112 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and planted with Harrison potatoes. On twenty-four rows I put 

 one hundred pounds of Peruvian Guano, costing five cents per 

 pound ; two rows were left without additional fertilizers ; the 

 next twenty-four rows had one hundred and fifty pounds of 

 Croasdale phosphate, costing three cents per pound. The acre 

 yielded three hundred and fifty bushels. In the first part of the 

 season, when the guano was applied, the vines were much the 

 larger, and I thought before I dug them that the guano would 

 increase the crop twenty-five per cent., but when they were har- 

 vested, I had as many bushels of marketable potatoes in the two 

 rows that were left without it, as in the others. They were uni- 

 form in size, though not near so many in number. By measure- 

 ment, I find that one hundred pounds of guano gave me five 

 bushels of small potatoes and a great heap of vines, the phos- 

 phate gave three bushels of small potatoes and about half as 

 much increase of vines as the guano. 



In the corn-field which you saw, I applied different kinds of 

 manure, but it was so much injured by the wire worms in the 

 first part of the season, that I cannot give any accurate state- 

 ment. But the guano, and the phosphate gave only about half 

 as much corn as the stable manure. That on the fish guano, 

 where it was not injured by the worms, did well. 



The manure on the field of ruta-baga turnips, which you saw, 

 was prepared as follows : To three cords of meadow muck, I 

 added one cask of lime, twenty bushels of ashes and four hun- 

 dred pounds of ground bones. In the first four rows we used 

 the mixture at the rate of six cords to the acre. The first row 

 yielded twenty-two bushels, the next seventeen bushels. I ac- 

 count for this difference by the fact that the first got some benefit 

 from the manure upon the cucumbers that were planted by the 

 side. On the fifth row we put two-thirds of the quantity of this 

 mixture, and added twenty pounds of Pales' fertilizer, costing 

 three cents per pound. This produced seventeen bushels. On 

 part of the field, a compost made of barn cellar manure and 

 meadow muck was applied at the rate of four cords per acre, 

 and twenty pounds of Baugh's raw bone (this bone is prepared 

 at Chicago and costs three cents per pound). Where this bone 

 was added to the compost, the turnips were the best in the field ; 

 twenty pounds of this bone produced one hundred and fifty 



