MANURES. 117 



not thank me for going over the ground again. Upon no sub- 

 ject connected with agriculture does a wider difference of opin- 

 ion prevail, and the discussion of the subject in the usual unsat- 

 isfactory empirical way does not tend to settle disputed points 

 or clear away the clouds of doubt which hang around the whole 

 matter. Experiment usually decides controverted points in 

 matters of physical inquiry, and it is capable of reaching this 

 end in the subject under consideration ; but it must be made 

 carefully, intelligently, and be long continued. Having entered 

 upon a series of experiments of this nature, with the determi- 

 nation to make no report for at least five years, or until soils 

 could be carried through a period long enough to observe the 

 effects of disturbing influences, and also learn something regard- 

 ing the growth of different crops, and the lasting effects of pecu- 

 liar modes of treatment, I find myself at a point of time when 

 it is proper to examine and make known results. The time and 

 space allowed me in this essay do not admit of detailed state- 

 ments, and such must be reserved for another channel of com- 

 munication, if health and strength permit. 



The experiments have been made upon a farm of about eighty 

 acres, which was purchased in 18G3, with the view of entering 

 upon a course of experimental inquiry interesting to agricul- 

 turists. The question deemed most important to decide, was 

 whether a run-down farm_|could or could not be brought into 

 comparative good tilth by the employment of fertilizing agencies 

 outside of stable and barnyard manures. The farm, at the 

 time of purchase, was well suited to a trial of this kind, as it 

 had been in administrators' hands for several years, and was 

 consequently neglected and unproductive. The soil is varied in 

 its character, with upland and lowland, a fine peat bog occupy- 

 ing a basin between the hills. A portion is silicious, another 

 portion loamy with a clay subsoil, and still another part is rich 

 in organic debris, a forest having until within a few years 

 densely covered it. Perhaps no tract of land in our county 

 presents a greater variety of soils, of differences of exposure, 

 or affords the gradations from wet to dry, so desirable for fair 

 experiment. The product at the time of purchase consisted 

 entirely of hay, about twelve tons being produced, of indifferent 

 quality. The crops the present year, upon lands embraced in 

 the original purchase, have been thirty tons of good hay, one 



