136 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the utmost its fertilizing power. This method would not be 

 advisable on what is called leachy land, but on other soils it has 

 been practised with much success. Some of the largest root 

 crops ever known to your Committee, were grown upon land 

 where this method of applying manure in the fall was pursued. 

 The object of the Committee at this time, is not to treat this 

 great subject at length, but simply to draw attention to a few 

 important points. Benjamin P. Ware, 



Henry Hobbs, 



Committee. 



NANTUCKET. 



Statement of James Thompson. 

 I enter for premium the five pens of manure at my Grove- 

 land stock farm. On the 15th of last May all the pens were 

 cleaned out. We then commenced to cart in seaweed, sods 

 from rich ridges where fences had been, and peat mud, with the 

 droppings of four cows, one horse and one bull, with an average 

 of six hogs. Tw8 months of the latter part of the time two 

 sows have had eleven pigs. In the eight months there have 

 been, as near as we could keep the run, thirty loads peat mud, 

 fifty loads seaweed, fifty loads sods, and all the refuse bedding 

 and green matter that is around the farm. In addition to the 

 droppings above mentioned, the cost is about as follows : — 



For 30 loads peat mud, at 10 cents, . . . . |3 00 

 50 loads seaweed, at 35 cents, . . . . 17 60 

 50 loads sods, at 15 cents, . . . . . 7 50 



128 00 



The value of the droppings from the animals we cannot esti- 

 mate, and the sods, peat and seaweed have been hauled at such 

 odd times that the man and horse would have done but little 

 else in the time. There are now (as consolidated,) about 2,700 

 cubic feet of manure, of as good quality as I should have to pay 

 one dollar per load for. By allowing twelve cubic feet for a 

 load, we have two hundred and twenty loads of twenty bushels 

 each, at a cost of $28, aside from the droppings of animals. 



The question is asked, " How was it possible to make so much 

 manure in the past eight months ? " I answer, from several 



