ROOT CROPS. 243 



the season, wliich did not seem to liold out to the end. In 

 using guano on soil not wet and close, I should prefer to bury 

 it with the plough ] four or six inches, or even deeper, where 

 the soil is not too loose and sandy, would be better than laying 

 it on the top of the ground Guano is a powerful stimulant to 

 most, if not all, plants; it yields its strength, ammonia, quickly; 

 and if not buried or in some way absorbed, it is lost in the atmos- 

 phere. On my beets and carrots it evidently forced a heavy 

 growth of leaves, but did not fully carry out its promise in the 

 harvest. I am not satisfied with the trial. I intend making 

 more careful experiments next year. It seems doubtful 

 whether farmers can aiford to use it for ordinary purposes. 

 "We need experience, which is the only real test. We must see 

 and realize its effects on our crops, to induce us to pay fifty 

 dollars per ton for it. 



The expense in cultivating a quarter of an acre of beets, is 

 about twenty dollars, exclusive of the manure, rent of land, &c. 

 If the cultivation is easy, and few weeds, it may be a little less ; 

 if hard and weedy, something more. 



DuxBUEY, September, 1853. 



BARNSTABLE. 



Statement of Joshua Crowell. 

 Carrots. — May 3d, planted one-fourth acre on a soil mixed 

 with clay and loam. Land was bought in 1843, at $23 per 

 acre; for three years planted with potatoes, and manured prin- 

 cipally with sea-weed; in 1846, seeded down to grass; again 

 broken up in 1852, and planted with carrots, but the crop was 

 light, not more than three hundred and sixty bushels per acre. 

 Last year, manured with twelve horse-loads of barnyard ma- 

 nure, and the same this year. Carrots raised on the quarter 

 of an acre weighed ten thousand and seventy-three pounds. 

 They were planted in drills, two feet apart. 



Value of the crop thus raised, five tons, at $9 per 



ton, $45 00 



Cost of manure, cultivation, and harvesting, . . 20 33 



Profits on one-fourth of an acre, . ♦ , $24 67 



