EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 185 



iited, and it was then seeded down with redtop and timothy, 

 covered in with a brush harrow. The work was done in the 

 months of August and September, 1866. The first crop of liay 

 in 1867 was a little rising one and a half tons to the acre, the 

 succeeding crop was two and a half tons, and those which have 

 since been taken from the field have averaged about the same 

 amount. The present autumn a light top-dressing of farmyard 

 dung has been given the field, with the view of observing its 

 effects. Meadow grasses have not yet made their appearance 

 to any extent. After removing the crop next season, a new 

 seeding will be given the field, and the experiment continued. 

 One acre of the remaining six, received no coating of sand, but 

 after digging out the hassocks and burning them, the patch was 

 turned over with a spade, fertilized with three hundred pounds 

 of bone dust and two hundred of guano, and seeded down 

 similar to the other. This was accomplished in the autumn of 

 18G8. In 1869 the first crop and aftermath gave three tons to 

 the acre. The present season, the two crops have exceeded 

 that amount. Another acre bordering directly upon the lake, 

 but slightly more elevated, was reclaimed in the same manner 

 in 1867, and treated with one ton of dry fish pomace. It gave 

 a crop the succeeding year of one and a half tons to the acre, 

 and since, the yield has been about two tons each season. In 

 1869, two more acres were put in condition, fertilizing one-half 

 with pure bone and spent ashes, the other with farm superphos- 

 phate. The crop this season upon both sections has been nearly 

 alike, slightly exceeding one and a half tons to the acre. The 

 remainder has been seeded down the present autumn, using 

 upon one portion farm dung, upon another lime, upon two other 

 portions various combinations of salts, which it is needless to 

 mention, as no results have yet been reached. Some of these 

 experiments have been continued long enough to learn some- 

 thing of the value of the methods of treatment, while the others 

 have not. Several plats of the meadow have beea put in con- 

 dition, and left one season without any fertilizing agents, and 

 the result has been, that ferns and coarse meadow plants have 

 flourished together in rank luxuriance, thus proving the needed 

 presence and high utility of the plant stimulants employed. 



I think from the brief and imperfect statements presented, it 

 will be conceded that wet peat meadows can be profitably re- 



24 



