-muck, he says : 



There is something about marsh-muck that seems to have a remarkable effect on old 

 land, especially on light soil, and particularly on garden-land that has been heavily 

 cropped and manured for several years. It seems to have somewhat the same effect 

 that is caused by plowing under green crops. I have known good crops of onions 

 raised on sandy soil for two years by a heavy application of muck and a light sprink- 

 ling of leached ashes. On old onion-beds the tendency of onions is to ripen too early, 

 or before they get their growth, thereby decreasing the crop. By using muck and a 

 variety of other manures, we can raise good crops on the same land for years in succes- 

 sion. They will do better to change the crop, but as it is expensive fitting ground in 

 proper shape for onions, and as it is the most certain and profitable crop that we raise, 

 we find it does not pay to change often. We have raised onions on the same ground 

 for seven years in succession, never having a profit of less than $175 to the acre. 



Mr. A. S. Dyckman, in an essay on pruning peach-trees, strongly 

 urges a judicious tbinning out of tbe limbs and shortening in of the heads 

 of the trees once a year. One of the effects of this tbinning process is 

 to induce a stocky growth of wood. This thinning ivS done, not by short- 

 ening tbe young limbs, but by cutting them out entire to their junction 

 with the parent limb, leaving each remaining shoot in the perfection of 

 its natural growtb. Another effect is to distribute fruit-bearing wood 

 through tbe interior of the tree-top, where the burden can be borne with 

 less liability to break the main limbs than where the fruit is borne mostly 

 on the extremities, as in case of a thick head, which will inevitably 

 smotber out the interior shoots. Another effect is not only to reduce 

 the number of fruit-buds, but to materially increase their distances 

 apart, thus performing an important part of annual fruit-thinning. Still 

 anotber effect is to admit air and sunlight through the top, preventing 

 mildew and rot, and imparting rich qualities and high color to the fruit. 

 Where each individual shoot has its equal share of air, light, and warmth, 

 it also promotes the general health and vigor of tbe tree, and makes the 

 fruit more uniform in size, color, and quality. 



Mr. D. B. Waters, in an essay on the same subject, quotes tbe follow- 

 ing statement of Mr. C. Engle : 



I commenced the shortening-in system of i)rnning the peach when the trees were sis 

 years old, and by trying a few trees the first season. The result was so very satisfac- 

 tory, the trees so pruned yielding nearly as much in quantity and the fruit of double 

 and sometimes treble the size, that I went over nearly the whole orchard the following 

 season. A few trees have been left without pruning until the present, for the sake of 



