300 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



The Manure Question. 



Mr. Peter Browu, Simsbiiry, Conn. — "The great question with 

 farmers in this section, is manure, and how to get it economi- 

 cally is a very important consideration; but that farmers must 

 depend mainly upon the barn-yard, stables and hog-pens for cheap 

 fertilizers, is an undisputed fact." 



Mr. Solon Robinson. — The cheapest manure that you or any 

 other man can use is clover seed, even at twenty-five dollars a 

 ■bushel. Sow clover seed with every grain crop, even with Indian 

 corn, and quit that worst of all practices — sowing oats upon corn 

 stubble. Plow under a crop of clover to serve as manure for 

 every other crop. Mix clover and timothy seed together, and if 

 you get a good timothy sod, do not be afraid to break it up. It 

 is equal to 160 loads of pretty good compost manure to every 

 acre. In appljang manure to your land, learn by actual experi- 

 ment whether it is not more profitable to spread it upon grass sod 

 and depend upon that to make corn, than it is to put the manure 

 in corn hills. 



Mr. Brown says further: " It is said it does not pay to fat pork 

 here. Yet no one has kept an account. Hogs increase manure, 

 and that pays for labor of feeding. If it is not a loss to feed 

 o-rain. I should like to make more i)ork and more manure. Can any 

 one sive me definite information upon this important question ? 

 Many of the farmers in this section are feeding tallow scraps. 

 Can any one tell the relative value with corn meal?" 



Mr. Wm. S. Carpenter. — I have made some careful experiments 

 upon this question. I find it advisable to feed the scraps and corn 

 meal too-ether. I am satisfied that ten pound of scrap ai'e worth 

 more than ten pounds of meal for either pigs or hens, and they 

 do not cost as much. 



The Chairman said, only about half price. I lately bought a 

 cake of 400 pounds at one cent and a half per pound. This cake 

 is placed in the poultry yard, where the hens can pick at it w^hen- 

 ever they like. Sometimes portions are chopped ofi" and broken 

 up to enable them to eat it more freely. 



Mr. Baldwin said, when bullocks' head can be obtained easily, 

 they make good chicken feed, and the bones add to the manure. 



