64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



raked by machines, instead of being, as it previously was, 

 miry and uneven. 



" Expenses : ploughing and harrowing, $20 ; gravelling, 

 $100; manure harrowed in, $25; seed and sowing, $8.50; 

 top-dressing, $20 ; draining through adjoining land, $15. 

 Total, $188.50. 



"Receipts in 1872 : 3 tous of hay, at $14, $42 ; in 1873, 3£ 

 tons, $49 ; in 1874, 4 tons, $56. Total, $147. 



"Having thus given the result of my experience in removing 

 high land upon low, a brief statement in respect to what I 

 have done in an opposite direction may not be wholly without 

 interest. My farm is composed largely of high land, with a 

 thin, gravelly soil. Being, like most New England farmers, 

 deficient in the quantity of manure necessary for improving 

 my worn-out acres, I was led to the discovery that, in all the 

 bogs and pond-holes about my farm the means might be 

 found of supplying, in a great measure, the needed elements 

 of fertility. During the last fifteen years I have probably 

 applied 5,000 ox-cartloads of muck to some twenty-five acres 

 of upland. . I have generally carted it directly from the pit 

 or ditches to the laud where it was to be used, putting a load 

 in a place, to be spread and remain through the winter, sub- 

 ject to the action of the frost, which I consider an advantage. 

 In the spring it has been ploughed in, and the land usually 

 planted to corn and potatoes for two or three successive years 

 before seeding to grass. The result has been that, with a 

 little manure, good crops have followed, while the soil has 

 been rendered more easy of cultivation. 



"In my apple-orchard, instead of ploughing and cultivating, 

 I have spread muck on the surface liberally, and, after it has 

 become dry, pulverized it by drawing a heavy bush over it. 

 This has kept the soil loose about the roots of the trees, 

 evidently giving them a more thrifty appearance, and causing 

 them to produce more and better fruit. 



" It will be perceived that, by applying the muck directly 

 from the pit, instead of first composting it with other 

 materials, the expense has been comparitively small, and I 

 think I can say that, to me, it has proved a cheap fertilizer." 



By Mr. Latham's experiment, one desirable result, at least, 

 has been secured. What was formerly an unsightly, worth- 



