206 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



of tillage is thus and so." " That corresponds," said the gen- 

 tleman, " with my mode, and I don't understand why I can't 

 get as good a crop as you do." Well, he told him he didn't 

 know. A year ago last spring he was invited to go over to one 

 of the Bridgewaters, where the experiment was to be tried for a 

 premium crop. As soon as he got there, he says he told the 

 gentleman : " The secret of your failure is simply this : it is not 

 in the kind of corn ; it is not in your mode of culture ; but it 

 is in the manure to which you resort to carry that crop through." 

 Said he, " You make your manure ; it is made from the drop- 

 pings of your cattle and what you put into it. What you put 

 into it is not manure. I buy my manure ; it comes from such 

 a stable in Taunton, and there is nothing in it but the droppings 

 of fatted cattle. You use just as much as I do, and when you 

 will use the same kind of manure you will produce just as big 

 a crop of corn as I do." I believe that. 



Mr. Johnson. I am one of those fortunate individuals who 

 can agree with almost everybody here, and it is because my 

 soil is so varied. I perfectly agree with the idea advanced by 

 the last gentleman who spoke, and also with Mr. Thompson. 



If I could have all the sand that I would like in my compost 

 heap for my clay soil, I would have at least one-half sand, and 

 prefer it to the manure. I have tried manure upon that clay 

 bottom, spreading upon the top, side by side with it, clear sand 

 and the wasliings of the road (which was sandy,) which had 

 been collecting for years, and' which contained a mixture of 

 vegetable matter undoubtedly, which had collected there, and 

 made a black deposit. I spread that upon that meadow (as we 

 will call it,) and more grass was grown from the application of 

 that soil than we ever got from the application of compost from 

 the manure heap. Not more than a fifth part of that compost 

 heap would be the collections of the soil. Yet it grew more 

 grass and it lasted longer tlian the manure did. Now, I pro- 

 posed, a week ago, to buy an acre more of that sand, to cart on 

 that meadow this winter, and I would rather have it than to 

 have stable manure to go on that land. 



Then, again, if I am going to cultivate any class of soil that 

 we have, I prefer nearly clear manure. I do not want to cart 

 the dirt from the field, and run the manure through it, and 

 then cart it all back again. I see no sort of use in it, except to 



