84 O N F A R M S . 



have used for planting, sowing and top dressing two hundred and 

 eighty loads of compost. In the barn yard and pig pens I make a- 

 bout one hundred and ten loads, and at leisure times get out peat 

 muck and cart it into the field whei-e it is to be used. I then mix 

 one cord stable or barn yard dung, preferring the stable, with four 

 cords of muck ; after lying till the heap heats, it is again thrown 

 over and a few feet of fresh dung or spent ashes added if necessary. 

 I have found this compost better than clear manure and equal to 

 any thing except pig manure for corn and potatoes on gravelly or 

 sandy loams. I have now on hand more than one hundred loads of 

 this compost besides a good supply in the barn and pig yards, and I 

 could not farm without it. With this kind of manure I this year had 

 sixty bushels of corn to the acre, without any extra labor or care. 

 One fourth of an^cre produced at the rate of seventy bushels, and I 

 raised fifty-five bushels of oats on one acre ; no great yields cer- 

 tainly ; but the expense of cultivation too was moderate. All the 

 land on which I have this year raised potatoes, corn and oats, has 

 been since ploughed, manured, and laid down with rye and grass 

 seed, with the exception of one acre of meadow, which in April I 

 sowed with oats and grass seed after spreading three hundred lbs. 

 of guano ; the oat sti'aw was very rank and the grass has started 

 handsomely. I have tried guano, salt, saltpetre and ashes this sea- 

 son, but I forbear to speak further of results because you, gentle- 

 men, have seen them, and will determine for yourselves. 



My corn land I usually plant but one year ; it is always ploughed 

 in the fall because the team is in better condition for work, more 

 vegetable matter is ploughed under and the soil sooner becomes mel- 

 low. I have practised ploughing in August or September for rye ; 

 laid the furrow flat, rolled it, spread on from twenty-five to thirty loads 

 of compost (thirty bushels to the load) harrowed well, then sowed 

 one peck of herds grass and one bushel of red top, brushed it and 

 then laid all smooth with a loaded roller. My rye and grass have 

 always done well ; the straw selling from seven dollars to ten dol- 

 lars per acre, and the grain bringing ten per cent, more than the 

 southern Dii-ectly after taking off a crop of hay, early in July, I 

 have inverted the sod, rolled, harrowed in a good coat of compost, 

 sowed one peck of millet to the acre, brushed, then sown grass seed, 

 clover, herds, red top, and brushed and rolled smooth. I have never 

 failed of getting a ton of millet fodder to the acre, and when the 

 frost has delayed for about seventy days from the time of sowing, 



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