vol.. XVU, !Vi» 46. 



AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



363 



From ' Transadi 



liis fields burdened with their heavy crops, are sat- manure to the acie h.xd, the Pr=^'°"'' " '-^^^ 4 



EXPERIMENTS ON MANURES, &e. i^tjed that Mr Clarke knows how to make manure turned under tae sod, """ "f '^ * , ^^^ ,°„a 



The Committee report: That they consider the .nd to apply Jt, and that his fields '^^^^^^^^^%±°^'^ '^'^l ^11^ ^^^^^^^^ 



, . . ,. ., ,.• ' .„,i „-,„i;„ot;„n ni- mnnnres. il.oir nhlio-ation and nav their due return. Mr through the centre ot tne piect,i» '^,u^ 



subject of the making and application of manures, 

 one of the greatest importance to the agricultural 

 interest. Manure and labor are to the farmer what 

 capital and credit are to the merchant. With them 

 well applied, the one will add barn to barn, the oth- 

 er store liouse to store house, till there shall be no 

 room to contain their several wealth ; without them, 

 they must soon suspend operations, and their farms 

 and their ships pass into the hands of more skilful 

 and industrious owners. 



Many farmers think they cannot afford to pur- 

 chase manure, and the price does seem dispropor- 

 tioned to the immediate profits ; but no farmer will 

 say that he cannot afford to make the most of what 

 he has, and to apply it to the best advantage. Many 

 take an honest pride in being able to say, ! have 

 raised so many hundred bushels of corn, or so many 

 tons of hay ; now to be able to say I have made 

 five hundred loads of manure, is just as much a 

 matter ofboasUng, for manure will make com, and 

 hay, and other valuable products, if it be only ju- 

 diciously applied. Put in the seed and the manure 

 and the grateful soil will make you a liberal re- 

 turn. It is held to be true by experienced farmers, 

 that he who doubles the expense of labor and ma- 

 nure, will increase his profits and products in near- 

 ly a four fold proportion. In other words, the man 

 who spends half his time upon his farm, and skims 

 over one hundred acres of land and gleans from it 

 fifty bushels of corn and twenty tons of hay, if he 

 should devote his whole energies to his farm and 

 improve his means of making manure, might raise 



U;"i;"obligatron and pay their due return. M^r j thm^iigh the centre of the P>;=^' j" Jl'f ^.J/^^' ^ 

 Clarke, from such manure, has raised more than one bone mixture, at the rate "//^ bushcU b.me W^ U^^ 



thousand bushels of corn in a year- 



The committee award to Daniel Putnam, ofDan- 

 vers, for the satisfactory experiment and the full 

 and explicit stUement made by him, a premium of 

 twenty dollars. 



They recommend that Mr Putnam's statement 

 and the letter addressed by Joseph How, Esq., of 

 Methuen, to the committee, be published. 

 For the Committee, , 



DANIEL P. KING. 



Topsfield, Dec. 25, 1838. 



DANIEL PUTNAM'S STATEMENT. 

 To the Committee of the Essex Agricultural Society 

 on Experiments on Manures : 

 Gentlemen — The following account of experi- 

 ments in the use of unleached wood ashes as ma- 

 nure, is submitted, that you may make any use of 

 it which in your judgment will render it servicea- 

 ble to the farmers of the county. In the latter part 

 of August, 1837, 1 broke up about one acre of low 

 land (too low and wet to till with ease,) which had 

 become so much bound out that it yielded not more 

 than 14 or 15 cwt. of hay, and tliat little was ot 

 poor quality. After ploughing, I rolled this land, 

 and then dressed it with 40 bushels of wood ashes, 

 mixed with wash (mostly sand) from the road-side, 

 making probably about one and a half cord ; sowed 

 half a peck of herds grass and 3 pecks red-top seed 



_ , . . 1 _ ._ J __I1„J T'Ua ijaar 



improve his means or maiang umiuuB, ui.^..o .^^-^ ^^r ,.°„i>1„ nnd 'rolled The seed 



nearly two hundred bushels ofcornand eighty tons , then h.rrowed J^^-f'^JfJ^-^Vi this piece of 

 °' Some have, in their natural situation and prox- land 35 or 40 cwt. of very good hay, mostly herds 

 imity to the sea-board, greater facilities for making i grass 



and obtaining manure, but every substance ot ani- 

 mal and vegetable matter can be mixed with the 

 soil in such a manner as to increase the fertility of 

 the earth ; and even the different soils may be min- 

 gled so as to produce the same effect. 



The quantity of manure a farmer uses, is a pretty 

 fair criterion by which to judge his character. In 

 Plymouth county, where a premium is awarded to 

 the man who makes the greatest number of loads, 

 . a most worthy and truly respectable farmer, the last 

 year, reached the very enviable eminence of seven 

 hundred and ninetyeight loads ; the lowest compe- 

 titor claimed for three hundred and fifty loads, and 

 his must be allowed to be an improving character. 

 William Clark, jr., of Northampton, in his state- 

 ment to the Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden 

 Anricultural Society, represents that he keeps an 

 average stock of eight swine, three horses, and 



In November, 1834, I broke up a field, dressing 

 it with about 4 cords of manure to the acre ; on a 

 part turning it under the sod, and the remainder 

 puttmg it on the furrow. In 1835, planted with 

 corn ; the crop large : in 183G, without mowing 

 the sod, sowed oats and hay seed. Obtained 40 

 bushels of oats to the acre. The hay seed took 

 well, but in the following winter was killed by ice 

 forming and remaining long upon the field. In 

 1837, obtained not more than 15 cwt. of clover to 

 the acie. Thought I must take this field in hand 

 again. In Aoril, 1838, i>loughed an acre and a 

 half of it, rolled, dressed with 40 bushels of wood 

 ashes, unmixed with any other material, to the acre ; 

 sowed o^ts and hay seed. The oats had a fine 

 growth and the hay seed came up well, but (for I 

 think It best to tell the whole,) the rust which vis- 

 ited my neighbors' oats was not kept out of my field 



■ , - 1 „,. fnnn, ^his'^tock with the by the ashel 'j I mowed for fodder before the crop 



" - - ^.-..-. ■ 1 J A ^^,1 tUa QchiD-an mat 



from June 1837 to June 1838, nine hundred and 

 twenty loa-ds, an hoiwrable monument to bis intelli- 

 gence and industry, which compensates in utility 

 and solid value for what it may want in taste and 

 splendor. Mr Clark used for compost, three hun- 

 dred loads orsods and soil and two hundred and 

 fortyseven loads of swamp muck. His yards were 

 supplied with corn stalks and refuse hay during the 

 winter, and brakes and weeds in the summer, and 

 cleared out twice during the year, it might be 

 supposed that manure so made could possess but 

 jittle of the quickening and strengthening pnnci- 



the ashes a matchless sanative, for its sick.iess, (in 

 the scorching weeks of August,) which a draught 

 of pure water would have cured, proved mortal. 



Shall I tell you too, what virtue there is in bones ? 

 From Mr Ward, ofRoxbury, I obtained last spring, 

 20 bushels ground bone, (cost at Roxbury, 35 cents 

 per bushel,) sold one bushel to a neighbor ; mixed 

 the remaining 19 bushels with about one cord of 

 soil taken from the side of the roads m tlie^ fields 

 where the mixture was to be used. Some of it was 

 used m 10 or 12 days after it had been mixed, and 

 some reiijsiined in heap 5 or 6 weeks. About the 



acre ; no other manure in the hill. 'I he corn here 

 looked as well through the season as on the re- 

 mainder of the piece, and ripened a little earlier. 

 At the time of harvesting, 104 hills on bone yield- 

 ed 184 lbs. of corn on the cob. The same number 

 of hills in the adjacent rows on manure, yielded 

 188 3-4 lbs. That on the bone was the dryest at 

 the time of weighing. 



The first week in May, I planted a piece of corn, 

 where I put 3 1-2 cords of manure upon the furrow, 

 and 4 cords iu the hill, to the acre. Through the 

 centre 1 left four rows until about the 10th of May, 

 when I planted them with bone, as in the other 

 piece Here, from 6(3 hills on bone, I obtained 90 

 lbs. ; from 66 on manure, 86 lbs. Here too, the 

 corn on the bone ripened earlier, and of course 

 weighed less. May 21sl, when planting potatoes 

 whe^re 4 cords of maniyje to the acre had been turn- 

 ed under the sod the previous autumn, and where I 

 was putting 5 cords to the acre in the hill, two rows 

 were planted on bone, 50 bushels to the acre.— 

 This ground was furrowed only one way, and the 

 hills on the bone happened to be put nearer to each 

 other than those on the manure. When dug, equal 

 quantities of ground were takeri; of bone 14hiUs; 

 Of manure 12 hills ; the boB* yielded 55 lbs. ; the 

 manure 52— Between the IStJi and 20th of May, I 

 sowed sugar beet, in drills, 3 feet apart. In some 

 used barn manure, 6 cords to the acre ; in others 

 muscle bed or sea-marl, 5 cords j m others bone, 

 50 bushels. Three drills of each kind, about three 

 rods long, yielded as follows, viz. : from barn ma- 

 nure 247 lbs.; muscle bed, 355 lbs. ; bono, 337 1-4. 

 At the same season I sowed carrots on barn ma- 

 nure, muscle bed, and bone. Barn manure, 6cords 

 to the acre ; muscle bed, 4 ; boue, 50 bushels.— 

 Some of the bone and the other manures were 

 spread broad-cast, and a part of the bone was put 

 in the drill; rows 14 inches apart. Two rows ot 

 each kind, three rods long, yielded as f.illows: barn 

 manure, 75 lbs. : bone in drill, 105 lbs. ; bone spread, 

 82 lbs. ; muscle bed, 88 1-2 lbs. 



I sowed with ruta baga, June 1st, 10 drills, 3 

 feet apart and 15 rods long ; 5 drills on barn ma- 

 nure, part of it fresh from the barn cellar and part 

 partially decomposed, 9 cords to the acre. 1 he 

 other 5 on bone, 50 bushels to to the acre. Those 

 on the bone were less eaten by the fly than the oth- 

 ers thouc^h the others were not very badly injured. 

 \ strip 17 feet in length across the drills, where 

 5 had bone and 5 manure partially decomposed, 

 —yielded bone, 248 lbs. ; manure, 228 lbs. 



Another strip, 16 1-3 feet long, wliere there was 

 bone and fresh manure, gave— bone, 212 lbs. ; ma- 

 nure 227 lbs.— About the 10th of June, I sowed 

 ruta baoa on reclaimed meadow land ; drills 3 feet 

 apart ; manure, 9 cords to the acre ; bone, M bush- 

 els. Soon after the plants came up, those on the 

 barn manure were nearly all destroyed by the fly ; 

 it was necessary to sow a second time. Those on 

 the bone were but very little injured. Four drills 

 o rods long, on bone, yielded 486 1-2 lbs. ; four 

 on manure, 439 lbs. p.^IEL PUTNAM. 



jYorth Danvers, Dec. 5, 1838. 

 (To be coDlinued.) 



