SECRETARY'S REPORT. 303 



five or six loads of compost, while the yard manure gets double 

 that quantity of lime. The yard manure is worked over twice 

 during the summer, and that , in the cellar three times. In the 

 autumn it is hauled out, the permanent grass lands receiving a 

 dressing every year equal to five or six ox-cart loads per acre, 

 and distributed in such a way that the part that gets the plaster 

 compost this year shall have the lime next. Mr. Green thinks 

 a light dressing every year better than a heavy one once in two 

 or three years. He tells me that the lot on which he first exper- 

 imented with plaster, though it has })een down forty years, is 

 still cutting two crops, and yielding three tons to the acre. On 

 such lands as are not in permanent mowing, a rotation system 

 is pursued, corn being the first crop and oats or rye the second, 

 seeding with white and red clover and timothy, after which it 

 lies in mowing or pasture until it needs breaking up again. For 

 the corn crop, the same manure is used as for grass, at the rate 

 of twelve or fifteen loads per acre, and applied in the hill. This 

 for his sheep pastures. Those on which the cows are fed receive 

 an additional dressing of green manure, to make up for the loss 

 occasioned by the yarding of cows over night. I mention this 

 to show what care is taken that no field shall suffer from over- 

 cropping. To sum up, there are three points that attest the 

 value of lime and its use, as adopted by Mr. Green. 



1. One of the chief of these, as it seems to me, is the greater 

 economy in feeding and fattening stock ; for while other feeders 

 are giving ten or twelve quarts per head of Indian meal, he 

 gives but eight or nine of a provender mad-e of equal parts of 

 corn and oats. The difference is in the quality of the hay, for 

 there is no dispute as to that of the beef he makes. 



2. Another point, is the yield he gets per acre of the various 

 crops. An average of fifty bushels of corn and the same of oats, 

 with two and three tons of hay, is not common ; but it is reached 

 here. I happen to know of one field of sixteen acres that pro- 

 duced more than eight hundred bushels ; another of six acres 

 that averaged sixty bushels ; and another, a field of sixteen 

 acres of corn grown upon a sheep pasture that was estimated at 

 eight hundred bushels. 



3. Then his general success bears witness in the same direc- 

 tion. Mr. Green began with 8150, left him by his father. He 

 has settled two of his sons near him, with comfortable buildings 



