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the two preceding years in favor of green cow manure. Our 

 farmers may be slow to use such manure for this purpose, 

 chiefly because the practice is so different from that which they 

 have heretofore followed. It may seem to them almost like a 

 waste of manure to apply it green as a top-dressing ; but these 

 are the facts, proved by an experiment most carefully con- 

 ducted, and extending through three different seasons. "We 

 commend these facts to all farmers who are not wedded to old 

 customs merely because they ai'e old — to all who are not afraid 

 of what their neighbors may say or think, when they diverge 

 a little from the beaten path. The Committee would have re- 

 commended a premium to Mr. Rogers for these experiments, 

 but he wished not to be considered a competitor for it. 



For the premiums for the best conducted experiments in the 

 application of manures, proposed by the Society in 1860, in 

 accordance with instructions from the State Board of Agricul- 

 ture, and to be made three successive years, there have been 

 two entries, one by Nathan W. Brown, on the Society's farm 

 in Topsfield, and the other by Benjamin P. Ware of Marble- 

 head. The account of the experiment by Mr. Brown ior the 

 first two years will be found in the Reports on the Treadwell 

 Farm for the years 1860 and 1861. The crop of grass this 

 year on the land upon which the experiment was made was 

 found to be so light, owing probably to the inferior quality of 

 the manure applied at first, that there seemed to be no appre- 

 ciable difference in the produce of each of the five lots. It 

 was therefore concluded to abandon this experiment, and trust 

 for better results to those begun in 1861 and 1862. 



Mr. Ware has this year completed the experiment begun by 

 him in 1860, thus complying with the chief condition upon 

 which the premiums were to be awarded. We anntx the 

 several statements for the three years, remarking that each was 

 submitted to the Committee at the time it bears date ; and was 

 accompanied by a certificate of the weight of the crop. 



In the third and last statement Mr. Ware has drawn such 

 general conclusions as the experiment would seem to Avarrant. 

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