83 



sheep were kept upon it till the last of April, when it was well 

 saturated with urine, this was mixed with some sawdust that 

 had been used in the stable and well wet with the urine firom 

 the horses. I planted peas upon it : they came up, but did 

 not grow much. Bv digging and examining them, I found 

 the rootlets avoided the sawdust, and got their nourishment 

 from the soil beyond it. 



The first week in May I planted a field of potatoes ; part of 

 it being manured at the rate of six cords of manure to the 

 acre, which was a compost made by mixing three cords of bam 

 cellar manure with three cords of meadow muck. This was 

 put in the drills on part of the field, and by the side of it I 

 applied Croasdale's Superphosphate at the rate of four hundred 

 pounds per acre. The same kind of seed was used, (the sebec) 

 those on the manure yielding at the rate of ~56 bushels to the 

 acre, and the phosphate giving at the rate of one hundred and 

 twentv-two and one-half bushels per acre. Those on the 

 phosphate came up first, and were of a deep green color in 

 June, in July they rusted. Oa one acre of the same field I 

 spread six cords of manure, of the same kind as the other, and 

 harrowed it in. It was then marked out in drills, three feet 

 eicjht inches apart, and planted with Harrison potatoes. On 

 twentv-four rows 1 put one hundred pounds of Peruvian Guano, 

 costing five cents per pound ; two rows were left without addi- 

 tional fertilizers .: the next twenty-four rows had one hundred 

 and fiftv pounds of Crcasdaie phosphate costing three cents 

 per pound The acre yielded three hundred and fifty bushels. 

 In the first part of the season, where the gaano was applied, 

 the vines were much the largest, and I thought before I dog 

 them that the guano would increase the crop twenty -five per 

 cent, but when thev were harvested, I had as many bushels of 

 marketable potatoes in the two rows that were left without it, 

 as in the others. They were uniform in size, though not near 

 so maav in number. By measurement, I find that one hundred 

 pounds of guano gave me five bushels of small potatoes and a 

 great heap of vines, the phosph.ite gave three bashels of small 



