until any one reading our agricultural periodicals would be led 

 to believe that any other use of manure would be entirely 

 destructive to the interests of the fanner, while the most 

 progressive farmers and market gardeners are ready to declare 

 tliat such manure is unfit for present use, for the growing of 

 the roots and vegetables most valuable in the market. Another 

 portion, equally sanguine, advocate the importance of plowing 

 in manure full ten inches deep, lest some of its good qualities 

 should escape in the air, while the most carefully conducted 

 experiments on record prove the greatest value is obtained by 

 placing it near the surface. 



Some of the most eminent agricultural chemists of this 

 country and of Europe seem to prove by experiment, and do 

 assert, that worn-out lands may be reclaimed to fertility, at 

 small cost, by the use of chemicals alone ; and that all the 

 fertilizing value of a large load of barnyard manure may ue 

 chemically represented by a basket of various salts obtainji tie 

 at the druggists, that may be easily carried upon one's 

 shoulder. And yet your Committee observed the eti'ects lA' a 

 foiiiiula, prescribed by Dr. J. R. Nichols, on a part of a field 

 of potatoes, in comparison with another part manured with 

 barn manure, resulting very much in favor of the barn manure, 

 (for the particulars we refer to the report of the Committee on 

 Farms, published in the transactions of the Society this year.) 



And to read many of the circulars of manufacturers of 

 special and general fertilizers, backed up as they are by recom- 

 mendations, evidently obtained Ijy friendly or mercenary 

 inducements, is sufficient, in many cases, to make the more 

 credulous part with their hard earnings, to secure what appears 

 to them the panacea for impoverished fields and short crops, 

 usually ending in disappointment. 



Now, midst all this confliction of opinions and interests, 

 what is the farmer to do, who is anxious to improve his farm, 

 his crops, and his purse? Your Committee would answer by 

 some suggestions, based upon many years' experience and 

 observatiou. It is evident that the main dependence of the 

 farmer must be upon the deposits of the barnyard and cellar, 

 and a judicious system of composting. 



