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practice ; and now place the mannre upon the seed, they say, with 

 superior advantage. 



Besides barn manures, slaughtcr-liouse manure lias been used vviili 

 great effect ; but it is necessary it should be mixed with loam. Night 

 soil, mixed in the proportion of one part of night soil to four of loam 

 or fine gravel, has been used with extraordinary efficacy, upon peat 

 or bog meadow. Muscle bed is much used, especially by the Dan- 

 vers farmers, for their onions and vegetables for the market. It costs 

 in Salem about one dollar for a large horse load, and is applied lib- 

 erally. At Manchester, where it is quite accessible, it is used with 

 great advantage either as a top-dressing or ploughed in. At Bever- 

 ly, I have seen its excellent and lasting effects as a top-dressing on 

 grass land. A farmer in Danvers states, that a gondola, containing 

 eight four-ox loads of muscle bed, will deliver its cargo near to New 

 Mills, for seven dollars. This is a low price. He is accustomed 

 to spread six or seven loads to the acre, in winter, when frost will 

 render it pliable. It will do well to apply it once in four or five 

 years ; oftener than this, it binds the land and renders it hard. 



He says, it is of excellent use when applied to land which is to be 

 laid down to grass with barley or oats. Its effects are lasting ; and 

 no other application will be required for years. 



In the town of Essex, a great amount of clams are dug for fish-bait. 

 The shells are much used for manure. The keeper of the alms- 

 house in Essex, whose management is highly creditable, says, " as 

 to the value of clam-shells for manure, I think the broken and the 

 whole shells very useful to low land, either to be spread on or ploughed 

 in. They render the ground light and warm, and are very durable. 

 They likewise enrich the land very much." The same may be said 

 of oyster shells, which are obtained in some quantities in the cities. 



The great amount of squashes mentioned in a former part of my 

 report, as obtained from two acres of land, is in some measure to be 

 ascribed to the use of fish oil or blubber oil. The farmer, living near 

 the fishing village in Lynn, obtains in the winter time a great quantity 

 of fish livers and garbage. From this he procures the oil. After his 

 casks are emptied of their oil, he fills them with water, which re- 

 mains sometime ; and this water, thus considerably charged with oil, 

 he applies to his squash tines. The effects are powerful. , 

 8 



