The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-06-11
Connecticut Agricultural Report.

For seventeenth year our benefactor,
T. S. Gold, Esq, of Connecticut, secretary
of the Board of Agriculture of that good
old state, puts us under obligations, which
we gladly acknowledge, in sending us a
copy of his annual report for 1888. 1t is
as full as it can hold of valuable informa..
ton on subjects important to farmers.
As it probably would not be possible for
our readers to obtain copies of the limited
edition, published for home distribution,
we do not feel that we ought to tantalize
them with full list of its contents. We
believe, however, that the time is coming
when every intelligent and progressive
farmer of New England will be SO intent
upon having the agricultural reports of all
the New England states, that large editions
of each will be printed for sale outside of
the particular state that prints them.
Upon our shelves now stand ninety-fve
volumes of these New England agri-
cultural reports, besides the twenty-one
volumes of the United States Department
of Agriculture reports, and they don't
stand there idle. Not week passes that
we do not pull down more or less of them
for consultation. We use them quite as
often for reference as we use the encyclo-
pedia upon the same sh ,lves, and we
should not consider ourself properly
equipped as farmer of twelve acres
(still less as an agricultural writer) if we
did not have them. We have not been so
blessed in regard to all of these books as
Mr.. Colds kindness has made us in re.
gard to his. To complete our set of the
Maine reports cost US good many dollars,
and the same is true of the range of twenty
seven bulky volumes issued by Father
Flint" of Massachusetts,. Besides these,
the horticultural reports of Iowa, Michi-
gan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Maine, Ontario
and Quebec (not to mention those of the
American Pathological Society have cost
some money. But they are all worth to
US far more than they cost. Among them
there are variations of merit, and we
sometimes wish that Mr.. Flint's volumes,
and those of Uncle Sam, too, were as well
condensed as the model publications of
Secretary Gold.
We are going to make but single ex-
tract from this report at this time. 1t is
on the subject of bone as fertilizer. 1t
has been almost impossible for us to make
our visitors believe, when they compare
our little farm with the sandy plain
around it, that since 1866 it has not had
in all, enough stable manure to make
what we should call one good dressing
1t has been brought up from production
of less than one-third of ton of hay pei
acre to the condition of good cabbage
garden by the almost exclusive use o.
ground bone and ashes. 1t has paid {
good profit all the time, the entire bill fol
manure and fertilizers averaging less thar
1925 year, while the sales have steadily
risen from less than $400 to but trih'
less than $4,000 annually, not including
the considerable family consumption.
On page 2s2, at Question Meeting o
the Board, this question was asked n" Ha
any one used bone-dust to any extent OIL
grass land and for other crops ?"
Mr.. HALE of Glastonbury" Our farm
of about forty acres, devoted to small
fruits, has been MANFRED almost who'll,
for the past ten years with raw groun'
bone and muriate of potash-dependiDl