18 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
The product was fifty-five bushels to the aere, at 
4s=$27.50—18.75=$8.75 for the use of the land; or the 
corn cost $0.34 per bushel, besides the use of the land. 
Experiment No. VI. 
The remainder of the ground was planted in hills three 
feet by two feet, six kernels in the hill, with a top dress¬ 
ing of twenty-five loads of half rotted manure to the acre. 
The cost of production was as follows, reduced to acres. 
To plowing and harrowing one acre,” . $1-50 
25 loads of manure,...... 6-25 
2 days work planting,. 1-50 
4-^ days hoeing, • ...... 3*37 
cultivating,. 50 
3| days harvesting,. 2*44 
#15-56 
The product was sixty-five and one-half bushels to 
the acre, at 4s=$32.75—15.56=$17.1.9, for the use of 
the land: or the corn cost, besides the use of the land, 
$0.23,7 per bushel. 
It is proper to say, that the cost of labor for such small 
parcels, is a difficult thing to determine with perfect ac¬ 
curacy. 
The stalks being of such equal value upon each piece, 
I have supposed it unnecessary to attempt any separate 
measurement; neither have I kept any separate account 
of the cost of the seed, for the same reason. The whole 
was plastered, but the expense being so slight, and costing 
the same for each piece, no account has been made of it. 
The manure is charged at its full value in each case, 
though the land is greatly benefited for future purposes. 
Hardly a quarter of its cost is justly chargeable to this 
crop. In No. 2, we have an example, in which the ef¬ 
fects of the manure are easily traced through many 
years. The last manuring this piece had was in 1837— 
and it now produced 60| bushels to the acre. No charge 
being made against it for manure, it appears to be profit¬ 
able above every other experiment. But if the account 
could be stated for a period of years for each piece of 
land as we have it for this year, I doubt not the manure 
would be found to pay fully all its costs. 
These experiments were made chiefly to determine 
how thick corn should be planted—what is the most con¬ 
venient form to place the plants —and whether the manure 
should be rotted and applied to the surface, or plowed 
under unfermented. The conclusion that now appears 
likely to be arrived at is, that hills three feet by three feet 
apart, put in rows, so that a cultivator can be used both 
ways, is the most convenient form for cultivation, and 
that six kernels put into each hill, will make the corn 
thick enough. I counted, and made examinations that 
satisfied me, that at harvest my hills averaged five stalks 
to the hill—no thinning was done, except by insects and 
accidents. That this is not too thick, is proven by ex¬ 
periment No. 6, where the hills were three feet by two 
feet, the product being 651 bushels to the acre, and with 
one-half the manure that was put on No. 1, which was 
three feet by three feet apart, and the product only five 
bushels more to the acre. In fact, I believe that more 
bushels with the same manuring would have been raised 
with the hills two by three feet, than three by three feet, 
but the extra labor of planting, hoeing and harvesting, 
will more than counterbalance the gain. 
The labor required to plow under unfermented manure 
in any considerable quantity, is so great, and its great 
bulk compared with its value, making it so expensive to 
draw, and the fact that it is not felt until late in the sea¬ 
son—and that the next plowing must be deeper, in order 
to bring it all up and mix it with the soil—are great ob¬ 
jections to its use. That the next plowing must be deep¬ 
er, in order to bring up all the manure, is evident from 
the consideration that every time the soil is saturated 
with water it must sink deeper, unless it is held up by 
some stratum that is impervious to water. If the contents 
yf the barn-yard are piled up in the spring as soon as the 
frost is out, and covered with gypsum so as to prevent 
the escape of any of its gases, and turned and re-piled at 
midsummer, and again covered with gypsum, the seeds 
of weeds will be destroyed, and the manure will be en¬ 
tirely mtted in time to put on the corn the next spring. 
T ; r manure used in these experiments was but half rot¬ 
ted ■;i consequence of neglecting to turn and re-pile it. 
From the decrease of the bulk, the expense of handling 
and mixing the manure with the earth, will be so much 
lessened as fully to compensate for all the expense of 
piling and rotting it. 
The cost of the gypsum, too, will be but slight, as but 
little is required; merely enough to whiten the heap. 
The corn will then have its stimulus at the time it needs 
it most; and but few weeds will spring up from the ma¬ 
nure. All these considerations lead me to prefer fine ma¬ 
nure to coarse. 
It is worthy of remark that in No. 2, where no manure 
was used, that the yield was 60| bushels—in No. 3, 
where 150 loads of unfermented manure were used, the 
yield was 70 bushels—a gain of 9| bushels to be ascribed 
to the manure; in No. 4, with the like amount of unfer¬ 
mented manure, and 25 loads of fine manure, the product 
was 80 bushels—a gain of 10 bushels to be ascribed 
to the fine manure—showing that one load of fine is 
worth more than six loads of coarse manure. While 
No. 6, which was manured with the fine only, yielded 
65-§ bushels—a gain of bushels to be ascribed to the 
same amount of fine manure. Showing that one load of 
fine is worth about three and a quarter of coarse manure. 
But the land on which No. 6 was raised, was not as rich 
as Nos. 2, 3 and 4, owing to the fact that it was so situa¬ 
ted in the field that it had not been as highly manured in 
those years gone by, when manure was only drawn out 
of the barn-yard “ to get rid of it.’ 5 Nos. 2, 3 and 4, 
were nearer the gate, and bad been served about alike, 
and furnish the fairest test of the value of the different 
kinds of manure. 
Some of the results obtained by these experiments were 
unexpected. The highest yield is very far below the 
great crops that have been reported. I know not why a 
hundred or more bushels to the acre were not raised on 
No. 4, with manure both on top and under the furrow, 
amounting to 150 loads of coarse and 25 loads of fine to 
the acre; and that too, along side of land that without any 
manure , yielded more than 60 bushels to the acre. 
I purpose the n.ext year to plant all of this ground with 
corn, and carefully measure the product of each piece, 
with a view of learning the effects of 'this manuring for 
the second year, Geo. Geddes. 
AGRICULTURAL INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS. 
We have seen several notices in our foreign papers, 
of a lecture recently delivered by Professor Johnston be¬ 
fore a convention of school-teachers and others, on the 
subject of the introduction of agricultural instruction into 
the elementary schools of Scotland. As this subject has 
of late attracted much attention in this country, a portion 
of the remarks of Prof. J., who is deservedly considered 
one of the most practical among the distinguished scien¬ 
tific men of the age, will be read with peculiar interest. 
In the course of his lecture, Prof. Johnston observed 
that he had previously had some doubts of the expedien¬ 
cy of introducing this kind of instruction into these 
schools; but after hearing, at Glasgow, the examination 
of some boys from the Irish National Schools, all his 
scruples had been removed. 
In relation to what should be taught, the Professor re¬ 
marked, that 
. « Agriculture divided itself strictly into three branch¬ 
es; 1st, the culture and improvement of the soil; 2d, the 
rearing and improvement of stock; and 3d, the use and 
improvement of agricultural implements. Now, their 
teaching, that might be of two kinds—-theoretical or prac¬ 
tical, or both. He would come to the consideration of 
both. He thought that in elementary schools, they might 
easily inculcate and impress on the minds of the youth 
under their care, the principles upon which the culture 
of the soil ought to be based. Of the sciences on which 
these principles depended, chemistry was the most im¬ 
portant, and it was necessary, therefore, before they could 
teach the young mind, that they should give a knowledge 
of so much elementary chemistry as to make him under¬ 
stand the words used by chemists. It was not enough 
that he should know such names as soda and potash—he 
should also know the difference between them. They 
must not teach any one science for its own sake, but as an 
