RECENT FARM EXPERIMENTS. 457 
‘cious manuring. While the early working of the field should be deep, 
the latter culture should be shallow, and the roots of the corn should 
not be disturbed after it begins to tassel. 
Fertilizers on corn.—A field which had been mowed for two years was 
divided into plots, each of which measured two-fifths of an acre, and 
contained ten rows extending across the field. The soil was a gravelly 
loam, and the cultivation was equal. The season was very wet and 
cold, however, and the ground was so moist as to prevent proper culti- 
vation. Plot 1 received no manure; the other plots received, in Decem- 
ber, eighy two-horse loads of well-rotted barn-yard manure per aere. 
Plots 3 to 8, in addition to this, received other fertilizers, as follows: 
Plot 3, poudrette, made by composting night-soil with four times its 
bulk of swamp-muck. The corn having been dropped, one quart of the 
compost was deposited on the corn, and covered with two’ or three hoe- 
fuls ofearth. Plot 4, a small shovelful of a compost (one year old) of one- 
third manure and two-thirds muck was applied to each hill in the same 
manner as fertilizer No. 3. Plot 5, a purchased fertilizer, bearing the 
name of superphosphate, but apparently almost entirely composed of 
the flesh of dead animals, was dropped on the bottom of the hill and then 
covered with earth, on which the corn was planted. Plot 6, ashes were 
dropped and covered with earth, on which the corn was planted. The 
ashes apparently destroyed the effect of the manure applied in December. 
Plot 7, a home-made superphosphate, composed of burnt bones pulver- 
ized as finely as possible, and dissolved with diluted sulphuric acid, in the 
proportion, by weight, of sixteen parts of burnt bone to seven parts of 
sulphuric acid, diluted with seven parts of water, was applied at the 
rate of 125 pounds per acre, at a cost of $5, the corn and superphosphate 
being dropped together in the hill. Plot 8, horn-dust from a comb- 
factory was applied in the same manner as the fertilizer of plot 7. The 
stalks grown on plots 3 and 7 were in each case about twice the quantity 
grown on plot 2, and on plot 4 half as many more as on plot 2. The 
corn on plots 3, 4, and 7 was harvested September 28, in ripe condition; 
that on the other plots was gathered October 13, in an unripe state. The 
sound corn obtained from plots 1 and 5 was not of the first quality. 
The yield of the various plots was as follows: 
Plot 1,35 bushels sound corn, and 174 bushels soft corn per acre. 
Plot 2,574 bushels sound corn, and 12} bushels soft corn per acre. 
Plot 3,85 bushels sound corn, and 5 bushels soft corn per acre. 
Plot 4, 68% bushels sound corn, and 10 bushels soft corn per acre. 
Plot 5, 23% bushels sound corn, and 153 bushels soft corn per acre. 
Plot 6,35 bushels sound corn, and 124 bushels soft corn per acre. 
Plot 7,80 bushels sound corn, and 7} bushels soft corn per acre. 
Plot 8,26 bushels sound corn, and 25% bushels soft corn per acre. 
Mr. 8. C. Pattee, of Warner, New Hampshire, reports an experiment 
made in 1869, on a ridge of dry land of uniform character, which had 
been mowed four years, yielding about one ton of hay to the acre in 
1868. Of the fertilizers reported upon, the hen-manure compost was 
made of equal parts of hen-manure and rich loam, the latter of which had 
received the wash of the barn-yard. ‘My phosphate” was composed of 
bone-flour, treated with sulphuric acid in the proportion of sixteen pounds 
of the former to six pounds of the latter, dried, with ten pounds of plaster. 
The “‘bone-flour and ashes” were in equal parts, mixed according to 
the method of Dr. Nichols. The corn was planted in hills three and a 
half feet each way, and the experimental plots contained one-twentieth 
of an acre each, excepting the plot receiving no manure, which con- 
tained one-fortieth of an acre. The table exhibits the fertilizers applied 
