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substances of the most prompt and satisfactory character 

 produced. I doubt if better crops of wheat and corn 

 have ever been produced in the County, than have result- 

 ed from the use of these agents, upon weak lands. I 

 think it must be conceded that the results of these labors 

 go to prove that exhausted soils can be brought and sus- 

 tained in good tilth by concentrated chemical agents, at 

 an expense considerably less than by the use of excre- 

 mentitious manures at present market prices in the more 

 densely populated parts of our country. In conclusion, 

 I will briefly present some facts regarding a special ex- 

 periment upon a measured acre of hill land, dry, and ex- 

 hausted from repeated croppings. It has been continued 

 through five consecutive years. In the autumn of I860 

 it was ploughed, and in the succeeding spring dressed 

 with 500 lbs. of pure fine bone sown broadcast, and plant- 

 ed Avith corn, a handful of homemade superphosphate 

 mixed with ground nitrate of soda, placed in each hill. 

 One hundred and fifty-seven bushels of corn in the ear 

 were taken from the field in the autumn of 1864. After 

 the corn was removed, the land was ploughed and again 

 dressed with 500 lbs. of a compost made up of bone 

 dust, ashes, and refuse salt-petre, and sowed down to 

 winter rye. The crop was 31 bushels of nice, plump 

 grain. The season of 1866 was exceedingly dry, and 

 the ground became so parched that the tender grass roots 

 were greatly injured. The crop of hay was twenty- 

 three hundred pounds. The next season, a top dressing 

 of 500 lbs. of compost made of bone gelatine and muck, 

 was given it in the spring, and a crop of hay cut weigh- 

 ing forty-three hundred pounds. A heavy aftermath 

 was secured this season, which was not weighed. The 

 present season, the crop of hay reached two and a half 



