118 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



hundred bushels of potatoes, twenty-five bushels of wheat, one 

 hundred and fifty bushels of corn, seventy-five bushels of tur- 

 nips, and one and a half tons of grapes, besides other fruits in 

 considerable quantities. There has been a steady increase in 

 the amount of crops each year, notwithstanding a series of most 

 unfavorable seasons. The number of acres in tillage is not far 

 from twenty. No stable or barnyard manures, excepting a few 

 loads at the start, have been purchased during the five years, 

 and the amount made upon the premises has been small, the 

 stock consisting, until within the past year, of only three cows, 

 a pig and one horse. At present the farm sustains eleven cows 

 and heifers, three horses, a pig, and, during a part of the year, 

 one yoke of oxen. 



The fertilizing substances used, (of which an accurate account 

 has been kept, as also of crops, expenses of labor, <fec.,) embrace 

 the entire range of those agents which chemistry suggests, and 

 those which have been brought to notice through the recommen- 

 dation of farmers and experimenters — bones, ashes, lime, salt, 

 tlie nitrates of potassa and soda, sulphate of ammonia, plaster, 

 potashes, fish pomace, shorts, uiuck, horn shavings, and lastly 

 the refuse of the Maine lobster factories. The methods of 

 application, and the conditions- under which these have been 

 employed, the combinations produced, present details which, 

 although extremely interesting, are too extensive to enter upon 

 in this essay. A definite end has been kept in view — that of 

 securing practical facts, from which safe general conclusions 

 could be reached. Of course many experiments known to be 

 empirical have been undertaken, and the results noted. For 

 example, a half acre of grass land was divided into eighteen 

 equal parts, and eighteen different substances applied ; the 

 results were curious, but the experiment actually proved noth- 

 ing, although a great difference was observable in the crops of 

 grass. More than one-half of the experiments which we find 

 reported from year to year are of this nature. The substances 

 affording the highest satisfaction have been those which fur- 

 nished, in largest quantity and at the lowest rates, the great 

 fundamentals of plant-food, — phosphoric acid, lime, potash, nitro- 

 gen. These have been obtained from bones, ashes, potashes, 

 fish pomace and nitrate of soda principally. Bones have been 

 largely dissolved in acid, and true phosphate and superphosphate 



