180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tions of it, a quarter of a century ago, were probably in fair con- 

 dition, producing crops of bay and grain corresponding witb 

 tliose grown by the farmers of tbat period. For a long time, 

 however, it had been in the hands of those who treated it with 

 neglect, and the best fields had hardly been turned over with a 

 plough, or cheered with a dressing of manure for a score of years. 

 It had therefore become in a great measure exhausted, and the 

 thin grasses suffering for aliment. The number of acres not 

 devoted to wood and pasturing was about twenty-five ; of this, 

 nearly one-half was a low, boggy meadow upon which water 

 was allowed to rest until it was removed by evaporation late 

 in the spring. The remainder consisted of a series of ele- 

 vations or hills of considerable altitude, dry and silicious upon 

 the tops, but moist at the bases from retained water and from 

 springs. The soil of the different fields afforded quite a variety 

 in character and composition, and probably as fairly represented 

 the varying nature of our Massachusetts farms as any tract of 

 land in the State. A portion was silicious, loose and dry ; 

 another was loamy and retentive ; another, moist and composed 

 of dark mould with a clayey sub-soil ; and still another, a well- 

 formed wet peat bog. 



It will be seen from this brief description that the farm was made 

 up of fields eminently suited for fair experiment, and also it will 

 be understood that it came into my hands under the most favor- 

 able conditions to test the value of any plan or system of fertiliza- 

 tion. In 1863, about ten tons of indifferent upland hay was cut 

 upon the portion embraced in the original purchase ; the produce 

 of an adjoining field of four acres of upland, which has since been 

 purchased and added to the farm, I am unable to state. No 

 corn or other grain in any amount had been grown for perhaps 

 ten years upon the farm, and I have no knowledge of the char- 

 acter of any cereals produced prior to the purchase. It should 

 be stated here that the chemical analysis of soils taken from the 

 different fields presented a singular difference in composition, 

 and what I learned in this regard upon my own fields led me to 

 examine those of others at comparatively remote points, and the 

 same remarkable variations have been generally found to ])revail. 

 The soil at the base of a small hill or elevation is of a very 

 different character from that at the apex, and a level flat at one 

 extremity of a farm is quite unlike another which is at the 



