20 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



crop the first year was cut about the last of August, and yielded 

 about one and a half tons. The present year, the acre yielded 

 three tons of hay of prime quality. I regret the combination of 

 circumstances that prevented the committee's seeing the crop 

 while growing. 



Danvers, Sept. 24, 1845. 



[Note. The above mentioned premises were not visited by 

 the committee, owing to the absence from the State of the chair- 

 man, at the time specified by Mr. Marsh for the visit.] 



On Farms. 



Three farms have been offered for the inspection of your com- 

 mittee, by Messrs. Daniel P. King, of Danvers, Christopher 

 How, of Methuen, and Jonas Holt, of Andover. 



The farms of these gentlemen were visited in July and Sep- 

 tember. During the past unusually warm and dry summer, 

 Mr. King has been able to grow very handsome crops of Indian 

 corn, hay, &c., upon gravelly loam, inclining to be dry, by the 

 use of compost manure, the basis of which was peat mud. 



Mr. King considers a compost made of three or four parts of 

 peat to one part of stable manure, well mixed and fermented in 

 the heap, to be better for gravelly or sandy loams, than the same 

 quantity of stable manure. The good condition of his crops 

 during the dryest part of the season was evidence of the value 

 of this compost for such lands. Indeed, so highly does he value 

 peat for this purpose, that he assured us he could not farm with- 

 out it. 



Peat, as a valuable ingredient in the formation of compost 

 manure, has, hitherto, been much neglected by the farmers of 

 this country. In Scotland, a pamphlet was published some time 

 since, by the late Lord Meadowbanks, calling the attention of 

 the Scotch farmers to peat as the basis for compost ; three parts 

 of peat to be used to one of barn yard manure, and fermented 

 in the heap. Since its extensive use there, the agriculture of 

 the country has been greatly improved. In Mid Lothiair, a com- 

 post so prepared is said to stand cropping, whether by grain, of 



