1862. 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEK. 



173 



landa. As yet, but little is actually known by 

 ^hioh to arrive at any practical results for ob- 

 taining the largest crop of grass. 



"The desire of knowing something more def- 

 inite and practical on this interesting sabject, 

 induced me the last season to institute in a small 

 yfaj a series of experiments, in the hope that I 

 might derive some benefit myself, and be useful 

 to others. Accordingly, in 1860, I selected a 

 field best adapted to the purpose — very unifurm 

 in the sward, free from shade and other objee- 

 tions — and staked out five several lots, each 

 measuring 250 feet long by 45 feet wide, and 

 top-dressed with the various fertilizers as foU 

 lows : 



No. 1. — Two cords of manure, well rotted and 

 mixed with IJ horse carts of soil. 



No. 2. — One hundred and twenty bushels of 

 leached wood ashes. 



No. 3. — Two cords green cow manure, the 

 droppings of only a few days before. 



No. 4. — Eighty bushels ualeached ordry wood 

 askes. 



No. 5. — Two hundred and twenty-five pounds 

 of Peruvian guano, mixed with 1^ horse carts of 

 brook mud. 



"The cost or value of the top-dressing for each 

 lot was as near ten dollars as possible. The grass 

 was carefully cut and made — the first crop in 

 July, the second in September — and accurately 

 weighed, yielding as follows " 



Mr. R. gives, in his report, well arranged ta- 

 bles of figures, showing the weight of dried hay 

 of first and second crops on each plot for the 

 years 1860 and 1861. But lor want of space we 

 omit his figures, and give some of the more im- 

 portant facts elicited. 



The weight of hay on each plot for the two 

 years, was as follows, viz., compost, 2,260 pounds; 

 leached ashes, 2,520 pounds; green cow manure, 

 3,350 pounds; dry ashes, 3,340 pounds; guano, 

 2,240 pounds. The compost giving the least 

 yield ; green cow manure the greatest, but only 

 ten pounds more than the dry ashes. The guano 

 dressed lot in 1861, on its first cutting, gave only 

 730 pounds, against 1,800 pounds in 1860. The 

 dry ashes very much increased the crop, the 

 second year giving 1,350 pounds at the first cut- 

 ting, against 900 hundred pounds the first year. 

 "The green cow manure did well both seasons. 

 The leached ashes likewise did well." 



"The Peruvian guano is a great stimulant, and 

 can be used for some purposes to great advantage 

 but as a durable or permanent top-dressing for 

 grass, excepting for one crop, I should doubt its 

 eflSciency." 



Mr. R. says : — "Having turned my attention 

 partciularly to top-dressing my grass lands for 

 several years past, I may be permitted to speak 

 very confidently of the great advantage to be de- 

 rived from practicing it, and perhaps have real-: 

 ized as much benefit as any one irom persu- 

 ing it " 



We think if Mr. Rogers had left a plot of 

 ground adjoining, of the same size, without ma- 

 nure, contrasting the yield with the manured 

 plots, the "profit or loss,"' of the several differ- 

 ent applications of manure, would have been 

 more accurately determined. We should also have 



been glad to have learned whether the growth of 

 clover was greater on the plots rece ving the 

 ashes than on those that were top-dressed with 

 guano and green cow manure. 



That the green cow manure should cause a 

 yield of hay so much greater than the same quan- 

 ity of well rotted manure, no doubt may surprise 

 some persons — a fact widely at variance with the 

 general practice and theory of farmers, but facts 

 are what are wanted. Of the correctness of Mr. 

 R.'s statements and figures there cannot be a 

 shadow of doubt. 



In C. L. Flint's Agriculture of Masssachusetfs 

 for 1857 and 1868, we find the statement of H. J. 

 Hodges on the use of different fertilizers on grass 

 lands. "In April 1857, staked off seven half 

 acre lots on the Hampshire, Franklin and Hamp- 

 den Agricultural Society's grounds at Northamp- 

 ton. Each lot was of precisely the same quality 

 of soil and in the same condition, and in grass, 

 timothy, red and white clover ; six of the seven 

 lots received a top-dressing, each with a differ- 

 ent fertilizer, having one lot without any. Each 

 lot was mowed at the same time, and managed 

 alike, and the hay upon each weighed seaprately. 

 The soil is a loam with sand and clay so well 

 mixed that good judges disagree whether to call 

 it sandy loam or clay loun — it is a cold land, 

 and retains moisture late in the spring. The 

 treatment of the lota was as follows : 



Lot No. 1. — No manure. 



No. 2. — Poudrette, two barrels. 



No. 3. — Plaster, 500 pounds. 



No. 4. — Superphosphate, 150 pounds. 



No. 5. — Horse and cow manure, four loads. 



No. 6. — Ashes, ten bushels. 



No. 7. — Guano, 158 pounds. 



Mr. Hodges gives a table of figuie, showing 

 the cost of the fertilizers ; quantity of hay first 

 and second mowing of both years, total value of 

 hay at $6 per ton, increase of hay from fertiliz- 

 ers first year, with the loss or gain first year from 

 fertilizers. 



The tables show that ashes is the only profita- 

 ble fertilizer to be used as a top-dressing here. 

 For two years the increase of hay is much the 

 greatest, and the only lot on which the increase 

 of hay paid for th« fertilizer of the first year, and 

 the increase of bay did not pay for fertilizer on 

 any other lot for the two years. The lot where 

 guano was used, gave greatest increase of hay 

 for first year, but ashes did for second. Mr. H. 

 very spnsibly remarks, "it is not to be supposed 

 that the same result would follow from dif- 

 ferent soils." 



By his figuere there appears to be a loss on all 

 the fertilizers ranging all the way from 74 cents 

 to $>6 44 for the first year, except on the ashes ; 

 here there was a gain of $2.19. Why there 

 should be such a similarity of action by the ash- 

 es in Mr. Roger's and Mr. Hudges' experiments, 

 and puch a wide difference in that of the cow 

 manure in the two experiments, is to us inexpli- 

 cible. It is true we do not know how much a 

 plot of Mr. R.'s ground unmanured would have 

 yielded. T'eplot the first year with the com- 

 post gave 1,170 lbs. of hay ; that with cow ma- 

 nure gave 1,600 lbs. The same plot second year 



