PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 369 



others estimated by them. About 160 tons I hauled from the 

 beach, at least four miles. The remainder was brought near 

 by water. About 100 tons were spread, 16 to 20 tons to the 

 acre, on corn and other cultivated lands, and ploughed under, 

 soon after as possible ; a few tons were put in my barn and hog 

 yards; the remainder was spread on my mowing land, which 

 is a reclaimed peat swamp, drained, but moist enough to pre- 

 vent it from drying up and wasting by the sun and air. I 

 spread it as we get it, in autumn, winter, or spring. Two 

 years ago, I spread about five tons on a little less than half an 

 acre, which I repeated the last winter. I had this season, from 

 that piece, more than a ton of good hay, some clover, where, 

 two years ago, I got less than five hundred of coarse hay. 



I tried it, this season, in competition with barn manure. On 

 a quarter of an acre in my two-acre field of Indian corn, I put 

 on the one half kelp, on the other half green manure, from my 

 barn, in equal bulk. The corn, I think, was the best where 

 the kelp was put. Kelp spread on low land, in autumn and 

 winter, at the rate of fifteen or twenty tons to the acre, will 

 increase the crop, the next season, one third. The value of 

 this manure is so well established in the vicinity of the sea, in 

 this region, that a premium for its application is not necessary. 

 Every ton that lands where it can be got at, is eagerly sought 

 for and carried off. Last autumn, I had the pleasure of seeing 

 fifty teams on the beach at one time, and it was thought that 

 three thousand tons were hauled up and secured on the beach 

 in two or three days. 



DuxBURY, Oct. 29, 1851. 



Jonathan Hoicard, 2rf's, Statement. 

 I have made and measured, during the present season, on my 

 farm, 375 loads* of compost manure in the following man- 

 ner : — 140 loads were scraped up from under and around where 

 I had recently taken down an old barn, which had stood on 

 the spot nearly one hundred years. This was stacked and 

 covered with ten loads of muck. 160 loads of it were made 



* 364 loads of 40 cubic feel. 



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