468 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



worth of guano 1,350 lbs. do ; twenty-four dollars worth of Mapes' 

 superphosphate, 1,280 lbs. do; twenty-four dollars worth of pot- 

 ash, 1,270 lbs. do; twenty -four dollars worth of street manure, 

 1,100 lbs. do. 



Last year two hundred and fifty pounds of nitrate of soda, with 

 one hundred and twenty-five pounds of salt added, were spread 

 upon an acre of new grass sub-drained swamp land, and the yield 

 was six thousand seven hundred pounds — worth |57.00. Another 

 acre manured with four hundred and fifty pounds of Peruvian 

 guano, yielded six thousand pounds — worth |51.00. 



By experiments I discovered that five bushels of bones dissolved 

 in sulphuric acid, or boiled with lime water, was fully equal and 

 produced the same effect that twenty-five bushels did in a dry 

 pulverized state. 



I find further by experiment that ten loads of barn yard manure 

 hauled upon land and plowed under before fermentation com- 

 mences, is fully equal to fifteen loads thoroughly rotted — it pro- 

 duces more immediate effect upon crops, and serves the land 

 better. 



Farmers often say that plaster exhausts the soil. This is a mis- 

 take — no manure ever exhausts a soil. If plaster for instance 

 causes a field of clover to yield twenty per cent more than it 

 would had there been none used, then of course twenty per cent 

 more of potash, phosphorus, &c., would pass into the crop than 

 would if no plaster had been put on. This must be renewed by 

 other manure. No sane man would attempt to keep his land in 

 heart by the use of plaster alone. Very many causes and condi- 

 tions must be brought to bear to produce a healthy plant. ^ Plaster 

 only adds sulphuric acid and attracts moisture and ammonia — - 

 twice in six years is often enough to apply it — put in two hundred 

 pounds per acre when the grass seed is sown, ai^l two hundred 

 pounds the following spring when the vegetation is about four 

 inches high. It has no influence on soil containing sulphate of 

 lime, or on a poor exhausted soil devoid of potash, or phosphoric 

 acid, or on a cold heavy clay soil, unless your land is dry and in 

 a good state of cultivation it is worse than useless to use plaster 

 at all. 



