MANURES. 65 



ESSEX. 



Statement of B. P. Ware for. 1862. 



In competing for the premium offered by your society for the 

 best experiments on the application of manure — offered this 

 year, 1862 — I selected an acre of land adjoining the lot upon 

 which I commenced a similar experiment last year. The soil is 

 a dark loam, nine inches deep, resting upon a gravelly subsoil 

 — not leachy, but rather light — nearly level, with the exception 

 of a gentle swell running across the lot. In April of 1861, four 

 cords of compost manure were spread upon this land, and it was 

 sown with oats. On the tenth of June, the oats having attained 

 a large growth, they were turned under, and the land sown 

 with carrots, but, owing to the dry, hot weather, the seed failed, 

 and in July, I sowed flat turnips, which grew finely and yielded 

 a large crop. 



On the fourteenth of May last, I divided the lot into five 

 equal parts, and manured four of them with compost manure 

 at the rate of ten cords per acre, which manure was taken from 

 a heap containing sixty -five cords, all forked over and worked 

 together. I like to compost my manure all in one heap, (except 

 some special manures,) as fermentation is more rapid, and I 

 think there is less waste than in several smaller heaps. 



Said compost heap was composed of meadow mud, sea manure 

 and barn manure, -the whole mass drenched with eighteen cords 

 of night soil. The same quantity of manure was applied to each 

 lot, and it was ploughed in eight inches in lot No. 1 ; four inches 

 in lot No. 2 ; harrowed in in lot No. 3, and spread on the sur- 

 face of lot No. 4 after planting ; while none was applied to lot 

 No. 5. The directions of the circular werer followed- to the 

 letter. 



May seventeenth, I planted nine rows of King Philip corn in 

 each lot, three and a half feet apart, and hills in the rows the 

 same distance — six kernels in' a hill, and covered the seed one 

 ajiid a half inches deep. The corn was horse-hoed, or cultivated, 

 three times during the season, and hand-hoed twice — not a weed 

 was allowed to grow. October sixth, the corn was cut up close 

 to the ground and stooked up. November third, being well 

 dried and in good order, I had the whole weighed and stored 



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