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. Miany 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 iraised 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- 



