SECRETARY'S REPORT. .53 



The average value of manure per cord on the retentive soils, 

 was, on 



It will be observed that all the weather returns of 1860, 

 except No. 4, indicate a very moist season through the growing 

 months of June, July and August. This would undoubtedly 

 cause the product to be larger from plots Nos. 8 and 4, where 

 the manure was harrowed in and left on the surface, than the 

 average of seasons, and much more than in a dry season. 



The result, then, of these experiments, taken as a whole, 

 seems to us to point out this important rule: that the most 

 profitable mode of applying manures from the barn or stable, 

 is by harrowing them in, unless we have a light soil, in which 

 case Ihoy may be ploughed in to a very slight depth. It is 

 however to be observed that these experiments are as yet incon- 

 clusive, mainly from the paucity of their number. The other 

 two scries already in operation, and a new one to be commenced 

 in 1863, in response to the requirements of this Board, must 

 be relied on to give value to any conclusions which are here 

 only indicated. 



There are many interesting points that we should be glad to 

 touch upon, but they will suggest themselves to any one upon 

 a careful examination of the table. We wish, however, to 

 call attention to one or two matters which are found in the 

 statements, but do not appear in the table. In experiments 

 numbered 11 and 14, there was a sixth plot added, for different 

 purposes in the two cases, and which will be found very 

 instructive, if traced through the three years. It may be 

 proper to mention that in No. 1 there seems to have been a 

 misconstruction of the directions, inasmuch as the manure and 



