41 



many substances, as until recently we have known little of chemistiy as applied to agriculture, 

 analyzing soils, etc. Frequently, my results were marvelous ; but I knew not from what 

 cause — whether they were produced by one of the manures used, or by all. Consequently I 

 did not dare leave out a single substance, but rather added others. In one instance I applied 

 my composition to a common squash vine, and produced a squash which was exhibited at 

 the State Fair held in 1844, weighing the enormous weight of two hundred and one pounds, 

 the heaviest on record by, I suppose, some fifty pounds. I applied it late in the season to a 

 cabbage, which was also presented, weighing forty-four pomids, and to other roots, all of which 

 received premiums. To wheat, and it weighed sixty-four and a half pounds to the bushel ; 

 to rye, and it weighed sixty ; to oats, and they weighed forty-four and a half, thirty-two 

 being the standard. When Sprengel's Analysis appeared showing that eleven substances were 

 absolutely necessary to all good soils, I found my accidental composition contained them all, 

 and twenty other enriching essentials. Previous to five years since, my orchards only bore 

 fruit the intervening year. Since that time these, properly attended to, have borne every year 

 and every year the fruit grew finer than the year previous and more abundant. The last Avas 

 not my bearing year, nor was it the bearing year throughout the county ; still my crop, for 

 the number of trees experimented on, was most plentiful. The trees not attended to, though 

 directly alongside of those which were bending to the earth with fruit, were entirely barren. 

 The season, too, has been most unpropitious, as we have not had from April to October 

 sufficient rain to moisten the earth to the depth of three inches ; notwithstanding, the compo- 

 sition applied kept the roots constantly moist, and thus protected the crop from destruction. I 

 prefer infinitely a manure composed of decomposed vegetable matter, such as grass, weeds, 

 straw, leaves, hair, etc., to the manure of neat cattle, for the reason that the food eaten by 

 stock goes to form all the animal economy ; whereas if rotted, and the ammonia is preserved 

 by means of charcoal dust, you have all the chemical substances unadulterated and pure, and, 

 when added to the soil, it receives a ten-fold benefit. I once placed a dozen fowls that had 

 been killed by a mink, at the roots of a peach tree. The growth was prodigious, and the 

 leaves were still green when every other tree in the orchard had shed its leaves some time 

 before. I would call the attention of the Society to what 1 consider a most valuable manure, 

 and one that is within the reach of all to a limited extent. Having occasion, last Winter, 

 to visit a bone establishment, I was told by the occupant that it had been declared a nuisance, 

 and that he was on the point of removing to the East River on account of the smell arising from 

 the liquid left after boiling bones, which liquid he was obliged to remove at once to the Hudson and 



11 



