338 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 



which then appeared sound, from the thirty rods not sub- 

 soiled, and about half a bushel from the subsoiled part. Of the 

 long reds on the sixteen rods not subsoiled, we had 631 pounds, 

 and on the subsoiled, 570 pounds. The round red has decayed 

 the least ; perhaps not more than one-third of the crop was lost. 

 Of those on the part not subsoiled, we had 850 pounds, and on 

 the subsoiled, 1010 pounds. This result indicates sufficient 

 benefit in subsoiling to justify the continued practice of it. In 

 the other kinds of potatoes, where the most were saved on the 

 land that had only a common ploughing, it was manifest in the 

 digging that the growth had been the greatest on the subsoiled 

 part, — the disease destroyed more of the large than of the small 

 potatoes. 



The past has been a very unfavorable season to determine, 

 with any precision, the influence of subsoiling on this particu- 

 lar crop ; but that it has some salutary effect on every sort of 

 crop, and every kind of land, excepting where the subsoil is 

 pure clay, cannot, it seems to me, be reasonably doubted. 



Pembroke, Oct. 17, 1850. 



Austin J. Roberts^s Statement. 



I have made and applied to the farm, 393 loads of manure, 

 since March 3d, 1850, each load containing forty cubic feet. 

 My way of manufacturing manure suited for sandy or gravelly 

 soils, which are, generally, I think, more deficient in vegetable 

 than mineral matter, is thus : — I cart into my barn yard and 

 hogstye, muck, peat, leaves, and all the refuse and decayed 

 vegetation I can conveniently get in the fall of the year. The 

 vegetable matter in the yard is ploughed often, and well mixed 

 with the droppings of the cattle during the spring and summer 

 months ; while from six to ten hogs are kept in the barn-cellar, 

 which is thirty-six by sixty feet, walled on three sides, and 

 boarded and shingled on the fourth, with doors leading into 

 the barn yard, thereby keeping the hogs comfortable, and pre- 

 venting the action of the frost from impeding the labors of the 

 hogs, in rooting and mixing together the substances thrown 

 into the pen. In the winter, the manure of the cattle and 

 horses is thrown from the stable into the stye below, which 



