204 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



My roots have cost me nine cents a bushel, and they are cer- 

 tainly a valuable crop. But unless you manure well you do not 

 get a root crop. You wq,nt to plough first and then put the 

 manure on, two or three inches below the surface, then plant 

 your seeds immediately, and you have the effect almost instantly 

 upon the seed as it germinates, and it does not seem to lose that 

 growth. There is a stimulus in it when it is so near the sur- 

 face. The light and heat of the summer sun are acting upon it 

 and the surface soil to such a degree that you have a thrifty 

 growth of leaves all the time. I have grown ruta-bagas this 

 year on a piece of clear sand that has accumulated on the south 

 side of a fence until it is four feet high the whole length of the 

 fence. I ploughed there and put on a good coat of manure, 

 and I have had ruta-bagas six or seven inches in diameter this 

 year. 



Mr. Thatcher. Will you be kind enough to state how much 

 stock you have, to make those six hundred loads of manure ? 



Mr. Thompson. Twelve head of cattle, three horses and 

 about twenty hogs — that is, grown hogs and pigs growing all the 

 time. AVe have carted in everything we could get hold of ; 

 everything that would be called refuse round the barn and 

 farm. 



Mr. Thatcher. I must say, that if the statements are true 

 that have been made here this morning, in regard to the quan- 

 tity of manure that may be made, we farmers who are outside 

 the peat bogs are exceedingly unfortunate. It does seem to me 

 that tlie question is, not the quantity of manure that we make, 

 but its quality. I know that it has been stated here, by pretty 

 good authority, that one cord of solid excrement from a cow is 

 worth no more than one-third of that cord, composted with two- 

 thirds of a cord of peat ; but it -seems to me, if I were offered 

 my choice between a cord of solid excrement from a cow stable 

 and a cord of manure composted in the way I have spoken of, I 

 should prefer the former. I know this much, that for all heavy 

 crops that are raised, at least in our part of the country, the 

 less there is of compost about the manure the better. I do not 

 want my manure composted if I am going to raise a big crop 

 of anything ; I do not care how near it approaches the solid 

 excrement. I never have found the trouble to which Mr. 

 Thompson alluded, of its drying up when it is turned into the 



