38 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



where between 300 and 400 bushels, and I don't think there 

 was a single bushel in the crop that was not tit for the 

 market. 



There was one idea in the essay which I must take excep- 

 tion to — that we cannot follow green manuring. On light 

 land which we propose to crop the next season I sow rye 

 any time between August and January ; let that rye remain 

 until the close of June, and plough it under when it is from 

 two and one-half to three feet high. I think if you supple- 

 ment that with from GOO to 1,200 pounds of fertilizer to the 

 acre you will find that that green decomposing material in 

 the soil will be as successful and as satisfactory to you as if 

 you had applied a heavy coat of stable manure. I have fol- 

 lowed that method every year for quite a number of years. 



It strikes me that the use of commercial fertilizers has 

 been demonstrated in almost every section of the country to 

 be so beneficial that we cannot do without them. Some say, 

 " What do you use? Commercial chemicals or only fertil- 

 izers?" I use both, but my experience leads me to believe 

 that the farmer cannot manipulate the elements as well as 

 the manufacturers can with the machinery which they use in 

 the factory. It is well known that we must have a certain 

 amount of phosphoric acid and potash and nitrate of soda 

 for the crop. 



There is one other thing necessary with our fertilizers as 

 well as stable manure, and that is, a suflicicnt amount of 

 moisture to make the elements soluble. You must have 

 some means of creating a moisture to keep the crop grow- 

 ing during a severe drought. The ploughing in of green rye 

 helps to retain the moisture. We raise a great many cab- 

 bages, potatoes, squashes, etc., for the Boston and adjoining 

 markets. You all remember that years ago we had to pay 

 as high as nine dollars a cord for stable manure. 



We cannot possibly compete successfully with the low 

 prices and cheap transportation of western farm products if 

 we have to pay as nuich as that for manure, and I have been 

 ol)liged in the years gone by to use a good deal of fertilizer. 

 I have come to the conclusion that commercial fertilizers in 

 comparative tests with stable manure always come out ahead. 



I think it used to be said that we should put on from 200 



