78 ON EXPERIMENTS ON MANURES. 



that is extensively used as a manure much less valua- 

 ble than has been generally supposed, may be worth as 

 much to the public as another experiment which proves 

 that some other article which may be as easily and 

 cheaply obtained, has been as much undervalued. 

 Hence a failure, as it is termed, of obtaining the expect- 

 ed crop from experimental manuring, fairly and honest- 

 ly stated, may be as wortliy a premium as success in 

 another instance; for, to save farmers from loss of a giv- 

 en sum, which would have been expended in money or 

 labor had they not been thus advised, is worth as much 

 to them, as to inform them how, by the use of other 

 means, they can make the same sum. The premiums we 

 have to award were offered for " an exact and satis- 

 factory experiment in the application of poudrette, 

 urate, bone-manure, ashes, soaper's waste, saltpetre, 

 barilla, marl, or gypsum, with a view to test their spe- 

 cific and comparative advantages with each other, or 

 any other manure." The applicants for these premi- 

 ums were Allen Putnam, of Hamilton, and Joseph How, 

 ofMethuen. Mr. Putnam has furnished the committee 

 with a statement in detail of the management and results 

 of his experiments. This would occupy too much of 

 our annual pamphlet, and to many for whose benefit it 

 is published, it would probably appear too great a task 

 to sift out the really useful information it contains, from 

 much that is merely curious or specious. Mr. P. will 

 therefore, Ave trust, excuse us for abridging this docu- 

 ment, and referring those who may wish to see all the 

 particulars to the manuscript on file in the Secretary's 

 office, or to No. 20, of Vol. xxi. of the New England 

 Farmer, in which most of it is published. 



Mr. Putnam, April 13th, 1842, ploughed up a little 

 more than ■y\ of an acre of sward land, which the year 

 previous did not give more than 1200 lbs. of bay per 

 acre, and which probably had received no manure for ten 

 years. It was ploughed seven or eight inches deep, 

 and sub-soiled with a cultivator tooth fitted into an oak 

 joist, harrowed and marked oflf into thirty beds, 17 feet 

 by 17 — a trench being opened around each bed to mark 



