148 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



PLYMOUTH. 



From the Report of the Supervisor. 



Five claims have been entered to the premiums offered for 

 the greatest quantity of the most valuable compost manure, 

 and statements made. The applicants return a less number 

 of loads than was common in former years. The manure, no 

 doubt, will produce more visible effects per load than that in 

 which greater quantities of surface soil and swamp muck are 

 incorporated; but the remote effects will be far less. The 

 vegetable mould in soils is annually lessened in the growth and 

 removal of crops. When little is applied besides excrementi- 

 tious matter, we fail of restoring the loss. We want the sub- 

 stances which Nature has lodged in numerous reservoirs, some 

 of which are found on almost every farm, not as rich as depos- 

 its of Peruvian guano, but abounding in the component sub- 

 stances of plants. We think it highly important to the pros- 

 perity of farmers to encourage an extended use of swamp muck. 

 The influence of the atmosphere, with a small portion of alka- 

 line matter, will often convert it into a valuable and enduring 

 dressing for land. The salutary and abiding effects of meadow 

 mud are clearly seen in the renovation of a very barren tract 

 of land by Mr. Littlejohn, of Middleboro'. On fields which 

 formerly would have produced not more than twenty-live bush- 

 els of Indian corn to the acre he now reaps more than eighty. 

 His mowing grounds and pastures were, the past season, green 

 and flourishing, while neighboring lots were parched with 

 drought. The use of concentrated manures has a tendency to 

 confine our attention to the influence on a first crop ; the true 

 interests of the farmer demand attention to ulterior influences. 

 The land, like the human body, may be essentially injured by 

 too frequent and copious administrations of powerful stimu- 

 lants. It should be our purpose to incorporate in the materi- 

 als of every dressing a large portion of the elemental sub- 

 stances of plants; therefore great heaps of compost should be 

 encouraged. 



There has been great similarity in the operations of the 

 competitors in composting, with one exception. Mr. Roberts 



