74 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



been diminished but slightly in consequence, being but twenty 

 pounds per acre less than on No. 2, and twenty-five pounds less 

 than on No. 3. Mr, Benson's statement that " No. 1 took the 

 lead the first year in corn, but No. 3 got the lead the second 

 .year, and kept it," is calculated to convey an erroneous impres- 

 sion. The value of the products of No. 1 at the close of the 

 first year, exceeded that of No. 3 by $3.95, and at the close of 

 the second year by $3.40. The great falling off in the products 

 of this- plot was in the third, or grass crop, which gave $8.65 

 per acre less than No. 2, and $9.45 less than No. 3. A different 

 result could hardly have been anticipated. Manure buried 

 beneath nine inches of earth is not in a position to cause grass 

 to set well or to grow vigorously. Had the manure on No. 1, 

 and the earth in which it was imbedded, been mixed and mel- 

 lowed by the plough the second year, its grass crop would 

 undoubtedly have compared much more favorably with that of 

 the other plots. 



In this experiment we find a remarkable difference in pro- 

 ductiveness between No. 3 and No. 4 ; No. 3, manure harrowed 

 in, giving an excess of $26.20 per acre over No 4, manure left 

 upon the surface. As in all other respects the cultivation was 

 the same on both plots, this sum, $26.20, would seem to repre- 

 sent the value of the single harrowing. If such were the fact, 

 we might reasonably expect an approximation to the same 

 result in Mr. Leonard's second experiment, in progress during 

 the same seasons, in very nearly the same locality, subject, of 

 course, to the same climatic influences, on land much less reten- 

 tive of moisture, and, consequently, less favorable to surface 

 manuring. But in Mr. Leonard's experiment, the difference 

 per acre, in favor of No. 3, as compared with No.*4, was but 

 $3.87. In his first experiment, the difference was still less, 

 being but $1.86. In view of the fact that Mr. Benson's experi- 

 ment presents results so peculiar, and so different from those in 

 other experiments, we may well be pardoned for expressing a 

 doubt as to the entire accuracy of his figures, or, more reason- 

 ably, perhaps, of the correctness of his opinion as to the quality 

 of the soil of the several plots. 



On alluvial deposits, or on prairie lands, tracts may doubtless 

 be selected, of equal productiveness throughout ; but on our 

 irregular drift; it is difficult, if not impossible, to find an acre 



