28 



Statement of T. B. Blackman, of Marshfield. 



BrancJis Island, December 12, 1881. 



To the Committee on Grain of the Marshfield Cattle Show : 



Gentlemen : — The field on which my rye was grown the 

 present season, was in the Fall of 1877 covered with a heavy 

 coating of kelp and stable manure ; three-fourths of the whole 

 field was manured by kelp alone, the balance by stable 

 manure. It was ploughed the same Fall about seven inches 

 in depth, using a swivel plow. The Spring following the 

 ground was worked first with the horse-hoe, loaded by filling 

 a nail cask with stones and lashing the same to the top of 

 the frame. The hoe thus loaded was operated by two horses 

 to the depth of four to six inches, then with a harrow with 

 raking teeth, called the dike harrow, (as it is used on those 

 lands). The inventor's name I do not know. This, used 

 after the horse-hoe, dragged out the dog-grass wonderfully | 

 with which the ground was filled. These roots were picked 

 up and carted off. We then furrowed the land four feet 

 apart each way, and planted to corn, harvesting in the Fall 

 450 baskets of good sound corn. Then the field was again 

 covered with a lighter coating of kelp and stable manure, and 

 again planted with corn, harvesting a good crop. 



The next year- the field was planted with potatoes, using 

 Bradley's phosphate. On one half of the field I sowed broad- 

 cast 500 pounds, then I applied to the hills of the whole 

 piece phosphate until I had used 1200 pounds, — or 1700 

 pounds in all, — harvesting a good crop of potatoes. 



In October 1880 a part . of the land was ploughed and har- 

 rowed, and on the 15tli day a little more than half the piece 

 was sown to rye. 



