FARMING WITHOUT MANURE. 213 



and I have always been a laborer upon the soil with my own 

 hands. I have managed that farm for the last eleven years ex- 

 clusively. At the time of my marriage, my father removed and 

 left it under my control ; but having' labored with him all my 

 life, I had decided convictions in regard to the manner in which 

 he was managing the farm, and in regard to the manner in 

 which it had been managed. It had been his cugrtom, and that 

 of those who preceded him, to consume all the hay and other 

 products of the farm upon it. He had kept forty head of 

 cattle ; but notwithstanding that, it was in a very poor state. 

 I determined to adopt a different style of farming, and my first 

 step was to reduce my stock nearly two-thirds, and undertake * 

 to carry out a system of farming which I thought miglit prove 

 profitable ; and, gentlemen, it has. The farmers in my vicinity* 

 all said that if I adopted this style of farming, I should not 

 keep the farm up where my fathers had kept it ; but last year 

 I submitted my farm in competition with others in different 

 parts of the county for a premium of fifty dollars, and I am 

 proud to say that I received that premium. (Applause.) Sir, 

 that result has been reached without the expenditure of ten 

 dollars for barnyard manure. In competing for this premium, 

 I had to compete with some of the best farms and some of the 

 best farmers who live within twenty miles 'of me. Any of you 

 who know anything about that portion of Stratford Couaty 

 around Dover, and RoUinsford, and Durham, and Somersworth, 

 know what I had to compete with. In that section, tlicre is 

 some of the best land in the State of New Hampshire, and 

 some of the farms were vrithin two or three miles of Great Falls,- 

 Salmon Falls or Dover, where manure could be purchased at a 

 fair price, and where the cost of cartage was but little. I live 

 six miles, at least, fi'om where I can purchase a single load of 

 barnyard manure. 



I commenced with the idea that, on a farm like mine, I must 

 use the hoe less and the plough more, because I believe that 

 experiments have proved that in turning over an acre of land 

 that is partially run out, we turn under twelve tons of organic 

 matter, in the shape of roots, which will rot, and very Lirgely 

 enrich the soil. To do this as easily as possible, I turn over 

 my land in the fall, apply my manure, harrow it in slightly, leave 

 it to the action of the frosts during' winter, and in the spring 



