492 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 



kinds, and some of them apparently nearly ripe for the axe ; 

 the whole forming a very handsome young wood lot, intrin- 

 sically worth nearly as many dollars, at this moment, as it was 

 worth cents, before the forest trees were planted. 



From my experience in raising white pines, I can confidently 

 recommend spring in preference to fall for planting. Those 

 planted in the fall vegetate too early and are killed by the late 

 frost of spring. I would suggest that the best season for 

 planting the pine seed is from the 20th of March to the 1st of 

 April ; and the proper time for collecting the seed is from the 

 25th of August to the 10th of September ; and before the burrs 

 open, they should be spread on a tight scaffold, and when per- 

 fectly dry, can be threshed with a flail without injuring the 

 seed. The seed of forest trees wUl only germinate once in 

 three years. 



Seth Sprague's Statement. 



COMPOST MANURE. 



Being a competitor for the greatest quantity of manure, I 

 take the liberty to state that I have kept the past year twenty 

 head of cattle, four horses and six hogs. My barn, 40 by 32 

 feet, has a cellar under the whole, with a shed 10 feet wide, 

 to secure all the green manure thrown out, from the sun and 

 rain. 40 by 20 feet of this cellar is fitted for the preservation 

 of roots, of which I have now fifteen hundred bushels of tur- 

 nips, beets and carrots. I have a peat swamp on one end of 

 my farm, from which I take from one to two hundred loads 

 of mud in the autumn. This lies as dropped from the cart 

 through the winter. As soon after our barnyard is cleared 

 in the spring, as our time will permit, we haul this into it, 

 covering it about twelve inches deep, to which we add other 

 material, litter, &c., as opportunity and o)3casion requires. My 

 whole stock occupy it in autumn, winter and spring, and most 

 of them at night in summer. A shed ninety feet long, secures 

 one side of the yard, the other parts are screened by buildings 

 and a high board fence. The horse manure is dropped into a 

 cellar under the stable, where hogs are kept, having a yard 

 about thirty feet square. 



My farm is mostly a sandy, hungry soil, producing a small 



