170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



stitute a splendid manure at the price at which they are gen- 

 erally sold. We have one field of about six or seven acres 

 on the college farm which illustrates this pretty well. This 

 field has been kept in grass for about twelve years. It is 

 divided into three nearly equal parts, and for some time has 

 liecn manured in this way : one year one of the three parts 

 into which it is divided receives a small, rather moderate 

 dressing of manure, — about four cords ; the second part re- 

 ceives an application of wood ashes, — a ton to the acre ; the 

 third receives an application of muriate of potash, — about 

 two hundred pounds, and bone meal, — about four hundred 

 pounds. The next year the manuring is rotated ; the part 

 that this year got the barn-yard manure, next year gets 

 wood ashes ; the part that this year got the wood ashes, 

 next year gets the bone and potash ; and so on from year 

 to year. The results upon this field go very far to show 

 that such a system of manuring is an excellent one. We 

 have obtained for the last ten years an average of rather 

 more than three and a half tons to the acre of good hay in 

 two crops, by this system of manuring. So much for wood 

 ashes. Of course the benefits in this case are not to be 

 ascribed wholly to the wood ashes, but I believe that rotation 

 of manuring is an excellent thing. I am not at all sure but 

 that still better results might be obtained by using a little 

 nitrate of soda in connection with the ashes in the spring, 

 put on separately ; and possibly also in connection with the 

 bone and potash. 



The essayist discussed the relative merits of muriate of 

 potash and sulfate of potash, and Avith his conclusions I 

 entirely agree on most points. AVe have, however, at Am- 

 herst with a single exception always found that sulfate of 

 potash not only gave potatoes of better quality but also more 

 bushels than the muriate. AVe have fields upon the college 

 farm where for about sixteen years we have had these two 

 forms of potash under comparison. The system of manur- 

 ing has been this : on one part, muriate of potash at the rate 

 of four hundred pounds to the acre ; the next, sulfate of pot- 

 ash, the same quantity ; the next, the muriate ; the fourth, 

 the sulfate. There are eleven plots in all, alternating in this 

 regular way. In connection with these potash salts we have 



