MANURES. 119 



of lime made upon the farm premises. Bones ground and 

 unground liave been dissolved in the caustic lye of ashes, also 

 in commercial potashes and fertilizing substances of the most 

 prompt and satisfactory character produced. I doubt if better 

 crops of wheat and corn have ever been produced in the county 

 than have resulted from the use of these agents upon weak 

 lands. I think it must be conceded that the results of these 

 labors go to prove that exhausted soils can be brought and sus- 

 tained in good tilth by concentrated chemical agents, at an 

 expense considerably less than by the use of excrementitious 

 manures, at present market prices, in the more densely popu- 

 lated parts of our country. In conclusion, I will briefly present 

 some facts regarding a special experiment upon a measured acre 

 of hill land, dry, and exhausted from repeated croppings. It 

 has been continued through five consecutive years. In the 

 autumn of 1863 it was ploughed, and in the succeeding spring 

 dressed with five hundred pounds of pure fine bone, sown broad- 

 cast, and planted with corn, a handful of homemade super- 

 phosphate mixed with ground nitrate of soda placed in each hill. 

 One hundred and fifty-seven bushels of corn in the ear were 

 taken from the field in the autumn of 1864. After the corn 

 was removed, the land was ploughed and again dressed with 

 five hundred pounds of a compost made up of bone-dust, ashes 

 and refuse saltpetre, and sowed down to winter rye. The crop 

 was thirty-one bushels of nice, plump grain. The season of 

 1866 was exceedingly dry, and the ground became so parched 

 that the tender grass roots were greatly injured. The crop of 

 hay was twenty-three hundred pounds. The next season a top- 

 dressing of five hundred pounds of compost, made of bone 

 gelatine and muck, was given it in the spring, and a crop of hay 

 cut weighing forty-three hundred pounds. A heavy aftermath 

 was secured this season which was not weighed. The present 

 season the crop of hay reached two and a half tons, and the 

 field appears to be in good condition for a fine product next 

 year. Here we have what may be considered a fair experiment, 

 which proves that without the use of animal excrement a worn- 

 out field may be brought to produce very generous crops — 

 crops which pay a good return for the expense incurred. It. 

 proves that chemical unorganized agents are capable not only of 

 supplying nutriment to plants for a single year, but for sustain- 



