many acres carried on by numerous hired men, with a list of merely profitable and perhaps forced crops, without annual and permanent improvements. On the contrary, we have only put in practice our theory advanced some twelve years ago, in the annual address before the Society, on Home Improvement.

We have perfected a few acres, doing the right thing at the right time, and added so much to their nominal and real value for the comfort and tastes of life, that for the original outlay and subsequent expense, a present market price might show a profit not exceeded by any other land operations.

The Committee award to Dr. E. G. Kelley the first premium of $30, and diploma.

Committee-Wm. Sutton, George B. Loring, Charles P.

Preston.

IMPROVED PASTURE LAND.

The Committee on Improved Pasture Land have attended to their duty and report:

One entry only was made-that by Mr. Gilbert Conant of Ipswich.

The pasture which Mr. Conant offers for a premium, contains thirty acres, which from present appearance must have been pretty nearly covered with bushes at the time he commenced his improvements. The Committee, three in number, examined the pasture June 30th, and found there had been quite an improvement effected by the course which Mr. Conant has adopted, that of simply burning. We found quite a number of spots in the pasture where the bushes were wholly killed out, and in course of time we think he will overcome them entirely.

We unanimously recommend the award of the first premium of fifteen dollars to Mr. Conant.

For the Committee-H. L. Moody.

STATEMENT OF GILBERT CONANT.

I would hereby respectfully inform you of my intention to enter for premium about thirty acres of old pasture lands, upon which for the last five years I have been making improvements in order to increase their value for pasturage. At the time that I commenced improvements upon these lands, they were mostly run over to bushes, and were of but little value for pasturage. One piece of them containing ahout twenty acres, previous to that date had been let for several years at eight dollars per year. Now it will pasture five cows well. My improvements upon the remainder of said lands have been equally successful. My method of renovating these lands has been by the process of burning. This I have continued from the commencement of my experiment, every year when a fire could be made to run. These lands are a part of my farm in Ipswich, and are situated near my dwelling house. I will hereafter give you a detailed statement of my experiment in renovating them, the expense of which has not amounted to five dollars a year.

MANURES.

The Committee on Manures have received but one invitation 'from the farmers of Essex to examine the progress and results of experiments with manures or commercial fertilizers. The farm of Wm. R. Putnam, of Danvers, was visited by his request in September, and some crops upon which he had applied various kinds of fertilizers were examined. Mr. Putnam has handed us a report of these experiments, which we herewith transmit for publication. Mr. P. deserves commendation for his zeal and painstaking in procuring and applying to his crops some of the well known compounds, called fertilizers. In examining the crops to which they had been applied, but little

new information was obtained, and but few useful facts were deducible. In fact, what can be learned from the experiment of seeking, in the market, a mixture called "Croasdale superphosphate," or "Baugh's raw bones," or any other "raw bone" compounds, and applying them to a few rows in a corn field or potato patch? In the first place, who knows what the raw bone mixtures, or "superphosphates," are made of? Certainly, the experimenter does not. It is apparent, then, that the experiments must be empirical, inasmuch as the substances experimented with are of unknown fertilizing value. The "phosphates," or bone mixtures usually possess no uniformity in composition. One farmer may be lucky enough to secure a barrel or two of the substances in which a considerable amount of plant nutriment is found; another may purchase packages of the same brand, which are almost wholly destitute of the phosphatic or nitrogeneous elements, and are therefore practically valueless. These, employed in the usual empirical way, of course give varying results,-results which are better calculated to confuse and perplex, than to instruct.

But if the fertilizers we employ are honest mixtures, and have a fixed value, how much positive practical information can we gain, from applying them in a small way, in our fields, without taking into account some important considerations which are usually overlooked? It is true, if we thrust the "raw bone" into the hills of one row of potatoes, and leave the next one without the mixture, we can measure and weigh at harvest time, and thus obtain results from which to form wise conclusions, or dogmatic opinions. These results, however, must be regarded as blind guides. Any experiments in husbandry which do not extend over a period of time exceeding one or two seasons, and which do not take into account va riations in soils and meteorological conditions, are practically worthless. It appears to your Committee, high time that the intelligent farmers of Essex abandoned the "irregular," uncertain, empirical methods of experimenting with fertilizers, and adopted a form better calculated to advance true knowledge in

respect to the greatest interests of agriculture. In the first
place, the materials experimented with should be definitely un-
derstood. In phosphates, the exact percentage of soluble
phosphates of lime contained in the fertilizer should be known,
and also the amount of free ammonia, or ammonia forming
constituents. If substances containing potash or soda are em-
ployed, a knowledge of the exact percentage of these alkalies
also should be had. With the best and most appropriate ma-
terials in our hands, we do not obtain in one or two seasons,
even a proximate knowledge of how much actual value they
may be to our crops. A dry season may prove entirely unfa-
vorable for the appropriation by plants of any one element or
compound, or a wet season may produce like results. If a
farmer should judge of the influence of a phosphate upon his
corn in a dry season, he might be led to condemn one year a
material, which in the next, would prove his most efficient and
prompt friend. When we bury in our soils a fertilizing agent,
it is quite uncertain when we shall receive back the value, or
thrice the value in increase of crops. If we are sure we have
got the genuine agent there, and in an assimilable condition,
we need have but little solicitude concerning ultimate good re-
sults. Five
Five years is short time enough to conduct experiments
with fertilizers to reach ends, or obtain results worth publish-
ing to the world. Much of the confusion existing among soil
cultivators regarding the value of fertilizing agents, arises from
the incomplete, unfair, unscientific "trials," or experiments
made. The public taste is so perverted, that all statements of
this nature given in the agricultural papers, are read with a
peculiar relish. If a farmer is anxious to see his name in print,
let him buy a peck of "raw bone phosphate," or "patent
guano," sprinkle it in a few hills of corn, or in the turnip
drills, and in the autumn send the "results" to the nearest
journal. The fame, although short lived, will be cheaply
bought. With the care, accuracy, and completeness of detail
demanded of experimenters in every branch of science, in this
age of the world, it is a pity that we should not improve our

methods in all departments of husbandry. Before scientific agriculture can rise to a point worthy to command confidence and respect, this must be done.

STATEMENT OF WM. R. PUTNAM.

It is with some reluctance that I make public my experiments with manures. I regret that my crops were not seen by the Committee earlier in the season; coming as you did, just after the severe gale, you had not so good an opportunity to judge of the effects of different kinds of manure as you would have had before the gale.

If I rightly understand the object of the Society, in offering this premium, it is to collect and publish such information upon the use and the effects of different kinds of manure, as will enable the farmers of the county to judge better what kinds of manure to use. If in my statements I can furnish a peg for you to hang your report on, I shall be satisfied.

Early in April last, when planting peas, part of the piece was manured with good manure made by the horses, cows and sheep, applied at the rate of six cords to the acre; to the remainder I applied Croasdale's Superphosphate at the rate of four hundred pounds to the acre,-this costs about three cents per pound, and it is said that it is one third Peruvian Guano, and the remainder mostly mineral phosphate from South Carolina. The peas were as early and produced as well as those that were planted upon the manure.

Some of the farmers in this vicinity have been using pine sawdust from the saw mills for bedding for their stock. Does it injure the manure? is a question that I should like to see settled by a course of well conducted experiments. Last February I spread about ten bushels of sawdust that had been partially dried, on the floor of my sheep pen, then covered it well with hay so that the manure would not mix with it, the