SPRING OF >97 219 



Fresh mulching was piled near all the young 

 fruit trees, to be applied as soon as the frost was 

 out of the ground. Several hundreds of loads 

 of manure were hauled to the fields, to be spread 

 as soon as the snow disappeared. I always re- 

 turn manure to the land as soon as it can be 

 done conveniently. The manure from the hen- 

 house was saved this year to use on the alfalfa 

 fields, to see how well it would take the place 

 of commercial fertilizer. I may as well give the 

 result of the experiment now. 



It was mixed with sand and applied at the 

 rate of eight hundred pounds an acre for the 

 spring dressing over a portion of the alfalfa, 

 against four hundred pounds an acre of the 

 fertilizer 3:8:8. After two years I was con- 

 vinced that, when used alone, it is not of more 

 than half the value of the fertilizer. 



My present practice is to use five hundred 

 pounds of hen manure and two hundred pounds 

 of fertilizer on each acre for the spring dressing, 

 and two hundred pounds an acre of the fertilizer 

 alone after each cutting except the last. We 

 have ten or twelve tons of hen manure each 

 year, and it is nearly all used on the alfalfa or 

 the timothy as spring dressing. It costs nothing, 

 and it takes off a considerable sum from the 

 fertilizer account. I am not at all sure that the 

 scientists would approve this method of using 

 it ; I can only give my experience, and say that 

 it brings me satisfactory crops. 



