82 TRANSACTIONS. 



EXPERIMENTS OF ALBERT MONTAGUE. 



In these days of progress, when every one wishes to be profiting "by 

 his neighbor's experience, we are liable to do as our neighbor has' 

 done, without considering Avhether it will be for our benefit. We 

 are apt to think what has produced great crops for him, will certain- 

 ly fill our barns and granaries. Do we not need a little of the con- 

 servative, as well as much of the progressive. I am led to these re- 

 flections from the fact of having in a small way, during the past 

 season, experimented faithfully with foreign manures, but have not 

 received the anticipated benefit. I propose to state these experiments 

 with their cost and profit. My farm lies in Sunderland, The soil is 

 sandy loam, with a trifle of marl. It is rather low, so much so, that 

 in cold or wet seasons, coin is liable to be bitten by frost, before 

 fully ripe, unless it gets an early start. I have usually, for this rea- 

 son, put part of the manure, applied to my corn land, in the hill. 

 Last spring, I purchased two bags of Prof. Mapes' Improved Super 

 Phosphate of Lime, and used it upon several different pieces, in the 

 following manner : 



Piece No. 1 was grass land which had been top di-essed for four 

 or five years. Upon thirty square rods I spread thirty-seven and a 

 half pounds of Improved Phosphate, Avhich, when applied, cost one 

 dollar, twenty-five cents. Upon a piece adjoining of like soil, in 

 same condition, I applied the same value of rotted manure and ob- 

 tained one-fourth more hay from the manured ground. 



Piece No. 2 was grass land which had been top dressed with well 

 rotted manure. I sowed thirty-seven and a half pounds of Improv- 

 ed Phosphate upon thirty rods — which cost, when applied, one dollar 

 and twenty-five cents. I cut about three hundred pounds more of 

 hay from these thirty rods, than from an adjoining thirty rods treated 

 in the same manner, except that Phosphate was not applied. 



Piece No. 3 was Broom-corn. Upon two rods I put five pounds 

 of Improved Phosphate. I manured two other rods with manure 

 from my hog-pen, at the rate of ten loads to the acre, which was of 

 about the same value as the Super Phosphate. I applied both ma- 

 nure and Phosphate in the hill. The result was, that the two rods 

 planted with Improved Phosphate produced about half as much 

 Broom-corn, as the two rods, fertilized only Avitli hog manure. 



Piece No. 4 was manured in the hill, just before planting, -vnth 

 Imjn-oved Super Phosphate of Lime, put upon alternate rows. The 

 rows where it was applied were much the largest and best colored, 

 during the second and third hoeings — the earliest in ripening — and I 

 think will yield fifty pounds more of brush. 



Piece No. 5 was one-fourth of an acre of Indian Corn, on which I 

 applied forty pounds of Improved Phosphate, dropped on manure in 

 the hill. The result Avas about two and one half bushels of corn 

 more, than on an equal quantity of ground, of similar soil, treated in 

 like manner, except that the Improved Phosphate was not applied. 



