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cover that it was at all beneficial in promoting its later 

 growth, as it did not seem to make much progress till the 

 roots reached the sward and manure which was turned under, 

 when that which had survived the difficulty of living through 

 the first one or two months without support, started into a 

 vigorous growth and produced a very fair crop, though too 

 late to ripen so perfectly as is desirable. I think, judging 

 from that portion of the field to which ashes was applied, 

 that, if applied to the whole, it would have increased the 

 product at least fifteen bushels to the acre. 



What benefit the land may derive from the bone hereafter, 

 I cannot, of course, predict ; but think I can safely say that 

 farmers, in these times of low prices for produce and high 

 rates for manure and labor, cannot afford to wait many years 

 for a favorable result ; and very few failing to perceive such 

 result from the application of a costly manure one season, 

 could be induced to apply the same the next. 



STATEMENT OF FRANCIS P. PUTNAM. 



Last April I purchased 500 pounds of Day's bone meal, 

 for $20, beside freight. I was told it was much cheaper than 

 stable manure, to say nothing of the labor saved in carting. 

 Thought best to try it in different ways to see if it was equal 

 to what Mr. Day and friends recommended. The first piece 

 to which it was applied was sandy loam sward land, ploughed 

 in the fall of 1865 ; a coat of about five cords of compost 

 manure to the acre spread on the surface and well worked in 

 with harrow and cultivator ; then furrowed three and one- 

 half feet apart one way, one gill of bone meal put in the hills; 

 two and one-half feet the other way, and stirred in with the soil 

 on one-half the piece ; nothing in the hills on the rest of the 

 piece ; the whole was then planted with potatoes on the 8th 

 of May. I could see no benefit at all from the bone in the 



