A BLOWING UP. 157 



You have that just as I have it, and I desire to accept it 

 just as it is. I don't know anything about it. 



The next experiment to which I call your attention (and I 

 do this with a great deal of seriousness ; I mean all I say in 

 relation to it), is the experiment of the Sturtevant brothers, 

 in Framingham ; gentlemen who are well known to you, and 

 who, through the columns of the " Scientific Farmer," are 

 month after month keeping you familiar with the experiments 

 that are being conducted on their farm in Framingham, which 

 are worthy of the attention and study of the farmers of the 

 State. They are experimenting in different directions, and 

 some of those experiments are of very great value. I should 

 say here, that Dr. Sturtevant is a little inclined to be after the 

 professor of agriculture about these matters, and he came to 

 Amherst a year ago last spring, stating that he had no faith 

 in this thing ; he wanted to try it ; he did not believe any- 

 thing until it was tried and proved. He did not want to take 

 anything in print ; he wanted it from a man's own fist, and 

 wanted his autograph under it. He wanted I should write 

 down what he should get to grow a crop of corn, and tell 

 him how much corn he should have, and then he would put it 

 to the test, and blow me up or blow me down (good- 

 naturedly, of course) , according to the result. So I put the 

 directions in black and white. I told him what to get, how 

 to mix it, how to apply it, and how much corn he should 

 have. Of course, I did not know anything about it ; but 

 that was all well enough. He went away and tried the exper- 

 iment last year. He tried it faithfully, and before telling the 

 experiment this year, it is necessary I should tell the result of 

 that experiment, because the experiment this year has been 

 on the same land. In 1875, he put on material for fifty 

 bushels more than the natural yield, and he got eighty-two 

 bushels to the acre of shelled corn. I think the committee of 

 the society who awarded him the premium, reported that the 

 yield was more than one hundred bushels to the acre, by 

 measuring single rods ; but he reports the yield of the eight 

 acres to be eighty-two bushels to the acre. I have not dared 

 to question him, lest I should be found at fault, but I believe 

 the report was, that on one field the crop was within two 

 bushels of the predicted yield, and on the other within six 



