152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



don't you make five hundred bushels to the acre and not till 

 so much land ? " 



Mr. Slade. I wish to get at the value of the fertilizer. 



Prof. Stockbridge. I cannot tell you anything about it. 

 These fertilizers were all bought in the market by myself, in 

 the elements ; but my impression was that the fertilizer put 

 on the first } r ear, at the then price of the chemicals, saying 

 nothing of my labor in preparing (because they were all 

 mixed by myself), cost about $40 for the whole amount put 

 on that acre. 



Question. Whether this was applied broadcast or in the 

 hill? 



Prof. Stockbridge. Broadcast — that large quantity. 



Question. How much laud in a plot? 



Prof. Stockbridge. Each plot taken contained one-eighth 

 of an acre. The next experiment to which I call your atten- 

 tion is a continuation of the one reported last year on an acre 

 and a half of land. The land was taken up outside of the 

 college farm, because it was so poor that nobody tilled it, 

 and nobody cared for it. It had on it moss and hardback, 

 and was absolutely worthless for tillage. I squatted upon it, 

 and ploughed it, put the chemical fertilizers upon it, and pro- 

 duced, as you remember, sixty-two bushels of corn in 1874. 

 I continued the cultivation upon it in 1875, and the same 

 quantity of the same materials was applied, and it produced 

 seventy-eight bushels of corn. Grass-seed was sown in the 

 corn. It never had grown grass to my knowledge before ; at 

 any rate, not since I was acquainted with it. Last fall, a year 

 ago now, it looked splendidly, after taking off the corn. The 

 ground was bare nearlj' all winter, — a severe winter for new 

 seeded land, as every farmer knows, — and in the spring, it 

 looked brown, as if the seed was all killed : but when rain 

 came in April, it began to look green, and it yielded this year 

 two thousand five hundred pounds of good herdsgrass and 

 clover to the acre. The drought turned it brown in the month 

 of August, so that there was no rowen produced. At the 

 present time, it is looking green, and like a fine mowing field. 

 That was the result of the experiment with grass and corn, 

 for the three years. This is all I have to say about the specific 

 Agricultural College experiments. 



