86 ON EXPERIMENTS ON MANURES. 



Should results generally be such as we have here ob- 

 tained, Mr. Ward's bone should find a ready sale; for 

 the cost to us at the rail! is 35 cents; truckage, 20 

 miles, 6 cents per bushel, and cost of sowing 1 cent — 

 whole cost, 42 cents per bushel. Now each bushel of 

 bone where we applied 9 bushels per acre, gave an in- 

 crease of grain of 25|- quarts, and where we used 16 

 bushels, each bushel gave as increase 24j quarts. The 

 increase of straw amply pays for the increased expense 

 of harvesting and threshing the larger crop, so that it is 

 proper to reckon the grain at the market price in mak- 

 ing up the account. If 3 pecks and more of rye can be 

 obtained at 42 cents, and the bone be left in the ground 

 to benefit the future crops, and we know it will work for 

 four or five years, then the farmer does well by such an 

 operation. We honestly think that those who intend to 

 sow winter rye this fall upon light lands, will find it a 

 good operation to apply to them from 12 to 20 bushels 

 of bone per acre. Our figures lead to this opinion. 



Nitrate of Soda. 



This article, which is now coming much into use in 

 England as a fertilizer of the soil there, we have tried on 

 a limited scale. In 1841 , we sow^ed a little of it upon va- 

 rious crops, and found that timothy, red top, couch grass 

 and June grass, i. e. the upland spear grasses, were all 

 benefited by its application. But upon clover, grain, 

 and the wet meadow grasses, it seemed to be inert. 

 The present season we applied it, and obtained, as far 

 as the eye could determine, the same results. Wherev- 

 er it was used upon the spear grasses, they very soon 

 put on a deeper green,, and shot up more vigorousl;y. 

 We sowed, about the first of June, 6 quarts upon about 

 30 square rods of land, or at the rate of one bushel per 

 acre. About the middle of July, we cut one swath of 

 timothy 43 feet long and 7J- feet wide, where the nitrate 

 had been applied. The hay from this, when well dried, 

 weighed 37^ lbs. or 3137 lbs. per acre. We cut an ad- 

 jacent swath of the same length and width, and the hay 



