Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-02-06

Within short time great demand had
sprung up for commercial fertilizers. He
was not here to condemn commercial fer
tilizers, but thought there were two OBJ
iections to be considered,-the tendency to
cause farmers to neglect the saving and
making of what could be, on the farm,
and the great cost of the fertilizers as COM
pared with the crops raised. In reply,
Mr.. Paul said that he had used wheat bran
as a fertilizer side by side with a superphos-
phate, and could see at harvest no differ
ence in the crop, Mr.. Nutting OF Ran
dolph said some of his neighbors had tried
wheat bran AS fertilizer, and believed
they had received in value in the crop Sc
cured, more than the bran cost. Some
discussion followed on the mparative
benefits of top dressing and blowing in
manure with general tendency to top
dressing, especially when in fine or part
ly decomposed state.
Mr.. Wood of Pomfret related an instance
where he tried green manures in blowing
for fodder corn, both by surface spreading,
and by blowing in, and could see no diff
ference in results, either in the quantity Of
the crop. or the after condition of the soil.
Prof. Seely gave his paper on "Ashes,"
speaking of the final determination of all
vegetable growth to ashes; giving the
constituents of ashes necessary 10 vegetable
growth, first of which is potash. The
professor gave an interesting explanation
of chemical action in the growth Of plants,
as far MS vegetable Psychologists have as
yet progressed In reply, Prof. Seely
said he thought we could not now account
for the wonderful effects of lcached ashes
on some soils. What was left was car
Donate CT lime and phosphoric acid, with
a trace of potash.
Discussion on the value of ashes was
had, with the result of the balance of evil
dence in favor of the great value Of ashes,
especially on dry soils, and of leached
ashes as well.
THURSDAY EVENING.
The meeting was opened by music, after
which Mr.. Albert Chapman read his paper
on early Vermont sheep. Mr. Chapman
read at first some statistics of the ship
ments of Merino sheep from Middlebury,
which in the past year had reached twenty
nine and one-half car loads averaging
one hundred per car load. These had
gone to Washington Territory, Oregon,
California, Colorado, Missouri, Texas,
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New
York, Maine and Australia He compared
the product of the Merinos of to-day with
those Of the early importations, showing
the cleansed product OF the present Merino
to be about equal to the amount of I'M
cleansed wool of the early focks. Mr.
Chapman then read the paper read at
Middlebury, and of which we gave an
abstract in our report of that meeting. In
reply, Mr.. Chapman said the improvement
of them in this country was far in advance
of that in Spain, where Mr.. Sanford Of
Orwell travelled very extensively about
1852, to find something better than here
but WAS unable to find anything nearly
equal. All fur-b bearing animals going
south lose the tineness and thickness oil
the fur, and So with wool Sheep carried
south deterioratcd, and must be constantly
brought up by infusions of fresh blooC
from Vermont
Mr.. Kinney not being present, Col
Mead spoke on What we should pillow
for and with Why do we pillow, ant
how many can answer the question under
soil sho1I1 be thdronohlv nnlvorized an[
for this n nIow which took mn and tnrnef
over \ fnrrow nerfoctlv fiat was not IN,
tbinc bnt one which broke and rulverizrd
and beside left a snoce for drainage an,
for tho nenetration of tbo mir He advo
Gated the nse of a snhsoil nl0w. which
should bring m and leave on the surfae,
The snbsoiI maxine \ mellow soil whicI
gives Good crons lie Advocated the nsf
of swivel nldw under all circumstances
There was a snirited little MASSAGE he
tween Col Mead and Mr. Tinkham abon
the exnediencv Of turninr fnrrow fat ~
greensward Nr Tinkbam insistino That
dat sward would ferment and decompose
and make 4 seed he'd as GOOD as on ol,
land and That DRAINAGE could be NOR
Thoroughly done bv DRAINAGE than to rms
n nIowing for if
FRIDAY MORNING.
The exercises were opened by singin,
and nraver, after which Mr. e. s. Wood
Of Pomfret, real his paper on " The Fee,
and Management of Dairy Stock" whicI
we give IN the report OF tne felcnVlll
his method Of mana zinc his dairy. Coul
not toll how mich bntter a bnsbel Of mea
wonll make. he fed meal because h
tbonoht il was valuable, and one prea
reason WHY he thought So was because hi
wife said So, lie FED two quarts of mea
per day, Some cows need more meo
than others and two quarts of meal ne
dav wonld cost ner cow for \ ven