456 Transactions of the American Institute. 



just as soon as the frost is out of the ground, and should spread 

 manure as fast as made, but take care that it is not so spread that the 

 strength is likely to be washed away. 



Experiments with Manures. 



Mr. R. S. Hinman, Riverside, Conn. — Some months since I addressed 

 an inquiry to the American Institute Farmer's Club, concerning some 

 marketable manure adapted to growing grass. I received no definite 

 answer, and I experimented a little, with the following result : Hav- 

 ing a four-acre field, part of which faced the west and part the south, 

 I turned it over once and sowed with turnip and clover seed the lat- 

 ter part of July. On the lightest and most gravelly part I applied a 

 compost of night soil, ashes and muck, and on the western slope of 

 the field adjoining it, on successive lands, four different kinds of 

 phosphates, differing the quantity in proportion to the difference in 

 price. Just as far as the compost went the turnips and clover started 

 finely, but when it stopped the clover stopped almost as entirely as if 

 I had sown seed no further. Where the phosphate happened to be sown 

 a little thicker, the turnips grew, but no clover. On the southern 

 slope next to the compost, I put two kinds of ground bone, one cost- 

 ing thirty-five dollars, and the other fifty dollars per ton, sowing the 

 former the most plentifully. Here the difference w T as not so marked ; 

 but unfortunately for my experiment the land was naturally better 

 adapted to clover, and I am not certain that clover would not grow 

 there any way. What I proved to my satisfaction was, that my com- 

 post would grow clover if the land was a little too cold and thin ; 

 that the phosphate that I used would not grow clover but would grow 

 turnips, if applied plentifully enough on the same land ; and accord- 

 ing to my judgment the bone dust benefited both turnips and clover. 

 I only applied each at the rate of about ten dollars per acre, and that 

 is not enough to apply in manure of any kind. 



A gentleman of my acquaintance who is said to make money by 

 farming, buys stable manure for four dollars per cord and carts it on 

 to his farm from the village, at an expense of not less than four dol- 

 lars more. He applies say twelve cords per acre, at an expense of 

 about $100. I am so far from any village that I cannot put that 

 amount of stable manure on my farm for less than $120. I propose 

 to apply ground bone the present season, with several other bought 

 manures and barn-yard manure at the rate of fifty dollars and 

 upward per acre, for the purpose of ascertaining, if possible, what 

 will come nearest to barn-yard manure in its adaptability to grass 



