FAEMS. 51 



We have not, until this fall, come into possession of the other 

 part of the parsonage, embracing forty acres, a part of deep, 

 sandy loam ; the other part meadow, with plenty of muck, ad- 

 joining the six-acre plot; with mansion house, surrounded with 

 old elms, a barn, and out-buildings suitable for occupation by a 

 foreman, and at a convenient distance from the cottage. 



The first step, this fall, on the forty-acre parcel, was to 

 plough one-half of it thirteen inches deep with three yoke of 

 cattle and dig five hundred cords of mud — which amount we 

 ascertained by measuring the ditches. This sufficiently drained 

 the low land. We are now carting it on to the light upland, 

 which has been literally skirmed for years; and the return- 

 ing carts convey sandy gravel from under the barn, which will 

 help reclaim the meadow, and leave a large manure and root 

 cellar under and adjacent to the barn. 



Although I have devoted much attention to the manufacture 

 of composts, and intend in future to devote more, yet I have 

 been endeavoring also, to test the more recently introduced 

 fertilizers. In this connection I beg leave to introduce the 

 following : — 



Hay. — For the purpose of testing the comparative value 

 of cow and concentrated manures as top-dressings for mowing 

 lands, one and one-fourth acres were selected that had been laid 

 down to grass three years, cutting, in ordinary seasons, from 

 one and a half to two tons per acre. There is a fair subsoil ; 

 the surface is black loam; the subsoil yellow loam, gravel 

 below. The land was divided into plots, and extended from 

 moderately high to low ground. 



No. 1 was dressed with coarse compost, at the rate of fifteen 

 cords per acre. The expense in carting and spreading was 

 three dollars and seventy-five cents for twenty-four thousand 

 and seventy feet, or six dollars and seventy-five cents per acre. 



No. 2 was dressed, while the snow was on the ground, with 

 one hundred and seventy-six pounds of guano, costing five dol- 

 lars and twenty-eight cents, or twelve dollars per acre — being 

 at the rate of four hundred pounds per acre. 



No. 3 was left without dressing, to show the natural yield 

 of grass, and to give a standard of comparison. 



