84 THE PEOPLE'S FARM AND STOCK CYCLOPEDIA. 



some peach-blow potatoes, and manured every alternate row with 

 a handful to the hill of this bran mixture, using at the rate of 

 five hundred pounds of bran to the acre, which, at that time, cost 

 me but ten dollars per ton. In a month there was a difference 

 of six inches in height in favor of the rows fertilized with the 

 bran, and they were a better color. At digging time I dug and 

 weighed first from the manured, and then from the unmanured 

 rows, and repeated this several times ; in no case did I get less 

 than fifty per cent more from the manured rows, and in sev- 

 eral cases double, and the quality was very superior. I esti- 

 mated that the extra potatoes produced by the bran did not 

 cost more than eight cents per bushel. A friend of mine the 

 same year tried dry bran in the hill for his potatoes, and the 

 result was that scarcely any of them came up, either the fer- 

 mentation killed the sprouts or the dry bran absorbed the moist- 

 ure from the seed so that it could not grow. 



In another chapter you will find tables giving the relative 

 values of manure from different kinds of stock, and also the 

 amount and value of the manurial constituents found in one ton 

 of different foods, and I recommend a careful study of these 

 tables. I think that but few of our farmers give sufficient 

 weight to the fact that manure contains only what we put into 

 it, and that a ton of manure made by a fat animal, fed on grain, 

 bran, and oil meal is worth several tons from a poor animal fed 

 on straw or poor hay. By recording the experiment with bran 

 as a manure, I do not wish to be understood as recommending 

 its general use, for under ordinary circumstances it would not, 

 perhaps, be economical. The best way to use bran as a ma- 

 nure, is to feed our cattle liberally with it, and carefully save 

 the droppings, both liquid and solid, for its value will be found 

 nearly as great after passing through the animal as before. 



You will find in the table referred to the manurial value of 

 a ton of bran given at $13.25, and I think that in preparing a 

 special manure for use in the hill, or for drilling with the fertil- 

 izer drill, it may be much more than this. I find it especially 

 valuable when I wish to produce a quick, active fermentation in 

 order to thoroughly mix and pulverize some special manure, 



