70 



It is a fact, very significant, that while most farmers, in 

 reporting a crop for premium, want one-half of the cost of 

 bai'n manure applied, charged back to the land, the most 

 sanguine admirer of the so-called commercial fertilizer, 

 never thinks of naming such a rebate, and for good and 

 sufficient reason, as the experience of most of us prove. 



We have in mind a field where a part was cropped with 

 popular commercial fertilizers, another part with barn 

 manure, and still another with no fertilizer for two years, 

 and then laid down to grass. There appeared to be no 

 difference, in the crop of grass on the part that had the 

 fertilizer applied the previous two years, and the part that 

 had nothing, and of course was very light ; but the part of 

 the field that had the manure applied, gave a good crop for 

 four or five years, and showed a marked difterence for two 

 years later ; thus showing the lasting effects of barn 

 manure, and the volatile, short-lived influence of com- 

 mercial fertilizers, as usually put upon tlie market. So we 

 conclude that for a permanently improved condition of the 

 farm, we must rely upon old-fashioned barn-yard manure, 

 while for the present year a crop may be profitably grown 

 with some commercial fertilizer, if intelligently selected, to 

 meet the deficiency of the land, and the relative proportion 

 of the ingredients of the crop to be grown. 



Benj. p. Ware, Chairman. 



ROOT CROPS. 



Under this head there have been eight entries, viz : 

 Clarence F. Perkins, Newbni-y, onions ; Horace F. Long- 

 fellow, Newbury, onions and potatoes; Daniel Carleton, 

 North Andover, onions and cabbages; James J. H. Greg- 

 ory, Marblehead, onions; Sidney F. Newman, Newbury, 

 two lots squashes. 



Your committee, after a careful examination of the 



