MANURES. 125 



waste of manure to apply it green as a top-dressing; but these 

 are the facts, proved by an experiment most carefully con- 

 ducted, and extending through three different seasons. We 

 commend these facts to all farmers who are not wedded to old 

 customs merely because they are old — to all who are not afraid 

 of what their neighbors may say or think, when they diverge a 

 little from the beaten path. The committee would have 

 recommended a premium to Mr. Rogers for these experiments, 

 but he wished not to be considered a competitor for it. 



For the premiums for the best conducted experiments in the 

 application of manures, proposed by the society in 1800, iu 

 accordance with instructions from the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture, and to be made three successive years, there have been 

 two entries, one by Nathan W. Brown, on the society's farm iu 

 Topsfield, and the other by Benjamin P. Ware, of Marblchead. 

 The account of the experiment by Mr. Brown for the first two 

 years will be found in the reports on the Treadwell Farm for 

 the years 1860 and 1861. Tlie crop of grass this year on the 

 land upon which the experiment was made was found to be so 

 light, owing probably to the inferior quality of the manure 

 applied at first, that there seemed to be no appreciable differ- 

 ence in the produce of each of the five lots. It was therefore 

 concluded to abandon this experiment, and trust for better 

 results to those begun in 1861 and 1862. 



Mr. Ware has this year completed the experiment begun by 

 him in 1860, thus complying with the chief condition upon 

 which the premiums were to be awarded. We annex the 

 several statements for the three years, remarking that each was 

 submitted to the committee at the time it bears date ; and was 

 accompanied by a certificate of the weight of the crop. 



In the tliird and last statement Mr. Ware has drawn such 

 general conclusions as the experiment would seem to warrant. 

 Other and perhaps more satisfactory infei-ences may be arrived 

 at by the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 

 ture, when they shall have the statements of the large number 

 of experiments made in different parts of the State ; but we 

 hazard the opinion that among them all' no one will be found 

 to be more carefully and skilfully conducted than that of Mr. 

 Ware. Allen W. Dodge. 



Lewis Allen. 



