RECENT FARM EXPERIMENTS. 461 
An experiment made near Carlisle in the same year, on a friable, deep 
sandy loam, well suited for potatoes and root crops in general, gave 
results substantially in accordance with those of the Menagerie farm. 
The unmanured plots yielded 214% bushels of potatoes per acre. Ex- 
periments were made in 1869, at “The Lizards,” in the county of Dur- 
ham, in a region of the carboniferous formation, on a stiff clay loam of 
uniform character, producing without manure 2451 bushels of potatoes 
peracre. On this productive clay soil the various manurial applications 
produced comparatively small effect, excepting the rotted dung. Taking 
some of these applications separately, and comparing effects on this clay 
soil with those obtained on the lighter soils, the following points of dif- 
ference are exhibited: On the stiff clay loam, the mixture of mineral 
superphosphate with potash salts and sulphate of ammonia was much 
less beneficial than on the light, sandy soil. On the latter the mixture 
was quite as efficient as a heavy dressing of dung; but on the clay soil 
the mixture gave an increase of only 60 bushels per acre, against an in- 
crease of 1224 bushels from the dung, the peculiarly beneficial effects 
of which were due, in a measure, to its mechanical action in lightening 
up the stiff soil. On this heavy land nitrate of soda more than equaled 
sulphate of ammonia in the combination with mineral superphosphate 
and potash salts. The application of common salt was even more 
prejudicial than on the lighter soils. Professor Voelcker indicates the 
desirability in future trials on clay soils of experiments with mineral 
superphosphate and potash salts applied separately and in combination. 
Other experiments were also made in 1869 at the Escrick Park Home 
farm, on light land in good condition and very productive, the unma- 
nured plots yielding 2452 bushels of potatoes, producing quite as largely 
as those of “The Lizards.” The results were similar to those obtained 
on the Menagerie farm in 1868, although the effect of the Peruvian 
guano was better, owing to the more favorable season. 
COTTON. 
Mr. J. M. Crawford, of Richland County, South Carolina, reports his 
method of procedure in growing five acres of cotton, on which he obtained 
a premium from the State Agricultural and Mechanical Society. His land 
was an upland basin, surrounded by a gradually rising slope. By under- 
draining, manuring, and judicious cultivation, it has been brought into 
very fertile condition, although, when purchased, it was wet, and com- 
paratively unproductive. Drains were made by cutting ditches two 
feet wide by three and a half feet deep, filling in, to the depth of twelve 
inches, with bricks or stones, afterward throwing straw and corn-stalks 
on these materials, to prevent earth from settling among them, and 
finally filling up with earth. In November, 1868, after gathering his 
corn, Mr. Crawford broke up the ground with a half-shovel plow six 
inches deep, following with a two-horse, buil-tongue plow fifteen inches 
long, widened at the point. The field was then allowed to remain till 
January, when it was harrowed with a large two-horse, iron-toothed 
harrow, completely pulverizing the soil, and leaving the ground clean 
and level. April 1 he plowed and harrowed again, and laid off rows 
four feet apart, in which he applied a fertilizer composed in the follow- 
ing proportions: Peruvian guano, 200 pounds per acre; plaster, 300 
pounds; leached ashes, 500 pounds. He then bedded up, and com- 
menced planting (April 27) Boyd’s Prolific seed, in hills three feet apart 
in the row, covering with the hoe. The cotton came up well, and was 
thinned to one stalk in a hill. Two more plowings were then given, and 
another hoeing. In August the crop was again hoed, the cotton then 
