206 MASSACPIUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



lbs. to the bushel. The present season the weight of brush will 

 be about the same as last year, but there will be little seed. 

 We are confident we can get the six acres in less time to cut it 

 as I have described, than to table the corn the common method. 

 We cover four acres of the stalks in a day, which is less than 

 half tlie cost of cutting the same with a stub-hoe, to say nothing 

 of the cost of burning. Thus, you see, this poor worn out soil 

 has been made to })roduce seven hundred weight of broomcorn 

 to the acre with scarcely any thing but muck and the stalks, 

 whicli latter have always been considered a nuisance upon the 

 grouiul. 



Sunderland, November 12, 1857. 



Statement of II. W. Cushman. 



The use, by the farmers of this county, of artificial or foreign 

 manure and stimulants for the soil having become quite com- 

 mon, I have deemed it important to continue, with great accu- 

 racy, the course of experiments I commenced last year. 



■ By referring to the Transactions of last year it will be seen 

 that I confined my experiments to the use of guano. This year 

 I have continued my experiments witli guano, and have also 

 extended them to the use of plaster of Paris and ashes — par- 

 ticularly in the regeneration and improvement of pasture land. 



1. Guano on Grass Land. From the centre of a mowing 

 field of some three or four acres — old land and not very pro- 

 ductive of grass, and which had not been manured for three or 

 four years — I staked off a piece containing forty square rods of 

 land. On the 16th day of May, a damp day, I sowed on this 

 piece at the rate of 215 lbs. of Peruvian guano to the acre — 1-|- 

 Ibs. to the square rod. The result was a very visible and 

 immediate effect on the growth of the grass — so much so, that 

 the boundaries of the piece on wliich guano was sown could be 

 seen at the distance of forty rods or more. The quantity of 

 grass produced, so near as I could judge without weighing, was 

 about double that on the adjoining land, or at least a gain of 

 seventy-five per cent. 



The advantage in using guano as above, may be thus stated : 

 Quantity of hay on land on which guano was not used, say one 

 ton per acre. Increase by use of guano, three-fourths ton per 



