60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



spring I spread an equal quantity of manure over the remainder 

 of the land, and planted it all with corn. Where the manure 

 was put on in the fall the corn was a great deal the best. I 

 could see it in the rows, contrary to my expectation, for I 

 expected that I had lost something on the manure. The next 

 year the land was sowed with oats, and I could see the line 

 where that manure came that I put on in the fall. Next year 

 it was sown to grass, and that line was seen three years 

 afterwards. I am not sure that there were not circumstances 

 connected with it that I was not aware of, but that was the 

 fact as it showed itself to my observation at the time. I tried 

 it one year afterwards, but it was on a piece of land over which 

 a great deal of water passed, and I lost some portion of the 

 manure by the wash. For that reason I abandoned it ; and, as 

 I told you, for general use I would not recommend it. It is 

 only under peculiar circumstances, where your soil is protected 

 from winds and washes that it will answer to leave tbe manure 

 upon the surface. 



Rev. Mr. Dean. — I suppose, in discussing the question of the 

 corn crop, it is necessary not only to look at the immediate 

 results, but at the general results to the farm. In Orange 

 County, New York, where I was brought up, they used to put 

 on the manure in the spring ; but the most successful farmers 

 argue of late that corn is a very exhausting crop, and that there 

 is a difficulty after the rotation is complete, the grass running 

 out in a little while ; so that I find now that the most successful 

 farmers do not put on all their manure with the corn ; they 

 manure to get rather below a fair crop than otherwise, and 

 reserve a large part of their manure to put on when they put in 

 their wheat, and then they get a very fine field of grass, and 

 manure for the next rotation of corn, oats, &c. They manure 

 with the clover. I should like to know whether Massachusetts 

 farmers have any experience in that direction. 



Dr. Hartwell. — So far as I know, they have not. They 

 have experience in putting manure on grass lands, and many 

 of them like the process. But with regard to the system I 

 have spoken of, the farmers are not in a situation to practise it. 

 There are no farmers in our section that I know of who have 

 retained a year's stock of manure. They would be under the 

 -necessity of losing one year's crop of corn to get into the 



