No. 4.] COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS. S9 



to 400 pounds of fertilizer to the acre to produce a good 

 crop. My experience is that I can double or treble the 

 amount to advantage. We used to consider that the com- 

 mercial fertilizers were exhausted the first year. I do not 

 believe it to be so. We have applied it on very light, poor 

 land, in drills and in hills, and you would see its effects on 

 the crops of the following year. My experience leads me 

 to believe that on very dry land commercial fertilizers will 

 be much more successful than will stable manure. 



I rcmeml>er a few years ago that on a farm in Essex 

 County, when I resided there, we had what was almost a 

 drifting sand knoll. We ploughed it, and as we all expected 

 the crop would be earlier on such land I put it to tomatoes. 

 We applied the fertilizer mixed in the hill and set the tomato 

 plants. The vines did not grow very large, but I think 

 without an exception they were the smoothest and hand- 

 somest lot of tomatoes that I ever grew. (We grow some- 

 times three or four thousand bushels a year.) Now, I do not 

 think that stable manure upon that land would have pro- 

 duced hardly any crop whatever. 



So my experience has been that upon light land, upon 

 land that we generally call good gardening land, the use of 

 commercial fertilizers is much more economical in the pro- 

 duction of a paying crop than stable manure ; and it seems 

 to me, out in this part of the country, where lands are differ- 

 ent from what they are with us (they are level and light) , 

 that you can supplement your farming operations by a larger 

 use of commercial fertilizers than I suppose you have here- 

 tofore done. 



Secretary Sessions. You will notice that the gentleman 

 last up spoke of his dry soil, and the gentleman who gave 

 us the essay is located among the Berkshire Hills. This 

 may account for the seeming difference in their experience. 



Question. How deep did you till the gardening soil ? 



Mr. Low. We ploughed it seven or eight inches. But 

 there is one point about green manuring, and that is, its 

 quick decomposition has always a good effect. We consider 

 it one of the best methods of fertilizing our soil. 



Mr. KiRBY (of Revere). What variety of fertilizer do 

 you use to get your best results ? 



