Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-04-24
For the Freeman.
A Chat with Farmers.
No. 3.
BY AGRICOLA.
Meriden, Ct.

The writer is familiar with scientific
experiment at farming which may not be
uninteresting or Improbable to the practi-
cal farmers of Vermont. The farm under
review consisted of some hundred acres,
twenty-five acres of which were devoted
to tillage. This land had been worn and
much neglected. Its best fields had not
been turned over by the pillow, or cheered
by Il dressing. for many years. Nearly
one-half of these titled fields was q low,
Doggy meadow, upon which the water of
a wet season was allowed to rest until it
evaporated. The remaining acres con-
sisted of a series of elevations, dry upon
the top but full of springs at the basis.
The soil differed in character and compo.
sition as our New England farms usually
do. Some portions were loose and dry;
others were composed of moist, dark
mold, with a clayey subsoil; and still
others contained a well-formed, wet peat
bog. As it was before theexperiment, this
farm produced only some ten tons of indif-
ferent upland hay per year, but no corn
or other grain had grown upon it for ten
years. Almost no stock had been kept
upon the premises, and hence the chief
reliance for restoring the farm to good
condition, was by the use of special fertil
izers. Five years from this time, the ex-
pertinent had been SO far successful that
now eighteen COWS, five horses, yoke of
oxen and three hogs were fed from its
productions. And these animals after this
supplied all the manure needed.
Now my readers are prepared for the
information which | propose to give rs to
what was done on this farm during the
five years under review. The whole
amount of fertilizers used we're fifteen tons
of bones, one hundred bushels of unleach-
ed ashes, four tons of fish pomice, two
tons of Peruvian guano, five hundred
pounds of crude potash one ton of the oil
of vitriol, ten casks Of lime, and several
hundred pounds of sulphate of magne STA,
nitrates of soda and potassa, chloride of
sodium, oxide Of manganese, sulpbate Of
iron and sulphate of ammonia. OF course,
the animal manure produced upon the
farm during these years was applied to
the soil to aid in producing these results
The whole sum spent for special fertilizers
during seven years was eight hundred
dollars. During the same years stable
manure sold for six dollars per cord. Had
this kind Of fertilizer been used entirely,
it would have given only about three
cords to each of the twenty-five acres,
during the whole time. This experiment
brings into comparison stable manures and
special fertilizers, and can any doubt
which are the most profitable? To have
raised this farm to its present high state of
cultivation by purchased manures would
have cost double the sum expended.
Without stopping to be more definite, l
will mention few of the results of this
experiment. One measured acre plowed
in the autumn, and dressed in the spring
with five hundred pounds of pure, fine
bone, sowed broadcast, was planted with
corn. A handful of superphosphate was
placed in each hill. From this acre one
hundred and fifty-seven bushels of corn,
in the ear, were gathered. The following
year eight hundred pounds of mixture of
ashes, bone-dust and saltpeter were APP
piled to the same acre, and thirty-one
bushels of winter rye were raised. A few
years later the hay crop was cut from this
same acre, CATER a top dressing of five
hundred pounds of conposD, tho and a
haf tons. During the entire i've years,
this acre yielded ten tons of good hay.
This acre is specimen of yield on this
improved farm. The corn crop was cspe-
cially abundant, never falling short of sew
enty bushels of shellcd corn, and once
reaching one hundred and six bushels per
acre.