. HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 249 



second from Dr. David Rice, of Leverett, to whom the com- 

 mittee recommend a gratuity of six dollars. 



EDWARD HITCHCOCK, Chairman. 



Samuel Powers^s Statement. 



I have, during the last four years, been in the habit of using 

 compost manure to a considerable extent, and from the expe- 

 rience that I have had in its application, and the results that 

 have attended its use, I now think it far cheaper and equally 

 as durable for a fertilizer, as the best animal manure. In 1847, 

 I took from my peat swamp, the soil of which is composed of 

 vegetable matter, that has been accumulating there for many 

 years, about one hundred and twenty-five cart loads of this 

 peat, and mixed with it ashes, saltpetre, and plaster, in parts, 

 equal to one hundred bushels ashes, one hundred pounds of 

 saltpetre, and five hundred pounds plaster, for the whole lot. 

 In the spring of 1848, I carted this mixture upon a field ad- 

 joining, the soil of which is a fitie deep loam capable of being 

 enriched to any extent, and spread upon two acres, fifty large 

 loads of compost, harrowed it in and planted it with corn. 

 Upon two acres adjoining, of precisely the same quality, forty 

 loads of good yard manure were applied. The result was, the 

 corn on both pieces was good, yet that on which the compost 

 was used was more luxuriant from beginning to end, and pro- 

 duced some seventy-five bushels per acre. After harvesting 

 the corn, one acre of the land composted was sown to wheat, 

 and the other acre to rye ; both crops were good,the part sown 

 to rye producing about twenty-five bushels, and the wheat 

 twenty bushels. And had not the frost killed it out, it would 

 probably have yielded thirty bushels. The rye sown on the 

 two acres manured, produced twenty bushels per acre. 



In 1850, I planted the same four acres again, adding ten 

 loads of compost, making sixty loads for the two acres, and 

 putting the same quantity of manure upon the other, it produced 

 a very heavy crop of corn. After harvesting it, I sowed it 

 again with wheat and rye, and proauced as good a crop as 

 before. 



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