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[Assembly 
ing been thus scattered evenly through the whole mass, nothing fur- 
ther was done to it until about the middle of the next May. Observ- 
ing, after the manure had been removed from the barn yard, that a 
considerable quantity of water from the rains had collected itself in the 
lowest part of the yard (say six or eight barrels,) I had the peat re- 
moved into it. The garnet coloured wash of the yard was rapidly and 
entirely absorbed. J allowed it to remain in this situation until the first 
of June, during which time its colour had changed from mahogany to 
jet black. Fermentation did not take place. 
" By the successive action of the frost, lime, and the wash of the 
yard, the sensible qualities of the peat had very much changed. When 
first taken from the bog, it was pulpy and very adhesive — could be 
spread like butter ; now it was a fine powder, having entirely lost its 
peculiar adhesive properties. 
" I used the manure thus prepared, for squashes — planting fifteen 
rods of ground, very sandy and much exposed to drought. After the 
manure had been dropped, (one shovel full in a hill,) I sprinkled a 
little lime in each hill, directly upon the peat. Upon this, I planted 
the autumnal marrow squash. The seeds came up well, and the plants 
were of a healthy colour. Some of the plants were destroyed, and all 
of them badly eaten by insects ; the yellow bug was most destructive. 
The plants, after they had recovered from this shock, grew more ra- 
pidly than any that I had before witnessed. The colour of the vines, 
and the rapidity with which they covered the ground, were most con- 
vincing proofs to my mind that they were perfectly healthy, and well 
supplied with nutriment. In the severe drought which came on in the 
summer, these vines, for many weeks, did not appear to suffer, while 
others of a similar kind in the neighborhood, were dead and dying. 
The result was, that notwithstanding the long continuance of the 
drought, in which nearly all our potatoes, peas, &c. were killed, these 
squashes were preserved, and yielded a middling crop. 
I also used the compost, as above, on interval land, near the 
Connecticut river, soil alluvial, no stones or gravel, can be easily com- 
pressed, does not bake in the sun, has been cultivated more than one 
hundred and fifty years, and yields a very scanty crop without manure. 
The compost was spread over the ground, and ploughed in, at the rate 
of nine cords to the acre of ground ; thus prepared, 1 planted thirty 
rods with sugar beets — distance between the rows eighteen inches— 
