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in. For a number of years we cut Ihe grass and made it 

 into hay and carried it off. "We took two crops per year. 

 In 1897 the second crop of hay was cut with the machine 

 and left on the ground and since 1897 that plan has been 

 followed. 



The question of cost, relative profit, etc., always comes 

 in when you consider anything of this sort. A ton of wood 

 ashes varied in price from $10 to $12 per ton. Bone meal 

 is sold from $22 to $26 per ton. Muriate of potash is about 

 $40 a ton. Low grade sulphate is sold for about $25 or $26 

 per ton. You will find that the bone and potash will have 

 cost about $12 per acre ; wood ashes, $10 and $12. For the 

 manure you can reckon 10 tons per acre, about 4 cords. If 

 you bought that it would cost more than the other fertilizers, 

 probably not less than $20 per acre against $10 or $12 for 

 the fertilizers, but I conclude that the use of so much man- 

 ure continually on the orchard causes the trees to make an 

 over-rank growth and the fruit has a poorer finish. As an 

 experiment I shall use it. The fertilizing material, $12 per 

 acre annually for 20 years, you must consider over against 

 the yield of fruit. $240 worth of fertilizer has been applied 

 to an acre of Baldwins and we have obtained 819 barrels 

 of fruit and the cost of the fertilizer has been close to 30 

 cents per barrel. But I told you that we cut the grass and 

 made it into hay and carried it off and unfortunately in 

 the early years the record of the hay was not kept. I have 

 had it kept for a number of years. It is fair to assume that 

 for the period of experiment under this management, the 

 hay has gone a long way toward paying the cost of fertiliz- 

 ing. The fertilizer cost of a barrel of Baldwins has not 

 often been more than 10 or 15 cents. 



I want to speak of the results obtained with Baldwins 

 from using bone and muriate of potash and bone and sul- 

 phate of potash. On the bone and sulphate plot, 819 bar- 

 rels; on the bone and muriate plot, 175 barrels. We don't 

 yet know whether the sulphate of potash or the muriate of 

 potash is the best. There is first the difference of the acid 

 in combination, sulphuric and muriatic and then the low 

 grade sulphate of potash contains magnesium and the mur- 

 iate of potash does not and so we don't know just what 

 causes the difference. I am inclined to think that the high 

 grade would prove superior to the muriate, but I do not feel 

 at all certain that the magnesia is not of value. "Wood ashes 



