QUALITY VERSUS QUANTITY. 205 



soil. The idea suggested by Colonel Ward was significant. He 

 said he might have made more manure from his hennery — he 

 might have increased the quantity — if he had been so disposed, 

 but he did not think it worth while ; he thought he should not 

 get anything more by putting loam in there and carting it 

 back to the field, than lie would if he carted the manure out 

 without it. 



Mr. Slade. Mr. Thompson tells of making six hundred loads 

 of manure from the amount of stock that he keeps. I keep about 

 half as much stock, and I cannot make three hundred loads of 

 manure ; if I make one hundred loads of what I call manure I feel 

 pretty well satisfied. I know I have neighbors who make twice 

 as much manure from the same amount of stock, but it does not 

 tell on the growing crops ; and my idea is simply this : that 

 farmers perform a great amount of labor which does not jmy 

 them, in carting in and carting out. Now the use of Peruvian 

 guano proves very conclusively that it requires but a very small 

 quantity of the right kind of manure to produce a crop. Take 

 three hundred pounds of guano and scatter it over an acre 

 where you sow rye and oats, and you will see its effects immedi- 

 ately and magnificently. How much of that guano lies on a 

 square foot of the surface ? Now, to produce similar results 

 from a compost heap, a man must take a team and work all 

 day, and then perhaps he will not do it. 



During this discussion, a conversation occurred to me that I 

 once had with a very intelligent gentleman in Bristol County, a 

 very extensive raiser of premium crops of corn — Mr. James 

 Leonard, of Taunton. For quite a number of years he has 

 competed, and always successfully, for the first premium on a 

 crop of corn. He has succeeded in raising one hundred bushels 

 to the acre. He has raised two hundred and ninety bushels to 

 three acres, and has never entered for a premium when he did 

 not raise over ninety bushels. Some neiglibors of his, in an 

 adjoining county, with a better soil than he had, were very 

 anxious to raise as big a crop as he did, and tried it year after 

 year, without success ; and finally, two years ago, one of tliem 

 came to Mr. Leonard and requested of him the secret of raising 

 his corn. Well, he told him just how he did it. Said he : 

 "Your land is as good as mine, if not better; I use so much 

 manure to the acre ; I plant such a kind of corn ; and my mode 



