42 TKANSACTIOXS. • 



will yield ten bushels of corn more than the ashed part. Nearly the same 

 result I found, by experimenting •with superphosphate and ashes upon a 

 piece of light, sandy soil. I think the relative difierence was about the 

 same, although the piece of corn was much lighter. 



No. 3 was with guano and barn-yard manure. I measured one and a half 

 acres of good meadow land, that had been well manured and well cultivated 

 for a long time. Upon one-half of it, I spread and plowed in eight loads of 

 good yard manure, for which I paid eight dollars. On the other half, being 

 in the centre of the piece, I sp^ad Guano at the same cost, as the yard 

 manure (i. e., at the first cost — the expense of applying the Guano was but 

 little, compared with that of applying the yard manure). I harrowed in the 

 Guano. Then, I planted to broom-born, using a little Superphosphate in 

 the hill, upon the whole. The piece was managed alike, during the whole 

 season, after the different manures were applied. Many persons, who have 

 passed, have asked why the middle of this piece looked so much the best. 

 I referred them to the Guano. The crop is not yet harvested, but good 

 judges have said there would be two hundred pounds more of broom-brush 

 and a greater excess of seed upon the guanoed half. 



No. 4. Believing broom-corn stalks of some value, if plowed in green, I 

 cut some stalks from a part of a piece, immedia^ly after I had taken oifthe 

 crop, and placed the stalks in furrows nice and smooth — one hand plowing, 

 while another took care of the stalks. I sowed the piece to oats, the follow- 

 ing spring, and upon the part where I plowed in stalks, the oats were one- 

 third heavier, than where none were plowed in. I obtained eight dollars 

 worth of oats on one acre for the labor of getting rid of my broom-corn stalks 

 in this way. And as to the removing tne stalks, it did not cost me a dollar 

 more, than to have gathered and burned them in the spring. ■ 



SUNDEKLAND, Oct. 5, 1855. 



EXPERIMENT BY J. EDWARDS PORTER. 



The land, on which my trial of Guano was made, is situated in Hadley, 

 on the plain. The soil is a sandy loam, — has been frequently cropped with 

 rye — the crop of 1854 yielding only five bushels to the acre. Some four 

 years ago, wishing to try the effect of Guano upon this land, I purchased 

 and carefully composted the Guano with seven parts of earth ; applied it to 

 the hill, at the rate of one hundred pounds per acre, and planted to corn. 

 At the first hoeing, I was surprised at the healthy appearance of the crop. 

 It continued to grow vigorously, outstripping for a few weeks the corn upon 

 my best land. But a change came, and my corn assumed a sickly appear- 

 ance. I found that my homoeopathic dose of Guano, in its haste to produce 

 stalks, had exhausted all its force and there was no virtue left for ears. My 

 crop was a failure. So I concluded that, if I "had treated my poor, sandy 

 land more liberally with Guano, I should have been amply repaid at harvests 



