188 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



gathered, would have reached fully four hundred dollars. But 

 it should be stated that corn in 1864 was worth two dollars and 

 fifty cents the bushel, and all the crops have ruled high since. 

 The cost of the fertilizing agents employed has been a little over 

 forty- four dollars ; the cost of labor cannot be exactly stated, but 

 it is certain the field has afforded a clean profit of one hundred 

 per cent, each year. 



I fear to weary you with the details of other experiments 

 undertaken on the farm, as perhaps enough has been said to 

 convey a general idea of the nature and design of the work. 

 It is worth something to know that a run-down farm can be in 

 a fair measure rejuvenated and made productive by a class of 

 manurial agents which do not partake of the nature of animal 

 excrement. It is worth much to know that these agents are 

 proved capable of exerting a sustainbig- m^iience upon our soils, 

 that these fertilizing effects are felt year after year, and that 

 crops do not rapidly falter when they can draw nutriment from 

 no other sources. I think we have learned that remunerative 

 crop returns are possible and probable when special fertilizing 

 agents are employed in their highest integrity, and when a fair 

 profit only is paid in the purchase of the raw materials. Before 

 passing to the consideration of another topic incident to this 

 discussion, I will briefly allude to the grain crops produced upon 

 my farm. 



A crop of corn has been raised each season since 18G4, and clso 

 a crop of spring wheat until the present year. Rye, oats, roots 

 and potatoes, with the various grasses, complete the list. From 

 careful records of expenses and results, I find the corn crop to 

 have been the most remunerative, and the wheat comes next. 

 During the seven consecutive seasons closing in 1870, we have 

 passed through great vicissitudes of meteorological changes ; we 

 have had seasons characterized by extreme wet and unparalleled 

 heat and drought, some have been quite extended and others 

 have been very brief. That of 1869 gave us only about one 

 hundred days in which to i>lant and harvest our corn ; the past 

 has been of extraordinary length, the warm growing weather 

 lasting from early in April to November. It has been a period 

 of great value to those who wish to gain by experiment and 

 observation a knowledge of the best methods of farming under 

 the extremes of heat and cold, wet and dry, and of the crops 



