74 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and killed it. That was an experiment that taught something — it 

 showed that a less quantity was sufficient. It is a simple matter 

 to lay out a piece of land in strips, and apply a fertilizer for a 

 series of years. He was delighted to hear Dr. Sturtevant say that 

 farming is more profitable in New J^ngland than anywhere else in 

 this country, and this view is confirmed by the statistics gathered 

 hy the Secretary' of the Massachusetts Board of Agriculture, and 

 published in his "Report." It also finds an illustration in the 

 "Transactions" of the Worcester County Horticultural Society, 

 from which it appears that there were raised in that county, in 

 1874, 933,000 bushels of apples, valued at $380,000, and that in 

 1875 one of the members of that society realized from about three 

 acres of strawberries, mainly in a gross income of more than $2,000. 

 P'arming in New England can be made profitable, but not without 

 manure. ' 



Mr. Fuller said, that if 3'ou alwa3-s returned to the soil all you 

 took from it you would not thereby avail much, or gain matter from 

 what the ground had in reserve for you before. It would be better, 

 he thought, to ascertain what was needed and add that only ; and 

 not give all the ingredients of an intended crop. 



Mr. Wetherell spoke of the experiments made on the experi- 

 mental ground of the Cirencester Agricultural College, and reported 

 by Prof. Wrightson, relative to the use of superphosphate, stating 

 that three hundred pounds of ordinary mineral superphosphate per 

 acre gave the most profitable results, it doing best when half of it 

 was drilled in and the other half broadcasted. In the experiment- 

 ing four hundred pounds and six hundred pounds wei'e applied, the 

 latter quantity in some cases giving no larger crops than three hun- 

 dred pounds, and in others a little more, but not enough to pay the 

 additional cost, even when three hundred pounds were drilled in 

 and three hundred pounds broadcasted. The speaker quoted Lawes 

 as saying that forty-eight bushels of barley per acre was his best 

 average crop: higher manuring caused it to "run to straw," as 

 farmers phrase it. Every crop has its limit, beyond which it is not 

 economical to endeavor to increase the crop. While he did not 

 doubt that one hundred bushels of corn had been grown upon an 

 acre, he did doubt the possibility of two hundred bushels and up- 

 wards per acre. Lawes seemed to succeed in cropping, regardless 

 of rotation. Why not use a rotation of manures, and thus avoid 

 the rotation of crops so generally recommended and practised by 



