132 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



MANURES. 



ESSEX. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



The committee on manures report that there was transferred 

 to tlicm, by the committee of last year, the statement of 

 Benjamin P. Ware, of Marblehead, of his first year's experi- 

 ment upon the proper depth of applying manure. As the 

 whole experiment is to extend over a period of three years 

 before any premium can be awarded, it is, of course, too 

 early to speak of Mr. Ware's experiment, except to express 

 the hope that it may be carried through, as the results, in the 

 hands of so careful a cultivator, cannot fail to be of practical 

 advantage. 



Mr. Ware enters, for the general premium of the society, 

 an additional lot of land adjoining the five lots in course of 

 experiment for three years. He shows by this experiment the 

 benefits of a liberal supply of manure, and the comparison he 

 has instituted in this respect, commends itself to the committee 

 as worthy of the first premium, of fifteen dollars. His state- 

 ment will be found replete with interest. To understand the 

 treatment of the five other lots, with which No. 6 is compared, 

 reference may be had to the report on the Treadwell Farm in 

 the Transactions of 1860. 



The committee are happy to say that having learned that 

 Richard S. Rogers had instituted a series of experiments in 

 top-dressing, upon his farm in South Danvers, they have been 

 favored by him with a statement hereto annexed, showing the 

 results of the same. From these experiments of two consecu- 

 tive seasons, it appears that green cow-manure has, with him, 

 proved the most efficient fertilizer as a top-dressing — a fact 

 which cannot but excite surprise and attention, as being so 

 widely at variance with the general practice and theory. But 

 facts are what is wanted, and they should receive our candid 

 and careful consideration. In confirmation of the experiment 

 of Mr. Rogers, we will quote from the Journal of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society for 1860, Part II., page 342, a note to a 



