UMASS/AMHERST

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3120bb DEflS Ibis 1

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THIRTY-FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

SECRETARY

RETURNS OF THE FINANCES OF THE
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES,

1886.

BOSTON ;

WRIGHT & POTTER PRINTING CO., STATE PRINTERS,

18 Post Offick Square.

1887.

STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 1887.

Members ex oflBciis.

His Excellency OLIVER AMES.

His Honor J. Q. A. BKACKETT.
Hon. henry B. PEIRCE, Secretary of the Commonwealth.
CHARLES A. GOESSMANN, State Agricultural Chemist.
H. H. GOODELL, President Massachusetts Agricultural College.

Appointed by the Governor and Council.

JAMES S. GRINNELL of Greenfield,
JAMES R. NICHOLS of Haverhill,
JAMES W. STOCKWELL of Suttou,

Term expires.
. 1890
. 1888
. 1889

Chosen by the County Societies.

Amesbury and Salisbury,
Bay State,
Barnstable, ' .
Berkshire,
Blackstone Valley, .

. J. H. HILL of Amesbury, . . . .
. EDWARD BURNETT of Southborough,
. KATHAN EDSON of Barnstable,
. HARVEY M. OWEN of Pittsfield,
. VELOROUS TAET of West Upton,

Bristol, AVERY P. SLADE of Somerset,

Deerfield Valley F. G. HOWES of Ashfield, .

Essex, BENJAMIN P. WARE of Beach Bluff,

Fratiklin ZERI SMITH of Deerfield, .

Hampden,

Hampden East, ....

Hampshire, . . . .

Hampshire, Franklin <& Hampden,

Highland,

Hingham,

Hoosac Valley, ....

Housatonic,

ETHAN BROOKS of West Springfield, .

WILLIAM R. SESSIONS of Hampden, .

WM. W. SMITH of Amherst, .

JONATHAN D. PORTER of Hatfield, .

W. H. SNOW of Becket, ....

EDMUND HERSEY of Hingham, .

DANIEL UPTON of Adams, .

MERRITT I. AA^HEELER of Great Barrington

Hillside, S. W. CLARK of Plainfield,

Marshjield DANIEL E. DAMON of Plymouth, .

Martha's Vineyard, . . . HENRY L. WHITING of West Tisbury,

Massachusetts, E. F. BOWDITCH of Framiugham, .

Massachusetts Horticultural, . . E. W. WOOD of Newton

Middlesex, JOHN B. MOORE of Concord, .

Middlesex North A. C. VARNUM of Lowell,

Middlesex South S. B. BIRD of Framingham, ...

Nantucket, R. E. BURGESS of Nantucket, .

Plymouth ELDRIDGE CUSHMAN of Lakeville, .

Union, S. A. BARTHOLOMEW of North Blandford,

Worcester, C. L. HARTSHORN of Worcester, .

Worcester North GEO. CRUICKSHANK of Fitchburg,

Worcester North-West, . . . J. P. LYNDE of Athol

Worcester South BAINBRIDGE DOUTY of Charlton,

Worcester West, .... J. HENRY GODDARD of Barre, .

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JOHN E. RUSSELL,

Secretary.

THE

THIRTY-FOURTH Al^NUAL REPORT

OF THE

SECRETARY

OF THE

BOAED OF AGEICULTUEE.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of

Massachusetts. '

The farmino' interests of the Commonwealth are in about
the same condition as represented in the last annual report.

Another year's work has been done. Farmers have sup-
ported their families and made a few permanent improve-
ments ; if there is no marked prosperity, neither is there
agricultural distress.

In common with all other civilized States, Massachusetts
attempts to encourage agriculture by rewards and immuni-
ties. Early in our history, societies were established under
the charter of the General Court, and bounties were paid to
them upon condition that they should make return of their
transactions to the Secretary of the Commonwealth. In
1851, under the lead of the late Hon. Marshall P. Wilder,
a convention of delegates from the county societies was held
in Boston. It included the leading agriculturists of the
State, and at the head of the list was the venerable ex-
Governor Lincoln of Worcester. The purpose of this gather-
ing was "the promotion of the cause of agricultural educa-
tion." This meeting had an immediate influence. The next
year, by an act of the Legislature, the present State Board
of Agriculture was created, to consist of the Governor, the
Lieutenant-Governor, the Secretary of State, three members
at large appointed by the Governor, and a delegate from

vi BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

each chartered society receiving the bounty of the State.
To this body have since been added the State chemist and
the president of the Agricultural College. The present year
there are thirty-three delegates from as many chartered
societies. The Board elects its secretary.

The original purpose of the Board was to regulate and
systematize the distribution of the State bounty through the
county societies, to supervise their actions, and to report
upon them to the Legislature. The scope of the Board has
been greatly enlarged by subsequent acts of the Legislature ;
by the establishment .of the State Agricultural College, of
which it is a board of overseers ; by the act of the Legis-
lature known as the ' ' Fertilizer Law ; " by the formation of
great numbers of farmers' clubs and town societies, report-
ing to the Secretary of the Board ; and, latterly, by the great
increase of the grange system, through which its reports are
now largely distributed.

In 1878 the Board ordered that each society receiving the
State bounty should hold at least three "farmers' insti-
tutes " within its limits in the course of a year, promising at
the same time to furnish all the aid in its power to render
such meetings instructive and attractive to the public.

This proved to be a movement of the utmost importance
to our agriculture ; hundreds of meetings have been held in
all parts of the State, awakening an unusual spirit of inquiry
and leading to valuable experiments and greatly increased
knowledge. The institute system greatly added to the
labors of the members of the Board and to the work and
responsibility of the Secretary.

Two years ago the Board rescinded the order compelling
the county societies to hold the institutes, but at the same
time recommended the continuance of them without the
direct assistance of the members of the Board or the Secre-
tary ; at the annual meeting in February last the order was
reaffirmed and is now in force.

The annual fairs of the year past were largely attended
and very successful, except when interrupted by stormy
weather. The new Bay State Society held a late meeting in
Boston, which was one of the most successful and instructive
exhibitions ever held in the United States.

ANNUAL REPORT. vii

The annual country meeting of the Board was held at
Barre ; it continued through three days ; the attendance was
large and enthusiastic. The lectures and subsequent discus-
sions are printed in this volume.

I should be glad to say that we were enjoying our usual
immunity from diseases of cattle ; but, in fact, owing to the
lax laws or lack of law in other States, we are invaded by
pleuro-pneumonia from several points.

We have a cattle commission clothed with ample powers,
a disposition to enforce the law and the experience of the
past to guide our steps, so that there is no fear that conta-
gious cattle diseases will make a permanent lodgment in
our herds. The dairy is the leading interest of our farmers.
Our cities are supplied with milk from our farms, and though
we are not subject to competition from abroad, the profits of
the business are small, owing to the fact that the farmers are
under the control of the contractors and other middlemen,
•who make great profits out of a business that should, through
co-operation, be controlled by the milk-producers. As we
purchase the greater part of our grain from the West, we
have a deep interest in the eflect of the Inter-State Com-
merce Law, especially upon the business of milk-producing.
At the end of another year, through the investigation of the
granges and the discussions at our meetings, the effect of
this law upon our farming will be well understood.

JOHN E. RUSSELL,

Secretary of the Stale Board of Agriculture.
Boston, February, 1887-

SPECIAL MEETING

OF THE

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE

AT BARRE.

SPECIAL MEETING

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

A special meeting of the Board was held at the Town Hall
in Barre on the evening of November 29, at the request of
the Cattle Commissioners. The meeting was called to order
by Secretary Russell, who was, on motion, elected Chair-
man.

The Chairman. Gentlemen of the Board of Agriculture,
— I have notified you of a business meeting of the Board to
be held prior to the annual country meeting, and the busi-
ness will be to hear a report or statement from the Cattle
Commissioners of this Commonwealth in regard to the inter-
est that they represent. They wish the assistance or the
advice of this Board in matters that they will more satisfac-
torily explain to you than I can do, and in furtherance of the
business I will call upon the Chairman of that Commission to
state to you the objects of this meeting.

Mr. A. W. Cheever. Mr. President and Gentlemen, —
The Governor of the State appointed two delegates to attend
the Cattle Growers' Convention in Chicago, held on the 16th
and 17th of tliis month. Dr. Peters, who is in the employ
of the Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agricul-
ture, and myself were the two delegates. Dr. Loring was
also present as a delegate from the New England Society,
and Major Alvord from the Agricultural College.

Last year, when I went on the same errand, the Governor
made a special request that the delegates would attend the

[3]

4 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

veterinary meetings and learn what might be learned regard-
ing the condition of contagious diseases in the country.
This year no such special request was made ; but being con-
nected with the Cattle Commission, and feeling that it was a
more important matter this year than last, we took what
means we could to learn the condition of pleuro-pneumonia
as it exists at the West, and Dr. Peters spent several days
specially investigating the matter. He has prepared a re-
port ; but I will not take your time here in reading it, unless
it is desired. I would state instead that there is no doubt
now in the minds of the delegates that contagious pleuro-
pneumonia, the same disease that Massachusetts had experi-
ence with some twenty or more years ago, exists in the
vicinity of Chicago. Four large distillery stables in the
suburbs, where from 2,500 to 3,000 cattle are kept, have
the disease badly, and up to within a short time the stock-
yards' interest, which means the cattle-trading interest of
Chicago, — the name "stock yards" corresponding with
Brighton market here in Massachusetts, — up to within a very
short time, I say, the people there interested in the business
have denied the existence of any contagious disease, have
scouted the idea ; and during the past year they have blocked
congressional action in the direction of getting a stronger
law for the suppression of the disease ; but one of the lead-
ing men in the Cattle Growers' meeting read a paper in
which he acknowledged that the time had gone by for deny-
ing the existence of the disease. He did not say, "We no
longer dispute it," but he said, "We do not propose to
place our judgment against the combined veterinary skill of
the country," and then went on to recommend what should
be done to stamp it out. Among other things he recom-
mended the abolishment of the Bureau of Animal Industry,
and the institution of a Cattle Commission instead, like the
Massachusetts Cattle Commission. His paper was not re-
ceived with the cordiality that it would have been if he had
left that part out relating to the Bureau of Animal Industry.
That Bureau has the sympathy of the cattle growers of the
country, unquestionably ; but they want a stronger law, and
they want the United States to do what the State alone can-
not do.

SPECIAL MEETING. 5

Several resolutions were introduced there and passed, after
a good deal of discussion, and I have drafted three, embod}"-
ing such parts of those resolutions as I felt like presenting
before this meeting for discussion ; and to open the subject
fairly and place it before the meeting, I will read the follow-
ing resolutions : —

R'^solvecl, That the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture be
and hereby is instructed to communicate with the President of
the United States and request him to call the special attention
of Congress to the outbreaks of contagious lung plague among
cattle in the vicinity of Chicago, and to ask of Congress such
legislation at the earliest practicable moment as will tend to the
eradication of this disease from the entire country.

Rp.s(ilned, That the Secretary be further instructed to address
letters to the several members of Congress from this Common-
wealth urging upon them the importance of giving this subject
their early and earnest attention.

Itekolved, That we recognize with gratification the value of the
work of the Bureau of Animal Industry in so far as its limited
means hitherto have permitted it to aid in the work of investi-
gating and stamping out contagious diseases among the domestic
animals of our country.

There are other matters that mio-ht be brouo;ht in here for
a more or less informal talk in regard to what the Cattle
Commission ought to do, and what the State ought to do, in
the emergency. Whether there is an emergency really at
the present time that calls for heroic action, is the question.
I think something like thirteen States have quarantined
a2;ainst the State of Illinois or the district around Chicaijo.
The Western people are determined that the disease shall not
come into their Territories if it is possible to keep it out.
The State of Michigan had not yet adopted any restrictive
measures, but was waiting to learn what was done at this
meeting ; and the Commissioners, who were present, ex-
pected that very likely when they got home again, they
would quarantine Michigan and refuse the passage of cattle
from Chicago into the State. They were very earnest gen-
erally at the West, where they feel the importance of keep-
ing this disease from the ranch districts.

6 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

The Cattle Commission of Massachusetts have done what,
in their opinion, seemed called for. Last spring a request
was sent to the Commission asking if there were any restric-
tions against bringing Jersey cattle from New York or else-
where to Boston to sell at auction ; and the Commission felt
that, whether there were any or not, perhaps it would be
well to have some ; and, after consultation, it was agreed to
require an affidavit or certificate from a veterinarian, certify-
ing that each and every animal brought in here w^as healthy ;
and, furthermore, an affidavit from the owner that said
animal had not been in any infected district, or in any
way exposed to any contagious disease, during one year
preceding. Since this excitement at Chicago the Commission
have tried to learn what they ought to do under the circum-
stances, but have been waiting, and have not done anything
3'et. To undertake to quarantine the State against the ship-
ment of beef cattle or store cattle from Chicago over the
Grand Trunk, the Vermont Central and the two or three
other trunk lines, to stop them when they come to the
borders of the State, subject them to a rigid inspection, put
them in quarantine for three months, and treat all cattle that
are brought here for shipment to Europe in the same way,
is a considerable undertaking, and the Commission have not
felt like taking that step until it seemed absolutely neces-
sary. The general feeling of the meeting at Chicago, and
of Dr. Salmon, the head of the Bureau, was that quarantines
are very dangerous things to undertake, should not be
adopted except as the last resort, are hard to maintain and
very injurious to the business of the country.

Mr. Ware. I should like to move the adoption of the
resolutions.

Mr. BowDiTCH. Before a vote is taken I would like to
ask if the paper that the gentleman said was read by one of
the stock-yard men suggested any way of stamping out the
disease ?

Mr. Cheever. Mr. Washburn, in his lengthy paper,
laid out a good deal of work which he thouo^ht ousrht to be
done, and it was not very different from the work that is
being done by the Bureau of Animal Industry at Washing-
ton. It seemed to the meetinsr that there was a bitterness

SPECIAL MEETING. 7

towards the veterinarians on the part of the stock-yard peo-
ple whom Mr. Washburn represented, and that, unless they
could have their own way of doing things, they did not
intend to help much. He wanted the Bureau of Animal
Industry abolished, and a Commission appointed by the
President which should continue as long as there was any
necessity for it and then die. He did not want any Bureau
of Animal Industry, which is doing a great deal of solid
scientific work in relation to the investigation of disease,
and has published two valuable volumes on that subject.
Those he ignored entirely as of no use. His method other-
wise was not unlike the common method, which is to have
the general government appropriate whatever sum may be
necessary to stamp out the disease fi*om the country. That
is what the friends of the present Commission have asked
for, and have not received, for the reason that the stock-
yards people have fought them.

]Mr. Slade. Do we understand that what is meant by
' ' stamping out " is killing the cattle and paying for them ?

Mr. Cheever. Restricting the disease to the localities
where it exists, slaughtering the cattle and destroying all
that have the disease or have been exposed to it.

Mr. BowDiTCH. And paying for those same cattle?

Mr. Cheever. They are to be paid for, as a matter of
necessity, but the exact proportion to be paid is a matter to
be left for discussion and action by the Congress which
enacts the law. It is understood that if liberal prices arc
paid it is offering a premium upon sick cattle ; if too small
prices are paid it encourages hiding cattle away, and the
point will be to get at the right medium. Private propert}'
cannot be taken out of the hands of private owners without
compensation, according to the principles of law. At the
present time the Bureau of Animal Industry has no power
to pay for animals killed that are not already sick, and the
law is weak in that regard. They have not the power which
Massachusetts took into her own hands at the time the
disease was here. Dr. Salmon lias the confidence of all the
veterinarians in the country, I think, and of the cattle men
generally. He is at the head of the Bureau of Animal
Industry. He worked very hard last winter at the meeting

8 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

to impress it upon people that that Bureau must have au-
thority put into its hands to stamp out the disease, and funds
large enough to do it. He asked for a much larger sum than
was granted. There were men at the meeting who thought
that a great many million dollars would be required, and
there were others who believed that, if it was taken hold of
immediately, the whole country could be cleared in a com-
paratively small time and at a comparatively small cost com-
pared with the expense which has been incurred in Europe,
where they have had the disease for a great many years.
Doctors, however, differ in opinion in regard to the proba-
bilities of the future of that disease. Some think it is
already too widely disseminated, others think it is not.
That is to be learned by experience.

Mr. Ware. I would like to inquire if the cause of the
stock-yards people wishing the abolishment of the Bureau of
Animal Industry was because they had taken action upon
the matter? That is what I infer.

Mr. Cheever. My feeling is, that as they had fought
them last winter, they did not want to recognize them this
winter. Last year the cattle-yards people did not believe
there was any pleuro-pneumonia in the country. They
believed, or said that they did, that the veterinarians of the
country are pretty much all quacks, and all they cared for
was to get up an excitement, have commissions established
to inspect cattle, and get a chance to spend a good many
millions of dollars, part of which would go into their
pockets. They denounced all legislation in favor of any
cattle bureau, or anything of the kind, last year. Now they
do not want to say that they were wrong, but they acknowl-
edge that the disease exists, and that it ought to be stamped
out. The meeting accepted that lecture or paper by Mr.
Washburn, and was very thankful to see that he was con-
verted.

Mr. Damon. It seems to me that when the question is put,
it had better be divided. That this is a very serious danger
to the cattle interest there can be no doubt ; and on the two
first resolutions, I do not think anybody can be in doubt
how they shall act. As to the third resolution, I ipfer from
Mr. Cheever's remarks and from the tone of the paper which

SPECIAL MEETING. 9

was read at Chicago, in which this Bureau of Animal Indus-
try was severely criticised, that there is a difference of
opinion among those interested in the cattle business to a
much greater extent than we are, as to the method which
should be pursued. It seems to me it would be going out
of our way to attempt to endorse any particular bureau.
As far as askino^ national leOTslation to take hold of this
matter and deal with it vigorously and root out the evil is
concerned, there can none of us have any doubt ; we all
know how we should act and vote ; but it seems to me that
the methods and agencies to be employed should be left to
Congress, and that we ought not to undertake to endorse
any particular agency now in operation, unless it can be
ascertained better than we yet know, that it is the proper
agency to deal with the matter.

Capt. Moore. I would ask if Mr. Cheever has any
information w^hich he has not communicated to us, or any
information from Dr. Peters in reference to this subject,
because before I vote I want to get what light I can upon it.

Mr. Cheever. With the permission of the meeting I
will read Dr. Peters' report : —

To His Excellency Geohge D. Robestson, Governor of the Common-
weallh of Ma.^saclmsetts.

Sir : — As delegates appointed by your Excellency to
attend the National Cattle Growers' Association Convention,
held at Chicago, Nov. 16th and 17th, 1886, we beg leave to
submit the following report : —

The convention was held in the call-board room of the
Board of Trade building, and was called to order at 2 p.m.,
November 16, by the Hon. D. W. Smith, about two
hundred delegates being present, representing thirty States
and Territories.

After the chair had appointed a committee on permanent
organization and one on resolutions. Dr. J. W. Gadsden of
Philadelphia read a paper on contagious pleuro-pneumonia,
and Mr. Elmer Washl)urn of Chicago read an essay on
" Necessary Legislation to get rid of Contagious Cattle Dis-
eases." The latter refen-ed more to contagious pleuro-
pneumonia than to any other contagious animal disease, and

10 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

recommended that the ' ' Bureau of Animal Industry " be
abolished and a national board of three cattle commissioners
be established, to be appointed by the President of the United
States. As Mr. Washburn represented the great stock-yard
interests, it was easy to see that he favored a cattle commis-
sion that could be dictated to by the great corporations of
the country, and the abolishment of the present " Bureau of
Animal Industry," which consists of professional veterinari-
ans, who would and could carry out the law, if any adequate
national laws existed, for the control and suppression of con-
tagious animal disease. The " Bureau of Animal Industry"
is one capable of good work, and its loss would be greatly
felt by the true live-stock interest of the country, besides
nipping in the bud the scientific investigations now being
made by its chief. Dr. Salmon.

After Mr. Washburn's paper, the committee on pemianent
organization reported the following list of officers, who were
duly elected : President, D. W. Smith of Illinois ; Vice-
Presidents, Robert Mitchell of Indiana, Dr. George B. Lor-
ing of Massachusetts, J. M. Gary of Wyoming, J. W.
Jennings of Texas ; Secretaries, A. H. Sanders of Illinois
and R. B. Hamson of Montana.

The meeting then adjourned until 9 a.m., Wednesday,
November 17.

Wednesday morning a paper was read 1)y Dr. D. E.
Salmon, Chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, on conta-
gious pleuro-pneumonia and the efforts of the Bureau to stay
its progress. During the day, papers were read by the
following gentlemen : United States Senator Cullom on
inter-state transportation, with especial reference to legisla-
tion by Congress, regulating railroad traffic in the interests
of the people. The Marquis de Mora spoke on " Beef Pro-
ducers and Consumers : How can they best be Brought
Together." It was a plea for some system by which there
might be fewer middlemen, so that cattle growers could
ofet more for their animals and the consumer his beef at
a more reasonable price than at present. Mr. J. D. Frank-
land of Toronto gave a history of the beef export business ;
he also spoke of the restrictions which England placed on
the importation of American cattle, and said that they would

SPECIAL MEETING. 11

not exist if we could only send them over Avith a clean bill
of health ; but that so long as contagious pleuro-pneumonia
existed on this continent American cattle could not enter the
British Kingdom except to be immediately slaughtered on the
wharves.

The chief interest of the meeting seemed to centre in the
fact that contagious pleuro-pneumonia was present in certain
stables in the city of Chicago, the greatest live-stock market
of the world ; and that steps should be immediately taken
for its extirpation. The dreaded disease, owing to the neg-
ligence of the Legislatures of the States where it has so long
existed, has at last crept across the AUeghanies, and threatens
the entire cattle industry of the West. The outbreak of
contagious pleuro-pneumonia in Chicago is supposed to be
confined to four distillery stables, — the Phoenix, Shufeldt,
Chicago and Empire distilleries. These stables, which con-
tain in the aggregate 2,500 or 3,000 head of cattle, have
been quarantined by the Federal and State authorities, so that
if there are no other infected centres the danger is not very
great. Whether there are or are not other places where the
disease exists, remains to be seen. There is no encourage-
ment for owners of cattle to report cases to the authorities,
as the place is only quarantined, while the cattle die and the
owner gets no compensation. A milkman at the Shufeldt
distillery stables said : ' ' The present course pursued by the
State is simply robbing us ; if we were compensated for the
slaughter of all diseased and exposed animals, we would do
all in our power to aid the authorities in stamping it out."

Resolutions were adopted by the convention urging upon
Congress the importance of national legislation and appro-
priations to eradicate contagious pleuro-pneumonia from the
United States ; and calling on the State and municipal gov-
ernments to co-operate with the Federal authorities in their
efforts to stamp it out. Massachusetts stamped out con-
tagious pleuro-pneumonia herself, without any outside assist-
ance, and it seems strange that other States cannot do like-
wise ; but on the other hand, it is said that the trouble is
assuming such proportions as to be of national importance,
and that the governments of certain States have always been
so apathetic in regard to the disease that it is doubtful if

12 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

they can ever be made to take any action in regard to it ;
and that the land can never be ridded of it unless Congress
assumes the responsibility of stamping it out, and that very
soon, or it will be too late. Another influence which makes
many desire the United States government to deal with the
plague, is that the national treasury is overflowing with the
means for carrying out the stamping-out process.

People may laugh at the cattle growers of the country, as
they have laughed before, as a lot of " grangers " and " hay
seeds " ; but they should l)e educated to realize that every
man, woman and child in the United States who ever uses
beef, milk, butter, cheese, or even oleomargarine, has a per-
sonal interest at stake. Whether there is any danger to the
live-stock interests of Massachusetts from the present out-
break in Chicago, we cannot say. There can be none
from the dressed-beef trade, but there may he fi"om the
traffic in live cattle ; and it would be as well if the live
cattle brought from the West to this State came by some
route avoiding Chicago. We would also advise regulations
compelling railroad companies to disinfect and whitewash all
cars used for conveying animals to our cities before allowing
them to depart West for fresh supplies.

Respectfully submitted,

A. W. CHEEVER,
AUSTIN PETERS, D. V. S.

The Chaieman. Gentlemen, you have heard this report
of Dr. Peters ; are there any further remarks to be made
upon the motion that is before the meeting for the adoption
of these resolutions ?

Mr. Damon. I move that the question be divided. The
paper which has just been read has thrown some light upon
the matter. I do not know why we should not endorse the
Bureau of Animal Industry, but still I do not know why
we should recommend any particular method of dealing with
the matter.

Dr. Lynde. I understand from the remarks which Mr.
Cheever has made, and from the paper which he has read,
that we here in Massachusetts are in very little danger from

SPECIAL INIEETING. 13

this disease ; that we are only liable to it as it may be
brought to us by cattle who have been exposed to it in
Chicago ; that the disease is not now in Massachusetts, and
that the action which we take here is simply in co-operation
with the action which has been taken in other States, with a
view to securing national aid in managin«: this difficult
subject.

Mr. Cheever. I should not quite assent to the idea
that we have no direct interest in this matter. I think we
have a direct interest. The point, as I see it, is this : Un-
less Congress passes a law by which the national government
can go to work in this matter, it will be necessary for Massa-
chusetts to do just what some thirteen other States have
done, — put up their barrier, and say that no cattle from
outside shall come in, on any condition whatever, from any
section where this disease exists. It is in New York, it is
in Maryland, it is in Pennsylvania, it is probably in Wash-
ington ; and it has been in New York for thirty years, sim-
ply because the cattle trade is running towards New York
instead of cattle being sent out from New York to breed.
It is not spreading from there, but so long as the disease
exists in the United States our beeves in England are worth
dollars apiece less than they would be otherwise ; and it is
a matter that we are all personally interested in if we eat
beef or use any of the products of beef animals. Massa-
chusetts has a direct interest, and Massachusetts is allowing
the unrestricted transportation of cattle from anywhere,
practically, across her territory, and may get the disease
here any day.

Dr. Lynde. I thank you for the explanation. I under-
stand the subject clearly now. I do not oppose the resolu-
tions, by any means ; I am in favor of them ; but I certainly
did not have so clear an idea of what was intended to be
accomplished by the resolutions as I have now, since Mr.
Cheever has made his last remarks. I hope the resolutions
will prevail.

The Chairman. There are three questions before us.
These resolutions propose that the Secretary of this Board
shall communicate the opinion of the Board of Agriculture
to the President of the United States, and request him to

14 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

ask for legislation for the management of this danger which
threatens the country ; also, that the Secretary of this Board
communicate to our members of Congress their view of the
necessity of immediate congressional action ; and the third
resolution looks to sustaining the Bureau of Animal Industry
in opposition to the Chicago idea of the appointment of a
cattle commission.

Mr. Cheever. That is not in the resolution.

The Chairman. But it is to assist the Bureau, now op-
posed by the Chicago interest.

When we adopt these resolutions we simply give our
advice and our assistance in this matter. If wo quarantine
the State of Massachusetts against these cattle, we notify
people of those infected districts to make themselves clean.
The people of the West ask the general government to exer-
cise powers that have never been granted to it in the Consti-
tution. That is where the serious difficulty is going to be
in this matter. The government of the United States can
appropriate money through Congress for the purchase of
cattle, and for their destruction ; but it cannot go into any
State and take any man's cattle, destroy them and pay him
for them. That right does not exist ; and that is the rock
upon which this matter is going to split at the very outset.
If we quarantine the State of Massachusetts against the
cattle of Chicago, we thereby notify the people of Illinois
that they must purge their State of this disease, as this
State did years ago, — in 1861, '62 and '63, — at an enormous
expense, without asking aid of the general government.
We were poor then, comparatively : those people at the
West are rich to-day, yet they are doing nothing for them-
selves ; they are calling upon the government to exercise
powers which must be granted before they can be exercised.

Mr. Ware. A quarantine to protect the State from im-
portations from all directions seems to me impracticable. It
strikes me that there is no other way of controlling this
matter throughout the country except by the general govern-
ment. If the general government has not the power to do
it, perhaps by agitating this sul^ject that power will be con-
ceded. It certainly seems to me that that is the only thing
that can be done. Illinois is unwilling as a State to take

SPECIAL MEETING. 15

hold of it ; other States have proved their unwillingness to
do as Massachusetts did. I do not know how it can be met
in any other way except through the general government.
These resolutions, it seems to me, cover that point fully and
eflfectively. In regard to endorsing the Bureau of Animal
Industry, that some gentleman has objected to, by adopting
the last resolution, according to the evidence that has come
out here, that Bureau consists of experts, of veterinary sur-
geons, who are the only men, I suppose, that are capable of
judging of the diseased condition of animals. If they are
not, in Avhom else can we confide or upon whom else can we
put the power of advising in such matters? As I under-
stand, the Bureau is composed of those experts ; and the very
fact that those Chicago cattle-yard men oppose them because
they have attended to their duty and exposed this condition
of disease, it seems to me, is the very reason why we should
endorse them. That seems to be the view of Dr. Peters.
He is a veterinary surgeon. Perhaps some one will say that
he is interested in his profession ; but, acting under the direc-
tion of the Governor, I assume that he has made a fair state-
ment and report, and I for one am willing to be governed by
it. It seems to me it is wise to endorse by our recommenda-
tion the Bureau of Animal Industry, rather than take the
chance of having it abolished and two or three men appointed
by the President. I do not want to pass any judgment, but
it strikes me this matter is safer in the hands in which it is
now vested. I like that resolution and urge its adoption on
that very ground.

Mr. Damon. I objected to the resolution in regard to the
Bureau of Animal Industry being adopted, because I did not
know anjrthing about it ; but I' now know more about it since
the paper was read, and of course I have no objection to it.
In regard to the point which has been taken with respect to
the constitutional power of the national government to inter-
fere with the police regulations in the several States, I think
it will do no harm to pass this resolution and let the national
government go as far as it can in aiding the States in stamp-
inoj out this terrible scourije which threatens the cattle inter-
ests of this country. The national government can appro-
priate money for this purpose, and the State of Illinois, for

16 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

instance, may say what shall be done with the money. The
people of Illinois may say, "Illinois has no interest in it;
why should Illinois go to work and appropriate large amounts
of money to prevent Massachusetts from suffering from this
disease?" They may be willing to say, "We will make the
police regulations if the national government will appropri-
ate the money necessary to carry them into effect, and thus
benefit all the States through which cattle run." It seems to
me it will be best to pass the resolutions, notwithstanding the
objection made in that respect.

The Chairman. I made the statement to bring into prom-
inence the difference between quarantine action and waiting
for government action. I wanted to bring the other remedy
before the meeting, so that the question of quarantine, which
seemed to be somewhat overlooked in the consideration of
these resolutions, might also be brought into view.

Mr. Wheeler. I see no objection to the passage of the
resolutions exactly as presented. We simply ask for action
by the national government, implying, of course, that only
such action will be taken as can be constitutionally taken.
I do not see that we need hesitate at all on account of the
objection that has been raised by the Chair as to the power
of the government over the matter.

Mr. Slade. I hope you will invite Professor Stockbridge
to tell us what he is thinking about in respect to this mattei*.

Professor Stockbridge. This whole question of conta-
gious pleuro-pneumonia among our cattle, the history of the
disease in this country and its present aspect, is one which
may be examined from a good many different standpoints.
We shall find a great many dark spots about it, and it will be
very difficult, I think, for us to see any rays of light which
will enable us to inaugurate any practical measures to exter-
minate the disease. The fact is that we have not had a case
of contagious pleuro-pneumonia in Massachusetts since the
year 1864, and yet there has not been a year since then, up
to within the last four weeks, when there have not been com-
plaints made to the Cattle Commissioners of the outbreak of
contagious pleuro-pneumonia in Massachusetts. They have
had a very serious outbreak in the town of Brimfield within
a month ; that is, so far as the cattle owners and the select-

SPECIAL MEETING. 17

men of the town were concerned, they thought they had a
serious outbreak of contagious pleuro-pneumonia there.
There has not been a year, as I say, when the Cattle Com-
missioners have not heard complaints of cases of contagious
pleuro-pneumonia. Ever since 1868 our Board have been
cognizant of the fact that contagious pleuro-pneumonia was
in the country ; we have known it absolutely. We knew
when it was among the swill-milk stables in New York in
1868, and soon after that it spread from those swill-milk
stables to one of the counties in the southwestern part of
Connecticut. Our Board were very much alarmed then be-
cause we were apprehensive that it would find its way into
Massachusetts. We met the Commissioners of Connecticut,
we made an examination of the case down there, and they
got it out of Connecticut by running the cattle back into the
State of New York and killing them just as they were taken
out of the cars. There have been complaints during the last
year that pleuro-pneumonia existed in the State of Connecti-
cut, but I have every reason to believe that it was ordinary
lung complaint, tuberculosis, or some form of pulmonary
disease. But at the same time in all these years it has ex-
isted in Brooklyn, N. Y., and in the last four or five years it
has made its appearance in Pennsylvania in different places,
it has got into the District of Columbia, different places in
Maryland, and finally it has found its way over the moun-
tains to the West.

Now, the Massachusetts Board of Cattle Commissioners,
knowing what has been going on in other States, have over
and over again asked the Massachusetts Legislature to
memorialize the Legislatures of New York, of New Jersey,
of Pennsylvania and of Maryland in relation to this disease,
because we knew what it was. The Legislature of Massa-
chusetts apparently assumed that the Cattle Commissioners
had got to make some kind of a report, and they might as
well write that as anything else. You will find, by looldng
back in the Massachusetts Agricultural Reports, that year
after year the Cattle Commissioners have called the atten-
tion of the Legislature to the fact that the genuine, old-
fashioned, contagious pleuro-pneumonia that we stamped
out existed in several States. We have known it, because

18 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

we had communications with those men who have had the
management of it. Most of you remember that it was
an almost impossible thing in 1860, '61, '62 and '63 to con-
vince the people of Massachusetts that the pneumonia that
we had in Massachusetts at that time was contagious.
When cattle were rotten with it in West Brookfield and
other towns, some of the brightest men in the State insisted
upon it that it was not contagious ; and the only way that
we convinced the public that it was contagious was by
putting some of the leading advocates of the non-contagious
character of the disease on that Cattle Commission, and
compelling them to go to West Brookfield, Belmont and
other places where it existed, and make their own examina-
tions and experiments, and then they came out and acknowl-
edged that it was contagious, and they stamped the thing
out by lulling the infected cattle. Now, they are going
through that same change in the West. Some do not
believe it is contagious, some believe it is contagious, and so
it goes.

The Bureau of Animal Industry looked this matter over
in the District of Columbia, in Maryland, in New Jersey,
in Pennsylvania and in New York, having the feeling that
there was no way of getting rid of it but to stamp it out as
Massachusetts did. The Bureau of Animal Industry, with
Dr. Salmon at its head, came to that conclusion. They
immediately met with objections. Congress cannot go into
Pennsylvania and stamp that disease out, but Congress — that
is, the United States government — and the government of the
State of Pennsylvania, acting together, can. That was the
idea of the Bureau of Animal Industry. Let there be com-
bined effort between the States and the general government
and the two can stamp it out, but Congress cannot go there
and do it. Now, I will state another constitutional objection
before I go any further, which shows that all the States are
to work together, and that is this : the State of Massachu-
setts cannot quarantine the cattle of the State of New York,
only the general government can regulate internal commerce.
The Cattle Commissioners of Massachusetts cannot issue
an edict forbidding the cattle of the State of New York to
come into Massachusetts. We cannot quarantine in that

SPECIAL MEETING. 19

way. They may bring all the rotten cattle they please from
any State outside of INIassachusetts across our borders ; we
cannot tell them they shall not; it is utterly impossible.
We tried that with Spanish fever. We passed a law here
in Massachusetts saying that certain animals from Texas
and the Plains should not come into Massachusetts ; the
State of Michigan passed a similar law; Kansas passed
a similar law. We thought we were all right, but the cattle
men rebelled against it, cari'ied the question to the Supreme
Court of the United States, and it was there declared that
such a law was unconstitutional ; that no State could tell
another State, "You shall not bring your cattle into our
territory." Massachusetts got over it in this way : they
said, "You can bring your cattle in, but when you get
them on to our territory we will seize and quarantine them.
AYhen they get on to our temtory, then we can take them
and do what seems to us good to do with them." That is
the way our Massachusetts law is arranged. Men bringing
cattle from Texas or the Plains are liable to bring Spanish
fever, and our law says they shall not be driven on any road
in Massachusetts, but shall be taken and slaughtered in
Massachusetts immediately on their being unloaded from the
cars. That is the way we manage them.

Here you have two constitutional points. One is, the
United States government cannot go into the State of Penn-
sylvania and slaughter their cattle, but the United States
government and the State of Pennsylvania can do it. The
United States government and the State of Massachusetts can
say to the cattle men, "Your cattle may come across the
borders of the State and then we will encircle them, quaran-
tine them, and if we find them infected we will kill them."

Now, this resolution in relation to the Bureau of Animal
Industry is all right enough. The plan of that Board was
to do this thing in conjunction with the governments of the
States. The government of the United States is to pay the
bills, and the several States are to make the laws.

I su})pose the real object of this meeting was to get all
possible infonnation. I have not seen Mr. Chcever until
now since he came from the West. I did not know what
report he would bring to the Cattle Commissioners in regard

•20 BOARD OF AGKICULTURE.

to what the exigencies of the case required. We waiat to
do what will surely protect us from this plague coming
through from the West. The first thing we wanted to
know was what our danger was. We had a meeting for
this purpose early in October. We had no information
excepting newspaper reports. We had a meeting in Boston
and discussed the matter, and while we did not know any-
thing, because the newspaper reports might be more or less
true, we decided that we would write to Mr. Coleman, the
Commissioner of Agriculture, and ask him certain questions,
which was done ; but we got no information ; he did not
answer the questions that we asked, except to say that Dr.
Salmon and some others had been to Chicago, and it was
their opinion that contagious pleuro-pneumonia existed there.
What we wanted to know was whether the cattle that were
driven from there were infected by contagious pleuro-pneu-
monia. We did not get that information, I then wrote to
Dr. DeWolf of Chicago, — a Massachusetts man, a noted
physician, whom a great many of you know, who is at the
head of the Health Department of Chicago. I had seen in the
papers that he had become interested in the contest, that he
had condemned those distillery stables, and said their milk
should not go into the market. The owners of the stables
had said it should ; the matter went before the courts, and
the doctor won the day. So, supposing he knew all about
it, I wrote him to see if he would give me any information ;
and, without taking time to go over his whole letter, I will
say that he told where the disease broke out first, as far as
he knew. He said the first information he had of its ex-
istence was on a certain farm about ten miles out from
Chicago. A cow and calf were sick, and they were exam-
ined by a veterinary surgeon, who pronounced the disease
contagious pleuro-pneumonia. They then went to work to
find where the cow and calf came from. They tracked them
to one of those distillery stables. Then they made an
examination of those stables to see what the condition of
the cattle in them was, and they found twenty or thirty
animals which had come in connection with the disease, and
slaughtered every one that proved to be diseased. Then he
went on and detailed everything that had been done with

SPECIAL MEETING. 21

the view of confining the disease where it was. He gave
me an account of the regulations that had been made ; stated
that they had put officers there, that they had had the
experts of the Bureau of Animal Industry there and they
had securely enclosed it. The letter was dated the 25th of
October, I think, and he said we need have no fear at that
time that the disease, as they knew it there, would get into
Massachusetts. The gi-eat trouble with them was to know
what to do with it where it was. He said those cattle must
all be slaughtered ; those distillery buildings must be burned
down : there was no question about it. They had shut the
disease in on this farm that he spoke of; they had got it
quarantined in the stables so that it could not get away;
officers were on guard all the time, day and night ; but the
question was, "How are we going to stamp it out? We
have no law in Illinois and no money." He advised that
they commence to slaughter. He inspected the cattle care-
fully, and he said those cattle in the distillery stables were
fat, in good condition for beef, very few of them infected
with the disease. He made an inspection of them himself,
and decided that probably nine-tenths of those cattle were
good beef, perfectly healthy, and they ought to be killed
and used for food ; and he recommended, as the head of the
Health Department, that those cattle be slaughtered and put
upon the Chicago market as beef. But the packers then
appeared on the scene, and another question arose, which
was a question of sanitary importance, — the killing and
eating of those cattle ; and just as quick as the packers
found that that was the proposition of the Health Depart-
ment of Chicago, they said, " That won't do ; it is going to
affect our commercial interests. If it is known that those
cattle in the distillery stables, several thousand of them, are
to be killed and going into the market as food, it will ruin
our packing business ; there won't be anybody who will eat
our dressed beef or our canned beef." The only thing wo
can do, he says, is to destroy those cattle, and the packers
must raise a sum of money suflScicnt to pay for them. The
matter hangs about there to-day between them. The pack-
ers do not raise the money ; the State of Illinois has not

22 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

appropriated the money, and they are holding those cattle
there. They have men there who count those cattle, the
doctor told me, twice every day, and I think now they are
painting every one of them so that they can be detected ;
but they are simply holding them there because they do not
know what to do with them, and of course if one of them
should be killed and used for beef, although Dr. DeWolf
says they are good beef, most of them, it would immediately
raise an outcry that would have a serious effect upon the
business of the packers. As far as I know there is no
touch of the disease in Illinois or at the West, except in
those distillery stables and on this one farm, where it has
been closely quarantined. That is all the information I had
before I came to this meeting to-night, to which has been
added the infoi-mation which Mr. Cheever and Dr. Peters
have given us in relation to it.

AVTiat the Cattle Commissioners of Massachusetts want, is
to know from the combined wisdom of this Board of Asri-
culture whether in their judgment we shall be justified to-day
in taking any steps in this matter. If so, there is no trouble
about the law ; we have all the law we want to stamp out
anything of this kind, if we can only find that the exigency
of the case requires it. The question is, whether an exigency
exists to-day that would make it our duty, in view of the
public interest, to undertake to quarantine the cattle coming
from the West on to our territory, either for slaughter or
simply going through for shipment abroad. That is what we
want to know. We are ready to act the moment we can get
wisdom enough to act. We have got authority enough, if we
only know what to do. We are on guard, that is all ; but
whether we shall strike before we see the enemy or not is the
question. In the State of Connecticut they became alarmed ;
a meeting of the Commissioners was called about November,
to which I was invited, and they took action which seemed
to me to be unwise ; I did not think it would amount to
anything. They simply issued a notice, which was published
in the daily papers of the State, that no sick cattle should
ho, brought into the State of Connecticut. I don't know
whether anybody wanted to bring in sick cattle there or had

SPECIAL MEETING. 23

attempted to bring them in ; but that was all the authori-
ties did. The question was asked me what I thought about
their action and if that was probably what the Cattle Com-
missioners of ISIassachusetts would do under similar circum-
stances. I said, without consulting with my colleagues, that
when the exigency arose, we should quarantine every animal
comins: into the State, we should shut them close, for at
least ninety days.

Mr. BowDiTCH. I think we are getting a good deal of
inforaiation from the Cattle Commissioners. I would like to
have Dr. Winchester express his ideas.

Dr. Winchester. There is one thing that has impressed
me considerably in relation to this cattle traffic, and Dr.
Peters has made some slight comment on that matter, and
that is in regard to taking care of the cars in which these
cattle are brought, and not only of the cars themselves, but
of the excrement which comes from those cattle. It is well
known that all the excrement and exhalations coming from
cattle infected with pleuro-pneumonia contain the virus, and
the period of the life of this virus varies very much accord-
ing to the circumstances under which it exists. Now, taking
into consideration the fact that the period of incubation is so
long, there might be cattle brought into the State that had
been exposed to contagious pleuro-pneumonia that would be
out of the State before the disease manifested itself; and as
most of the cattle brought here are shipped elsewhere, it
would be advisable to have the excrements thoroughly disin-
fected, because manure and the sweepings of the cars have a
sale and are taken to the farms, where the cattle would run
o-reat risks of contagion. So far as the disease itself is con-
cerned, I think the nature of it is well understood. It is in-
sidious, and the period of incubation varies.

The question was then put on Mr. Ware's motion to adopt
the resolutions (Mr. Damon withdrawing his motion for a
division), and they were adopted without dissent.

Dr. Winchester. There is another matter that I would
like to bring to the notice of the Board. A great deal is
said about contagious pleuro-pneumonia, which does not
exist in this State, but we certainly have what many con-

24 BOAED OF AGRICULTUKE.

sider a contagious disease in this State, and no formal notice
is taken of it ; I refer to tuberculosis. It is one of the most
insidious and hardest of all diseases to recognize, and the
situation requires some action on the part of the Board of
Agriculture. It is a hereditary disease. You can trace it
from generation to generation, in direct descent. There is,
also, no doubt about its transmissibility by the material
which is thrown off from the lungs ; and I have seen a case
of supposed pleuro-pneumonia that proved to be tuberculosis.
It is only a few days since I saw a herd of once fine animals
rotten with tuberculosis. The owner said, "I wish you
would tell me what to do." I said, "I cannot help you." I
should like to hear some suijo^estions in reo;ard to it.

Professor Stockbridge. The doctor has said what I in-
tended to have said in regard to this matter of tuberculosis.
That there has been such a disease in Massachusetts the Board
of Cattle Commissioners have long known, but the veterinary
colleges have never agreed upon the question whether it was
contagious or not. There has been a long and somewhat
acrimonious dispute in relation to it, and the consequence has
been that the Cattle Commissioners have never recognized it
or treated it as a contagious disease. We have always
known that it was hereditary, and that it might be conta-
gious, but we have never been prepared to say that it went
by germs in the atmosphere, and in that way spread from herd
to herd. But people are getting better educated in this
matter, and I find that a majority are now coming to believe,
and are acting upon the belief, that tuberculosis is not only
contagious but infectious.

I hope that the Board, either at its present meeting or at
their meeting in Boston, which will be held later, will ask
the Legislature of Massachusetts to memorialize Congress on
this subject. What we have voted to do here to-night is
very well, but if we can induce the Massachusetts Legisla-
ture to memorialize Congress on this subject it will be a
stronger appeal, and one to which Congress will listen.

The Chairman. If you are going to take such action it
must be done at this meeting, because our annual meeting is
not held until the 1st of February, and that would be too

SPECIAL MEETING. 25

late for any action Avitli a view to influence Congress, as that
body dissolves on the 4th of March.

Professor Stockbridge. I will make a motion that the
Secretary of the ]\Iassachusetts Board of Agriculture be
requested to go before the Committee on Agriculture when
the Legislature shall convene, and ask them to introduce a
resolution into the Legislature to memorialize Congress on
this subject. That is, I suppose, sufficiently definite. Of
course I will risk it that the Secretary and the Committee
on Agriculture can work up such a resolution as will pass.

The Chairman. The motion should be that the Secretary
of the Board be instructed to co-operate with the Committee
on Agriculture in procuring a memorial to Congress by our
Legislature upon the matter of the extirpation of contagious
pleuro-pneumonia .

Mr. Upton. Why not include the Governor in the same
way that in the other resolution the President of the United
States is included ? It will bring the matter more directly
before the Legislature if the Governor presented it in his
annual address, and then the Secretary can back him up by
his petition to the Legislature.

Professor Stockbridge. I accept the suggestion.

The motion was then put and carried.

The Chairman. In regard to the matter upon which Dr.
Winchester and Professor Stockbridge have spoken, that
is, the matter of tuberculosis, I do not know why they should
bring that matter before us, as one of the Commission has
already stated that they have law enough to do whatever
they choose in the management of contagious diseases in this
State. If tuberculosis is contagious, they can act under the
contao-ious disease law.

INIr. Cheever. It has been suggested a number of times
within the past year or more that the cattle contagious dis-
ease law of the State has been growing through twenty years,
more or less ; that enactments have been made to fit certain
cases that existed at a particular time ; that experience has
been gained at that time ; but that the conditions have
changed somewhat, and that the law is not only weak in
some points, but quite cumbersome and incongruous. It
has been suggested that the Board of Agriculture might do

26 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUEE.

well, perhaps, to, in some way, put a word in the ear of the
Governor to induce him to ask the Legislature to look into
the cattle diseases law, and see if some legislation is not
needed. There are sections in the law that it seems to me
are decidedly objectionable. For instance, animals that
have been taken notice of by the Board of Cattle Commis-
sioners, that have been appraised, have had a stigma placed
upon them ; people are afraid to buy meat that has been
under the hands of the Cattle Commissioners, because that
points to contagious disease. The law specifies plainly that
animals may be killed .by authority of the Cattle Commission,
under certain restrictions ; they must be inspected and passed
upon as being perfectly healthy, and then they may be sold
on the market ; but at the same time the law loads down the
Commission with the responsibility of notifying whoever
buys those dressed carcasses, which have passed inspection as
being perfect, making them really safer to use than ordinary
meat that has not been inspected, that that is Cattle Com-
missioners' meat. That spoils the buying. In my opinion
that clause should be wiped out entirely, and there are other
clauses which need some modification.

There is another point. The law is a double-headed law
now, and Auditor Ladd objects to it very much in its pres-
ent condition, and says it should be modified. The law says
that the selectmen of the towns shall do such and such things
in case of a contagious disease breaking out ; they shall con-
sult a veterinary surgeon or physician, and if he pronounces
the disease contagious, they shall kill, and so on. Then,
after going along seven sections or more, the law says a
Cattle Commission may be created by the Governor, and
when so created their regulations shall supersede those of
the town or municipal authorities, and there comes a con-
flict between two organizations. The selectmen refuse to
approve certain bills of the Commissioners, or perhaps refuse
to approve certain bills which need the signatures of both.
I do not wish to undertake to-night to go over the ground
and tell what the law ought to be, but simply to suggest that
susfirestion be made to the Governor to call the attention of
the Legislature to the law.

The Chaieman. The more direct way to do it would be

SPECIAL MEEXmG. 27

to introduce a resolution into the House asking for such a
modification. That would be referred directly to the Com-
mittee on Agriculture, and it would be their duty to frame
a bill.

Professor Stockbridge. We would like to have the
Board of Agriculture suggest to us any modification of the
law which would really suit their views of what the law
ought to be. If no suggestions are made, the Cattle Com-
missioners will undoubtedly, in their report to the Legis-
lature, make some suggestions. That report will be sent to
the Committee on Agriculture, and under that the Committee
on Agriculture can introduce just such a law as they wish.
As has been stated, there is sometimes a little conflict, but
nothing that ought to disturb us very much. Sometimes
some men who are elected to their offices like to pay a
pretty large sum for a man's sick horse ; the Cattle Commis-
sioners do not agree, and refuse to approve the bill. We
think it is our duty to guard the State treasury, and there is
no political object in this matter behind us.

Mr. Upton. It seems to me that the Cattle Commis-
sioners are just the men to go before the Committee of the
Legislature and present their views on this subject. I have
no doubt that the committee will see the necessity of modi-
fying this law in such a way that it may be clearly under-
stood and acted upon. I do not believe that any action is
called for by this body. I think the Commissioners them-
selves are sufficient for the purpose of getting that law so
amended as will meet their views from the experience we
have had in these matters.

The meeting then adjourned.

PUBLIC MEETING OF THE BOARD
AT BARRE.

[29]

PUBLIC MEETING OF THE BOARD
AT BARRE.

The Country Meeting of the Board was held at Barre,
November 30 and December 1 and 2, and much interest
was manifested in the papers and discussions by large audi-
ences. Secretary Russell called the meeting to order at
9.30 A.M., on Tuesday, November 30, and spoke as fol-
lows : —

In calling this meeting to order, I wish to congratulate
the Board upon this beautiful day, and upon the large
attendance at our first assembly so early upon the first day.
I look forward to one of the most successful and profitable
meetings that the Board has ever held. As this is in a
region that has the memory of what the Board has been in
the habit of looking back to as the best meeting that was ever
held in the State, when the great Agassiz was present and
lectured with a power and acceptance that perhaps we shall
never be able to experience again, I think that, later in our
meeting, we shall have a very large attendance of the people
of this region ; but it is necessary for us to begin, as usual,
with those of the Board who are present, and as a prelimi-
nary, I will call Mr. Goddard, the chairman of the local
committee, to the chair.

Mr. J. Henry Goddard of Barre took the chair and
said : —

Gentlemen of the Board of Agriculture, — It becomes my
agi'eeable duty at the present time to bid you welcome to
this good old town, — a town which has not very much

[31]

32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

to be proud of, perhaps, unless it be her good soil and
her crop of young men and women, — not absorbed by the
home market, but year by year sent forth to supply new
blood and energy to Worcester, Boston and other cities
and large towns ir^ this and other States, and perhaps the
longevity of her people. A few years ago one of our
citizens reached the great age of 104 years, and to-day
another has attained the age of 100 years. I cherish the
hope that your stay here may prove as pleasant to yourselves
as it certainly will be profitable to those who may be in
attendance upon your sessions.

The people of this town recall with pleasure the meetings
held here by this Board fourteen years ago. When several
members now present were here, and one other, now de-
parted, whose genial and urbane presence, with his marvellous
store of knowledge, did so much to render these meetings
interesting and valuable, whose memory we of this town
still cherish and revere, — the great and good Agassiz.

I well remember, also, during the closing session of that
meeting, that on behalf of a committee of our citizens, whose
pleasant duty it was to extend to the Board the hospitalities
of the town, I referred to our lack of railroad communica-
tion which made it so inconvenient for you to reach us, the
nearest station then being eight or nine miles distant, and
inviting you to come again, with the assurance, which I
verily thought I could give, that you would be brought over
the Massachusetts Central Railroad. But, alas ! that was
not to be. Still I feel that the indications of progress are
now so decided, that I am willing to promise that if you
will come again next year we will furnish you transportation
over the Central Massachusetts.

Gentlemen, on behalf of the Worcester County West
Agricultural Society, whose home is to be your home for the
next few days, I now have the honor of presenting to you
the President of that societ}^ the Hon. Charles A. Glea-
SON of New Braintree.

COUNTRY MEETING. 33

OPENING ADDRESS.

BY HON. CHAS. A. GLEASON OF NEW BRAINTREE.

3Ir. President and Gentlemen of the Board of Agricid-
ture, — It becomes my most agreeable duty in behalf of the
Worcester AVest Agricultural Society to extend to 3^ou a most
hearty and cordial welcome. Both oiBcially and personally
I bid you welcome, — personally, being acquainted with
many members of the Board, having had legislative service
with some, even committee work in the same room ; offi-
cially, because I am sure I speak the sentiments and repre-
sent the feelings of the entire membership of the Society..
It w^ill be remembered when an invitation was extended to
you at your meeting in Boston, by our honored chairman
and myself, it was urged as a reason why the Board should
come to Barre, that it was strictly an agricultural town,
and that you would come into the midst of a large circle of
intelligent farmers, who would gladly avail themselves of the
benefit of this meeting. I trust that the interest and attend-
ance at these meetings by the members of tliis Society will
prove our statements and predictions true, and that your
carefully prepared papers and able discussions will be listened
to by men who can make a practical test of the ncAV facts
brought out. The enjoyment and profit derived from a for-
mer meeting in this place is still fresli in some of our minds
and has been an incentive to ask you to come again. Then
the stage-coach brought you a long distance. Since then the
steam-car has wound its way among these hills, connecting us
with the Fitchlmrg Road on the north and the Boston &
Albany on the south, and now hope "long deferred" seems
about to be realized that we shall have direct railroad con-
nection with Boston and the eastern part of the State by way
of the Massachusetts Central, so that while many of you
came here indirectly by rail, at your next meeting here you
can come directly from your own homes.

I desire very briefly to call your attention to a few facts
in the history of the Society. It was incorporated in 1851,
and for fourteen years held its fairs on the common in front
of this hall, prospering under the able management of a class
of energetic citizens, whose actions and decisions were but

34: BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

to insure success, until by increased expenses and competi-
t;i0n of other societies, it was found to be necessary to secure
grounds of their own, which were purchased and fitted up
cit a large expense in 18G5, and have been used since then.
The purchase of these grounds incurred a heavy debt which
has been burdensome to the Society, but I am happy to say
to-day, in the last few years it has been mostly extinguished.
Being exclusively in a dairy region, our exhibition of dairy
stock has been made a specialty, and has been among the
largest and best of the State. The exhibition of grade and
thoroughbred Holsteins and Jerseys entered entirely from
this immediate vicinity has been the prominent feature of
our fairs of late years. It gives me pleasure to speak of the
increased interest in stock-raising, the increase of capital
invested, and the improvement of many of our herds.
Whichever way you go from this hall, east or west, north
or south, you will find grazing farms on every hand, and
many barns filled vnth. thoroughbred stock. The fiirmers of
this Society have always been noted for their excellent dairy
stock ; but in recent years a greater study and skill m breed-
ing and greater care of the herds, will show to you some
fine herds, which are owned by men who make farming a
business, not a plaything, and who spend their money for a
liberal return. I hope you may have the opportunity while
you are here to visit some of these farms. Fifty years ago
it was milk, and it is milk to-day ; and while it is still the
chief production of these farms, its use has entirely changed
since the formation of this Society. We have made great
chauo'es in the methods of our farmino; and the manner of
our living ; farm machinery has been brought into use, but in
this line there has been no greater cliange than in the dispo-
sition of milk. At that time every farm had its cheese-
press, and every housewife had her reputation in Fancuil
Hall market as a dairy woman. The manufacture of domes-
tic cheese was large and was the chief income of this vicinity.
Twelve years later came the cheese-factory, removing many
of the burdens of dairy farming from the household, and for
a series of years was the great receptacle for nearly all the
milk produced. Thousands of tons of the best cheese ever
made have been made in these factoi'ies (and I might say

COUNTRY IMEETING. 35

some that was not the best) . But the competition of the
great West and the decline of the foreign market has closed
the last factory, and most of them have passed into other
hands. Their day and generation has passed away, till now
the cream-gatherer calls at our farms or the Boston milk-can
is left at our doors. Throu2:h all these chanajes these faiTas
have been pouring out their thousands of tons of milk every
year, and whether made into butter, cheese, or sold as milk,
has a reputation for quality surpassed by few sections. It
has been raising milk in the past ; it must be in the future.
But with all the natural advantages of dairying these towns
possess, both in the past and the present, it is carried on with
discouragements and under many difficulties. Formerly it
was our long distance from market. Within the memory
of many here the entire produce of these towns was trans-
ported to Boston on four-horse teams ; now the railroad has
brought a market to our doors, but with it a competition
which has almost threatened our existence. Every stalk of
grain that is cultivated and every plant that grows has
become the prey of some ravaging worm or insect, necessi-
tating a constant war of destruction upon these pests. This
soil, in its virgin fertility, which brought forth almost spon-
taneously, noAv requires heavy reinforcement with costly fer-
tilizers. Incurable diseases attack our stock and oft-recurrinoj
midsummer drought render our crops a partial or total fail-
ure ; and for these reasons the farmers of Massachusetts need
all the encouragement they can receive from the local soci-
eties, all the help they can derive from your honorable Board
in way of advancement of agricultural science, all the aid
and protection they are entitled to by legislation ; and they
tnust have a resolute purpose, vigorous methods and busi-
ness plans like other men, — yes, more than other men, — with
industry and economy, and they will win success, as in the
past, and these hills and valleys will still be fruitful. We
have not only raised the fruits of the soil, but men who, as
good citizens, have done honor to their native hills, — men of
influence and power in our State and Nation, men whose
loyalty and patriotism was never questioned in the day of our
country's peril, and whose services and valor on the field of

36 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE.

battle are an inheritance which will be handed down to suc-
ceeding generations.

My relation with the Board of Agi'iculture and the Agri-
cultural College at the last session of the Legislature prompts
me to congratulate the Board and the farmers of Massachu-
setts for what the College has done and is doing, its present
good management and improved condition, and the promise
of its increased efficiency in the future. I take pleasure in
referring to some of its graduates, who are among our most
progressive farmers. The names of Harwood, Smith, Bar-
rett and Root of Barre, and Ayers of Oakham, are a credit
to the College and an honor to their towns ; and the College is
ably represented on your Board by one who gives promi-
nence to these meetings. As your Board reviews its history
from its organization, you can but congratulate yourselves
upon what it has accomplished. The influence that goes out
from these meetings it is hard to estimate ; addressed ])y
leading agricultural men of the country on subjects of the
greatest importance, awakening a spirit of investigation, and
bringing you in close contact with so many communities,
valuable results must have been obtained. The publication
of your doings — sought for as no other State publication is,
and scattered from Barnstable to Berkshire — is far-reaching
in its influence, and is a prized volume by many a farmer.

This is probably the last country meeting of the Board
under the presiding genius of the present Secretary. You,
and the ao;ricultural interests of Massachusetts, have drawn
from him an inspiration that we can scarcely hope for from
any man who may be his successor. His enthusiasm, zeal
and devotion to his work have received the admiration and
gratitude of all classes. His popularity has known no
bound, and it has carried him to a broader field where he can
make a national reputation.

This Society was formed by our fathers, earnest, resolute
men. But few of them are alive to-day. It has been the
centre around which have clustered many agi'icultural asso-
ciations. For thirty-five years it has sought to stimulate a
progressive state of farming by its exhibitions, discussions
and dissemination of knowledge, and it has endeavored to

COUNTRY I^IEETIXG. 37

fulfil its mission. We are glad to welcome you as the
representatives of other similar societies ; we are glad to "
welcome you as the highest authority of the State in all
agricultural matters. We thank you for coming here, and
trust we shall mutually enjoy this meeting.

The Chairman. Mr. Miller, who is announced on the
programme to deliver a lecture on " Holstein Cattle in
America," is not present, but the Secretary will read his
paper.

Secretary Russell. I very much regret, gentlemen of
the Board, that Mr. Gerrit S. Miller of Peterborough,
Madison County, N. Y., who was one of the earliest im-
porters of Dutch cattle, could not be here to-day to read his
own lecture, and to answer such questions as j^ou will,
perhaps, wish to ask at the conclusion of the reading ; but
there are others here to-day who are very much interested
in the breeding of Dutch cattle, and who will be able to
answer such questions.

HOLSTEIN CATTLE IN AMERICA.

BY GERRIT S. MILLER OF PETERBOROUGH, N. T.

The cattle known in this country as Holsteins, Holstein-
Friesians and Dutch Friesians, all come from that ancient
and world-wide renowned dairy country commonly known
as Holland.

Americans would do well to give these cattle their right
name and call them " Holland cattle " hereafter.

There is probably no breed of imported cattle that has
maintained its color, form, dairy and beef qualities through
as many centuries as the Holstein, and for the purpose of
fixing this fact in our minds it may be worth while to spend
a few minutes in reviewing the history of this breed in its
native land. The following extracts are taken from a trans-
lation of an article prepared for the ' ' Nederlandsch Randou
Stambook" (Netherland Cattle Stock Book), published in
1875, the first herd book published in Holland : —

It maj' be settled as a fact that the pedigree of the Netherland
cattle dates back farther than two thousand 3'ears ; that they

38 BOARD OF AGEICULTUEE.

descend immediatel}' from the cattle of the Frieslanders and Bata-
vians, who, from three to one hundred years before Christ, popu-
lated the country north of the present large rivers, Waal and the
Rhine, as well as the surrounding districts, and dealt there in cattle
and fish, in so far as they were not forced to join the army against
the Romans.

The animals were used for the production of milk, meat and
hides. At the time of the hierarchy of the Romans, who were
more regular in their tending of cattle, there was an improvement
made, and better attention was paid to the feeding and tending of
cattle, according to the way of the Romans, which is discernible
even now in several distinctive usages on large countr}^ seats of the
present da}'. In the old " Heerenhuis" (well fortified castle), with
its multitudinous stablings for horses, in the immediate neighbor-
hood whereof are promenades, kitchen gardens, cascades, fields,
orchards, duck-ponds, canals, rivulets and ditches and the peasants'
cottages, with their cow stables and granaries, all surrounded by a
river ramification, we behold the image of an old Roman villa, with
its appurtenances.

In the arrangement of these there is a change and decided im-
provement, 3'et, although possessions may have become somewhat
smaller, everything points to an imitation of the Roman villas. It
is important to notice this in order to understand thereby that
for many centuries the stabling, feeding, tending, as well as the
manner in which the animals were most profitabl}^ disposed of, have
probably remained the same, and that, therefore, the cattle have
received the same treatment in the same climate for all that length
of time.

The same species interbreeding continually, with little or no
adulteration from abroad, the identical breed remained natural!}'
free from foreign elements. Notwithstanding the decrease of cattle
through various causes, as floods, plagues and wars, breeding was
still continued, and onl}' that class introduced which was identical
with the lowland breed ; so that, through intermingling, right treat-
ment and the fertility of the soil, the imported animals soon took
on the inherent qualities of the home breed. The age and purity
of the breed can thus be safely estimated at two thousand years, and
the preservation of the form proper to the breed is owing entirely
to climate, feeding, tending and practice having remained the same
for hundreds of years. Hence the cattle have obtained a distinct
type, or ground form, which through inheritance remains constant
to itself. This form of body may be called the "milk shape."

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 39

Color.
About color, the following is to be remarked. Our cattle-keeping
ancestors had many white, besides some red, black and red-spotted
cattle. The white cattle of the Batavians are well known, as well
as the white cows and oxen of later 3'ears, which were used as
presents. In still later years the red-spotted bull and the dun-
checkered cow of Paul Potter are well known,/ besides the ordinary
piebald with black spots, and the black-pied cattle of Groningen,
Friesland and North Holland. At present the black-pied hus
the pre-eminence in every variety.

Horns.

Another distinguishing mark of the Netherland cattle is the horns,
which properly bring them in the class known as Short-horns.
The direction of the horns is horizontal in front, rather inclining
downwards than upwards ; and this downward curving to the front,
with Short-horns, is considered one of the most desirable signs of
a proQtable milch cow.

Flexibility.

Although these marks denote principally the physiological prop-
erty of richness of milk, this does not exclude a disposition for
fattening, which depends entirel}' on the manner in which the ani-
mals are bred, fed and tended, insomuch that a breeder has in a
measure the power to make the animal what he chooses as most
profitable to himself. This excellent disposiiion of our cattle to
adapt themselves to circumstances, this tractableness or flexibility,
although, as a general thing, proper to all races, belonging to the
"Costaurus," is a great virtue belonging i^articularly to them, and
fits them better than any other breed to be safely transported to other
lands, with little or no loss of their milk, meat and fat giving prop-
erties, and enables them to be kept there ; in a word, to be entirel}'
acclimated there ; witness whereof the cattle transported to France,
German}-, Prussia and America. All these keep form, color and
properties, and many have even more elegant shapes than our own
indigenous animals. . . .

Instances of heavy cattle have ever been found in our country.
Fattened oxen weighing 3,000 pounds have not been rare for three
hundred j'cars, nor cows which produced from 1,200 to 1,800
pounds of meat and fat. Young cattle, fattened by grazing or
otherwise, produce flesh regularly interlarded with fat. This fat is
interspersed all over in'equal proportions between the tissues, and
even somewhat accumulated in those places which contain the most
fat when they are full grown. . . .

40 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE.

Finall}', we can point to the excellent qualities of the products,
milk, meat, butter and cheese. Our cattle belong to the best and
most profitable of all known breeds and are to be preferred to all
others, because these qualities are all united in one and the same
individual specimen ; so that a young heifer can be made equally
well a valuable milch cow and a fat heavy animal, as after being
milked she has the faculty of becoming weighty if rationally
treated.

These two points of excellence, large milk producing and easy
fattening qualities, united in the same animal, are more common
than is generally known, and only an ill-advised self-interest would
be able to render it less so by a too one-sided way of breeding,
which, we hope, will be guarded against, in which case our cattle
will not only retain these valuable properties, but they may be made
more productive still.

The first importations of Holland cattle undoubtedly came
to America with the early Holhind settlers, and the effect of
their superior dairy qualities has benefited many a generation
down to the present day. Old farmers, in speaking of some
famous milker of forty years ago, are very apt to say, " She
was a real good, old-fashioned Dutch cow." The first accu-
rate description of an importation of them is found in the
Diary of Samuel S. Forman, one of the first who settled in
Cazenovia in 1793. He describes this importation, sent out
to John Lincklean, Agent of the Holland Land Company, at
Cazenovia, Madison County, N. Y., in 1795. The descrip-
tion so well fits the Holstein of to-day, we give it verbatim :
"About this time [1795 J the Holland Land Compan}^ sent
to Mr. Lincklean eight head of Dutch cattle, six of which
were cows. The first winter after their arrival in New York
I think they were kept in Bergen, in Jersey. The cows were
the size of oxen ; their colors were clear black and white,
not spotted, but large patches of the two colors ; very hand-
some bodies and straight limbs ; horns middling size, but
gracefully set ; their necks were seemingly too slender to
carry their heads ; their disposition mild and docile. For
some reason or other they did not do well and entirely ran
out. Some supposed that the country was too new, the
pasturage different from what they had been accustomed to.
The company went to an enormous expense with these

HOLSTEm CATTLE. 41

cattle. A groom was sent along for the express purpose of
taking care of them."

It fell to the lot of the writer to make the next importation
of cattle from Holland for Madison County, N. Y., seventy-
five years later, and the description of the importation of the
last century is an accurate one of the importation of 1869,
with one exception ; the animals imported in 18(39 did re-
markabl}'^ well and exceeded all previous milk records made
in that section of the State.

In Vol. I., H. H. B., the late Winthrop W. Chenery says :
'' Holstein cattle were introduced into this country about the
year 1G25, by the West India Company, and other importa-
tions were subsequently made into the State of New York
by the early Dutch settlers there. At a later date, about
1810, the late Hon. Wm. Jarvis brought over a bull and two
cows, which he placed on his farm in Weathersfield, Vermont,
where they were bred successfully for a time and acquired a
good local reputation ; but several years previous to the
death of ]\Ir. Jarvis, in 1859, the pure blood of his importa-
tion became extinct."

Allen says ; " The late Mr. Herman Le Roy of New York
imported some improved Dutch cattle into that city and kept
them on a farm in its vicinity. Some of them were, about
the years 1827-29, sent to the ftirm of his son, the late
Edward A. Le Roy, on the Genesee River in that State.
We saw them and their produce there in 1833. They were
large, \^ell-shaped cattle, black and white in color and re-
markable for their uncommon yield of milk. In the herds
of both father and son the pure breed was lost. It is to be
regretted that the blood of these importations should have
been so soon lost by lack of interest in their propagation.
They were of great value as dairy animals, as their qualities
in that line were universally acknowledged where they were
knovvn."

The next importations were made by the late Winthrop
W. Chenery of Belmont, Mass., in 1852, 1857, 1859 and
18G1.

Mr. Chenery was the first to esta])lish and maintain a
purely bred herd of this valuable breed in America. The
startling milk and butter records made by cows in his herd,

42 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

viz., "Texellaar" (51, H. H. B.), 76 pounds, 5 ounces of
milk in one day, 744 pounds. 12 ounces in ten days, 4,018
pounds 14 ounces in sixty-three days and 17 pounds
14 ounces of butter in six days, together with the rapid
growth and great weight attained by other individuals, viz.,
"Van Tromp" (50, H. H. B.), at six years old, weight
2,720 pounds; " Opperdoes 7th" (32, H. H. B), two
years old, 1,597 pounds; "Lady Midwould" (17, 11. II.
B.), 1,G20 pounds, created a very wide-spread interest in
this breed, — an interest that has been growing wider and
stronger ever since.

We are indebted to Mr. Chenery, not onlj^ for establishing
a high reputation for Holsteins in this country, but also for
giving us a herd book by means of which we have been able
to keep the breed pure during the past twenty-five years.

The next importation, known as the Miller importation,
was made in October, 1869. It consisted of a bull and three
cows. They were kept on the farm of the writer in Peter-
borough, Madison County, N. Y., and there made the first
annual Holstein records that were published in this country.
" Dowager's" (7, H. H. B.) record of 12,681^ pounds in 365
days was considered a wonderful performance in those days.
A few years later "Crown Princess" (6, H. H. B.) gave
14,027 pounds in one year and 76 pounds in one day. From
this importation came such noted animals as "Rip Van
Winkle" (35, H. H. B.), " Aegis" (69, H. H. B.), record,
90 pounds 6 ounces in one da}^ 16,823 pounds 10 oi^ices in
one year, and 19 pounds 10^ ounces of butter in seven
days; "Aegis 2d" (235, H. H. B.), record, 79 pounds in
one day, 17,943 pounds 2 ounces in one year, 23 pounds 7|
ounces of butter in seven days and 96 pounds 3\ ounces in
thirty days; and "Echo" (121, H. H B.), who led the
world with largest animal milk record for several years, and
her record of 23,775 pounds still leads the records of Am-
erican-bred cows.

During the next five years, 1870-75, importations were
made by gentlemen living in Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, New York and New Jersey. Among them was the
Whiting importation, made conspicuous by the part it played
in the long controversy that Mr. Whiting commenced

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 43

regarding the use of the name " Holstein," as applied to
this breed. In each of these importations there were animals
of marked excellence for dairy purposes.

From 1875 to 1880 importations were made each year, in
rather small lots ; but during the next five years, 1880-85,
thousands were imported for the Southern, Western, Middle
and Eastern States. Finally the Hollanders began bringing
their cattle to this country and selling them at a small ad-
vance. They were willing to do this business at so slight a
profit that there was no longer any temptation in it for Am-
ericans, and the result is, Plollanders have imported most
of the animals brought to this country during the past year
or two.

In 1872 the " Association of Breeders of Thoroughbred
Holstein Cattle" was formed, with Winthrop W. Chcnery
president, William A. KusscU, C. C. Walworth and Thomas
B. Wales, Jr., vice-presidents, and Charles Houghton secre-
tary and treasurer. The first volume of the Holstein Herd
Book, containing a record of the Holstein cattle in the
United States, was published the same year. This was the
first herd book for this breed ever published. It contained
a record of 61 bulls and 67 cows ; total, 128. The second
volume was published in 1875, and carried the number
of bulls to 171 and the number of cows to 234 ; total,
405. During the time that elapsed between the publication
of these two volumes, the controversy over the name
" Holstein " commenced and continued up to 1885, when the
"Dutch Friesian Associa4;ion " (an ofispring of the contro-
versy) and the " Holstein Association" joined forces under
the name of " Holstcin-Friesian Association."

Volume IX. of the Holstein Herd Book was published in
1885, ten years after Volume II. During that time the
number of recorded animals increased from 405 to 15,224,
a gain of 14,819.

The first volume of the Holstein-Friesian Herd Book
records 5,687 animals. At the present time there are
probably over 25,000 animals recorded in the Holstein,
Dutch Friesian and Holstcin-Friesian Herd Books. They
have been tried in every State of the Union, the Territories,
Canada, Nova Scotia, Mexico and Central America, and we

44 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

have yet to learn of a single State where they have not
proved a success. This is certainly a remarkable result, and
speaks vohimes for the general utility of the breed.

In the foregoing it is clearly shown that the Holstein has
been noted for its excellence in the dairy and as a beef
animal daring many centuries.

It was no experhnent for Americans to bring these cattle
to this country and place them in their dairies ; success was
assured from the fact that the small country of Holland,
in the year 1864, possessed about 900,000 milch coavs, and
during that year exported 32,000,000 pounds of butter and
61,000,000 pounds of cheese. The population of New York
was about the same as that of Holland ; the whole number
of cattle of all sorts in that State in 1870 was about 700,000.
The whole amount of butter exported from the United States
from June, 1869, to June, 1870, was 2,039,488 pounds, and
of cheese 47,296,323 pounds. There were undoubtedly as
many milch cows in the United States as there were in Hol-
land, and it is certain the Hollanders eat two or three times
as much cheese, per capita, as the Americans do, and still
Holland exported 43,664,189 pounds of butter and cheese
more than we did. This result could not have been attained
except for the pre-eminent fitness of Holland cows for the
dairy.

During the past thirty years there has been more attention
given to making careful experiments in feeding cattle for
milk, butter, cheese and beef, than ever before, and by re-
ferring to the records of these tests and trials we are able to
compare with considerable accuracy the merits, not only of
individual animals, but of families and breeds. The first
annual milk record made by a Holstein in this country was
that of " Dowager " (7, H. H. B.), viz., 12,681^ pounds;
this was sixteen years ago, and at that time was the largest
annual record published of any cow, of any breed. Two or
three years later "Crown Princess" (6, H. H. B.) gave
14,027 pounds in one year; then came " Maid of Twish "
(1, D. F. H. B.), with a record of 15,969f pounds, followed
by "Lady Clifden " (159, H. H. B.), with a record of
16,275 pounds. Soon after this "Aaggie" (901, H. H.
B.) surprised the world with a record of 18,004 pounds

HOLSTEIX CATTLE. 45

15 ounces in one year; this was considered about the
limit, but was soon followed by " Aaggie 2d" (1360, H. H.
B.) with a record of 17,74(5 pounds 2 ounces, as a two
years old. Then the famous "Echo" (121, H. H. B.)
came to the front with a record of 18,120 pounds 8
ounces. During the next year, 1884, the annual record was
beaten by "Violet" (743, H. H. B.), with a record of
18,677 pounds 4 ounces, soon followed by "Empress"
(539, H. H. B.), with a record of 19,714^ pounds; but
"Echo" (121, H. IT. B.) came to the front again with a
record of 28,7751^ pounds, thus beating best previous records
two years in succession. Her last record remained at the
head more than two years, until it was beaten by the wonder-
ful "Clothilde" (1308, H. H. B.), with 26,021 pounds 2
ounces in one year. During all these years there was not a
cow of any other breed able to equal the standard established
by the Holstein, and it must be borne in mind that, numeri-
cally, the Holstein is a small minority among the dairy
breeds in America.

In addition to these remarkable annual records, there have
been equally surprising daily records made. Starting with
"Texellaar " (51, H. H. B.), 76 pounds 5 ounces in one day,
we have the following: "Johanna" (344, H. H. B.), 78
pounds ; "Aaggie" (901, H. H. B.) , 84| pounds ; " Ondine"
(828, H. H. B.^, 90.V pounds; "Jantje" (2221, H. H. B.),
90^ pounds; "Lady Eva" (161 H. H. B.), 92 pounds;
"Bexje" (6340, H. H. B.), 93^ pounds; "Mink" (702, H.
H. B.), 96 pounds ; "Ehoda" (434, H. H. B.), 96| pounds ;
"Copia" (1067, H. H. B.), 97 pounds; "Ethelha" (1208,
IL H. B.), 101 pounds; "Sultana" (1032, H. H. B.), 101^
pounds, and "Jamaica" (1336, II. H. B.), 112 pounds 2
ounces. Then there are many records made by tAVO years'
old heifers, such as "Aaggie 2d" (1360, H. H. B.), 61
pounds 5 ounces ; " Tritomia" (4004, H. II. B.) , 74i pounds,
and "Constance S." (3057, H. H. B.), 83 pounds. " The list
could ho extended embracing many large records, but this
is sufficient to establish the fact that the Holstein, as a milk
producer, is the superior of all other dairy breeds.

Now let us consider the quality of this milk. It has been
subjected to chemical analysis repeatedly with favorable

46

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

results ; but in these cases generally the milk of a few cows
only was analyzed, and the result does not indicate quality
for the whole breed as accurately as the more practical tests
made with the cheese-vat and churn, using the milk of many
cows. To begin with, we know Holland exports millions of
pounds of butter annually, and this butter is frequently
quoted at the highest price in English markets, competing
with Jersey and Guernsey butter. We are told it has been
sold for one dollar per pound. This is a good, wholesale
indorsement for quality, as far as the Holland product is
concerned.

In America many analyses of Holstein milk have been
made, and inasmuch as the first one published is a fair crite-
rion of all, we will refer to that one only. Winthrop W.
Chenery sent four samples of milk from his Holsteins to
Prof. A. A. Hayes, Massachusetts State Assayer, to be
analyzed. Professor Hayes says : "The cans containing the
evening milking of the cows reached me early on the fol-
lowing morning. Each can was sealed and accompanied by
a certificate of Mr. George H. Nichols, superintendent of
Mr. Chenery 's farm, who had put the milk in the cans. On
opening the cans immediately, the milk in each was found
fresh and cool, and its delicate organization uninjured. All
the samples at 60° F. were from one-half to one degree
above the average of Orange County milk by lactometer.

' ' One thousand parts by volume afforded the following
weights of constituents in samples : —

No. 1.

No. 2.

No. 3.

No. 4.

Texellaar.

Lady
Midwould.

Zuider Zee.

Maid of
Oppcrdoes.

Water (produced), .

850.20

879.30

874.40

869.59

Caseine and albumen,

55.40

38.15

48.01

49.68

Sugar and salt,

44.40

44.84

42.04

36.75

Pure butter,

47.50

33.96

32.50

40.23

Phosphates, as bone phos.,

2.50

3.75

3.05

3.75

1000.00

1000.00

1000.00

1000.00

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 47

"These milks, and especially jSTo. 1, contain a larger quan-
tity of albuminous matter than any samples which I have
analyzed. This substance, found in all good milk, cannot
be separated from the caseine so as to enable us to "weigh it,
and I have been compelled to include it with the caseine
found. The albuminous substance is not only highly nutri-
tious as a diet, but in the cases of the samples it confers a
singular constitution on the milk, considered as an organized
secretion. It divides the pure fatty part of the milk in a
way to prevent it from rising in the form of cream copiously,
and holds a part of it in what would be the skimmed milk,
rendering it necessary, in order to obtain all the butter, thai
the milk, instead of the cream, should be churned. But its
office has a more important connection with the actual nutri-
tive power of the milk, which it increases greatly in two
ways : 1st, It is itself a highly nitrogenized product. 2d,
It is in these milks so balanced in connection with the butter
as to be easily assimilated and digested without coagulation.
These are valuable properties in their relation to the rearing
of the young of the human or animal species, and I should
expect to find these milks to possess fattening properties to
an extraordinary degree, as indicated by the analysis."

These milks were also analyzed by Dr. C. T. Jackson of
Boston, Mass., with similar results. And, for the purpose
of comparison with European analyses of milk, he cites, in
his report, analyses of cows' milk by Boussingault and Pog-
giale, and says, "By comparing the analysis of your cows'
milk with theirs, you will perceive that your samples are
richer than those analyzed by Boussingault and Poggiale, and
you will also observe that the milk of your cows is specially
adapted to making cheese, since it is unusually rich in
caseine, which is the basis of cheese,"

For practical tests we refer to the report of Mr. I. E.
Grant, an owner of several butter and cheese factories in the
best dairy section of Illinois. Mr. Grant says, "The dairies
in this locality are composed of mixed grades and natives,
the grades being chiefly of Short-horn, Ayrshire and Jersey
crosses ; and comparing them with dairies in the vicinity of
my other factories farther north in this county, and those in
the vicinity of Elgin, I think them fully up to the average.

48 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

Having the milk of the noted large herd of full-blood Hol-
steins imported by Geo. E. Brown & Co. of Aurora, among
that of other patrons, I determined some time ago to insti-
tute a careful comparison of the Holstein milk with that of
other dairies. We have noticed all summer that our testers
(cream gauges) showed in favor of the Holstein milk, and
therefore were prepared for the favorable showing in the
recent experiments. I set the milk of Holstein cows (about
fifty head) by itself, and in precisely the same manner as
the other milk, the cream churned separately and the cheese
also made by itself, and all in the same way, as I wished, for
my own satisfaction, to make the trial strictly impartial.
From 100 pounds of Holstein milk I averaged four and one-
sixteenth pounds of butter and seven and forty-seven one-
hundredths pounds of cheese. The butter was very firm
and No. 1 in all respects, and the cheese of very superior
quality. From my other milk I averaged thi"ee pounds of
butter and seven pounds of cheese per 100 pounds of milk.
The Holstein milk produced. fourteen per cent, cream and
the other eleven to twelve per cent. The Holstein milk is
drawn three miles, and the other ranging from half a mile to
four miles. In both cases the night and morning milk were
mixed and re-set, and, of course, we could not gain as favor-
able results from either as we could have done if we liad had
the milk fresh from the cows ; and I tliink that treatment
operated more against the Holstein milk than against the
other, for the reason that the Holstein milk is more dense
than the other, and hence the cream would not again sep-
arate so readily ; but this peculiarity in the Holstein milk is
offset by another which I have noticed particularly — it is,
that it is the best keeping milk I ever handled, therefore it
can be held longer, a fact that ought to operate in its favor
for marketing.

" Until recently I have had only a portion of the Messrs.
Brown's Holstein milk, but so well am I satisfied with the
quality of the milk for both butter and cheese, that I have
contracted for the whole product, paying them the highest
market price and a handsome bonus per cow, and we will do
the same to others bringing us the same quality of milk."

Mr. S. Aiken of Decorah, Iowa, says, " I submit here-

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 49

with a copy of a statement made this day hy the inspector
of the cream routes of Beard & Sons, which includes most
of those who sell cream in this county, as well as a o-ood
many in Fillmore County, Minn., and some in Howard
County, la. They operate three creameries in this county."

Decorah, Iowa, Dec. 15, 1882.
This is to certify that as inspector for tlie creameries of Wm. Beard
and Sons, I have inspected all the dairies contributing to said creameries,
and I find the cream of Mr. S. Aikens' Holstein herd of cows fully equal'
in quantity to the average of other dairies on my routes, and I think
superior in quality to any I have examined ; have examined the milk in
the early fall and again on this date. C. W. Pilgrim.

I, being the collector on the same route, fully corroborate the above
statement of Mr. C. W. Pilgrim. T. A. Boyd.

The above tests are valuable because they were made by
practical men of wide experience in the dairy business, coni-
paring large quantities of Holstein milk with milk from good
cows representing the dairy breeds, and their experience coin-
cides with that of many other l)utter and cheese makers in
different States of the Union.

A large number of Holsteins have made very creditable
butter records during the past few years, but we will. call
attention to only a few of the prominent ones. First we
have *'Texellaar " (51, H. H. B.), with a record of 17 poimds
14 ounces in six days ; then comes the champion butter cow
"Mercedes" (723, H. H. B.), whose record of 99 pounds
G.| ounces in thirty days not only exceeded all previous
records, but won the " Breeders' Gazette " cup, which was
offered for the best thirty days' butter record made by any
cow of any breed, between July 1, 1882, and July 1, 1883.
In this trial "Mercedes" had as a competitor tiie famous
Jersey cow, "Mary Ann of St. Lamberts," whose record
came next to the Holsteins. "Overlooper" (162(5, H. H.
B.) has a record of 21 pounds 10 ounces in seven days;
"Tietje 2d" (726, H. H. B.), 20 pounds; "Mink" (402,'
H. H. B.), 20 pounds 9 ounces ; " Nethcrland Queen " (414,
H. H. B.), 20 pounds; "Praiiie Flower" (962, H. H. B.),
20 pounds 1 oimce; "Lily" (964, H. H. B.), 21 pounds
4| ounces; "Georgic" (944, H. H. B.), 21 pounds 15),

50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

ounces; "Oatka" (945, H. H. B.), 22 pounds 8|- ounces ;
"Sadie Vail" (958, H. H. B.), 21 pounds 10 ounces;
«' Star" (2345, H. H. B.), at two years old, made 15 pounds
13 ounces in seven days ; and " Wanda" (2283, H. H. B.),
at two years old, 16 pounds 15 ounces ; " Princess of Wayne
3d" (1315, H. H. B.), at three years old, made 18 pounds
12 ounces in seven days and 76 pounds 12| ounces in thirty
days ; " Aegis 2d" (235, H. H. B.), 23 pounds 7| ounces in
seven days and 96 pounds 3^ ounces in thirty days ; " Neiltje
Korndyke " (9, D. F. H. B.), 241 pounds in seven days and
95| pounds in thirty days ; " Princess of Wayne" (954, H.
H. B.), 22 pounds 9 ounces in seven days and 91 pounds
one-half ounce in thirty days. Several others have also made
over 90 pounds of butter in thirty days.

We will close these records with calling attention to two
marked performances: " Aaggie 2d" (1360, H. H. B.), as
a five years' old, made 26 pounds 7 ounces of butter in seven
days, 105 pounds 10^ ounces in thirty days and 304 pounds
5| ounces in ninety days. This, we believe, is the largest
amount of butter ever produced in ninety days by any cow.
" Tritomia " (4004, H. H. B. ) , four years old, recently made
25 pounds of butter in seven days and 36 pounds in ten days.
We think this leads all records for cows of this age. "Trito-
mia" has won other honors for Holsteins lately. At the Min-
nesota Fair a prize was offered for ' ' cows giving milk from
which the most butter is made." There were 8 registered
Jerseys, 1 grade Jersey and 7 registered Holsteins compet-
ing. Mr. D. W. Curtis conducted the tests and the prize
was won by "Tritomia." The Holsteins ranked, 1st, 2d,
3d, 4th, 5th, 7th and 8th, leaving the 6th place to a Jersey.
This is certainly a conspicuous victory.

At the West Virginia Exposition and State Fair, last Sep-
tember, prizes were offered for best butter cows ; the tests
were made in the presence of a committee of the Fair Board
and were conducted by Mr. P. H. Kimball of Vermont, an
expert butter maker, selected to test the butter qualities of
cows at this exhibition, comprising Holsteins, Friesians, Jer-
seys, Ayrshires and Red Norfolk Polls. The first prize for
aged cows went to " Nora of Oatfield" (10,399, H. H. B.).
First prize for two years' old heifers went to "Isidora" (985

HOLSTEIN CATTLE.

51

H. F. H. B. ), and second prize went to " Durkje V of Ohio "
(H. F. H. B.).

Holstein butter has been awarded highest honors at many
county and State fairs. At the American Dairy Show of
1885, prizes were offered for butter breeds of cattle. We
copy from ' ' Breeders' Gazette :" ' ' The report of the Ameri-
can Dairy Show held in Chicago last November gives the
following as the average score on butter made from the milk
of several pure breeds of cattle competing. The awards
were made by an expert, with the following scale of points :
Flavor, 40 ; grain, 30 ; color, 15 ; salting, 10 ; style of pack-
ing, 5 ; total, 100.

oo

B

S

a

BREED.

»

to

g,

vi

o

c

f^

B

•

s

o

.5

Z

o

i>i

^

E«

o

U

CO

03

E->

Jersey,

9

31

26

10

8

5

80

Holstein,

3

33

27

11

8

3

82

Short-horn,

4

30

26

10

8

5

79

Hereford, .

1

32

25

10

7

5

79

*' It will be seen that the butter from Holstein cows made
the highest score, and exceeds that made by Jersey cows by
two points. The Jersey butter was placed second by the
judges, and the butter from Hereford and Short-horn cows
takes the third place."

We call attention to the fact that the Holsteins scored four
more points than the Jerseys on the items flavor, grain and
color, losing two on the less important item, style of packing.

The foregoing testimony is convincing proof, and estab-
lishes the fact that the Holstein gives milk of good quality
and is capable of producing as much butter as any breed.

There seems to be a degree of discomfort felt by some
owners of the butter breeds, lest the Holstein should prove
to be the greatest butter producer of them all, and I notice
they are wont to console themselves by decrying the quality
of Holstein milk, calling it " skim milk," etc. One promi-

52 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

nent breeder, who writes frequently in the interest of his
favorites, tells us he added water to the milk of his cows to
make it equal in value to -Holstein milk. In view of the
butter records and tests mentioned above, would it not be
wisdom on the part of such breeders to sell a portion of their
cows and buy pumps in their stead?

We have considered the dairy feature of the Holstein
quite thoroughly, now let us look at the beef feature. This
breed is undoubtedly a corner-stone of the famous Short-
horn, the greatest of all beef breeds, and it makes more rapid
growth than any other. Mature animals often weigh 2,500
to 3,000 pounds, two year olds, over 2,000 pounds and
yearlings over 1,500 pounds. " Jaap 4th" (1337, H. H.
B.) weighed at eleven months 1,200 pounds ; "Emporium"
(855, H. F. H. B.), at seven months, 850 pounds. A hardy
constitution and mild disposition enables the Holstein to
make such rapid gain. The quality of beef is excellent, the
fat beins well distributed throuo^h the lean.

While we regard this ability to make rapid growth and
take on flesh readily, a very valuable feature in the breed,
we hope there will be no attempt on the part of American
breeders to make the beef feature of more importance than
the dairy. The Holstein is pre-eminently fitted for the dairy,
with an excellent beef combination ; so let it remain.

The Chairman. Now, we have all the time there is, and
we want to make the most of it. It is to be regretted that
Mr. Miller is not here to answer the questions which might
be propounded, unless the Secretary will stand in his place
and undertake to answer questions. But there are many
here interested in this breed of cattle, and I have no doubt
that an interesting and profitable discussion may be carried
on for about half an hour.

Mr. Edson of Barnstable. We all know that Holsteins
are much larger than Jersey cattle, consequently thc}^ must
eat a great deal more. We should have a record of the food
of these cattle and the food of the Jersey cattle, in order to
ascertain which is the most profitable. We would not think
of taking a factory with a thousand spindles and comparing
the manufactured articles that come out of that factory with

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 53

the articles that come out of one that has two thousand
spindles. We all know the Holsteins are much larger
and require a great deal more feed to produce more milk and
butter than the Jerseys, which are not more than two-thirds
the size of the Holsteins. It seems to me the paper lacks
that one element.

Mr. CusHMAN of Lakeville. I would like to inquire of the
last gentleman if he has ever fed Holsteins and Jerseys
side by side in his stables and noted the extra quantity of
food the Holsteins consume in comparison with the Jerseys ?

Mr. Edsox. I never have.

Mr. CusHMAN. I think the gentleman is not, perhaps, alone
among the farmers of our Commonwealth in his impression
that the Holstein breed consumes more hay and grain per
hundred pounds of live weight than some of the other breeds,
particularly the Jerseys. I must admit that my experience
with this breed of cattle has been limited. Two years asfo
I wintered nineteen bead of imported Holsteins, and I have
now in my possession six thoroughbreds. It has always
been my pleasure, wherever I have had an opportunity, to
visit herds of this breed. I have taken great pains to con-
verse with the owners, and I have noted individual animals in
my own stable. I have to-day high-bred Jersey and Ayr-
shires standing by the side of two imported Holstein cows.
I have failed to note that those thoroughbred imported cows
have consumed more fodder than the cows of the other
breeds. They certainly have not of grain, from the fact
that they have had equal rations with the other cows. Those
three-year-old Holstein cows that I imported are the two
cows that are giving me more milk now than any other two
cows out of twenty that stand in my stable.

It would bo a waste of time to review the points that have
been so admirably brought out in the paper to which we
have listened, but perhaps I will dwell for a moment upon
the idea that has always been prominent before the Massa-
chusetts farmer, that there was no one cow that was the cow
for all purposes. We are a beef-consuming people here in
Massachusetts ; we want something in a cow that shall make
her valuable at the shambles after she has done well at
the dairy. I believe that in the Holstein cow we come

54 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

nearer to our ideal of such a cow than in any other one
breed. It is folly for us to compare the Holstein cow with
the Jersey cow in her butter-producing qualities, or with the
Short-horn or Devon in her beef qualities. Those, gentle-
men, are specialties of each of those breeds. But what the
Holstein breeders claim, — and I believe, from my limited ex-
perience, that they claim it with justice and truth, — is that
the Holstein cow combines the excellencies of those several
breeds more fully than any other one breed. And, further,
my observation and experience have proved to me that a
Holstein cow will stand more abuse in her treatment than a
cow of any other breed. You may say that that is not a
redeeming quality, but those farmers before me who are
obliged — and we all are who keep large dairies — to trust
our animals to the care of inexperienced and careless men
will appreciate its value. Is there a man here who has ever
owned a herd of twenty cows of the Jersey or Ayrshire
breed who has not had one or more of those animals
rendered entirely worthless by ill-treatment? Now, a Hol-
stein cow is remarkably patient. They are the best-disposi-
tioned breed of animals that I have ever handled. They are
quiet in the stable and in the pasture, and combine all the
good qualities of all the breeds that I have ever had any ex-
perience with in a remarkable degree, and I have yet to be
convinced that it takes more provender to produce a pound
of butter or a quart of milk from a Holstein than from a
cow of any other breed .

Mr. Ware of Marblehead. The question that has been
broached is a very important one, and one that seems to be
a mystery to all who have been in the habit of feeding beef
or dairy cattle. That an animal so large as a Holstein cow
will not consume substantially more food than a Jersey or
Ayrshire cow, which is so much smaller, is surprising. Yet
that is the testimony of the gentleman who has just taken his
seat, and it is the testimony of a great may feeders and
breeders of Holsteins with whom I have talked. At a meet-
ing which was held a few weeks ago in Boston on the dairy
question, Mr. Houghton of New Hampshire was present to
advocate the breeding of Holstein cattle. He made a similar
statement, and I asked him if he could account in any way

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 55

for the fact stated, that a Holstein cow, which was so large,
would not consume materially more food than these other
animals. I do not mean weight for weight, but the animals
themselves. This testimony we have had repeatedly ; and,
as I say, I asked Mr. Houghton if he could account for it.
He said that from his information and observation he was
decidedly of the opinion that the Holstein cattle had the
power of greater assimilation of nutrition from the food
they consumed. If that is the case, which observation seems
to prove, it is one of the most remarkable and valuable
features of the breed that has been developed, and it seems
to me that that must be so. I remember visiting: Mr.
Chenery's stock at Belmont, the first importation, and the bulls
there seemed to me very large. I said to the man who had
them in charge, " You have got some very fine animals here
apparently, and the amount of milk thatj^ou say those animals
give" (he pointed to several) " is enormous ; but," said I,
" the amount of food that those animals consume must be in
proportion to that great amount of milk." He told me then,
very much to my surprise, and I did not then believe it, that
those cows did not consume any more food than ordinary cows.
I supposed he was there to advertise his stock, and made the
statement for that purpose, and it did not have any effect
upon me ; but the evidence that has come to us from all
quarters with regard to this breed of cows is such that I
think we must take it as a fact that they do not require
very much more food than ordinary cows ; and this must
be the reason, that they have the power of greater assimila-
tion. Our veterinary surgeons ought to take hold of that
point, our Experiment Station should work upon it, because
it seems to me that it is a great matter for us to consider
and decide.

All gentlemen who have had experience in feeding horses
have observed this, that of two horses of equal size, doing
the same work, one may require double the amount of grain
to keep him in condition. I have observed it, and I have an
illustration of it on my own farm at the present time. The
explanation of that must be that one animal has greater
power of assimilation of the food that it eats than another,
and that makes one animal very much more valuable than

56 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

another. I have in my stable at home two horses of about
equal size, and one of them certainly requires double the
amount of grain that the other does ; but being a very valuable
animal for doing all sorts of business, I prize that horse very
highly, notwithstanding it takes such a large quantity of food
to keep it in condition. It is because that animal does not
assimilate its food as the other one does. It is more observ-
able, I think, in horses than perhaps in any other animals
that we feed. But here is the Holstein breed that is coming
up and presents this remarkable fact (I think we must accept
it as a fact) , that they do not consume food in proportion to
their size like other animals. They get along with less, and
it must be on account of their greater ability to assimilate.

The Chairman. The principal object in keeping cows is
to make money, I suppose. Now, in regard to this breed,
there are a good many here that know something about it.
There is a gentleman here who has just sold a cow for a thou-
sand dollars. Some of the farmers would like to know how
that is done. They would like to do it every day in the week
if they could. I will call upon Mr. Harwood to tell us how
it is done.

Mr. Harwood of Barre. The sale of that cow for a thou-
sand dollars was as much a surprise to me as to anybody.
The only thing about selling anything is, to have an article
that is worth the price you ask for it ; you will find a cus-
tomer and get what you ask. If I had asked more I should
have got it, probably. Of that I am not sure, but I am sure
that it did not take me five minutes to sell that cow.

In regard to the amount of food required to keep Holsteins
in comparison with Jerseys and other breeds, I will refer to
a remark that was made to me by Mr. Youngmans, the elder,
of the firm of Youngmans & Son, who owned the cow Aggie
2d, which, as has been reported, made just ninety pounds of
milk a day for a year. Mr. Youngmans says, "I can easily
believe that the amount of butter was made from that cow
that is reported, but a more difficult matter to believe is that
she only ate the amount of food which she is reported to
have eaten," I have had some experience in feeding a cow
which has made a greater record than Clothilde at the end of
six months, which is as far as the record has gone. Koninger

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 57

Van Frieslaud 3d is reported to have made a record of
13,658j^^g pounds in six months, beating Clotliilde by 250
pounds. She was sent to my place a year ago to be served,
and was given sixteen pounds a day, half shorts and half
ij-round oats. Another larije cow alonijside of her, that
would weigh more than that cow, I have never been able to
get to eat more than twelve quarts of that mixture in a day ;
and any one who has had experience in feeding knows that
animals can fill themselves with shorts and ground oats with
no material damage.

I do not know that any extended remarks on this subject
could add to what has been already said. I very much
regret that Mr. INIiller is not present to-day, for he could
present these points very much better than anybody else, as
he has been a long time in the business. But I would say
in regard to the statements which he has made, that I think
they can all be verified. I have had the pleasure of becom-
ing acquainted with the members of the Holstein-Friesian
Association very generally, and if there is any confidence to
be placed in men of large means, high character and reputa-
tion, those men are entitled to our confidence. I know of
no men of whose acquaintance I am more proud than of that
of the members of the Holstein-Friesian Association.

There is one record which has been reported possibly since
Mr. Miller wrote his paper. Judge Dallas P. Whipple
of Cuba, N. Y., reports that the cow Nierop (2519, H. H.
B.) has given 116 pounds in one day.

The Chairman. I understand there is a gentleman pres-
ent whom many of us know by reputation, and from whom
we should all be glad to hear. I refer to Mr. Houghton of
Putney, Vt.

Mr. Houghton. • I think that all that can be said in favor
of the Holstein breed has been said. We claim for them all
the good qualities that can be claimed for any breed. I can
only regret that Mr. Miller is not i)resent. He has been
abroad and might give us an interesting account of his expe-
riences in Holland. I sui)posc Avhatyou want to hear about
is whether there is any profit in keeping Holstein cattle.
At a Farmers' Meeting which 1 attended and to which JMr.
Ware made reference in his remarks. Dr. Loring made a

58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

statement to the effect that we had about reached the limit
of the profitable production of milk ; that it was no longer
of any use to keep a cow with a view to profit from her
milk, but simply to keep our farms in order and make our
lands rich. Well, I made the remark there, that if people
thought they could not realize any profit from keeping ordinary
cows, I hoped they would at least give the Holstein cow a
trial before they gave up. I think I may offer the same
advice to the gentlemen here present, although I do not
believe they are in any such condition as Dr. Loring
described most of the farmers of New England to be in with
regard to the raising of milk.

Mr. Barrus of Goshen. There are always two sides to a
question. I know in my own town a gentleman imported,
in 1873 or 1874, two Holstein cows and a bull. One of the
two cows would give from thirty to forty quarts per day. I
do not know what it would weigh ; probably from sixty-five
to eighty pounds. But that milk was good for nothing, com-
paratively, for butter. You could hardly get any butter from
the milk of either of the cows ; what you did get was very
poor indeed. The milk was good. One of those cows was
sold in Northampton, and the man kept her for a milch cow,
and she yielded the best of any cow that he had until she
was seventeen years old. He killed her last fall.

As far as the quiet nature of the animals is concerned, I
will say that I bought two imported bulls, one imported by
the gentleman to whom I have referred, and the other by the
Shakers of Enfield. They were in the market for a long
time, and I bought them at six years old. The pair weighed
3,800 pounds. There was very little difference in their
weight. I paid a hundred dollars for them ; one of them
was very vicious : it was as much as a man's life was worth
to take care of him. Our people have gone out of that
breed. They took their cows to those bulls, and there was
quite a large number that got into that stock to a consider-
able extent, but, as I say, they have all dropped them, with
one exception. Aside from that one herd, I do not know of
a single animal in our section of the country, although they
were distributed lai'gely around in three or four towns there.

Mr. Upton of Adams. I do not want to take up much

HOLSTEIN CATTLE. 59

time, but I would like to say a word upon this question of
feeding. I have never had an_)^hing to do with Holsteins,
but I have with other breeds and with grade Jerseys and
grade Ayrshires, and so I can say that I have had some
experience in the feeding of cattle. Last week I slaughtered
a grade Jersey cow ; she was a small cow, and I had a large
thoroughbred standing in the same stable, that looked very
large in comparison ; but this little cow would eat more food
than any other cow I ever saw in my life. I wondered where
she put it all. Her beef has cost me all of fifteen cents a
pound in her feed. My experience has been that those little
cattle will stow away as much food as any large cattle. I
could not account for it. But I think the explanation our
friend Ware has given is the true one.

A small horse that I had, weighing not more than nine
hundred pounds, would eat more than any other horse in my
stable to keep in fair condition. Then I have had larger
horses that required less food to keep them in first-rate con-
dition. I think the statement that has been made here is
true, that it does not cost much more to keep a large animal
than a small one. I have had fifty years' experience with
different breeds of cattle and horses, so I think I know
whereof I speak.

Mr. Houghton. I would like to ask the gentleman who
spoke of those ugly bulls if they were Holsteins.

Mr. Barrus. Yes, sir.

Mr. Houghton. By whom were they imported?

Mr. Barrus. One by the innocent Shakers of Enfield,
and the other by C. W. Adams of Goshen. I believe he is
now somewhere in the South.

Mr. Houghton. Were they handled in the ordinary way
we handle cattle?

Mr. Barrus. I cannot tell how they were handled pre-
vious to their coming here, but I know that the man had a
foreman on his farm that I wouldn't want to handle my cattle.

Mr. Houghton. That goes a long ways towards an ex-
planation. Of course we have exceptions in this breed as
well as in all others. We have occasionally an ugly animal.
I have a six-year-old bull now that weighs 2,500 pounds, that
I lead around by a nose-ring ; I would not advise a stranger

60 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

to do it, but it seems a perfectly proper thing for me to do,
because I know the animal. I think that case is entirely
exceptional. I think if you will look at the way they handle
those cattle in Holland, you will find that the}^ are generally
docile, or the Hollanders would not be apt to live with them
as they do. Their living-room extends right into the
stable, and they always take great care of the cattle. They
would not be likely to live with them in that way if they
were an ugly l)reed. Therefore I think that the case of the
Enfield cattle must be an exception.

BEEF FATTENING FOR THE NEW ENGLAND MARKET.

BT JOSEPH A. TITUS OF WORCESTER, MASS.

I wish to say before reading my paper, that after listening
to the paper which has been read, it appeared to mo that my
remarks might be somewhat less interesting, for the reason
that I cannot give details of the results, but as far as I know,
the attention of our farmers and agriculturists has not been
turned to the subject of fattening beef for our market to any
great extent, and I do not know that it ever will be ; but it is
my purpose in the paper that I propose to read, to throw out
some ideas which may lead to some experiments.

This title will doubtless cause a feeling of surprise in any
audience inside or outside New England.

The easy and cheap production of beef in the West has
produced an opinion that cattle-grazing on our hills is a thing
of the past, and an industry in which we of New England
have no practical interest. That there can be any pecuniary
return for it, is a matter which generally has no supporters.

Among our younger farmers and land-owners, the fact that
until within a comparatively short time New England raised
her own beef is almost unknown. Such, however, is the
fact, although it is not my purpose to attempt to show that
she can ever do the same thing again.

Mr. W. B. Von Richthofen has written a very interesting
and instructive Avork on " Cattle Raising on the Plains";
but while reading his book and endorsing his position as to
the great profit to be secured l)y those engaged in the busi-

BEEF FATTENING. 61

ness of caitle-raising , we must not forget that he has not
touched upon the theme which I propose to discuss at this
time.

He says of cattle-raising in the East, " The Eastern and
Middle States show a rapid decrease of cattle. The land
there is too dear to make the business of raising cattle pro-
fitable, and it pays the farmer better to turn all his attention
to the cultivation of cereals and vegetables.

" Although he will always be obliged to raise a few cattle,
he has already given up the idea of profitably raising herds, for
he remembers that he must pay for his pasture from fifty to
one hundred dollars per acre, and must raise hay and fodder
for his cattle, and that he has to compete with the herds
raised out West on pastures formerly worth nothing, and
now perhaps only two or three dollars per acre, on which
cattle thrive and fatten winter and summer without shelter."

We all subscribe to this summing up of the question of
comparison of the East and the West for cattle-raising. But
read Mr. Richthofen's book through, and you find no claim
that the cattle raised in this Western cattle El Dorado, on
this cheap soil, can be marketed in New England as good
wholesome beef, whether on the hoof or slaughtered.

Oar discussion relates to the subject of procuring good,
palatable beef for our own consumption.

Now passing the epoch of Eastern catt\e-raismg let us for
a moment take up the period with which most of us are
familiar, when Western cattle-raising became established,
and the New England market was supplied with Western
cattle shipped alive and slaughtered here.

Were there any difficulties attending that system? Did
we get good, wholesome l)ecf?

Mankind is so organized that the appetite for food demands
the 1)cst quality and the most exquisite flavor. Once the
taste has l)Ccomc settled upon the normal flavor of vegetable,
fruit or meat, it is not satisfied with any imitation or any
fault in the quality of food.

Oleomargarine is not butter, chiccory is not cofl'ee, nor
is tainted meat tolerable, or meat which has, by chemical
})rocess or faulty preparation, been deteriorated in quality.

But nmch more do we reject food which from any cause

62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

is unwholesome or contains the germs of poison, thereby
being and becoming dangerous and destructive of health,
and sometimes of life itself.

As it is so recently that the method of freighting to our
markets refrigerated beef, slaughtered in the West, has been
adopted, I may fairly assume that nearly all of my hearers
well remember the evils of the method first alluded to ; that
is, the freighting of live cattle to our markets.

The cattle reached us exhausted, bruised, fevered, with all
the delicious flavor and most of the nutriment of the flesh
extracted by natural absorption, which is nature's method of
furnishing sustenance to the animal when outside nourish-
ment is withdrawn.

Against this system the individual revolted, society re-
volted and the State revolted.

The Legishitures of several States decreed that cattle
shippers should furnish food and water to the cattle while
being transported through the borders of the several States
so legislating.

These laws turned the attention of the inventors to some
device for cattle transportation which would in the best and
cheapest way furnish food and water for the cattle.

I well remember seeing, some dozen years ago, a car load
of fourteen Texas steers unloaded at Washington Square in
Worcester, which had been shipped from Chicago in Aldrich's
compartment cattle car. They had been fed and watered at
regular intervals throughout the journey. There was not a
chafe or bruise upon them. They had shrunk in weight not
exceeding twelve pounds to the steer, and when they found
themselves once more on terra firma they were as frisky as
when standing on their native turf.

The success of the experiments was complete, for I may
add that I tasted the meat and found it as good as the best
home-fattened beef.

Meanwhile these experiments were being made for feeding
cattle in transitu. Calculations were also being made and
experiments tried for slaughtering the cattle West and send-
ing the carcasses in a frozen condition.

The expense of sending the cattle alive, and feeding and
watering them on the cars, was found to be greater than that

BEEF FATTENING. 63

of sending the carcasses, or else the enterprise of the advo-
cates of the latter method outstripped their competitors. In
any event, for the past few years we have been provided with
beef shipped in refrigerating cars.

What has been our experience ? Are we better off than
under the old way? I say no. Do you ask why? I reply,
at the present time the cattle slaughtered in Chicago must
be^got to the slaughter-houses from Texas and the Eastern
slopes of the Rocky iMountains, largely.

To reach their destination, most of them are driven and
carried as for, or farther, than under the old plan when cattle
were shipped from Chicago to Brighton, and they reach
Chicao-o in the same or a similar exhausted and diseased con-
dition as we found them in at Brighton. In that condition
they are killed at Chicago and then frozen and sent on to us.

Now if this frozen beef should undergo no further change,
we might congratulate ourselves on receiving our beef killed
and dressed at our very doors. But here our difficulties
commence again.

This beef, so prepared for our market, must of necessity
be handled by the wholesaler and the retailer. It must be
more or less exposed to the air and to a higher temperature,
and consequently undergo chemical changes not favorable to
the preservation of its quality and flavor.

The truth of my position can be fully ascertained by the
careful inspection of the beef at the city meat-stalls, first,
as to the condition of the animal when killed. Of course the
carcasses vary, but a large majority of them clearly show
no evidence that the animals were fat and in proper condition
when killed. It is not necessary to particularize as to the
indubitable proofs of fat beef. Every one familiar with beet
knows those peculiar indications of tender and well-flavored
beef.

The marketman will occasionally point with pride to the
round of beef w^hich needs no encomium to recommend it to
the purchaser. Such meat sells itself. Its flavor is distrib-
uted throughout, like plums in a Thanksgiving pudding.

But how much of such beef is ever received from Chicago?
As a housekeeper for eighteen years I have seen but little
of it.

64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

After talking with most of the retailers of my acquaintance
on the subject, I have found that, almost without exception,
they acknowledge the inferiority of the beef now in market
from the West. A few have not given attention to the matter,
and some are so young in the business and in years, that they
are ignorant of the true type of the beef of our fathers.

I will venture the assertion that any city boy or man, who
is blessed with a discriminating taste, will at once discover
the difference between home-fattened beef and Chicago beef.
I have had some of the latter which my dog could not be
persuaded to eat, and some so much worse than that, that it
has been buried in the earth to prevent the creation of a
nuisance in the neighborhood.

This has come about in this way. The retailer has, most
of the time, pieces of meat, never inviting to his customers,
which lie in his refrigerator or on his bench, often shifted
from one place to another, until at length, to save them from
utter loss, and thinking that a strong brine might conceal
their age or renew their youth, he has transferred them to
the corning vat and sold them for corned beef. They deceive
the best of us, while in the market ; but once put them into
the kettle and attempt to cook them, the deception vanishes.
They speak for themselves, and declare, in never-to-be-mis-
taken language, that between themselves and the human
family there is no possible affinity.

I could cite facts in regard to this Western beef as now
delivered to us, which, while startling, would only go to show
that under the most favorable conditions our beef is not what
is good, or at least the best, for consumption.

I shall not attempt to explain the chemical changes that
take place in this Western beef after it is first frozen. I
leave that to another occasion and to the investigations of
an expert scientist, and would be glad, for curiosity's sake,
to have written down, for my rapt contemplation, the chem-
ical history of some beef which has fallen under my observa-
tion.

But, you say, " Why this condemnation of our food, which
must be our subsistence, whether or no?"

Can you suggest a remedy? Is there any help for us?

I am here to make some suggestions, which are the result

BEEF FATTENING. 65

of much thought and inquny, and which I offer not as a
developed and patented scheme, but rather as food for your
consideration, and perhaps tending tp lead to some useful
and practicalsolution of the question as to how we may he
able to have wholesome and nutritious beef for consumption .

I will say at this point, that the first thing that attracted
my attention to any remedy for the evil I have referred to
was the recital to me of certain facts relating to the disposi-
tion of unmarketable cattle brought to Brighton from Chi-
cago.

It appeared that a gentleman in this county, possessed of
considerable pasture land, has been for some years in the
habit of buying at Brighton these unmarketable cattle, that
is, cattle that arrived in a bruised and somewhat diseased
condition, and driving them to his pastures for a few weeks
pasturing. That the enterprise had been lucrative to him-
self, and that he was thereby enabled to furnish fat and rich
meat, which commanded the best price.

On reflection it occurred to me that if private enterprise
could succeed in this business, capital might be invested to
good advantage on a lars^er scale.

On further inquiry I found that there were others in the
same business on a limited scale, but with uniform success.
Further inquiry satisfied me that this enterprise must be an
important one, and that beef so produced will command the
l)est price in the market and would, so far as it could be pro-
duced, supplant the inferior quality.

These conclusions led next to the inquiry. Can grazing be
found for cattle for our home markets ?

If the business is lucrative on a small scale, ingenuity and
enterprise can certainly carry it to the limit of our capacity
for grazing the cattle. Every one will admit that, I believe.

Eemember Mr. Eichthofen says, "Land is too dear to
make the business of raising cattle (in the East) profitable,
and it pays the farmer better to turn his attention to the cul-
tivation of cereals and vegetables."

Perhaps he was not meaning our New England land ;
if he was, let us remember that when the great West was
opened for cattle-raising, and our farmers mostly withdrew
their cattle herds from the hill-tops, they did not turn their

66 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

atter.tion generally to the raising of cereals and vegetables.
The- great cry to-day in New England is, " Our farmers
are going West and to the cities, and our farms are being
abandoned and left to relapse into the condition of nature."

And let me ask, Shall all this territory, once cleared up
and producing a respectable and easy living to so many
thousands, be allowed to grow up to worthless weeds and
brush, while there is a demand for pasturage which will yield
a handsome revenue ?

I can perhaps convey an intelligible answer to this inquiry'-
by stating that the pasturing used by some of the gentlemen
I have discovered engaged in fattening beef for our own
market was and is some of these very abandoned farms.

And these farms have furnished not only the grazing for
cattle, but also some fodder for winter feeding, and shelter to
some extent, so that the business has not been entirely
confined to the warm, summer months.

Inquiry has furnished ample evidence that thousands of
acres of good grazing land can be purchased in New Eng-
land at much less cost than estimated by Mr. Von Richthofen,
including much formerly improved land now lying fallow,
on which this business of fattening cattle can be profitably
prosecuted.

I have in mind, at this time, large areas of good pasturage
on which I have seen young cattle grazing, and have found
them in excellent condition year after year, as I have visited
the same localities in search of rest and recreation on the
trout brooks among our New England hills.

On these trips I have not omitted to inquire the price at
which these lands are held, and have often been surprised to
learn how cheaply from one hundred acres to five hundred
or seven hundred acres could be purchased.

Often I have been informed that the owners were living
in some far distant city and would be glad to dispose of their
lands, but there were no purchasers. This and many other
facts have strengthened my belief in the perfect feasibility ot
establishing a lucrative business in beef-fattening, which will
supply to some extent the growing demand for better beef
for home consumption.

We are doing much in New England in the way of pro-

BEEF FATTENING. 67

curing the best quality of butter, cheese, fruit, eggs, poultry
and vegetables. Can we afford to live on poor beef? I am
aware that many families are, of late, using much less beef
than formerly, and 3'et I am satisfied that the chief reason is
that the quality of the beef in our city markets is so inferior,
that a substitute is sought in all directions.

In Worcester there is one retail beef-dealer who slauofhters
nmch of the beef sold at his stall. He is well known as a
purchaser of fat cattle. I have seen him driving through
the streets magnificent fat oxen and have seen him accosted
by consumers inquiring when those cattle would be slaugh-
tered and for sale. His trade is the best, and his customers
are assured of the full value of their money when they buy
his beef. Perhaps you inquire, "Where are these acres of
good pasturing you refer to ? Are they not at a great dis-
tance from railroads and the markets ? "

My reply is, I can reach some of them from my own home
in two hours' railroad travel and an hour's drive, and some
of them in less time.

And you ask, "Have you any plan for the development of
the proposed industry ?"

I answer, I have made no experiments myself, but I have
already given you the results which individuals have wrought
out ; and I have outlined to friends, who have become inter-
ested in the matter, plans for trial which have met their
approval, and a promise of substantial co-operation when-
ever the time should arrive when capitalists would invest in
an experiment on a sufficient scale to secure a supply of West-
ern cattle for the work, and to establish a supply for a respec-
tably large market.

No one who has given candid consideration to the subject
has ever condemned the idea as chimerical or discouraaino-.

We must bear in mind that while beef-raising in the West,
and transportation jyid handling, are all done on such a stu-
pendous scale, beef-fattening in the East cannot go on three
legs.

Land must be secured, transportation must be at hand,
facilities for shelter must be devised, calculations for fodder
must be made, and last, l)ut not least, the Western cattle-
raiser must be brought into the work to furnish us with the

68 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

cattle, and to take his share of the profit in this to he lucra-
tive business.

Take Richthofen's tables of profits and the experience of
Western cattle-raisers, and tell me, would our Western capi-
talist reject an opportunity to co-operate in a business which
would insure the certain sale of his stock to consumers who
are now gradually learning to avoid and despise Western
beef?

A Western cattle-raiser told me that during the last ten
years he has been able to raise steers and sell them at his
ranch, at three years old, for fifteen dollars per head, and
make money. The market price was from twenty-eight to
forty dollars per head, yet he could have made money and
sell them for fifteen dollars.

As the price of land increases in the West, and the expense
of raising' cattle increases proportionately, every cattle-
raiser will see the importance of being able to furnish to the
consumer beef which will be faultless, and which will com-
mand a ready sale at a good price.

New England adaptive genius and thrift will not allow our
farms and pastures to drift into wild waste and barrenness,
when they can be so easily diverted to a lucrative use and
occupation to serve a growing demand for an article which
they, and they alone in all human probability, can success-
fully furnish.

It is not for the reason that I have no faith in the future
success of New England beef-fattening that I do not, and
cannot, submit the details of a successful plan of operation.

The burdens under which the people of New England suf-
fer in the matter of their beef-eating have not yet, perhaps,
become intolerable; prejudice has not been broken down.
The possibilities of our resources have not yet been consid-
ered and appreciated.

But in my judgment the time is not far distant when we,
or those who shall come after us, shall see, not in imagina-
tion, but in fact, the cattle on our thousand hills.

We, or they, will see our forsaken soil rejuvenated. The
busy hum of a new industry will echo from hill-top to hill- top,
and the intervales will blossom as the rose.

The rich fruits of this new industry will be garnered by

BEEF FATTENING. 69

happy laborers, and will be sent through the channels of com-
merce to markets which now are growing shy of the make-
shift methods and poor expedients for unloading the fruits of
a far-removed feeding ground upon the dissatisfied consumers
of AVestern beef.

Let the West and the East unite their forces and their
resources. Let the Western grain-grower become a partner
in this projected enterprise ; he too may help to make this
industry a success, and if he shall do so, then let him reap
his share of the profits.

In this day of co-operative labor and division of profits,
let the experiment be made of uniting the forces of nature
and circumstantial necessity, and bring out the greatest and
most benign results.

If my ])osition in this matter is tenable and my deduc-
tions are correct, why may we not be able to provide for
our market as good beef as the world affords ?

Any one adopting these views and firmly believing in the
final success of a fair experiment, supported by sufficient
capital and wise and liberal management, will find himself
face to face with a question of the details of the operations.

Such a one can easily ascertain whether beef fattened as I
suggest will find a ready sale in our city markets. lie can
also satisfy himself as to whether there are abandoned farms
which can be purchased at a fair, not to say a very low price ;
and for a fair experiment he will learn the importance of
providing as large a pasture, lying together, as the circum-
stances and extent of his experiment shall reasonably demand,
and as convenient to railroad facilities as possible.

Bearing in mind that the trouble does not wholly lie in the
fact that now the Western beef is frozen and necessarily
undergoes great changes when exposed to air and heat, but
that the cattle slaughtered in the West are not in the best
condition when slaughtered, our pioneer in this enterprise,
after procuring his pasture, will make his provision for win-
ter feeding and shelter, so that he may be able to supi)ly his
customers through the entire year.

If he proposes to raise as much fodder as possible on his
own land, he will consider the wisdom of procuring working
cattle as he may need for the purpose of working the soil

70 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

and increasing its productiveness, and producing the largest
quantity of the most desiralile and profitable fodder, with a
view always of increasing tlie number of acres of improved
pasturage, and eventually turning his working cattle into
beef.

Undoubtedly he would find it wise and profitable to clear
up, drain and convert the wet intervales into what would
prove his best and most permanent hay-producing acres.
He would cut and burn as much brush as possible and work
in grass seed, seeking at all times and in all ways to produce
more acres for pasturage and fodder.

Questions of irrigation, judicious storage of water for
times of need, and iov power if that is needed, manures and
fertilizers, must all be studied and determined upon. He
must judiciously locate, build and equip his slaughter-houses
with reference to saving of time and expense, cleanliness of
the beef to be marketed and all its surroundings, and the
quickest and most profitable method of removing and dispos-
ing of all offal.

He must search out and adopt all the known latest improve-
ments which will make his business most successful ; and
further, he must invoke to his aid science and inventive skill
to overcome any obstacles which mark the difi"erence between
the easy and almost laborless business of cattle-raising on
the plains, and the hard work and close calculation which are
the only insurers of progress and profit in most of our East-
ern enterprises.

In the West, cattle-raising has been almost a spontaneity.
Here not a domestic animal can survive the changes of a
single year without constant watching and care.

Were I to engage in this cattle-fattening industry, I should
most assuredly attempt to satisfy myself whether or not,
while I aimed at the production of the best beef, I could not
attach as profitable auxiliaries the raising of fowls, sheep
and swine. If they could be made profitable as adjuncts, I
should be pleased to inform my customers that I could fur-
nish beef, fowls, eggs, mutton and pork, all home fattened.

There is one thing which I have almost admitted to be
impossible, viz., the profitable raising of cattle in New
P^ngland.

BEEF FATTENING. 71

This admission was made partly to give the fullest force to
the assumption of the author whom I have quoted, and partly
because I should not have been invited here to discuss such
a theme.

Nevertheless, when the prospective industry shall have
found a sure basis, I predict that the third section of the
fifty-ciglilh chapter of the Public Statutes will die the death
of " innocuous desuetude," and there will be no longer Com-
missioners armed with authority to search the crannies of
our purveyors for calves which died before they were four
weeks old.

You can tell me how much a yearling calf costs, and the
approximate expense of adding one or two years more to
his life.

I have been amused by the attempt of a self-styled practical
farmer to figure the expense he has been i^ut to to raise a
very respectable yearling, — to learn how quickly the puny
thing w^as weaned, and put to grass from early June to the
last of November or the first of December, and what quan-
tities of meadow hay he consumed from this till the middle
of the next May or earlier, and what a hearty yearling he
was.

Let my friend, the beef fattener, take the calves from our
dairy farms at nominal cost, and try his feed and fodder and
shelter upon them, and foot up the gain or loss of the experi-
ment. There may be odds and ends which the young stock
may thrive upon.

Have I mapped out too stupendous an undertaking ? Does
its comprehensiveness condemn it? Do not misunderstand
the scope of the proposition and you will not be appalled in
the least.

I am not inviting you to furnish beef on one five hundred
acre farm for all New England and New York City added.

In your speculations on the probabilities of success in this
work, do not base your estimates on some barren and sandy
farm or township Avith which you arc familiar. Go to the
richer grass-grooving regions, well watered, capable of being
transformed into rich pastui'cs by the same means which
you adopt on your own farms, many of which might easily be
made to produce double the amount of feed they now pro-

72 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

duce, if grazing were made a business, and larger areas were
brought into a more homogeneous condition ; or, in other
words, if over the entire pastures there is no choice of feed.
For you must have observed that in a pasture of say
one hundred acres, cattle will select the best portions and
leave the inferior parts untouched; while, if the inferior
parts were fenced off and cattle confined there, they will
feed the ground over and thrive.

The beef-eaters of New England cities are in this confined
condition, living on inferior feed; but we shall, sooner
or later, jump the fence, as your cattle always do when they
find out the imposition practised on them.

Let ten or twenty men with capital or experience, or
both, procure as many acres as the magnitude of their pro-
posed work shall demand, ascertain what hotels or what
markets they can suppl}^ and enter upon the work of pro-
viding the best of beef to their customers.

No farmer ever need advertise a pair of fat oxen for sale
in Massachusetts, or in any other parts of New England
where I have been.

If one pair is sought after on account of superior quality,
five hundred head or five thousand head of like quality would
also be sought after in preference to the beef now being
shipped from the far West.

It is capital, brains and energy which will establish this
enterprise on a footing which will eventually meet and settle
the difficulty to which I have referred.

There will be no clashing of interests West and East.
Both will see the wisdom of harmonious co-operation to
compass the desideratum.

In our day of great enterprises, massed capital and an
almost unchecked ambition, it is common to say that what
can be made profitable by corporations is the ruin of the
individual. We have not hoard yet, however, that what
private enterprise has made profitable will languish under the
direction and management of capital, brains and energy.

I do not recommend any step in the direction of forming
strong and monopolistic corporations, but that our farming
and agricultural interests shall combine in the interest of
the people.

BEEF FATTENING. 73

The ten or twenty men I name I would have all, each and
every one, good, honest, hard-working men, not greedy of
wealth, but willing to work for the needs of humanity, and
be satisfied with a reasonable reward for their labor.

I have, in this paper, given you the benefit of information
I have gained upon the subject which I believe is of great
importance to our people, and especially to those engaged in
agricultural pursuits.

If questions of the dair\', cereals, fruits, etc , command
your serious attention, engage your thoughts and inspire an
ambition to excel, I am sure that this great question of good
beef must demand, at least, a passing investigation, when we
consider how large a place beef fills in the menu of our
climate.

My suggestions of methods I do not insist upon. They
are only such as have occurred to me in my own reflections
on this, to ?7ie, important subject.

If I have succeeded in attracting attention to a demand
for something better, I have accomplished as much as I could
expect. One consideration I ask at your hands : if I am
addressing those who eat only beef of your own fattening, I
must ask that you put yourselves in the place of many
thousands of our citizens who almost never taste such food.

Let me say, in conclusion, that I believe this industry will
thrive, and perhaps can be most advantageously instituted
by the efforts of individual farmers.

At least in their hands the experiment may be made
under the varied circumstances of each one, and in a diversity
of ways such as may accord with the views of each.

As in other experiments, so in this, some may succeed by
the better choice of means, while others fail.

While I suggest experiments made on an extended scale,
thinking that perhaps more capital would be required for a
successful experiment than any single farmer could command,
yet I would not discourage private trials, which have already
been so satisfactory.

The Chairman. The evidently close attention with
which you have listened to this suggestive and valuable
paper proves to me that you are all interested in this im-

74 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

portant question, and discussion is now in order. I feel that
we have a speaker who is competent to answer all your
questions.

Mr. Arthur A. Smith of Colraine. I have only one
suggestion to make to the gentleman who has read the very
interesting essay, and that is, that when capitalists get
ready to buy pasture I have a large amount, up in Franklin
County, which I would like to sell at five dollars an acre.
It is very good sheep pasture ; and I know of a great many
others who would like to dispose of their pasture-lands at
the same rate. What he said in his essay in regard to the
farms which might be obtained at a very low price, even in
Massachusetts, is true. I am well aware, as many present
are, that this matter of the consumption of beef is attract-
ing the attention of the people throughout this State, and
there is a demand which is constantly increasing in all the
o;reat cities of the land for better beef. I think that this
paper has mapped out for enterprising capitalists a plan
which they can with profit adopt ; and while to some extent
it may. not be entirely practical, yet I believe that it has
points of practical application, and that the beef-producing
people of this State are the ones who are going to make the
money, — not only the producers of beef, but of mutton.
But in order to do it I do not think it is essential or neces-
sary that we should co-operate with the West in the growing
of young stock for beef. I believe that we can enter into
that just as well, and raise stock here upon these hill sides
and these sheep ranges, on a small scale, as we can in co-
operation with them. I think this is a subject which the
Board miffht with advantac^e have considered earlier, and that
this matter of beef production is one which should be dis-
cussed largely at this meeting. I think it is most pertinent
to the occasion, and should receive the attention, not only of
the Board, but of the citizens of this interior part of the
Commonwealth that is so well adapted to profit by it.

The Chairman. I think the butchers ought to know
something about this matter. There is a gentleman here
that I think can give you some information upon it. I refer
to Mr. Burgess of Nantucket.

Mr. Burgess. It is my experience of raising beef that

BEEF FATTENING. 75

it is a very difficult thing to do in this section of the country,
for the reason that we cannot raise enough corn to make it.
I suppose, of all the cattle that go to Watertown there are
ninety-nine that are not fit to slaughter. I presume that the
larger part of the cattle that go to Watertown market come
from over the Canada line, and the majority of them are
grown well enough, but are not well finished ofi". You go
into Boston market or Clinton market, where car-loads of
fresh beef come every day, and you find it in the same con-
dition. You find eight or ten cattle in a car that are fit to
put into market. They put about thirty-five head in a car,
and, on the average, you will not find more than the number
I have stated that anybody would want to take to retail ;
and that is the story from one year's end to another. But
I must say that although our market away down on Nan-
tucket is a small market, we have had some people there,
for the last hundred years or more, who have known what
good beef is, and they must have it ; they are ready to pay a
good price for it ; but the trouble is to get it. But I do not
believe that you can raise cattle in this section of the
country, put them into the market and get the largest price
for them, unless you can devise some method of producing
corn to feed them. We hear some reports that corn can be
raised at a low price. I read last night an account of a man
who had raised 130 bushels of corn to the acre, at fourteen
cents a bushel, if I am not mistaken. I do not want to get
away from the subject, but let me say a word about that.
What would it cost to husk 260 baskets of corn, to say
nothing about raising it ? I do not believe there is a man
on the face of the globe who can raise corn for fourteen
cents a bushel and have his land left in anything like the
condition in which it was when he planted it. There is
plenty of poor beef brought to market, and as nuich of it
comes from this part of the country as any place I know of.
Mr. J. D. Pouter of Hatfield. This question of fatten-
ing beef is a subject in which I have been interested ever
since I was a boy ten years old. Perhaps I cannot en-
lighten any of these people here upon it, because I have
been doing it on a small scale. IVIany of you remember
that twenty-five, thirty, forty or fifty years ago the Connec-

76 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

ticut River beef commanded a good price in the Boston and
Watertown markets. Fattening cattle was followed for
years and years. Our farmers would go out and search the
hill towns, buy the best oxen they could find in the fall,
feed them through the winter, and in the spring they would
be driven to the Boston or Watertown market ; but since
Western beef has come on here in such large quantities, that,
of course, has interfered with our profits, — the Western peo-
ple can raise it so much cheaper. But after all, I think that
was a very good product for our farmers. We could turn
what we raised on our farms into beef and get good pay for
it, and get the proceeds of our crops back on our farms for
manuring ; but, as I said, that system died out until within
a few years, when it has started up again. I have a car-load
of cattle that were bought at Watertown, in my barn now.
I shall feed them through the winter, and then they will go
back again. Some of my neighbors are doing the same
thing ; some seven or eight car-loads have been brought to
our town that will be fed this winter. I think, when they
go back next spring they will return a good profit.

The Chairman. There is a gentleman present who is
largely interested in the production of beef, and we should
be glad to hear from him. I refer to Mr. Cragin, President
of the Worcester North Society.

Mr. Cragin. I am very well aware that we, as a people,
have given up almost entirely the home production of beef;
and still I remember that, in some one's essay, reference
was made to one old farmer who, at the time of making
his will, exhibited quite an amount of property, which his
neighbors were very much surprised at. They asked him
how he had managed to accumulate so much property. His
answer was that he could not tell, unless it had been by
raising cattle, fattening them and selling them for less than
cost. I believe it is true that land can be bought cheaper in
Massachusetts to-day, for the purpose that has been set
forth, than good lands can be bought for in the West. We
are very well aware that the West is fast becoming filled up
with farmers, who are taking up every acre of land that is
available ; and for the past three years I have my doubts
whether the raising of cattle on the prairies of the West

BEEF FATTENING. 7?

has been a success. The remark was made by the essayist,
I think, that cattle three years old could be raised in the
West for fifteen dollars. The past year cattle of that age
could be purchased for fifteen dollars, perhaps, but it was
from the difficulties arising in the Indian Territory. Large
ranchmen and small ranchmen were oblii^ed to leave because
they were unable to find pasturage for their cattle ; and
therefore they were compelled to sell them for whatever
they could get. Vast numbers of those cattle have been
forced upon the market at lower prices than yearlings could
be purchased for formerly. Texas yearlings have usually
brought from fifteen to twenty dollars, and, as the essayist
told us, the price on the ranches has been from forty to
fifty dollars a head for three and four year olds.

In regard to refrigerated beef, I was not aware that it
was of necessity in a frozen condition, as the essayist says.
I stepped into a car from Chicago the other day at our
station, and handsomer beef I surely never saw. It was not
frozen, but it had been kept at a temperature just sufficient
to keep it fi'esh. I had the impression that our butchers
(I know it is the talk in the Boston market) thought that
beef should be thoroughly ripened before it was eaten ; that
it assumes a character which is desirable by having been
killed some little time. I certainly never ate nicer beef
than I have eaten in the mountains of California that had
hung in the open air a month. The outside of it was per-
fectly black and in places somewhat mouldy, but it was as
sweet, as juicy, and as tender as any beef I ever tasted.
Whether the refrigerator can succeed in keeping beef in that
condition I am not certain. We are in the habit on the
ranches at the present time, where it is possible, of getting
corn to feed our cattle. This is something new, however.
It is a demand of the people, and is to be complied with,
and we feed our cattle on corn for a short time before they
are shipped. They are driven, I suppose, from fifty to a
hundred miles to reach carriage ; and there are very few that
go into the Chicago market, or any of those markets, that
are not shipped from a distance ; and I suppose there is no
doubt of the fact that the irritation and weariness which are
induced by a long car ride must produce fever. It has often

78 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

been remarked that a horse shipped from the West in a car
to any part of the country, almost, is unfit for service for
eight or ten days afterwards. I believe it pays to ship
cattle so that they will avoid that condition. I have not
had any experience in the matter, however. Still, I have
often heard it remarked.

The matter of raising corn, in connection with the ques-
tion of putting our beef in competition with that of the
West, is a subject to be thought of, and decided in the
future. I believe we can raise beef and put it into the
market, as good beef as any talked of here, as good beef as
can be produced at the West, with cheap corn ; and on
examining the Western papers I often see the remark made
that the best way for farmers to get their corn to market is
to let the hog or the ox carry it. I suppose it is true, also,
here. If corn here is worth fifty cents a bushel, against
twelve and a half or fifteen cents there, we have that to con-
tend with ; and if hay here is worth twenty dollars a ton in
comparison with from five to six dollars on the prairies, that
is also an element which enters into the consideration of this
question. It is a fact that to-day we are obliged to lay in
hay for our ranch cattle. Last year, upon our own ranch, we
got in some thousand tons of hay. All it cost us was simply
the expense of cutting ; but many of our neighbors were
obliged to purchase at six dollars a ton. Those who would
not, lost their cattle ; and thousands of cattle men to-day are
bankrupt who a year ago thought themselves perhaps worth
their hundreds of thousands. The difficulty of gathering
fodder for those cattle in the winter season increases. I
believe we can raise as good beef here as can be raised any-
where.

Recess until 2 o'clock.

BEEF FATTENING. 79

Afternoon Session.

The meeting was called to order at 2 o'clock ; Mr. God-
dard in the chair. The subject under discussion at the
adjournment of the forenoon session was resumed, and the
Chairman called upon Mr. E. F. Bowditch of Framingham.

Mr. BoAVDiTCH. I should be very glad to respond to the
call of the Chariman, if I had anything to say upon the sub-
ject of fattening cattle, but I have not, never having done it.

I wish to express my thanks to IVIr. Titus for the paper
which he has read. It has given me a great many ideas. I
agree with a great deal that he has put into his most inter-
esting paper, and I think the business of fattening cattle
could be put into practical shape, if the right men took hold
of it, with very little trouble.

The Chairman. I have an impression that Mr. Wheeler
of Great Barrington can give us something interesting in
regard to this subject.

Mr. Wheeler. I would like to say I was very much
interested in the paper that was read this morning ; and
while some features of it do not seem to me to be at all
practicable, — for instance, the co-operative idea, — still, I
think that the matter of producing beef here in New Eng-
land is a practicable matter, and one that may be profitably
entered into, perhaps, in a small way, by the farmers of the
grazing region of Massachusetts. It is no doubt a well-
established fact that our agriculture is largely connected
with dairying, and I believe that in the near future the
dairying interests will be carried on mainly under the co-
operative method ; but of course there will be sections where
there will be individual farmers who cannot avail themselves
of these advantages, and I think under those circumstances
they may well turn their attention to cattle-raising for beef
purposes.

Now, in regard to raising our beef animals here, L do not
know why it cannot be done. We know very well that we
can raise our milch cows very much better than we can buy
them. That is practicable, and that is done to a very large
extent by dairymen. Certainly in the western part of the
State we find that we can raise our cows cheaper than we

80 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

can buy the same quality of animals. I do not know why
we cannot just as well raise steers for making beef as raise
our heifers for cows.

The matter which was broached in one of the other papers
in regard to making beef from milch cows after their time of
service as milch cows has passed, I do not take very much
stock in. I do not think we ever get very good beef from
old milch cows that have done service as dairy cows. Of
course they have a value, but it is small. I think our best
beef is to be made from young animals, not to exceed three
years old. I know in my early life there was a good deal of
beef-making in our section of the State. There was a gi-eat
deal of beef fattened in Berkshire County and driven to the
New York market ; and there is to-day considerable very
good beef made in my own and some of the adjoining towns,
that goes to the New York market, and is sold at remunera-
tive prices. That is made, however, from the best of beef
stock, — steers three, four and five years old. There is a
great deal of land in Berkshire County, and I believe a good
deal in Worcester County, that has been good pasture land,
— it has been described somewhat here to-day, — farms that
have been abandoned, given over to weeds and brush.
There are hundreds of acres in the hill towns of Berkshire
County that can be bought for a very small sum, indeed, per
acre, that have, within my recollection, been very produc
tive lands. I do not know whether they can be brought up
to their former state of fertility at a profit or not, but I do
not know why they should not be. I apprehend that their
loss of fertility has grown out of the fact that they were fed
years and years as pasture fields for dairy cattle. Sandis-
field, New Marlborough, Otis, and those hill towns of Berk-
shire, fifty years ago, were all dairy towns. They made
large quantities of cheese and butter, they raised their cattle,
and the products of the farm were taken ofi" in that way and
not returned, and my impression is that the fields became
exhausted as pasture fields, and will need to be renewed by
restoring their fertility by some kind of fertilizer. I do not
know, as I say, that it can be profitably done, but I think it
may be, and I think in those sections particularly the

BEEF FATTENING. 81

making of beef, even from our native and home-grown stock,
may be made a profitable enterprise.

The Chairman. Shall we hear from Mr. Parsons of
Northampton ?

Mr. Parsons. I am surprised to be called upon to speak
before this audience, for I certainly could not expect to instnict
them in regard to raising beef. But as this is something in
my line, I can give my experience and what I am doing in
it. We live on the Connecticut River, and raise corn and
hay principally, and our lands, of course, have been run so
long that we have to take the manure back on to them ; and
as I raise perhaps a thousand bushels of corn, and cut some-
times a hundred tons of hay, more or less, I must do something
with it to get the manure back again. Our way is, in the
fall of the year, to buy perhaps twenty-five or thirty head of
two and three year old steers, feed them with corn-stalks
and the coarser qualities of hay through the winter, and in
the spring turn them out to pasture on the hills some ten
miles west of our place for the season, and turn them for
beef, about the first of November ; then go to Albany or
into the country somewhere and pick up another lot of
cattle, take them home, and go through the same process
another year. In that way we feed out our corn-stalks and
coarser feed, and take the manure back on to the land. "We
may feed in the winter one stable of these steers, seven or
eight, and turn them in the spring for beef. I hear some
men ask. What do you do with your corn ? We feed it to
horses. As we live close by the village, we keep horses,
and do a good deal of team work in one way and another.
As to going into this thing as the paper this forenoon sug-
gested, I think we should prefer to "go it alone ; " I think
that we should do about as well as anybody. I do not know
about this co-operative plan, or how it would work. Take
my case. We can hire pasture land for our stock, with a
wall around it, for $50 for the season. That is not a very
dear rate for pasture. If we have fair luck with those steers
from one year's end to another, they will give us $25, $35,
and $50 apiece, as the market may be.

Mr. Burgess. I would like to say a few words more in
regard to this question. Our practice on our farm is to buy

82 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

oxen that are well broke, at about four years old, calculat-
ing that they will pay their way until they are five or six
years old. We keep enough of them so that every year we
can take out one or two pairs. I have five pairs now. I
believe that in some directions in farming we should go back
instead of going ahead. I am entirely ignorant of the sur-
roundings of this territority, but I presume that there are a
great many farmers who are doing all their work with horses ;
and it is one of the things that I think altogether wrong. I
do not believe that any farmer, no matter where he is, or
what he is doing, can afibrd to farm it in any other way than
by oxen. In the first place, the wear and tear is nothing to
what it is with horses.

Question. How do you do your mowing?

Mr. BuEGESS. Do your mowing with horses, if you
please. If you are on a small farm, where you are cutting
only eight or ten tons of hay, that is another thing. But 1
presume there are farmers in this section who are keeping two
or three horses to do their work, where one horse would do
all the work that is necessary. Have one horse to do all the
horse labor that is necessary on the farm, and oxen to do the
rest of it. The most thrifty farmer we have in our town is
an ox man, and every once in two or three years, or oftener,
he takes off his oxen and has some steers to take their places.
Seven years is as good an age as any to take them off. We
give them plenty of hay and four quarts of meal a day. A
farmer who cuts 100 tons of hay cannot afibrd to be without
a pair of oxen, in my opinion. Of course, I know that you
will not all agree with that ; but I can draw hay cheaper
with oxen than I can with horses. I can harness them
cheaper, and the wear and tear is a great deal less. There
is no time when you can feed an animal so cheaply and
profitably with meal as you can when he is on grass. You
may not think so, but I know it is a fact that he will put on
two pounds with meal easier than ho will put on one without
it. With corn at 60 cents a bushel and hay at $20 a ton
there is no feed so cheap as meal.

Mr. West. I think if we are to follow the suggestion of
the essayist, we should make somewhat of a specialty of
breeding. That is, if we live near a city, there are people

BEEF FATTENING. 83

enough in the cities who are always willing to pay extra for
their beef, as there are some who are willing to pay eighty
cents a pound for their butter. The gentleman last up says
he believes in keeping oxen. This is considered rather a
slow team up in our section. We have two or three pairs,
and keep them ; but I should not advise a man to keep oxen
to do all his farm work, because the condition of things has
changed from what it was twenty or thirty years ago. We
have got our mowing machines, and we must have horses.
If a man can get twenty-five or thirty cents a pound for his
butter, there is an assured income ; if he can get a higher
price, so much the better. If a man can get a dollar a pound
for lambs dressed, such a man wants to raise lambs, if he can.
There are such men. Of course if they can get fifteen cents
a pound for their beef, as some of them do for their pork,
where they have an extra thing, or make people think it is
extra, then they can feed beef; but as to trying to do it on
these hills here, or by any co-operative plan, I have my
doubts about it. But I do not like to see these milk cans
standing by the depot, three or four miles away ; I don't
believe the milk raisers get over three cents a quart for their
milk. They had better turn their attention to making but-
ter, and get thirty-five, forty or eighty cents a pound for it,
if they can. That is a better way, in my opinion.

Mr. Smith, of Colerain. There was one remark in the
essay which I think needs a little explanation, which I forgot
to make before dinner. The essayist made the statement that
there was a butcher in Worcester who came up into this pai-t
of the county and bought as many fat oxen as he could ; and
if he could find a sufficient quantity, he would supply his
market with that kind, rather than to use Western or refrige-
rator beef. Now, Worcester County people are not a peculiar
people, and I do not believe but what they are as selfish as
they are in other counties, — particularly butchers. I under-
stand they come up here, and they base the price they ofler
for this well-fattened, grass-fed or meal-fed beef upon the
price for which they can procure the refrigerator beef, and
they buy it at that price, or they will not buy it at all.
What encouragement is there for the farmer to raise it,
admitting that it is much superior ? The butchers buy it as

84 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

low as they can in competition with Western beef, and
they sell it to the consumer for three or four or five cents a
pound extra as home-grown beef. Where does the profit go ?
Not into the pocket of the producer or the consumer, but to
those butchers in Worcester who want to do so much for the
farmer. So it is Avith the lambs that are raised by the Hon-
orable Secretary of the Board of Agriculture and others.
These are the butchers we have got to deal with, and we
must arrange it in some way so that the consumer of this
extra quality of beef and the men who grow it shall receive
the benefit, in part. I believe in a co-operative plan that
will bring about this result. If we can bring the producer
and the consumer of milk, butter and beef nearer together,
it will be a mutual benefit ; and if the essayist or any other
man in the country can devise any feasible project for bring-
ing that about, he will be a public benefactor.

Mr. Titus. I think the secret lies here : There is so
small an amount of beef fattened in the neighborhood of
Worcester, it is very likely any sharp butcher or dealer in
beef will go to these farmers and say, "I want beef;" and
he will drive a sharp bargain, getting the beef on the stand-
ard of the Western beef price. That is no weakness of the
project that I have in view. It is merely the result of facts
as they exist at the present time. My project is to have the
time come, and come as soon as it may, when there will be
a sufiicient quantity — or as near a sufficient quantity as
possible — of beef fattened in our own neighborhood to
supply the local market ; and then what will be the result ?
In all human probability, if we are to judge this business
by other kinds of business, the New England fattened beef
will have its price, and I hope it will not be any higher than
it is now, unless it is necessary to remunerate the producer
of the beef; but if it is a satisfactory quality of beef, it
will not necessarily be three or four cents a pound higher
than good beef is now, but it will command a price in the
market which will force down the price of the inferior
quality. I believe that is common sense. I believe that is
the way human afiairs are generally conducted. Mr. Taffc
suggests to me that I give the name of the butcher to whom
I referred. I have no hesitation in giving his name : it is

BEEF FATTENING. 85

Mr. Morse, of the fii-m of Morse & Mansfield. Mr. Taffc
says he pays two or three cents a pound more for this beef
than for Western beef. I do not see how he can get it in
any other way, for I have seen cattle driven through the
town by himself that were immensely fat ; and I have seen
men follow him (I have done it myself), and ask him
what he was going to do with that beef, — if he was going
to have it in his stall for sale; That beef does command a
better price ; he gives a supei-ior price for it and he gets a
superior price. Still, he cannot get the number of cattle of
this kind that he wants in his business, and he has to rely
somewhat upon Western cattle ; but he has very choice and
select beef, and gets better prices than many others do. I
do not know of any other remedy for the difficulty that the
o;entleman has sufi^oested but to raise a sufficient number of
fat cattle to supply our markets.

Mr. HuTCHiNS of Sutton. When I was a lad I did not
have to go a great ways in our town to find a pretty long
string of oxen. I can remember going up to Worcester and
driving a string team of fifty or sixty pairs. To-day you
may go the town over and you cannot find but a very few
pairs. I am in full sympathy with the gentleman who spoke
in regard to oxen. I believe in oxen, and if the essay does
not have any other efiect than to turn- our attention to
the raising of cattle again, it will do some good, I believe.
I should be glad to see the cattle on a thousand hills, or a
thousand cattle on these hills, — if there was anji^hing for
them to eat.

There is another thing I should like to see, which I used
to see in my boyhood, when I went to the village school.
That was sixty or seventy pupils, all the way up like a
flight of stairs, — ten or a dozen from one family. Go back
and raise a few Yankee boys and girls. I want to see good
New England stock raised, — boys and girls, as Avell as oxen.
We have a few men in our town who own up to liking
oxen, who raise them from calves and sell them to our friend
here, when they get to be three or four years old. They
make it as profitable now as they ever have. It has been
suggested that most of our butter is to be made by the co-
operative creamery system. The latest plan is to take the

86 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

cream from the milk, and to leave the milk. You know you
can raise good calves on skim-milk, with a little meal. I
see no reason why we cannot go back and raise them for our
own herds. As to fattening them, I see the difficulty sug-
gested by our friend over there. These hills have been
skimmed until there is nothing left on them ; but we have
got to get them back into fertility in some way. I do not
know but putting cattle on them would get them back.
But this is a great question, and some good thoughts have
been thrown out here, which I hope will bear fruit.

SPECIALTIES IN FARMING.

BY ATERY P. SLADE.

All whose memory runs back twenty-five or thirty years
must have noticed the wonderful changes that have accom-
panied the progress of New England agriculture. It was
once thought that success in farming depended chiefly on
muscular activity, and that the cultivation of the brain or
the employment of brain-power had but little to do with the
cultivation of the soil ; hence the prevailing custom in those
days of selecting the brightest boys in the family to adorn
professional life, and reserving the thick-headed dunce, who
was always at the foot of his class, for the drudgery of a
farmer's life. But since science has come to the aid of the
farmer, and lighted up the path of the husbandman, the old
custom has been completely reversed, and now doctors,
lawyers, and I may say clergymen, are made of the indifier-
ent material, while the lad having the most sense — and that
is made, in fact, of the finest clay — is the only one that can
reasonably hope to become a successful farmer. Everything
pertaining to the advancement of agriculture is being made
the subject of careful experiment and rigid scientific investi-
gation. The laws governing the vegetable kingdom, and
hitherto unknown, are being transcribed from tables of stone,
infinitely multiplied, and scattered on paper leaves broadcast
from the schools of science among the tillers of the soil.

Farmers' clubs, which are scarcely outnumbered by the
.school-houses in the States, are discussing questions of policy

SPECIALTIES m FARMING. 87

and economy ; while chemistry, as applied to agriculture, is
becoming practically understood by many farmers in our
State. The transition from old methods to new becomes
more and more rapid in its progress, and he who does not
recognize the fact and appropriate the lesson will fall far in
the rear.

There are practical questions upon which thoughtful men
do not agree, and many cultivators are yet undecided whether
it is better to follow the old method of mixed farming, as it
is called, and grow the full variety of crops, or shall they
select, say one, two, or three at most, make these their con-
stant study and rely wholly on them for income. In times
past agricultural journals were unanimous in their advice to
the farmer to produce everything on the farm which might
be consumed in a farmer's family, and he who neglected to
do this was regarded as a man who, having a talent, wrapped
it in a napkin, and buried it in the ground. I well remember
a farmer who was sharply criticised for having purchased a
stock of cabbages for winter use, when at the same time it
was admitted that he paid less than one-half what they would
have cost had he raised them himself. The question which
then very naturally suggested itself was. Why should not the
farmer, like the merchant, buy in the cheapest market and sell
in the dearest? Farmers are proverbially a conservative
class, and are inclined to follow in deep, well-worn ruts ; but
surely there is nothing in the cultivation of the soil or in
farm-husbandry in general that should prevent them from
taking every advantage of their circumstances, and raising
such crops as will net the most money, putting fertilizers
where they will do the most good, and bestowing labor
where it will yield the greatest compensation. All business
depends for success on shrewd management, keen foresight
and undivided attention. A man cultivating a gi*eat variety
of crops on a largo farm, to be successful with all, must pos-
sess good knowledge of the habits and wants of each ; and
this knowledge, like the manure he uses, is often made to
cover too much ground, and is liable to result in a total fail-
ure, or at best a partial success. Now, while we would not
wholly condemn mixed faiTuing, or advocate a sudden change
to specialties, yet we would advise young men, or new

88 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE.

beginners, to make a choice of one or two special crops, and
make their perfect growth and development the aim and
study of a lifetime. This course, we think, would not only
be productive of both pleasure and profit, but would kindle
enthusiasm, so essential to the successful prosecution of any
pursuit in life. A striking characteristic of the age is the
division of labor, and as industries multiply the tendency is
to divide and subdivide. This runs through not only every
department of human industries, but in all scientific investi-
gations it is carried to a greater extent perhaps than in the
mechanic arts.

Let me relate an instance which is fresh in my mind that
will go to confirm this statement. Some years ago Professor
Farlow of Cambridge was invited to deliver a lecture before
the Board of Agi'iculture at Waltham ; his subject was the
fangus, or mildew, which makes its appearance on the under
side of the grape leaf. The subject was treated at length,
showing great scientific research, and was profusely illus-
trated by large and costly drawings. At the close of the
lecture questions were announced to be in order, and as the
mildew which troubled my vines appeared on the upper side
of the leaf, I ventured to inquire wherein it difiered from
what he described. The reply was, I know nothing what-
ever of the fungus you have noticed ; that involves a difier-
ent line of investigation, and is intrusted to a man in Paris,
who informs me he will be able to make a partial report in
two years. A few years ago the village doctor was supposed
to be master of all the ills that flesh was heir to. Having
studied medicine and received a diploma, it was taken for
granted that he had acquired an exhaustive knowledge of
every real or imaginary disease which afflicts humanity, and
his surgery and knowledge of medicine were regarded as equal
to the most critical emergency. But the medical profession
has kept pace with the progress of the age. Public senti-
ment has decided that one man cannot know everything, and
has demanded a more thorough knowledge of each disease.
Hence infirmaries for the treatment of special diseases have
been established and endowed in this country and in Europe.
We now have a specialist for the eye, the ear, the liver, kid-
neys, lungs, diseases of the skin, etc. Whatever progress

SPECIALTIES IN FAKmNG. 89

has been made in medical science during the last twenty
years is clearly referable to a division of labor in the line of
research. Though the carriage-maker is no longer a wheel-
wright, and the shoemaker has lost his trade, yet the result
is seen in better carriages and more durable shoes ; and
wherever a division of labor is practised to the greatest
extent, it is there we look for the choicest products of human
sldll. What is true in the mechanic arts is also true in
agriculture. The man who makes a specialty of any given
crop is very justly looked up to as possessing superior
knowledge of everything pertaining to its habits, wants and
growth, and the public concede to him the reputation of pro-
ducing the best. Experience teaches that however glutted
or depressed a market may be, superior specimens sell at
remunerative prices. Specialties in farming mean better cul-
ture, larger crops and higher prices.

There is not a plant that grows or a flower that blooms in
the vegetable kingdom whose perfect development may not
challenge a lifetime of close study and laborious investiga-
tion ; and he who has the patience to explore into the realm
of nature, and make himself master of her secrets, will be
rewarded with special delights and pleasures which can be
drained from no other source. A knowledge of the wants,
habits and tendencies of a particular plant, and the means
of successfully exterminating its enemies, is obviously of
more importance than a superficial acquaintance with many
varieties. We can reach such knowledge only by close
attention to the plants that we select for our study. We
must become specialists, as those are called who devote their
research in science or art to branches of their professions.
Suppose, for an illustration, that the farmers of this town
were compelled to rely wholly on a crop of asparagus for the
money they were to receive from year to year. The beetle,
whose depredations are so fjital to the perfection of this crop,
would be hunted as a common enemy by an army of allied
forces. His habits, his hiding-places and the means for his
sure destruction would be as familiar as nursery tales, and
his early appearance would cause no more alarm than the
buzzing of a common house-fly or the joyful antics of a sum-
mer swallow.

90 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

The soil, culture and kind of fertilizer best adapted to
the plant, and in fact everything pertaining to its perfect
development, would be clearly and fully understood. Simi-
lar results might reasonably be expected by giving special
attention to other crops. The larger the number of crops
grown the greater the variety of tools and implements called
into requisition. Many of these are used but a few days in
the year ; all must be repaired, stored and cared for, form-
ing an item of labor and expense not to be overlooked.
Then in regard to labor : the man or boy who is an expert
at hoeing onions, thinning fruit or setting strawberry plants
will do twice the work in a day and do it better than a com-
mon farm-hand who turns his hand to everything but can do
nothing very well. As labor is the largest item in the cost
of nearly all crops grown, it must be admitted that the spe-
cialist in this respect would have an advantage which one
engaged in mixed farming could not be expected to have.
The chronic objection urged against specialists is the risk of
a failure : one crop is more likely to fail than all of several ;
it is not safe to risk all your eggs in one basket. To which
we might reply that he who has too many irons in the fire is
pretty sure to get some of them burnt. We have already
asserted that the growing of special crops means better and
higher culture, and where this is practised to its fullest extent
the chances of failure are reduced to the minimum. Where
the habits and wants of a plant have been made a special
study, and those wants are fully supplied by an intelligent
cultivator, success is about as sure to follow his labor as is
the return of seed-time and harvest. It must be admitted
also that the scarcity which follows a partial failure raises
prices, and the cultivator is often reimbursed at the expense
of the consumer. One should not decide hastily in the
choice of crops that he will grow as specialties. Many
things are to be taken into the account, all of which are
important ; the soil, the climate, the facilities for marketing,
the amount of capital one has to work with, the character of
the labor to be depended on. If a man is not settled in the
business of farming, but is only looking for a gainful vocation,
let him reflect that success depends mainly upon the natural
or inherent liking for the occupation he is destined to pursue.

SPECIALTIES IN FARMING. 91

A person's taste and predilection should be carefully consulted
before a final decision is made. It is said that every good
man has a hobby, and this, rightfully interpreted, furnishes
a key to his character. It was predicted of a six-year-old
boy, who was going about with his father's vest on and a
chicken in each pocket that he was treating for the roup, that
he would some day distinguish himself as a poultry fancier.
He is now one of the leading men in that important depart-
ment of husbandry. Col. M. P. Wilder, while he was a
devout lover of nature and truly grateful for all her gifts,
regarded the Camilla as the queen of flowers, and gave forty
years of his life to the development of its marvellous beau-
ties. Mr. Hunnewell chose the rhododendron. Mr. Eph-
raim Bull of Concord, after years of patient experiment in a
field suited to his taste, and in which labor was a pleasure,
was rewarded with one of the best gifts ever bestowed upon
man. The fruitage of the Concord grape is not only a leg-
acy to the present generation, but an annuity entailed on
generations to come. The originator of "Moore's Early
Grape," whose indomitable will is always strengthened by
the obstacles it meets in his favorite pursuits, and in whose
mind impediments to success are but phantoms of the air,
for a score of years communed with nature so closely and
so devotedly that she was compelled to yield to him the vine
bearing her choicest clusters ; and he has been crowned with
a wreath like that so long and proudly worn by his illustri-
ous neighbor. Let me not be misunderstood : I would
advise no man to engage in special agricultural pursuits
unless he is willing to consecrate his life to the work of
improvement or development. He should not only avail
himself of all existing knowledge pertaining to his business,
but should eagerly and persistently seek for more. I know
that it is fashionable to advise men to use their brains if they
would succeed in life. This is all very well, only the advice
is not given with sufficient emphasis. The brain is the motor
which moves the world. " Brain is Iving," muscle is subject ;
whoever is deficient in the former will succeed better in any
other business than farming. Where can be found a more
imperative requisition for brain-work than in the work of
plinjinating the objectionable points in a herd of cattle, and

92 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE.

replacing them with qualities in every way desirable. With
a scanty stock of brain-material, how could one reasonably
hope to improve the quality of vegetables, and produce new
and choice varieties of fruit, and hasten or delay the time of
its maturity ? Let no one for a moment suppose that these
achievements are the work of chance : they come to the man
who loves and studies his business, who watches the growth
of plant and fruit in every stage, who anticipates their every
need, and who breathes on every leaf and communes with
every flower. Brain, like muscle, derives its power from
exercise and discipline, and this is accomplished only by
close and accurate thinking ; and it should be remembered
that the only thinking that bears fruit is systematic thinking.
Many a young man imagines himself thinking when he is
only day-dreaming. Thinking implies an active state of
mind ; calling up images, holding them fast, and arranging
them in order, — not a passive condition in which troops of
ideas flit across the mental vision like figures in a kaleido-
scope. Thinking, worthy of the name, is work, — systematic,
calm, connected work ; and the man who has not his mind so
disciplined that he can thus command it, is no thinker. The
power to think correctly is an accomplishment to which there
is no royal road, but results from years of patient toil and
practice. It is a conceded fact that mankind in general have
a sort of inherent aversion to systematic thinking. Hence
the doctor thinks for his patient, and the lawyer for his
client, the clergyman for his parishioners, and the journalist
for the public. Nature answers no impertinent questions, nor
does she wink at our ignorance or pardon our mistakes. She
is ever ready to respond to intelligent inquiries, and is par-
tial to those who interview her most persistently and most
frequently. I have endeavored to impress on you the parar-
mount importance of thinking correctly, for the reason that
all achievements, whether in the mechanic arts or in the
domain of agriculture, in the laboratory of the chemist or in
the realm of literature, result from accurate and systematic
thinkino^. Whatever is worth doinoj at all is worth doins^
well, is a maxim written in all languages, and is as old as the
race ; but how seldom is this verified in practical life. If the

SPECIALTIES IN FARIVnNG. 93

truth of this problem admits of an exception, it need not be
sought for in any department of farm husbandry.

There is not a domestic animal on the fann, nor a plant or
a flower in the field, which does not delight in an interview
with the husbandman, and hastens to respond to his kind and
intelligent treatment. If the young man is discreet in the
choice of a pursuit in life, it matters but little what that pursuit
may be, providing he has an abiding determination to do for
it ever}i;hing that will promote its advancement. This con-
clusion must have forced itself upon all who have been close
observers of human conduct. I know a man who commenced
business with a capital consisting of a single ear of pop-corn.
He still continues his business, but lives in comparative afflu-
ence. I know a man who from year to year tills a single
half-acre of land ; it is enclosed with a tight board-fence ten
feet high. The enclosure is stocked with fowls, and he grows
grapes, pears and quinces, and as near perfection as any that
it has ever fallen to my lot to examine. He is a hard stu-
dent, an unremitting worker, and withholds nothing from his
pets which he thinks will accrue to their benefit. He rea-
lizes for his labor about $1,200 annually, and has for many
years. Neither curculio, or rosebug, or frost, or drouth
impairs his success. His business is a practical illustration
of the lesson I have endeavored to enforce in this paper. On
the specialist we must depend for the removal of every obsta-
cle which lies in the path of agricultural progress. All true
progress in agriculture, aided by science, has resulted from
pursuing the cou'-se I have endeavored to outline. By such
a course Mr. Edwin Hammond of Vermont came to under-
stand so well the principles of breeding, that every desirable
quality in a sheep distinguished his flock from all others.
The Collins' and Bakewell's in the old country spent long
and studious lives in improving their flocks, and with such
marvellous success that they are justly regarded as public
benefactors. We are to a great extent feeling our way in
the dark ; we are walking by faith, and shall continue to do
so until each unsolved problem in agriculture is entrusted to
the care of competent and enthusiastic investigators.

In view of the marvellous results which have rewarded the
scientist during the past few years, what may we not expect

94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

in the near future ? The fluid which followed the string of
Franklin's kite to the earth has restored to us the age of mir-
acles ; and somewhere in the process of evolution there is a
great man coming forward who will supplement these disco\-
eries, and cause them to subserve the interest of the husband-
man. He will drain the water from the clouds, and keep at
bay the late and early frost. He will increase the produc-
tiveness of the soil by a simple, inexpensive process, and
hasten or retard the maturity of fruits and flowers ; the com-
plete extermination of all noxious insects, the cause of so
much labor and blighted hopes, shall be but a morning's pas-
time ; and here the rays of our prophetic candle are lost in
the dawn of a brighter day.

The Chairman. I find the following question in the Ques-
tion Box : ' ' Would not the agriculture of the country in
general, and of Massachusetts in particular, be promoted by
the establishment of Experiment Stations in the several
States, by appropriations made by Congress?"

I will ask Mr. Ware of Maiblehead to answer that question.

Mr. Ware. I suppose no person who has received the
Monthly Bulletins from our Experiment Station, studied
them, and profited by the lessons thereby given, would fail
to answer this question in the affirmative. While we have in
Massachusetts various means of education in agricultural di-
rections ; while we have the Farmers' Clubs and the Grangers
for the education of the farmers' families, and the Annual
Fairs of our Agricultural Societies for object lessons to be
presented to our farmers, for comparing the productions of
one locality with another, and thereby enabling us to improve
our stock and productions ; while we have the Agricultural
College for the education of our young men in agricultural
directions, and while the graduates are bringing to us from
time to time the results of the education they obtain there in
the line of agriculture, and taking a position among us as edu-
cated men, — we have also the Experiment Station of Massa-
chusetts, for the education of fanners on the questions so con-
tinually coming up, requiring careful and thorough investi-
tion, which they are unable with their own means and ability
to make ; but by sending in our questions to the Experiment

EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 95

Station, and having clear and explicit answers returned to
us, we are enabled to profit thereby. And therefore, as I
say, those of us who receive these Monthly Bulletins cannot
fail to answer this question in the atfirmative. This applies
to Massachusetts. How is it with the different States of the
country? There are some Experiment Stations located in
different States, and we are enabled to compare their work
with ours. They are investigating questions applicable to
their localities. Now, would it not be of great value to us
here in Massachusetts, as well as all over the country, if
Experiment Stations could be established throughout the
country, which should conduct experiments not only with
special reference to the locations where they are placed, but
which should consider questions belonging to the whole
country, comparing the results of investigations one with
another, and receiving reports fi"om the Commissioner of
Agriculture at Washington, showing the results of certain
experiments that are applicable to all parts of the country ?
It seems to me that there can be no question that the cause
of agriculture would be promoted by an appropriation from
Congi'ess, establishing Experiment Stations in ditferent parts
of the country. Some action has already been taken in that
direction. We have, as I understand, already pending
before Congress a bill for this purpose, appropriating $15,-
000 to each State where Agricultural Colleges have been
established, for Experiment Stations to be established in
connection with these colleges, for the purpose of conduct-
ing such experiments as have been indicated. Can there be
any question that if that is done it will be of great advan-
tage in promoting the agriculture of the whole country?
While it will cost something to the Government, it seems to
me that we shall receive returns tenfold ; and we ought, I
think, to advocate the passage of such a law. I have given
a good deal of thought to this subject ; I have made a special
study of the work of our Experiment Station in Massachu-
setts ; I think I have learned the value of it: I have there-
fore prepared certain resolutions which I would like to offei
at this time, to bring about such legislation as I have indi-
cated, or in aid of it.

96 BOARb OF AGRICULTURE.

Whereas, There is a bill now ponding in Congress, called the
" Hatch bill," which provides for the establishment of Experiment
Stations, in connection with all Agricultural Colleges now or here-
after to be established by land grants from the United States ;

And whereas. All Experiment Stations that are now in operation
by State legislation have proved of great value to the agricultural
interests of such States as have made appropriations for their main-
tenance ; therefore.

Resolved, That the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture
approve the passage of said Hatch bill, provided that it be so
amended as to invest the Board of Control or Trustees of
Experiment Stations provided for by State legislation with the
appropriations made b}^ Congress ; also by providing that fifteen
per cent, of the appropriations made by the Congress of the United
States for the support of such Experiment Stations shall be ex-
pended, if needed, in conducting such experiments as the United
States Commissioner of Agriculture may direct.

Resolved, That we do urge the United States Senators and Rep-
resentatives of Massachusetts to exert their best efforts to secure
the passage of said Hatch bill, with the amendments as above.

Resolved, That our Secretary be and is hereby directed to serve
a copy of these Resolutions upon each United States Senator and
Representative from Massachusetts.

Mr. Chairman, I move the adoption of these resolutions.

Professor Goessmann. The Hatch bill was discussed a
year ago at Washington by the delegates of the Experiment
Stations and Agricultural Colleges, and was endorsed, with
some amendments. There are some objections to that bill
which it would be well to remove. I will point out one or
two. The bill provides that the Commissioner of Agricul-
ture shall fix the price of fertilizing materials throughout
the country. It is impossible to give satisfaction in that
way ; each locality has its own price, and the local price can
be better determined in each particular locality than at
Washington. There are different prices in the Southern
States and the Western States from the Eastern States, and
to allow the Commissioner to fix the price, in my opinion,
would not be desirable. It would be better to leave it to the
local authorities. Here in New England the prices in the
markets of New York, Boston and Philadelphia might be
compared, and then the price fixed and communicated to the

PERCHERON HORSES. 97

farmers of this section. The price of slaughter-house fer-
tilizers in the Western States is cheaper than here, and the
price of phosphates at the South cheaper than with us ; and
therefore regulations of that land would not meet the require-
ments of different sections of the country. This point was
mentioned as an objection to that bill. Another point men-
tioned at that time was that it was not advisable to charge
the Commissioner with the control and management of the
different stations in the several States, but simply assign him
the duty of compiling the statistics of the different stations,
and then disti'ibuting such information as might be found of
interest to the country at large.

The question w^as then put, and the resolutions offered by
Mr. Ware adopted.

Question. What kind of horses should farmers in this
section raise?

The Chairman. Will Mr. Bowditch answer that ques-
tion ?

Mr. Bo%vDiTcn. I am a very one-sided person to ask,
because every one knows I have been' very much interested
for the last few years in Percherons, and their grades. I do
not know of any work that a horse can do that a grade Per-
cheron cannot do better than any breed that I know of. Of
course, if you go for speed, that is another matter ; but if we
take the wants of the farmer for a starting-point, a Percheron
horse got from a good-sized mare can be broken at two years
old and will do the lighter kinds of farm work. They are
very tractable and docile, and will certainly pay for their
keep at that age, and can be sold at three years old for a
four-year-old animal. If the horse has any style and action,
as most of them have, he will sell for almost a fancy price.
If it so happens that he merely has size without any great
action, he has weight enough to make him useful as a draught
horse, and will always bring a great deal more than he has
cost to raise. At the present price of horses, a horse that will
weigh fi'om eleven to twelve hundred pounds, as most gi-ade
Percherons will at four years old, is worth in the open mar-
ket at least $175, and pro])ably over $200. As far as I have
seen them and watched them for the last six or seven years,
the majority of them are handsome, stylish horses, that are

98 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

capable of travelling and do travel easily eight or nine miles
an hour ; and such horses are always sought for as family
horses. Their temper is almost invariably good. The old
Society imported a few years ago a few stallions. I am sorry
to say that there are not as many colts scattered through the
State as I wish there were. One has been brought back to
this neighborhood, and my advice to all farmers who can do
so is that they raise a few colts. I have had three or four
gi'ade Percherons in the last five or six years, and there is
nothing that they have been called upon to do, whether in
pleasure driving, under the saddle, or in farm work, that they
have not done in the most satisfactory and cheerful way,
without a day's sickness or a day's lameness.

Mr. Brooks of West Springfield. I can fully endorse
what Mr. Bowditch has said about horses. I suppose there
was never a breed of horses in this country that was worth
any more than the Morgan horse. He had style, he was
fast, and he would hold his own. A Morgan horse at twenty
years old was younger than some other horses at twelve or
fifteen. He was worth more really at that age, because it is
a characteristic of that breed of horses to hold their own
into years. But in those days when we thought so much of
the Morgan we were working oxen. There has been a good
deal said to-day about the value of ox teams. It is all very
good, and I used to delight in driving an ox team ; but in
these days we have to do a great deal of work with a team,
and do it in hot weather : that is what causes us to give up
our oxen. They can do a great deal in cool weather, but
oxen cannot do the work that we require to have done in hot
weather ; it will wilt them, and we cannot afibrd to pay men
the wages that we have to pay now to stand and wait for an
ox team to cool ofi". They cannot work in our machinery to
advantage. For these reasons we require heavier horses to
take the place of oxen than we wanted thirty years ago ; and
what the farmer wants to-day is a horse that can do his heavy
work, and when that is done, that can skip ofi" to town. As
far as I have observed the difierent breeds of horses, there is
nothing like the Percherou for that work. I may be a little
prejudiced, for after a good deal of efibrt I succeeded in get-
ting one of the horses imported by the old Society, and our

PERCHERON HOESES. 99

people appreciate him. He has style and action. There is
not a doulile team in Massachusetts from which, if you
wanted to take out one of the horses and put in another, I
would not agree to take that Percheron stallion and put him
in by the side of any horse in the State, and go right along
and do a day's work with him. As to his speed, I will say
that I met a gentleman in Springfield last summer, and he
said to me, "That horse of yours is a pretty good traveller."
I said "Yes; it is rather a surprise to us, for we did not
expect much in that line from so heavy a horse." " Well,"
said he, "you had him on the road to Holyoke the other
day and I was behind you ; I thought I had a pretty good
horse, but I couldn't keep up, although I tried." I did not
know he was on the road , and did not know he was trying.

The colts of this stallion are splendid stock, and they are
growing in favor. He is a large horse, 14| or 15 hands, —
something, in comparison with other horses, like the Hol-
stein cows that have been spoken of here in comparison with
other cows. He makes good use of all the food we are giv-
ing him. We keep him in a box stall, and neither myself
nor any of the men on the farm ever hesitate to go into that
tight box stall, if necessary, with a currycomb and brush
and clean him ; and if we take him out, we never think of
having any trouble with him any more than with our old
dog. Of course we understand that it is our business to
be masters, and we never have any trouble with him.

Secretary Eussell. I can say, gentlemen, that I agree
entirely with the men who have spoken. I used to be an
advocate of horse-breeding, but now I do not believe that to
the average farmer there is any money in raising colts. I
say "the average farmer," because that is the common expres-
sion. Whenever we are discussing any other topic, we speak
of what would do for " the average farmer." Mr. Brooks is
a horse man. He understands horses ; they know him, and
he handles them easily. He can raise colts and make money
on them. So can his neighbors about him, for they will do
it pretty much under his direction. The same thing is true
of Mr. Bowditch. I have done pretty well with colts myself,
but I cannot say that I, as Secretary of the State Board of
Agi'iculture, have ever advised the Massachusetts farmers to

100 BOARD OF AGBICULTURE.

raise colts for profit. There is a good deal of pleasure in
raising a horse or two on your farm, where you enjoy the
society and company of horses, handling them and training
them ; but when you can buy a good horse, four years old,
and have your choice out of two or three car-loads of them,
grade Percherons for from $175 to $225, I do not think it
pays the person of whom we always speak as ' ' the average
farmer" to raise them for himself. It is a trade to raise
horses. It requires all the thought that Mr. Slade has
spoken about so feelingly this afternoon as being the basis of
success in farming. I have laid awake nights and wished
that some of my colts would die. (Laughter.) I did not
want to kill them, but I should have felt relieved in my
mind if they had disappeared from the fiice of the earth, so
that I would have no more trouble with them.

We in Massachusetts have long and tedious winters, and
it is a very difiicult question to know what to do with colts
coming a year old and before they are two years old in the
winter on the farm. That was always my trouble, — how to
grow up a colt in the winter without fattening him. You do
not want to fat a horse any more than you want to fat a hired
man (laughter and applause) ; but they generally get fat
after you hire them. You want to grow a young horse and
make him muscular and powerful and develop him to the
fullest extent, and the great difficulty that I found in raising
my colts was to give them exercise in the winter. If you
turn them out to exercise themselves, you run very great
risk. They are very apt to injure themselves by running in
the cold, sharp air that stimulates them very highly, or slip-
ping upon ice and going against a fence in that way, and
making blemishes upon them that are serious defects upon a
horse, and always take off a great deal from his value if you
want to sell him.

The Percheron horses I think as highly of as either of the
gentlemen who have spoken about them. As compared with
Morgan horses, they have the advantage of size over the
Morgans, but otherwise they resemble the Morgan horses of
thirty or forty years ago very closely indeed. They are the
old-fashioned Vermont Morgan horse in form, only, we will
say, two sizes larger. They have that same remarkable

PEECHERON HORSES. 101

domesticity that was such a marked feature of the ]Morgan
horse. It is one of my particular hobbies that the Morgan
horse, descended from the single horse, Justin JNIorgan, that
took his start in West Springfield about half a century before
Mr. Brooks started there, was descended from that Arabian
horse that was kept in Connecticut prior to the Revolution-
ary war, and was bought by General Lee of the Provincial
Army, under the direction of General Washington, and was
taken from Connecticut to Virginia, where his blood became
mingled in the pedigrees of several of our thoroughbred
lines. That Arab left his blood there in the valley around
West Springfield, and in my opinion the quality and charac-
ter of the Morgan horses must have been taken from that
strong line of Arab blood there in the Connecticut valley,
and it lasted almost a century. It is all gone now. When
people talk about a INIorgan horse to-day, they are talldng
about something that cannot possibly exist. There is no
more a Morgan to-day than there is an original Smith
(laughter) ; the name and blood have been crossed with all
other families, so that the blood itself has been infinitesimally
subdivided, and they are just like other people ; and so the
Morgan horses are just like any other horses, with no special
Morgan about them.

The Percheron horse has been bred in France by constant
infusions of the Eastern blood, — the Arab. He has the fine
mental qualities that have distinguished the Arab horses in
all ages. This domesticity, docility and adaptability to all
the purposes of man that the Percheron shows in such a
marked degree, he holds in common with the Morgan horses,
that were the pride of the New England people when I was
a boy. There is one trouble about breeding Percheron grade
horses for sale. They are almost invariably gray, and when
any man tells you that they will be of any other color, he is
predicting what is very unlikely. In the last century it was
necessary to have gray horses. You will ask why it was
necessary to have gray horses. It was because all the conti-
nent of Europe was travelled l)y post horses ; men travelled
by night in post chaises, and the horses were ridden by pos-
tilions, and the traveller in the night, sitting back in his
coach, riding long journeys over rough roads, liked (o see a

102 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

lively team in front of him (I mean in color) in the dark.
He could see whether the postilion had gone to sleep and
tumbled off of a gray horse better than he could with a horse
of any other color, and it was the object of men breeding
for posting purposes to get as many gray horses as they
could. Consequently grays were the ones that were kept to
breed from, and so entirely has that color become part of the
Perchcron horses, that you may say that it is a rare excep-
tion when you see one of them that is not gray. Where
they are not gray they are liable to be black. And let me
say to you that black and gray are almost interchangeable
colors in a horse. Gray colts, as you all know, are foaled
black, and they become gray very easily after they get to be
a year old.

In regard to the use of oxen as compared with horses on
our farms, I sympathize entirely in feeling with the gentle-
man from Nantucket, and with my good friend from Sutton,
about the use of oxen. There is nothing I love so much as
to see some other man using oxen. (Laughter.) I rejoice
in them ; I love them. There is something beautiful about
the work of the ox upon the farm ; but where farmers have
got to use machinery to the extent that they must in our time
to keep up, and where there is so much going to market and
so little drawing of wood and heavy products off of the farm,
I think that we are compelled now to use horses and to give
up oxen, as a matter of economy. Of course I am leaving
out the question that was so ably presented here this morn-
ins:, the raising of beef on the farm. I mean, that for the
work of the farm we must, I think, rely upon horses ; and
the Percherons certainly under those circumstances are the
horses best adapted to the farm work, for they are not only
large and powerful, but docile and willing to do any work
that they arc called upon to do, heavy or light, and they have
a remarkable turn of speed. Some of the handsomest horses
ever seen in the world are in the coupes of the city of Paris,
— selected Percheron horses. There are really three sizes
of those horses, and if I criticised at all the horses imported
for the Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, I should
say that they were rather too heavy. They are so large,
indeed, that I think people are a little averse to their use.

PERCHERON HORSES. 103

Possibly that is one reason they have not had greater success
up to this time. The horse that is now kept in Barre was
taken up into Franklin County first. It was thought that
the people of Franklin County were intelligent enough to see
the value of this horse and to use him. But the very con-
trary was the fact. (Laughter.) The horse was not treated
with any degree of fairness or respect in Franklin County,
and there are men here now before me who ouo^ht to blush
with shame for their conduct in regard to that horse in Frank-
lin County. I am very glad that the Society for the Promo-
tion of Agriculture took the horse away from Franklin
County and brought him into my district — I was going to
say. I mean, brought him to Barre, where I hope he will
be better appreciated and do the good to the people of this
region that we would have been so glad to have had him do
up in Franklin County.

Now, if there is anybody who wants to ask me any ques-
tions, I am ready to answer them, if I can.

Mr. Cragin. Is it not probable that the grades will really
be smaller?

Secretary Russell. The grades of the Percheron are
undoubtedly smaller than the large horses that have been
brought here. I have seen a number of the colts of the
horses brought here by the Society, and they are very good
and very handsome colts. You have an opportunity to see
grade Percheron horses now in almost every lot of horses
brought into the city of Boston, or into any of our cities
where horses are brought from the West. The West is
being filled with the Percheron stock, and it gives a promise
to us in New England of a stock of valuable horses at less
expense, as I say, than breeding for ourselves. There is
Mr. Dunham of Wayne, 111., who has imported something
like 2,000 Percheron stallions, and they are spread all over
the Western States. Tliat is the reason why you see such
fine, game horses being brought here now, three or four
years old, from the West. We need have no fear now in
buying Western horses of getting old ones ; the thing to look
out for is not to buy too young a horse. When you look
into a horse's mouth now-a-days, look and see if he has got
a full mouth ; that is, if he is five years old. You are very

104 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

liable to buy a three-year-old for a five-year-old. They used
to lie one way, and now they lie the other. The object is to
put them on the market and get their money for them.
They are horses of very early development. And there is
another thing that may be said of them, to which Mr.
Brooks has alluded. They assimilate food better than any
other animal, I think, ever known anywhere. Th3y fat very
easily, and they can be kept upon less than any other animal
of the same weight that has ever been known upon a farm.
I have myself a grade Porcheron mare that sometimes almost
alarms me by the small amount of feed to which she is
restricted. If she has any idle time, her feed has to be
shortened at once ; if not, she puts on fat as if she was
intended merely for that purpose. They are the cheapest
horses to keep in that respect, and that is one of the things
that ought to be considered in determining what breed of
horses to keep. It is an object to have animals that mature
early. Some of the trotting families that I have known do
not mature until they are eight or nine years old, and then
they are "lathy," "tucked-up," and great eaters, often with
bad digestions, and give a great deal of trouble in that
regard. The contrary is true of the Percherons. They are
good eaters, have good digestions, are well-tempered and
easily managed. They have every qualification about them
that fits them for the farmer's use.

Allow me to recall your attention to the paper read by
Mr. Slade, — it was very able and beautiful. There are men
here, I know, who want to discuss it. I have seen it in the
expression of their faces. I felt a great deal of disappoint-
ment, after Mr. Slade finished, that there was not something
more said about it. We have time now to enter upon the
discussion of that admirable paper.

Mr. Waee. I will say that I watched carefully all the
way through Mr. Slade's reading, hoping that I might find
some position which he took that was open to criticism, but
really I saw no chance for anything except for admiration.
He told us some wholesome truths with regard to the requi-
sites of success in agriculture. He must have had, I think,
a great deal of practical experience to enable him to give
such a clear and concise idea or description of the qualities

DISCUSSION OF SPECIALTIES. 105

necessary for success in agriculture. It seems to me that
there is very little to discuss in that paper. Some essays
that have been read here and at other meetings have opened
such wide gaps for discussion that debate upon them might
last a long while, but I see nothing in this paper that is open
to criticism or that calls for anything except for approval.
I admire it very much indeed.

The Chairman. I will call upon Colonel Wilson.

Col. Henry W. Wilson. All I can do, Mr. Chairman,
is to show myself. I heard responses made about me that
there was no disagreement in regard to that paper, and that
is the word that we can all say.

I have noticed a sort of general idea among fanners that
if they have made a specialty of any department in agricul-
ture or husbandry, they have somehow ceased to be farmers.
Now, if you go into a shoe-shop, for instance, where there
is a subdivision of labor, you do not find shoemakers, — you
find heelers, trimmers, lasters, and so on. So if you go
into a machine-shop, you see a man who works at the drill,
the planer or some other machine. He is not a machinist.
That may be true enough with respect to such men, but that
rule will not apply to husbandry at all. There are certain
great principles that must be observed, and which are as
applicable in one department of husbandry as another. It
is the same in breeding. The same general principles of
breeding must be observed whether a man breeds sheep, or
horses or neat cattle. And so, when we come to talk of
general market-gardening, the very writer of that paper,
which I want to speak of as one of the most beautiful papers
that I ever heard read at a meeting of this Board, was told
two years ago, in a laughing way, by a member of the
Board, " You are not a farmer, you are a strawberry grower."
Well, I do not know how much he may have branched out
into other departments of husbandry, but the fact that he is
a strawberry grower shows that he understands the successful
application of the true principles of husbandry to his sti'aw-
berries as another man does to the crop adapted to his soil,
climate and location. The man who has not moved about
in a great many sections of the country can form but a faint
idea of the extent to which this special husbandry is being

106 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

carried on to-day ; but a watchful man, by observing the
changes in taste that are continually going on about him, can
change from one thing to another and still meet the demand
of the market. I have in mind a man who is one of the
largest growers of roses that we have in this part of the
country. He was telling me some years ago how he got led
into the growing of roses. In one day he has sent seven
thousand blooms into Boston market. He was originally a
nurseryman, and thirty-five years ago he raised a miscella-
neous stock and had a miscellaneous experience. About the
time that the fashion for French pears came up, he caused a
little invoice to be sent to him for his own use, to plant in
his garden. His customers came there, and, seeing his trees,
they desired one and another ; and finally he found he had
sold them all, and he had to get a new stock. Then he found
that that was being made a specialty, and he went into it
until he imported in one invoice four hundred thousand
French stocks and worked them himself. The time came
when the demand fell ofi" ; but while it lasted he found that this
business kept him busy during the summer months merely,
and he must have something to keep his men employed dur-
ino; the winter. He found that if he discharged the men
whom he desired for his assistants during the period of bud-
ding and preparing the stocks, when that work was over he
could not replace them the next season, so he went to work
and erected some greenhouses and raised plants and flowers
for the market, and thus kept his men busy. From that
grew the introduction of roses, and just as the demand for
pear trees fell ofi" the demand for roses increased, and he is
now the most successful and prosperous raiser of roses in
Maiden.

Take a man in Rhode Island. I went down there a year
ago to examine and perhaps make some suggestions with
regard to some improvements that were being made for a man
who was raising pickles, — a man whose father before him had
had a small farm and raised cucumbers for the market. I
saw ten thousand barrels of cucumbers pickling in vats.
The man is a prosperous and wealthy man, who raises cucum-
bers upon a hundred and eighty acres of land, — such land as
scarcely any farmer could make any use of for general farm-

DISCUSSION OF SPECIALTIES. 107

ing purposes. He selected it because it is adapted to his
special use. It is dry, sandy loam, which has been obtained
by clearing off those knolls that are to be found in all that
district south of Providence. The knolls being covered with
scrub oak, he clears them off and leaves the branches on the
ground for protection. He meets the great obstacle to the
successful cultivation of that sort of land by irrigation, and
not having head enough to force the water on to his land by
gravity, he has his boilers and his pumps, and whenever a
piece of land wants water, he fires up his boiler and pumps
the water on to it, and m that way he meets his exigency and
obtains his crop.

You can all remember when it was a difficult thing to
obtain a nice cantelope melon in the market ; but now, by
attention to the culture of that one vegetable, it is raised with
great success. The entire stock of the most successful grower
of green-flesh melons for the Boston market had passed away
before the time of the Annual Exhibition on the 25th of
September last year, and the men who took the prizes were
the men who sold their crop for ten cents apiece, while he
had sold his for twenty-five cents. He has discovered a way
by which he can mature his crop in advance of other growers
and thus obtain a much better price.

Take the cultivation of the strawberry, as profitable a
crop, probably, as any man can raise, and, when grown under
proper circumstances and with proper care, as certain a crop
as any other. I can show you a man who has five acres of
strawberries every year, and keeps up the fertility of his
land by general culture. He told me that he raised his best
strawberries on his poorest land. Why? Simply because
he realizes the great demand of the strawberry for water, and
meets that demand. He has water under control, and when
his plants need water they have it. The result is, that on
his poorest land he is able to raise his best strawberries.

I have nothing to say in contravention of the paper, but
only in enlargement or amplification of it. I think you will
find that the man who desires to achieve large success in any
branch of husbandry can only be successful by devoting him-
self to that one thing. But the question naturally arises
here. What is success? The common understanding is that

108 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

he achieves the greatest success as a fanner or citizen who
accumulates the most money. I do not accept that criterion.
I consider that the man who achieves the greatest success is
the man who does as Benjamin Franklin said of his father :
" Without an estate or any gainful employment, by constant
labor and honest industry, he reared a large family reputa-
bly." You will find this on the stone in the Granary Burial
Ground. There is no collocation of words in the English
language that can, to my mind, express more adequately the
true idea of success in life, -- " To rear a large lamily reputa-
bly, without any estate or gainful employment" ; and if that
can be brought into correlation with competence and the
acquisition of those things which tend to make life comfort-
able, enjoyable and happy, then we have achieved the highest
type of success.

We often see men of whom we say that they have been
successful formers, and you ^ill excuse me if I make allusion
to a little experience that I had in that regard. On one
occasion I attended a meeting where the subject under dis-
cussion was successful husbandry, and one told how he had
raised a large quantity of onions, got a great price, and made
large gains ; another man told how he had raised strawber-
ries and been very successful ; another man had raised tur-
nips, another cauliflower ; and then a gentleman was called
upon, a man of fine presence, and he was introduced as one
who had been highly successful in agriculture. He had
acquired property, so that in the decline of life he could live
in comfort without labor, simply from the accumulations that
he had made by the successful practice of the art of hus-
bandry. Then they called me out, pretty much as I am
called out here, not because I had anything special to say,
and possibly because you thought perhaps I would make a
better speech for the very reason that I did not know any-
thing of what I was talking about. I spoke then pretty
much as I am speaking now. I said that I considered the
successful man the man who stood in his place, did his duty
in life, and educated his family ; and when any man claimed
to be successful, I wanted to know what he had done to see
that his place in the world was ably and creditably filled
when he passed away ; I wanted to know how his wife lived ;

DISCUSSION OF SPECIALTIES. 100

I wanted to know how much of his success had been due to
her hibors and her sacrifices ; for I see, as I go up and down
the land, that the burdens of the farm and the home are not
borne by the man, thoy are borne l)y the industrious, de-
voted and self-sacrificing wife. (Applause.) That has been
my experience in life ; and it proved true then, as it will
prove true in too many cases, that the man's success had been
bought at the sacrifice of his wife. She had broken down
under the trials, the labors and the exacting demands upon
her physical strength, and she was a confirmed invalid, while
he was a well-kept man.

Now, you have got to take these things all together, and I
think the time is now coming when the husbandman of this
country must .say to himself, "Here I am, a member of the
community ; I have my family to rear ; it is my aim, my
ambition, to rear them in comfort, so that they shall become
creditable members of society when I pass away. I must
do what I can to promote their comfort and happiness, pro-
vide for their education and support, and leave me in such a
position that, as my productive power diminishes, I can live
upon the little accumulations that I have acquired." I may
illusti'ate this point. It comes right in here. Many years
ago I wi'ought in a machine shop, where 1 commenced my
active life. There was a young man who wi"ought at a bench
by my side, — a very quiet, plethoric man, but a man upon
whom you could always depend to do the very best that was
in him. He was never employed at great wages ; probably
never commanded over $2.25 a day. That was thirty-five
years ago. I met him ten years ago. I said, " AVell, friend
Tilden, how are you getting along?" He told me he had
prospered in a moderate way, and then he unfolded to me
the secret of his purpose in life. He said that when he
was a workman he always intended to live within his means,
hiying up something, for, said he, "I realized that I should
not always produce as much as I Avas producing then. I
always laid by a little something so that as the years gath-
ered over me and I began to decline, I should have something
to make me comfortable." He is a man sixty years of age,
is in possession of a comfortable property, so that he is not
obliged to labor at all ; he has reared his family so that they

110 BOAEi) OF AGRICULTURE.

are all creditable members of society, and in the decline of
life he is respected and happy. That man has been a suc-
cess. He is not a great man in the eyes of the world ; he is
not a scientific man ; he is not gifted with those bright and
shining accomplishments which command the admiration of
the world ; but he has filled his place, he has done his duty,
he has kept himself respected, and as he grows old he knows
that he will leave behind him those who will fill the place
creditably that he has filled. That is success in life, and
that success can be achieved by every man of sobriety, en-
ergy and industry. (Applause.)

Adjourned to 7.30.

Evening Session.

The meeting was called to order by Mr. Goddard at 7.30,
Mr. Edmund Hersey of Hingham was introduced, who
delivered a very interesting lecture on Experiments in Potato
Culture, illustrated with Stereopticon.

LECTURE ON EXPERIMENTS IN POTATO CULTURE.
[Illustrations at the end of the Lecture, after page 118.]

BY EDMUND HERSEY OF HINGHAM.

Members of the Board of Agriculture, — The subject of
potato culture has not again been brought before you be-
cause of the discovery of many new facts since last year, but
because I believe that I possess better means than ever before
of proving to you the truth of my assertions, and because of
the desire to show you the practicability of making true and
lasting records of agricultural experiments, in difierent stages
of progress, by that wonderful art which has been so per-
fected that the exact form and position of the trotting horse,
while in action, can be gathered up and preserved for future
examination. With what delight would we gaze upon what
we felt sure was a true picture of a field of corn as culti-
vated hj the Indians or the Pilgrims ; and how interested we
would be in looking at photographs of the cows milked by
our great-grandmothers, or of the hogs fed by their sons ;

EXPERIMENTS IN POTATO CULTURE. Ill

and how much more fully we would realize the progress we
have made, could we have for examination true pictures of
the grain fields, the gardens, the different animals, fruits and
vegetables of a hundred years ago ! But the greatest advan-
tage of a picture record is in furnishing the means by which
more correct conclusions can be drawn as to the value of any
particular method to secure a desired result.

A photograph is not only a lasting record, but it is a true
record, which, in most cases, cuts off highly colored state-
ments of enthusiastic experimenters. The photographic art
is of so recent discovery that our ancestors could not, if they
had desired to, preserve the true picture forms of their farm
products ; so we cannot accuse them of not doing their duty,
because they did not preserve in picture form their farm
crops. But not so with us. We have the means by which
nearly every step of progress and every mistake in agricul-
ture can be easily and correctly recorded, and if we neglect
to do it, we shall neglect a duty we owe to posterity. This
is a work so important that it should not be left to be done
by individual effort, but it should receive State and United
States aid ; and thus, by combined efforts, every important
experiment and every step of progress could be gathered up
and deposited at central points for future examination and
comparison.

Let us make some effort to have a small portion of the
money which our government spends so liberally used for
making picture records of carefully tried experiments, made
at our experiment stations, and thus begin the work of pre-
serving in true forms, for the use of posterity, as well as
our own instruction, whatever may be of value or of interest.

The Massachusetts Society for the Promotion of Agricul-
ture has, with its usual generosity, paid most of the expense
of the views that I am about to show you, and also paid for
forty-nine photographs to be deposited at the Experimental
Station at Amherst. The very quiet and eflScicnt manner in
which this society is aiding agricultural progress is worthy
of all praise, and should receive the thanks of every friend
of agriculture.

The land upon which the experiments I am about to bring
to your notice were tried was a light, sandy loam. It had

112 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

been planted several years with hoed crops of various kinds,
and had been well manured, so the soil might be said to be
in fair condition. Early in May the land was ploughed
about seven inches deep ; no manure was spread broadcast,
because it was thought the test would not be as correct as
it would be to measure out an exact amount of fertilizer and
apply it to each hill. The fertilizer used was made of ground
bone and sulphuric acid, with enough well decomposed leaf-
mould mixed with the bone and acid while hot, so that one
quart could be applied to each hill at a. cost of one-half cent,
or twenty dollars an acre. The fertilizer was well mixed
with the soil over a space eighteen inches in diameter.

The first experiment which I shall call your attention to
shows the results of a test of the value of small whole pota-
toes as compared with large cut anes, the small potatoes
being about one inch in diameter, and the pieces were cut
from potatoes weighing about one-half a pound each, and cut
of a size to weigh exactly the same as the whole small pota-
toes, each whole potato and each piece having the eyes
reduced to two before planting. May 19 the seed was
planted. The first view was taken June 28, and shows the
plants when well up. Four hills were taken instead of two,
there being twenty hills in this experiment. It will be seen
that No. 1, from the small whole seed, shows the largest.
July 21 another field view was taken. You will observe
that No. 1 is still in advance of No. 2. This has always
been the case every year of the seven years which this ex-
periment has been under trial, the whole seed being from a
week to ten days earlier than the cut seed. The potatoes in
each hill were dug, assorted, and weighed and photographed.
The next view shows the potatoes dug from each hill. No. 1
from the small potatoes, and No. 2 from the large cut pota-
toes. The result this year does not exactly compare with
the six preceding years, owing probably to the fact that
when No. 1 was making the most rapid growth of tubers the
weather for several days was excessively hot and dry, but
changed before No. 2 had reached a stage of growth to be so
seriously affected. The weight of No. 1 was, of large pota-
toes, 5 pounds 14 ounces ; small, 2 pounds ; total, 7 pounds
14 ounces. No. 2 produced, of large potatoes, 7 pounds ;

EXPERBIENTS IN POTATO CULTUEE. 113

sratill, 1 pound 2 ounces; total, 8 pounds 2 ounces. For
the seven years, No. 1 produced 2051^ pounds of large and
62 pounds of small potatoes. The same number of hills of
No. 2, the cut seed, produced in the same time 192| pounds
of large and 71| of small potatoes, — the small whole seed
producing 13 pounds more of large potatoes and 9| pounds
less small ones than No. 2, the seed cut from large potatoes.

The next experiment is to show the different ends of the
potato, No. 3 being the seed end and No. ^4 the stem end.
The next view shows the plants as they were June 28 ; the
next is a field view taken July 21. These views all show
that the seed end produced plants that kept in advance of
those that came from the stem end, but for some reason
these two hills show more difference than the other eighteen
hills in this experiment ; yet ev^ery year during the six years
which this experiment has been under trial, the plants from
the seed end have started in advance of those that came
from the stem end.

The next view shows the result of this experiment. No. 3,
seed end, produced, of large potatoes, 4 pounds 8 ounces,
and 1 pound 10 ounces of small; total, 6 pounds 2 ounces.
No. 4, stem end, produced, of large potatoes, 4 pounds 4
ounces, and of small, 1 pound 2 ounces ; total, 5 pounds
6 ounces. For six years the ten hills of each number pro-
duced. No. 3, seed cud, 166^ pounds of large potatoes and
47^ of small; total, 213| pounds. No. 4, the stem end,
produced 141| pounds of large potatoes and 471 of small ;
total, 188|^ pounds, — the seed end producing 25 pounds more
large potatoes than the stem end, and about the same quan-
tity of small potatoes.

The next experiment is to show the difference between
large and small potatoes for seed. The result is not satis-
factory, and I cannot help thinking that if the experiment
be continued seven years, most of the yearly results will be
different ; but I give you the result of this single experi-
ment, with the caution not to draw any conclusions to be
used, until more trials of the same experiment have been
made.

A 1 is a large potato weighing al)out one-half a pound.
A 2 is a small potato about one inch in diameter. The small

114 BOAKD OF AGEICULTURE.

potato was cut in the centre, and each half reduced to two
eyes ; then two pieces were cut from the large potato, of
exactly the same weight of the pieces from the small potato,
and all but two eyes in each piece destroyed ; the pieces
from the large and small potatoes were planted in hills side
by side. The field view taken June 28 shows that the
seed from the small potatoes started first, A 2 ; and the sec-
ond view, when the plants were full-grown, shows a larger
srrowth. The next view shows the result. It will be seen
that A 2, from the small potato, has a large number of
quite small potatoes at the top of the view. These were a
late growth, and were on the stalks very near and some
about the surface of the ground ; but aside from these there
is a much larger number of good potatoes than in A 1, which
come from the seed of the large potatoes, there being only
four in A 1 large enough for eating, while in A 2 there arc
nine. A 1 produced 14 ounces of largo and 1 pound 6
ounces of small potatoes ; and A 2 produced 1 pound 2
ounces of large and 2 pounds 4 ounces of small potatoes.
The small quantity from these two hills was undoubtedly
owing to the small amount of seed used.

The next experiment was made to show the advantage of
covering a cut potato with plaster. B 1 was covered with
plaster immediately after being cut, B 2 was left uncov-
ered, and both were planted in a few hours after being cut.
The view shows that the covered potato started first, and the
next shows that the uncovered potato did not make so strong
a firrowth as the covered. The result as shown in the next
view is not so much in favor of the covered seed. While
the total yield was larger, the weight of good eating potatoes
was less. This was, no doubt, owing to the hot, dry weather
which came just in time to check them when making the
most rapid growth ; while B 2, not being quite as early, was not
injured. B 1, the covered seed, produced 2 pounds 10
ounces of large and 2 pounds 12 ounces of small potatoes ;
total, 5| pounds. B 2, the uncovered seed, produced 2
pounds 14 ounces of large and 1 pound 14 ounces of small
potatoes ; total, 4| pounds.

The next experiment was to test the difference between
light and heavy seeding, or single eyes and whole potatoes.

EXPERIMENTS IN POTATO CULTlTRE. 115

Two potatoes, each weighing about one-half a pound were
selected, and from each, one of the strongest eyes were cut
out with a small piece of potato attached. The two eyes
were planted in one hill, and the two whole potatoes, less
one eye each, were planted in the next. The next view
shows how much quicker the whole potatoes started up a
luxuriant top than the single eyes. In the numerous trials
which have been made in years past, this has always l>een
the result, — the whole potatoes outstripping the single eyes
by more than one-half. The next view, showing the plants
at full growth, gives unmistakal>le evidence that a tuber has
the power to feed the young plant, and force it to a degree
that is far beyond what the plant food in the common soil
can do. The next view shows the result, which is very much
in favor of the whole seed. E 1, the single eyes, produced
2 1 pounds of large, and 10 ounces of small potatoes ; total,
2| pounds. E 2, the whole potatoes, produced 8 pounds
6 ounces of large and 1 pound 10 ounces of small potatoes ;
total, 10 pounds, the product from the whole potatoes being
more than three times that from single eyes. The seed for
this experiment was the variety called the White Star. The
same experiment was repeated with seed of the early Ply-
mouth County, which is the variety used for all of the other
experiments tried. This experiment shows very nearly the
same results as the one just given. F 1, the single eyes
produced 1 pound 14 ounces of large and 6 ounces of small
potatoes; total, 2^ pounds. F 2 produced 4 pounds, 10
ounces of large, and 2 pounds, 4 ounces of small potatoes ;
total, 6| pounds, or a trifle over three times more than the
single eyes produced.

The next experiment was tried to show the difference, if
any, between seed that is scabby, and seed free from scab.
G 1 is a very scabby potato, and G 2 perfectly free from
scab. For some reason these potatoes did not appear above
ground in time to be photographed June 28, and so no view
was taken until July 21, when, as you will observe, the
growth of each was very near alike and the potatoes, though
a very small crop, were very near alike ; and all the potatoes
in both hills were entirely free from scab. This experiment
has been under trial three years with the same results. I

116 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

cannot account for this, and am not convinced that it is
good policy to plant scabby potatoes. I should rather have
a trial of three years more with the same results, and also
should prefer to have others try it before settling down to
any definite conclusions. It is so different from what one
would naturally expect, that there should be stronger evi-
dence than three years' trial before anything of value should
be considered established.

The next set of views, and the last that I shall bring to
your attention this evening, shows the result of an experi-
ment to test the value of salt to prevent scab. It having
been said that salt will prevent scab, I decided to commence
a series of experiments to ascertain if it be true. This year
being the first of the experiment, the result is of no great
value ; but I give it, with a caution not to draw conclusions
until further experiments are made. H 1 and H 2 are pota-
toes badly afi"ected with the scab. These were cut as near
in the centre as possible, and one-half of each put in one
hill and the other half in the next hill. The hill marked
H 1 had a small handful of coarse salt mixed with the fer-
tilizer and the soil directly around the hill. H 2 had no salt
in the hill. The view taken June 28 shows that the plants
in the hill salted started first, and the view taken July 21
shows that the plants kept in advance of those not salted ;
and the potatoes when dug show H 1 to be much better than
H 2, HI producing 4 pounds 10 ounces of large and 14
ounces of small potatoes, — total, 5| pounds ; H 2 produced
3 pounds of large and 6 ounces of small potatoes, — total,
o pounds 6 ounces. I give you this, not because I believe
that salt will always produce such good results, for I do not ;
but I give it to show the importance of more than one trial
before conclusions are drawn. This experiment will be con-
tinued. No scab was seen in the hill salted or in the hill
not salted.

In conclusion, I would say, years of close observation and
careful experiments lead me to the following conclusions :
1st, Whole potatoes will produce a crop from a week to ten
days earlier than cut potatoes. 2d, Small whole potatoes
will produce for many years in succession just as good if
not better results than large potatoes cut the size of the

EXPERIMENTS IN POTATO CULTURE. 117

small whole ones. 3d, The seed end of a potato is better to
plant than the stem end, because the plants start with more
vigor, and produce larger and more potatoes. 4th, A large
piece of a potato is better to plant in ordinary soil, and will
produce a much better crop, than very small pieces or single
eyes. 5th, Potatoes with sprouts long enough to break off
in planting are not as good as potatoes with the eyes started
just enough to show their good condition. 6th, The form
of a potato cannot, as a rule, be changed by the selection
for planting any particular form. 7th, Two distinct varie-
ties will not mix by planting in the same hill. 8th, The
potato scab is a blemish that the more we investigate the
less we appear to know about it.

First Experiment.

No. 1, small i^otatoes ; No. 2, lai-ge cut.

Total. Acre,

lbs. oz. bush.

7 14 525

8 2 COM

Large.

Small.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz,

No. 1, . . 5 14

9

No. 2, . . 7

1 8

No. 1(7 years), 205^

62

No. 2 (7 years), 192|

71|

267J
264g

26«

The small seed producing 13 jiounds more of large potatoes, and 9?
less of small.

Second Experiment.

No. 3, seed end ; No. 4, stem end.

Large.

Small.

Total.

Acre.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

bush.

No. 3, .

. 4 8

1 10

6 2

408^

No. 4, .

. 4 4

1 2

5 6

358J

The seed end for six years produced, ■

60

Large.

Small.

Total.

Acre.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

bush.

No. 3, .

166V

47i

213|

No. 4, .

• 141|

47-1

im

25i

118

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Third Experiment.

A 1, large cut potato ; A 2, small cut.

Large.

Small.

Total.

Acre.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

bush.

Al, .

14

1 6

2i

150

A 2, .

1 2

2 4

3 6

225

Fourth Experiment.
B 1, covered seed ; B 2, uncovered.

Large.

Small.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

Bl, .

2 10

2 12

B2, .

2 14

1 14

Total.

41

Fifth EtPERiMENT.
E 1, single eyes ; E 2, large potatoes.

E 2 being more than three times E 1.

Acre,
bush.

3581-
316|

41#

Large.

Small.

Total.

Aere.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

bash.

1, •

2 4

10

21

191|

2, .

8 j6

1 10

10

6662

475

Sixth Experiment.
F 1, single eyes ; F 2, large potatoes.

Large.

Small.

Total.

Acre.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

bush.

Fl, .

1 14

6

n

150

F2, .

4 10

2 4

H

458i

F 2 producing a trifle over three times that of F 1.

3084

Seventh Experiment.

[liTot tabled.]

Eighth Experiment.

H 1, salted ; II 2, unsalted.

Large.

Small.

Total.

Acre.

lbs. oz.

lbs. oz.

lbs.

oz.

bush.

HI, .

4 10

14

H

366f

112, .

3

6

3

6

225

141|

FIRST EXPEmMEMT.

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TH1R.D EXPERinENT

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FOOR,TH EXPERinEMT

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FIFTH EXPERIAEMT.

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5IXTH EXPER^IAErST.

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SEVENTH EXPERinEriT.

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EIGHTH EXPERinEMT.

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RECLAI^UNG LAND. 119

SECOND DAY.

The meeting was called to order at 9.30 by Mr. Goddard,
who said :

I congi-atulate you on the good attendance we had yester-
day and on the close attention that was paid to the papers
and discussions. We have the promise to-day of a large
attendance, and we certainly have a very full programme.
You will remember that one lecture which was to have been
given yesterday was postponed until this morning, and so
the day, which we thought was already full, will be over-
flowing, but I hope ovei-flowing with good things, and I
believe so.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce Mr. Appleton,
who will give his lecture on Reclaiming Land.

RECLAIMING LAND.

BT F. H. APPLETOX OF PEABODY.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, — When asked to
prepare a lecture for delivery at this time, which I knew
would be listened to, not only by the representative agricul-
turalists who compose this Board, but also largely by the
citizens of this famed agricultural town and county, with
their visiting friends, I indeed hesitated to inquire what I
could say to such well-trained and tried farmers that would
be new or interesting.

I have prepared a few remarks, hoping that I might, at
least, advance some ideas which would be suggestive to
farmers, as well as to those agriculturalists who are indi-
rectly interested in the cultivation of the soil, and who are
unable to be present during this meeting.

It is the absentees whom the published reports of your
Board in large measure benefit, besides being preserved for
study and reference by many Massachusetts yeomen, and

120 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

also going forth far beyond the State boundaries as an
exponent of what is being done here in the interests of
agriculture.

There are a few subjects which I will touch upon only
briefly, and which are either important to-day, or destined
soon to be requisites, in our general system of New England
farming.

While my subject might lead one to suppose that I should
endeavor to explain to you new methods of farming by
which you could make that part of your land profitable
which to-day is useless, my object will really be to endeavor
to persuade Massachusetts farmers to consider more carefully
whether they cannot treat much of the land on their farms in
more profitable ways than those adopted by them to-day.

The adaptability of crops to land is the subject that I
would urge farmers to carefully consider ; and to do so
intelligently, a study of the annual reports of this Board is
an admirable aid to the solution of the problem, whether it
be to change or modify existing methods, or to become as-
sured that the methods at present adopted are best suited to
the farms under consideration.

Every possible influence should be judiciously used to aid
the Secretary of this Board, not only to secure a thorough
circulation of the reports, but to urge farmers to more gen-
erally and carefully read and study their contents.

We should use every influence to make the good words
and advice that the reports contain fully felt and appreciated
by those farmers who do not now make a practice of seeking
and reading them.

Is it not in the extension of agricultural knowledge among
the people of the State that we find the good influence of
the Agricultural College is being felt, besides the direct bene-
fit to the individuals who graduate from it ?

I have heard some people criticise the college by saying
that too few graduates become farmers. Is that all that
young men go to the college for? By no means. Those
who do not turn practical farmers, become citizens whose
influence must be felt throughout the State or country, in
the field of agriculture ; and such men are on hand to protect
and foster the farming interests of the nation.

RECLAIMING LAND. 121

Agrriculture is a comlnnation of almost all the known
sciences, and consequently every student of science is doing
his part towards advancing and improving this great com-
bination of arts and sciences.

The winter meetings of the. Board, and those of her chil-
dren the farmers' clubs, are the stages upon which words of
knowledge and advice can be brought usefully before the
farming community.

To clearly ascertain the truth as to the adaptability of
crops to land or land to crops, systematic and business prin-
ciples play a most important part.

In this prosperous and fertile town and county I am sure
that the immediate need of the strictest economical principles
of cultivation has not yet been forced upon the farmers, as
has been the case in many parts of the State ; but I am sure
that the best methods of management have been, voluntarily,
adopted here ; and have also been adopted elsewhere, wher-
ever the reputation for good farming is such as is that which
is well known to apply to Bari*e.

In travelling through less fertile and less favored sections
of the State I have wondered whether the owners of such
poorer lands do not wish that reliable farm doctors existed,
who could be called to those les^ profitable farms, and be
sufficiently well trained to advise in what way they could
be treated or cultivated to better advantage, both in the
interest of the owner and indirectly in the interest of the
State.

In 1870 I went about half-way in getting such advice in
rcijard to the treatment of an obstinate field about which I
could not make up my mind just what it needed. I sought
the advice of a well-known chemist, but found that he could
not. view the field. He heard my stor}^ and then told me
to bring him a collection of samples of the earth taken from
different parts of it.

This I did, and in due time I received his reply. A
liberal dressing of lime in late autumn was advised, with
})otash and other fertilizers in the spring, in quantities per
acre as stated to me for a specified croj). It was intended
not only to supply direct food to the crop by applying the
chemical fertilizers to the soil, but also to promote such

122 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

chemical action with the soil itself as would liberate an
increased supply of plant food.

All the scientific recommendations were carried out, but
the crop was unsuccessful, or almost a failure.

After considering the character of the soil, and reviewing
the debit and credit sheets of my account book in regard to
the crop, it was decided to abandon all further general culti-
vation of that field. I therefore tried to start some srass
there, and have now on part of it a poor pasture, and on the
balance a good growth of a mixture of forest trees. If the
field were larger, I think it might be improved by pasturing
sheep there, provided they should be fed with rich food to
increase the value of their manure.

How to enable the owners to improve their poorer lands
is an important matter to the State, if land is being held at
a loss, and is not of sufficiently good quality to yield profita-
ble returns.

There seems to be much land in Massachusetts to-day
which would be more profitable if planted judiciously to
trees, or otherwise treated than at present.

The efibrt that is being made to improve much of our up-
land by increasing sheep husbandry deserves all the encour-
agement that it can receive. The value of well-fed sheep
as a means of renovating land is great, and those who are
agitating this subject should receive all possible aid.

In improving the lower lands that require drainage, and
to be cleared of woody and rough growth, we find the re-
claimed land of so high a quality as to invite either cultivated
crops or heavy grass land, depending largely upon nearness
^o market.

It is on such land that crops can be made to thrive after
they have been judiciously treated by drainage and fertiliza-
tion ; and there, where they have useful amounts of moisture
even in seasons of drought, that chemical fertilisers can be
used with almost unerring efiects ; and where the hard work
of the farmer can be expended with as sure a promise of
good returns at times of harvest as anywhere.

There are farms to-day where the main-stay is the lower
land, which bears three tons or more of hay to the acre,
uhile the old uplands, that father and grandfather have made

RECLAIMING LAND. 123

sacred by cultivating and mowing for years, yield a har-
vest of perhaps only one, or one and a half, tons to the acre.

There still is much land where trees can be planted to a
good profit, and I shall soon refer to methods and cost.

But the question now arises, how are we to know that any
part of our land is yielding a poor income, or perhaps is
losing property.

It is probably a generally recognized principle with the
farmers of Barre and vicinity to keep careful accounts with
their different fields or crops, and to measure or weigh at
the time of harvest ; but such, I am quite confident, is not
the majority rule among farmers, but I wish for their own
good it were so.

A systematic management in any business or occupation
is the true and only way to know when we are reaping the
best results, and no people more than the farming com-
munity deserve success in their calling.

I am no advocate of complicated accounts, but advise a
carefully kept diary of what the daily work has been, and
where it has been done, so that a balance sheet can be made
from it, in order that it may be known what is worth doing
and what is not.

This subject is an old one, but it is none the less one that
will bear repetition in order that more persons may fall into
line and benefit by its adoption.

It is in the hope that land which is being tilled at a loss
may either be devoted to some other plan of treatment, or
be so cultivated in the future that it shall yield at least a
fair return to its owner, that I would urge the importance
of keeping accounts in some simple form proportionate to
the extent of farming done.

Knowledge, as to general adaptability in connection with
farming, is largely needed to aid and benefit the practical
part of farming. To know how to best induce the fertility
of the soil to change its character and find its way into the
bank or pocket in the largest possible tjuantity, via crops
or animals, yielding to the occupants of the farm a com-
fortable and happy living, than which no other offers greater
possibilities for health and contentment, is the key to suc-
cessful farming.

124 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

Where do we look for the leading exponents of this
knowledge ; do we not turn tir.st towards her who now has
clustered around her a lurije number of alumni who cherish
strong affection for their ao;ricultural Alma Mater at Amherst ?

To the Agricultural College and Experimental Station we
look for aid, and trust that they will receive all proper help
and encouragement in their good work to educate and
develo[).

To refer more especially to forestry : —

Last year there was published in the Annual Report of
the State Board of Agriculture an interesting essay on
forest trees by Professor Sargent, which deserves the careful
attention of every intelligent citizen of the Commonwealth.

Because an essay is a year or more old is no reason why
it should bo laid on the shelf, although, more often, what is
news to-day is not such in the future.

We know how some republications often are in far greater
demand than new books ; and, although the subject of for-
estry, and forest and ornamental trees in general, cannot be
expected to attract the attention of as many people as a
popular novel, it is a subject that deserves far greater study
than is accorded it to-day. In saying so, I have in mind the
value to our State- of a more general understanding of the
merits of a judicious care and planting of trees, in both
large and small quantities, on farms, along roadsides and on
home grounds, in villages and cities. I use the word " vil-
lages " instead of " towns," because most towns are made up
of collections of villages, and village improvement societies
afford a better means of effecting local improvement than do
larger organizations ; also because there are a considerable
number of village-improvement societies in existence to-day,
or organizations that have local improvement for their object,
and which are doing good work.

It is said that in some localities farming is less profitable
than formerly, or perhaps it might be more truly said that
the income derived from the farm is insufficient to meet the
increased expenses that education of the present day leads
many to believe is necessary.

Every possible effort should be made to advance the con-
dition of agriculture, and all suggestions that may propose

RECLAIMING LAND. 125

new plans for utilizing the land should l)e placed before the
people.

There must be many cases in the State where tree culture
could be profitably practised, and the ornamentation of
villao^es, roadsides and home grounds is no small part of
such profit.

Why should not Massachusetts aim to become even more
of a garden State than she now is, attracting hither in greater
numbers than now those seeking homes in country districts,
retired from the more busy centres of trade ; and to make
the localities where trade and manufacturing is conducted
more beautiful, by fostering and guiding natural growth, so
that the scenery which is i)eculiar to the country may sur-
round and improve the otfice and workshop, as well as the
homes of those who toil with mind and body.

Our population is gradually increasing, and the West-
ern States offer many attractions to our younger men to
leave their mother State and establish themselves else-
where.

It becomes our duty, as citizens of Massachusetts, to leave
no stone unturned to keep all at home whom we can provide
for, and to offer every good and permanent attraction that
we are able, in order that the ties which bind to Massachu-
setts shall be so strong that even those whose business may
call them away shall eventually return, and bring a fair pro-
portion of their profits with them.

The varied geological condition of our State, with its pro-
portion of hills and valleys, streams and lakes, affords all
that we could ask for, provided the waters are to be kept
unpolluted, and the lakes are not to be wastefully drawn
upon as sources of water supply.

We must endeavor to preserve a correct proportion be-
tween our wood and stump land, and our tillage and pasture
land ; and lands that are not fit for the one use should be
allowed to improve by the other. •

Let me introduce one word here about much of the land
that was cleared of woods by our ancestors when they first
came to this country ; and I do not quite understand why
they cleared for cultivation so much land that would seem to
be far better oft* as woodland than in any other condition,

126 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

unless they preferred to reclaim that which could most
quickly be made ready to yield them crops.

Because our brave and sturdy ancestry reclaimed from
the woods much of the land that is still under cultivation
to-day, is, in itself, no reason why it may not be wiser to
again reclaim many of the same lands from field, pasture or
waste culture, and plant to trees.

Certainly most of the land with gravelly subsoil that is
so sensitive to drought, and the inland tracts that are of a
more sandy character, and which go begging at ten dollars
an acre, originally were largely covered by a growth of
woods. And would it not seem far better if such lands
should be encouraged to return to woods again ? Mr. Slade
of Somerset told this Board several years ago what his
friends of Middleborough and adjoining towns had done for
similar lands there. They were planted with that standard
native tree, the glorious white pine of New England, which,
from its increasing scarcity, must be gradually improving
in value as the years roll on.

This town is, probably, a less fortunate locality for a lec-
ture to be delivered which urges the reclaiming and culti-
vation of other land than that which is now tilled ; but the
value in tilling the best land you can have is so well known
to the citizens of Barre, that they cannot fail to commend the
importance of the old and true saying, that " what is worth
doing at all is worth doing well."

This is -a good principle for every one to build upon, and
in the case in point every farmer should realize the value to
him of cultivating his best land.

Do not continue to cultivate land for the sole reason that
fathers and grandfathers have done so before.

If the uplands yield small crops, at once carefully con-
sider whether you can improve them ; or treat them differ-
ently, and bring the low lands into a condition for tillage.

Here is a possibility for putting in practice the truism
that " in union there is strength," and for farmers' clubs or
combinations of individuals to carry it out, by a union of
interests, where the low lands are owned by several individ-
'uals, and the drainage can only be effected by united effort
of interested parties.

RECLAIMING LAND. 127

Farmers' Clubs and Village Improvement Societies are
the means of accomplishing more real good in these and
other directions for their members than is generally done.

Much moist land is, however, not owned jointly with
others, and where the work can be done with no chance of
obstacles to a successful result.

If the low lands are to receive such attention and be
proved a source of increased profit, what shall become of
those uplands which have less attraction for cultivation? Let
them be planted with valuable trees.

The plantations of Middleborough and vicinity are proof
of the profit that can come from planting trees judiciously
upon the poorer quality of land. It was my pleasure to
view those plantations of white pine which have succeeded
so well, and they are in themselves sufficient evidence of
success.

The visit was made in company with two gentlemen, than
whom there is no better authority on forest growth.

In making plantations, practical experience in setting out
a considerable number of trees leads me to speak most forci-
bly against setting out any but the smaller sizes in new
plantations ; and that is a far better rule to follow for all
planting.

Trees have been set out on my own farm of sizes from
one foot to ten feet high, of both evergreen and deciduous
species, in permanent places ; and the smaller trees, being
less affected by the winds, sooner secure a permanent and
thrifty hold on the soil with their roots in their new position.

In setting out plantations, the young trees must be set
reasonably near each other, so that they shall aflford mutual
protection.

This applies whether the trees are eventually for orna-
mental purposes or for forest growth. In the former case
the position of the trees as they are ultimately desired must
first be established, and then the intervening space should
be filled in with good hardy trees which shall be cut down
as the permanent ones approach them.

The plantations of the late Mr. Fay of Essex County
included such a plantation of ornamental trees of varied
kinds, and had he been spared a dozen years longer, he

128 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

would undoubtedly have carried out his apparent intention
to so thin them that the result would probably be as fine an
example of extensive ornamental woodland as could any-
where be found.

When it is desired to plant for timber, the permanent
trees should be planted as nearly as possible in the manner
in which nature starts her successful woodland growth ; the
object generally being to prevent the development of limbs
and encourage the main stem.

It is well to encourao-e the claiming back again of those
lands that are better suited to be woodlands, and the reclaim-
ing those woody and marshy lands that are well adapted
for cultivation.

It is on the lower lands chiefly that science, engineering
and chemistry can prove their usefulness to the State and to
the farmer.

Much land that is to-day flooded, to afford water-power
for mills, would probably prove as valuable as any in the
State for purposes of cultivation, were the mills ever dis-
used, water-power given up, the water withdrawn and the
land reclaimed.

There is still another method of benefiting our less good
lands, those which are more susceptible to draught ; and I
refer to irrigation.

The value of the windmill deserves a much wider recog-
nition than it receives to-day, and the steam-pump is a far
simpler means of irrigating and watering land than is gen-
erally supposed.

Both windmill and steam-pump deserve consideration
from more farmers and gardeners, whose crops and market
loads should be larger than they are to-day.

Every system of irrigation fed by windmill or steam-
pump must have a large reservoir in which to store up a
supply of water for times of greatest need. If a windmill
is to be used, and you are in doubt as to which size to take,
by all 'means choose the larger, keep it well oiled, run it
constantly, and it will serve you well, with small outlay for
repairs. They only need regular oiling to gain the highest
place in their owner's estimation.

If you can get a sufficient amount of water from a wind-

EECLAIMmG LAND. 129

mill, it is the cheapest and best supply, and the larger mills
can deliver a great quantity ; but if that is too uncertain in
any locality, the more costly steam-pump is wholly reliable.

Why is it that villages do not have more of the smaller
windmills in them than now, to supply water for house-
hold purposes, and for watering the smaller flower and veo--
etable gardens ?

They will supply one or more houses for such purposes,
or the larger mills can be erected, jointly, to supply a
larger collection of houses.

To again refer to tree planting, I will quote what Mr.
Brown of Stirling, Scotland, a practical and scientific for-
ester says: "At the present day the United States are
depending upon the wooded regions in Canada for the sup-
ply of their useful timbers ; and in that country, where so
much wood is necessarily consumed for fuel, the supply can-
not meet the demand for many years longer ; and it is now
the opinion of many who are well acquainted with the sub-
ject, that in a few years wood will not only be very scarce,
but at the same time very dear, — much beyond any price
we can form any adequate idea of at the present day."

Consider what these statements contain, and wherein we
can profit by these evident facts.

Fuel, lumber, railway sleepers and permanent forests are
what must directly result from the encouragement and appli-
cation of tree planting.

Consider what relation the government bears to this mat-
ter. How can it prevent a man from cutting down his
woodlands before they are sufficiently matured, or when
they surround the source of a water supply ; or how can it
best insist that municipal or other corporations, which con-
trol water supplies, shall preserve or cultivate forests around
those sources, so as to protect or increase the quantity and
preserve the quality of its waters, which our people are asked
to use ?

Is it not by echication, and by spreading that intelligence
among our citizens which makes them generally become
familiar with the truth in regard to such matters?

Each individual must be educated up to a realization of
the value to him, personally and as a citizen, in preserving

130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

or cultivating the forests before they can be expected to
receive that attention which the case demands.

Travelling through parts of Austria-Hungary, I was
greatly interested in the instruction given at the country
schools there upon forestry.

Plantations on a small scale were to be found in the
school-yards, where the varieties of trees adapted to the dis-
trict were grown, and in regard to which instruction was
given. These yards were partly decorated in this way, and
the children grew to have an intelligent interest in their
contents.

Flowers, shrubs and hedges also were found in and around
these same yards, but not to such an extent as to prevent
proper out-door exercise of the children. The instruction
and influence of the teachers seemed to follow the pupils
out of doors as well as in-doors.

In the plantations of white pine at Middleborough and
vicinity, in our own State, had the limbs been kept cut off
from the lower part of the trees, instead of being allowed to
remain and die upon them to form knots in the wood, I
believe those trees would have become far more valuable as
lumber, and would have made clear timber suited for the
nicer qualities of work. As it was, they were only fit for
cheap box-lumber.

They were planted only for the purpose of growing such
lumber, and will perfectly well serve that purpose ; but the
better lumber can be had by a little more care, and the
trimmings can be used for kindlings, etc. In cases where
the land will admit, closer planting would partially take the
place of removing the limbs by hand.

Cannot the vast number of railroad sleepers that must be
supplied prove an inducement to plant trees ?

They must be renewed about every eighth year, and the
total number required is enormous.

At the West, the railroad companies have planted large
tracts of trees to supply, in the future, a portion of their
demands.

Plantations judiciously set out and properhj cared for
must command a good price when mature ; and if signs and
opinions do not fail, the prices of to-day can be no gauge
of the prices in the future.

1?ECLAE\11NG LAND. 131

Increasing scarcity must increase the price of a good arti-
cle, whether it is clear-grained lumber or a sound railroad
sleeper.

A practical method of planting trees over is that recom-
mended by Thomas Milne of Scotland.

He proposes three thousand trees as a desirable number
of seedhngs for setting on one acre. He uses a planting-
iron "about seventeen inches in length, and as it weio-hs
about three pounds, it can be conveniently used with one
hand. The planter holds the ' iron ' slackly in one hand,
and strikes it into the ground with a force sufficient to drive
in the blade about three and one-half inches. It is pressed
down, and towards the planter; a slight twist given to the
right raises the left corner of the sod, and the plant is put
in before the tool is withdrawn, care being taken that all
the roots are under groimd. The ' iron ' is then removed,
and when the sod sinks back to its place it is struck with
the point to break the spring, and the planter, as he steps
forward, puts his heel on the cut soil, and so fixes the seed-
ling. By this method plants can be put in among the crev-
ices of rocks, where it would be impossible to place them
in any other way. From five hundred to eight hundred
plants, according to size, are carried in a bag slung over the
shoulder, and hanging down at the back, so as to be within
easy reach, and yet not impede the man at his work. Hav-
ing everything so conveniently arranged, an experienced
w^orkman, on good land, can plant from four hundred to five
hundred seedlings per hour, or from one to one and a half
acres per day." This number depends, of course, upon the
character of the soil.

Mr. Milne, like most practical students of forest planting,
observes that an increase of forests improves not only the
climate, but the productiveness of the farms about them.

It is claimed that we have plenty of woodland in Massa-
chusetts to-day. Yes, such as it is ; and we have undoubt-
edly some fine woodland growth that can safely be called
forests. But we ought, for the good of our State and wel-
fare of our population, to have older and for more extensive
forests than exist to-day.

"Woodlands that are cut over every thirty to forty years

132 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

are too young to ever be forests in the useful and true
sense of that word.

Woodlands that can boast of being sixty to one hundred
years old are nearer what we need ; and around the sources
of our water supplies they should be composed of well-
cared-for and old trees. The present age seems to be mov-
ing so fast that it may well be asked, What shall we leave
for future generations?

The foregoing method for planting is an excellent one to
adopt, and the cost of trees and time to be consumed seems
reasonable. The cost would be about $22.56 an acre, in
return for which there would be the thinnings which must
be made as the trees progressed, and eventually there should
be a valuable growth of timber.

Some people recommend planting trees eight or ten feet
apart each way, which would be cheaper at the start; but
the Scotchmen have had large experience in forest planting,
which leads me to incline to their plan, as having value in
it, although it requires more trees at the start. But this
also will depend somewhat on the land.

It is important to consider where we can obtain good
trees at prices which will encourage their planting.

There are a few nurserymen in the Western States who
o-row seedling trees on an extensive scale ; notably among
these are Robert Douglass & Sons, Waukegan, III. And to
illustrate how cheaply trees can be bought, I will give an
example of prices taken from their catalogue.

Putting the white pine first, as it is certainly a most beau-
tiful and valuable tree in every respect, when well grown, I
find it can be bought, of a size suitable for setting out in
large plantations, for $75 per 10,000, and $8 per 1,000
trees.

If three thousand trees are set out to the acre over seve-
ral acres, they would be about four feet apart each way, and
cost $22.50 per acre.

If the trees are set out in rows about eight feet apart, and
four feet apart in the rows, about fifteen hundred trees
would be required at a cost of $12 per acre, unless as many
as six and two-thirds acres be planted, when the cost would
be $11.25 per acre.

EECLAIMING LAND. 133

The cost of transportation has not been included in these
figures, and the cost of labor must be added.

Still another method of planting has been suggested,
which I think has not been extensive!/ tried, if tried at all;
namely, to set the trees (white pines, for example) out eight
or ten feet apart each way, and then set a Norway spruce,
centred between every four pines ; the purpose of setting
the spruce, Avith its pyramidal shape, being to prevent
the growth of limbs on the pines, and to allow of the
spruces being cut down when the pines are sufficiently tall.

The way that I have treated trees, where I have wanted
ornamental rather than thick woods, in places much ex-
posed to the winds of winter, has been to buy the trees
as seedlings, and set them in nursery rows in spring, and
cultivate them, at small expense, for a couple of years, until
the roots have developed sufficiently to give them a good
start when they have been put in permanent locations.

"When I have set such trees out in open land, the whole
surface has been plowed the previous autumn ; and in spring
the trees have been set at the intersection of cross furrows
about ten feet apart each 'way, and I have cultivated them
somewhat during the two years since planting. Of the trees
so planted I have lost only a very small per cent.

In this way there have been set out about an acre, for
what I hope will be eventually a grove of ash trees.

Every other tree each way is either a w^hite ash or an
Austrian pine ; my belief being that these pines will prove a
protection to the young ash trees until they begin to inter-
fere so as to injure one another, when I intend to cut down
the pines.

I have also part of an acre planted with hemlocks in a
similar way, except that they are planted nearer together,
being a more delicate tree, but a very graceful one, espe-
cially while young.

A plantation of an acre of European larch trees which
were planted about ten years ago with less care, but as then
generally recommended, proved a complete disappointment.

In some localities, where the white pine is a native, small
seedlings, growing wild, can be secured in large quantities
as a gift. This is frequently the case in localities where there

134 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUKE.

is much open laud that is too poor for any other purpose
than for tree planting ; and where such native seedlings can
be found, the advantage should be secured.

Tree and shrub planting should be encouraged every-
where. Make homes attractive out of doors, as well as con-
venient and attractive in-doors ; there is nothing that can
give more refreshing rest after a day of bodily or mental
toil than such surroundings as grow out of a judicious plant-
ing of trees and shrubs.

Life in the country is becoming, year by year, more pop-
ular amons: those who now make the cities their homes ;
and, where circumstances are favorable, it would be well to
so prepare the more attractive locations on the farms, by
judicious planting and care of trees and shrubbery, that if
they tempt an offer, that offer must bo a handsome one.
Attractions that result from beautiful and extensive views,
well-cared-for trees, good roads, fresh milk and vegetables,
are among the things which many city people, so called,
find can be best secured by life in the country. And do not
such people form a good market, and generally good neigh-
bors ? When new taxable property comes to our country
towns, it would seem to be a welcome addition and aid.

It would be well should people of means oftener estab-
lish their more permanent homes in the country, where chil-
dren could have the full benefit of the exercise that a long
season can give. I, of course, have reference to those who
are now forced to leave their homes for several months in
summer to make much shorter stays at the seaside than
would be possible did they seek the country, and enjoy the
beauties and interests of springtime and autumn.

Where tree planting is to be done on a large scale, and
the other work does not take up too much time to allow of
some additional labor, it is better that the seedling trees be
reared at home.

The nearer home that the seedlings can be grown, so much
less risk will there be in moving, setting out and maturing

them.

It is advisable that the soil for a pine nursery be such as
shall be cool and moist ; but it should be naturally such as
to allow no stagnant water to remain on the surface. When

RECLAEVONG LAND. 135

the soil has a tendency to be dry in summer, a judicious
watering of the grounds is necessary ; but this is no obstacle
to the establishment of a seedling nursery. Too flat ground,
that is liable to retain excessive moisture under or upon
the surface, or land that has too great a slope and is conse-
quently liable to be washed by heavy rains or thawing
snows, is objectionable, although such lands may have a
favorable exposure.

An exposure that is best suited to a fruit orchard would
probably bo good for a pine or other nursery. Pines sel-
dom suffer from frost, and an easterly exposure is better,
with shelter from the west. The rays of the morning sun
shining through the cooling atmosphere, and modified by the
influence of dew on soil and plants, are always of benefit ;
but, on the other hand, the heat of our dry summer is hurt-
ful during the long afternoons.

Ground where there will be the least weeds will be best
for a nursery, and requires simple care. When a bit of good
new woodland can be chosen, and cleared for this purpose,
it will prove better, on the same principle that virgin land
has advantages for all purposes of cultivation, largely on
account of the greater quantity of humus that it contains.

Nurseries should not be established on too poor land, and
not on land where any fresh manure, nor even where well-
decayed manure, is freshly put on.

Ground game is injurious, and the nursery should be pro-
tected where such are liable to occur.

Before it is time to commence sowing, the seeds should
be tested ; and the following seems a simple method, which
must be tried a sufficient length of time before planting to
allow of replacing the seeds should they prove poor : —

"Fill a flower-pot, unglazed and of moderate size, with
fine earth ; sow the seeds, which must be counted, and cover
them to the depth of a quarter of an inch ; place the pot in
an earthenware basin filled with water to a hcijrht sufficient
to maintain moisture throughout the depth of the earth in
which the seed lies, and notethe results."

If germination is slow and irregular, the seed is evidently
too old.

Where seventy per cent, have sprouted, the result may

136 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

be considered fairly good ; but in parts of France, I believe,
seventy-five per cent, is required.

Too thick sowing is a cause of loss, as young trees die
under such circumstances ; they do not seem to be able to
secure enough food for all.

Thin sowing on fresh ground, well prepared, should be
the rule to follow ; and the word ' ' thin " means not too
crowded.

Where a proprietor or private forester with small prac-
tical experience establishes a nursery, broadcast sowing of
the seed is not advised ; but trained nurserymen often find
this the better way.

Beds of a])out one yard wide are probably best, as greater
width would be less convenient for sowing, weeding, etc. ;
and all sowing and care of the beds should be done from the
sides only.

When the beds are formed, stretch lines lengthwise of
them six inches apart, then with a forked stick or iron hav-
ing its ends rather sharp, with about two inches between
them, draw it along the lines, which will bring the rows of
seeds two inches apart.

The seeds are to be dropped one inch apart in the rows
and covered lightly with a rake ; thus the young plants have
plenty of room and light.

The time for sowing in spring is, as a rule, as early as
the ground and season will permit of good treatment.

This subject should not be concluded in this brief lecture
without reference to forest fires, and there is no part of for-
estry which is more vital to its success than the prevention
and control of forest fires. They can do every year a vast
amount of injury, not only to standing wood and young
trees, but to fences, buildings, cord-wood, lumber-piles, etc.
But one of their greatest and long-lasting injuries is the
damage to the ground itself by burning up the vegetable
mould, so that no trees can asain be made to o:row there un-
til this shall in some way be restored by deca3^ed vegetable
matter in some form, possibly from the leaves which, in a
period of many years, fall from bashes and other low-
stunted growth.

Among the causes of forest fires are clearing lands, burn-

EECLAIMING LAND. 137

ing brush, sparks from locomotives, fires carelessly left by
persons camping, hunting or fishing; also from the use of
impropei' gun-wads, from tramps and from malice.

It is also said that the friction of dry wood in high winds
has set forests on fire, but I doubt whether we have yet in
Massachusetts trees of sufficient age to thus commit suicide.

Proper laws, and vigilance on the part of the constituted
authorities, will do much in the right direction ; and as
improvements in laws are required, they will undoubtedly
receive due attention.

But the root of the danger lies in the great lack of appre-
ciation of the works of nature, and their usefulness, which
is wanting among far too large a per cent, of our population.

I have known of cases where a certain fire department
were unwilling to assist in putting out a woodland fire be-
cause it was not considered a part of their duty. Of course,
the law passed last winter clearly defines such to be a duty,
and the aforesaid fire department has since promptly re-
sponded under that law.

A more extensive knowledge of the laws governing the
growth of animals, trees, plants, etc., would tend to be a
irreat benefit : and it would be wise to introduce into the
systems of education more that relates to these useful and
interesting liranches of study.

The training to be so derived must be useful, and we can-
not question but that such knowledge, incidental to that
training, would prove not only useful but interesting.

It is at home and in the public schools where we can best
impress upon children especially the dangers from fires.

Locomotives are being quite generally provided with
spark arresters now, which greatly lessen the risks from
fires in that direction.

Where they start in woodlands, the best remedy is to plow
a line of furrows, when that is possible, around the fire, or
to set back-fires.

In setting out plantations of forest trees it is wise to have
pathways through them where fires can be fought, by run-
ning furrows, starting back-fires, watering, or beating with
I)ou"hs.

I have found that sprinkling the surface by the aid of a

138 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Johnson pump was of great assistance in preventing the
spreading of a fire when it was fought in its early stages,
and a small quantity of water went a long way.

Prevention is a far better remedy for forest fires than
any other. Seldom do you hear of a person being arrested
who starts a forest fire ; and it therefore would seem that
none but good can come from having on our statute book
strict laws for punishing such crimes, with a well systema-
tized fire organization to suppress them when any locality is
sufiiciently unfortunate as to have need of it.

The law passed last winter for the better protection of
forests from fires was what the Legislature thought best to
pass, and it seems to have been a very good bill.

Several cases during the past season have shown its value ;
but there should be a thorough organization of the forest
fire-wards, authorized under it, to have its value most felt.

That law combines elements that students and writers on
the subject have recommended as being essential in any such
law.

Some penalty for non-attendance might be a wise addi-
tion, but the Legislature probably relied upon a good neigh-
borly instinct to take its place.

The value of birds and the injuries from insects are proper
subjects to introduce in this connection and at this place ;
but time will not allow of my dwelling more upon this sub-
ject now.

Suffice it to say that it is for our good to protect all our
valuable birds, including the many delightful songsters,
when their habits do not warrant their destruction.

The Chairman. There are many suggestions in this val-
uable paper that ought to give rise to an animated discus-
sion. I am sure you will all be glad to hear from Captain
Moore on this subject.

Captain Moore. Mr. Slade, whom we heard with so
much pleasure yesterday, says I can tell all about reclaiming
land, whether I know it or not. I will commence by saying
that I have been pleased with the paper which has been read
here to-day. There are a good many thoughts in it that will
be of benefit to all of us, if we utilize the ideas that have
been presented.

RECLAIJVnNG LAND. 139

Still there is another phase to the question of reclaiming
land with the farmers of Massachusetts. They are men of
comparatively small means ; when they reclaim land they
want to do it in such a way that they can immediately see
a return for the money they invest. That is the idea ; and,
as the chairman has said, I have made some experiments in
reclaiming land, for most of the land I have has been re-
claimed in one way or another. For instance, I have land
that was soft and unproductive that has been reclaimed
simply by thoroughly underdraining it. That, with proper
fertilization and tillage, has made it good land. I have other
land that could not be reclaimed in that way ; and to de-
scribe it I have got to relate matters that pertain to my own
place, which I do not like to do. In front of my house I have
one piece of land containing about seventy acres which is
very nearly level, and all susceptible of cultivation after
being put in proper condition. That land, when I was a boy
working on the farm, which my father had bought in differ-
ent pieces, was, as you might say, almost entirely unpro-
ductive. It did not produce English hay enough to keep
one horse. Being in a good location, it was desirable to
make the most of it. What I desire to speak more par-
ticularly about is reclaiming bog land, — utterly worthless
land in its natural state. I have in the centre of this piece
of ground ten acres, which we are reclaiming at the rate
of two or three acres a year, at leisure times, and mak-
ing it productive. This is the course that has been pursued
upon that land and its condition ever since I was a boy. It
has been mown every year, raked every year, and the sur-
face being soft the crop has been carried to hard land on/
poles (although it is well enough above water when the
ditches are open) ; still, a horse cannot go on it without
rackets. It never paid for mowing, it never paid for raking,
and it never paid for taking the hay off. That has been the
method practised for the last fifty years, — simply to keep
the brush down. That land before it is reclaimed is utterly
worthless, — worse than that, because it costs something
every year to take care of it. Our work of reclamation is
done in the winter. We go over the ground and cut off the
bogs or tussocks, and put whatever is taken off in holes, if

140 BOABD OF AGRICULTURE.

we can find any. Then there is a sand hill within thirty
rods. We put on three inches of sand ; and three inches of
sand over an acre means not far from four hundred cubic
yards. I have figured that as costing me twenty cents a
yard. Colonel Wilson tells me that contractors do it for
from twelve to fifteen cents, and railroads pay all the way
from forty to fifty cents. Of course this is being done at
odd jobs ; I cannot tell you what every particular cubic yard
costs to put it on the land, but I estimate it at about twenty
cents per cubic yard. That is a fair estimate, isn't it, Col-
onel Wilson?

Colonel Wilson. Yes, sir, that is a fair estimate.

Captain Moore. It is done with my own horses, when
they have nothing else to do ; the exercise they get at the
tip-cart is good for their health. I do not think the horses'
labor costs me anything ; still, I call it twenty cents for the
sand. That gives the cost of putting on the sand $80 an
acre.

I don't want you to understand, because I say I have been
using fertilizers on this land, that I do not believe in any-
thing else, for I believe in using all the manure I can get, and
fertilizers in addition ; but this land being on the distant side
of the farm, it is more convenient and less expensive to put
fertilizers on it than to cart manure. I have applied eight
hundred pounds of super-phosphate to the acre, and seeded
it down about the first of May. That eight hundred pounds
of super-phosphate, delivered on the ground, has cost me
$15.20. I have called the labor of putting that on, the cost
of seed and harrowing it in, $5. There is nothing to do
to the ground, only to slightly harrow it and cover the seed
with a brush harrow. I do not use a roller, because mine
has given out, and I do not want to borrow, so the seed has
been brushed in with a brush harrow. You may think I am
telling a big story, but I have cut from an acre of that re-
claimed land a ton and a half of hay the first year. I would
not call it exactly rowen, but it was pretty good stufi" to
feed to cattle. There was a ton and a half to the acre, and
it was seeded last May.

Question. What kind of phosphate did you use ?

Captain Mooee. I am not advertising any particular

RECLAIMING LAND. 141

phosphate. I think last spring it was Bradley's ; I used the
year before, with the same result, Bowker's. I don't think
there is much difference in those two articles, and I presume
there are others just as good. I should not try either of
them if I could get the crude material. I have called that
hay worth $12 a ton standing. If it is cut, there is the
labor to be added. I get $18 to $24 a ton for hay in the
winter ; $6 a ton will pay for harvesting. If I called
that crop $18 a ton, I would have to deduct the expense
for labor. But calling it worth $12 a ton as it stood there
on the ground, that would make the improvements on that
land stand me in to-day $82.20. The other pieces that have
been treated in the same way for the last three or four
years have produced two and a half tons to the acre for the
first crop, and a heavy second crop afterwards. I want you
to believe me when I tell you that, because it is so. Those
pieces have been run with fertilizers from the beginning.
No loam has been put upon that land, — nothing but sand,
and fertilizers added. I think it will continue as productive
for some time to come. I don't know but some of you have
seen that land and know the condition of it.

Mr. BoAVDiTCH. Do you put fertilizers on every year?

Captain Moore. I put on eight hundred pounds every
year.

Mr. BowDiTCH. Do you use phosphate every year ?

Captain Moore. I have on that land, but on my other
grass land I have used bone, ashes and muriate of potash as
a top-dressing, and I do not consider compost manure an
economical dressing, as it costs too much. I raise a few
crops, and I raise them as specialties ; and grass is one of
the specialties. I think that where there are failures in
specialties, they come from the bad judgment of the farmer
who undertakes to raise on his land a crop not adapted to
his soil. I say that the failures in specialties come from
a lack of judgment, whereas the man who adopts anything
as a specialty is obliged, from the magnitude of what he is
doing, to do it in the best way, and to know all about it ;
and you cannot do that where you follow a system of gen-
eral farming.

Question. What seed do you use ?

142 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

Captain Moore. I use almost entirely herd's grass. I
do not use any redtop at all ; and I will tell you why. The
reason why I do not use it is because I sell my hay in the
market, and the purchasers will give me more for herd's
grass than they will for redtop ; and Dr. Goessmann will tell
you that the same plat of ground will produce considerably
more weight of herd's grass or timothy than it will of red-
top. I want to get all the weight I can.

Mr. Taft. How much seed to the acre?

Captain Moore. I put on about two and a half pecks, or
twenty quarts. Some other parts of this land that I sowed
two years ago with clover has produced three crops
this year. I have to mow it pretty early, because it will
fall down if I don't cut it.

Question. Is this land underdrained ?

Captain Moore. No, sir ; it lies in strips about thirty
rods long and one hundred feet wide, divided and sur-
rounded by open ditches. It is not troubled by any surface
flowage on it.

I find that the crops on that land, in less than four years,
have paid for all the labor and for all the fertilizers, and I
have the land left there in such a condition that it would sell
for $200 an acre.

Now, gentlemen, I am not going to say to those of you
who are situated inland, that it would be desirable for you
to lay out as much money on an acre of land as I am laying
out on this land to which I refer ; but I am nearer a market,
and I am warranted in doin2[ it.

There is a piece of that land that has been reclaimed in
another way, and I want to have you see the difference.
The ground, as I told you, was so soft that we could not put
a team on it to plow it ; but we did plow it. I cannot tell
you how much it cost an acre ; but it was slow work, because
we plowed it by putting a long rope through a snatch-block,
with four horses to pull the plow and another horse to drag
the plow back, and two or three men to handle the plow,
because it was rough and bad ground to turn over, and that
made it pretty expensive plowing. I plowed three or four
acres of that sort of land, and it produced a moderate crop ;
and afterwards, there not being substance enough in the land

RECLAIMIN^G LAKD. 143

to hold up a horse, we were obliged to put sand on it, as we
had done on other pieces. It is a curious fact that although
we had been to all this expense of plowing, this land is not
so productive, — will not grow grass as well as the other por-
tion of the land that has not been plowed. Whether it is
because we turned up sour material from the bottom, I do not
know, but the result shows that on land of that character it
is advantageous to put on your sand first. The sand has
left that land so that horses can mow it by machinery, rake
up the hay, cart it, and do anything of that kind. If you
sow your grass seed on that plowed land without the use of
sand, what do you find? You find that there is not silicate
enough in the stalk to hold it up ; it falls doAvn when it is
about eighteen inches higli ; you cannot get any sort of a
crop ; you cannot do anything with it ; it will run l)ack to
wild grasses. I do not expect to live long, but I have got
about ten acres of that kind of land left yet, and I want to
see that under cultivation before I leave. I am doins: it
pretty fast. Now, that is reclaiming land, and reclaiming it
in such a way that you will get some money out of it.

Question. About how near the surface of the land do
you keep the water?

Captain Moore. I get it down three or four feet, if I
can ; but if I have not fall enough to do that, I have to con-
tent myself with getting it down two feet. There is a brook
runs through my land all the way from two to five feet deep.
The land is like a sponge. You cut a drain through it and
draw out the water, and when you have lowered the outlet
perhaps two feet, you will be astonished to find you have
not gained more than eight or ten inches by your digging.
Your soil simply settles and compacts by its own weight.

I do not like to take up the time of this meeting, Mr.
Chairman, but if any gentleman would like to ask me any
questions, I shall be happy to answer them ; otherwise, I
will give some other person the floor.

QuESTiox. Do you prefer sand to gravel ?

Captain Mooee. Sand is better. You do not want any
gravel stones. The late Elias Phinney, who was quite an
intimate friend of my father, and who was engaged in re-
claiming land at the time my father was, had no sand on his

144 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

place, and he tried to reclaim some land by using blue
gravel. It was not a success. Sand is the material to use,
and almost always where you find a peat meadow you will
find sand somewhere near. ThosS are the two extremes.

Mr. Edson of Barnstable. I have been very much
pleased with the lecture and with the remarks of the last
speaker. What the farmers of New England want is some
system by which they can bring their farms to a higher state
of fertility. We are farming old, worn-out lands that our
fathers and grandfathers have cropped as long as they could
get a crop of Indian corn or rye, until they have become
worn out. Unfortunately for us, we have got to build them
up. Now, the question is, can it be profitably done? I,
like Mr. Moore, am modest, and do not like to speak of No.
1, but I do not know how I can get at this matter unless I
speak of what I am doing. I hope you will excuse me,
therefore, if I bring myself in pretty often. I do it only for
the sake of showing others what I have done, and that they
can do the same things.

I may state that I was brought up as a farmer, and always
liked it ; I was afterwards in mercantile business many years,
but in 1863 I came back to Cape Cod, my native region,
where there is some pretty good land. I took a farm of
some seventy acres, and bought the stock and tools upon it,
a yoke of oxen, two cows and a horse. The first winter I
had to buy hay for my stock. I cut the first season about
five tons of miserably poor June grass and weeds, — not
enough to keep my stock. Since then I have cut fifty tons
of hay upon that place ; I have kept thirty head of cattle and
four horses and sold hay at the same time. I have done
that without commercial fertilizers ; I have done it from
the resources of the farm. I have made it pay all the time,
and I have put the farm m that condition. If I can do it,
other men can do it. Now, the question is, how has it been
done?

I have made a specialty of making and saving all the
manure I possibly could and plowing in green crops at the
same time. My mode has been to break up about four acres
of mowing every year. The crop that I depend upon for
money is hay, principally. I have four fields of four acres

RECLAIMING LAND. 145

each, which is my special mowing land, but I have others
that I mow occasionally. On four acres of that I haul the
manure for top-dressing. I cannot call it top-dressing in
the ordinary way, because it is made of sea- weed, put into
the barn cellar and worked over by the hogs ; I spread that
in the fall. The land is plowed the last of May. The
manure has gone down into the sod, and a strong growth of
grass is upon it, so heavy that I often have to put a chain
on the plow in order to bury it. I harrow the ground and
plant corn immediately. It is the Early Canada, which will
open in ninety days. That green crop underneath makes
the ground like a hot-bed, and it starts the corn right up, a
good dark green, and it will grow right rapidly. If it comes
on a dry time, that crop does not suffer ; the young roots
have caught this fertilizer in the sod and have gone down to
the green crop underneath, which will furnish a good supply
of moisture. The leaves of my corn do not roll, and in the
hottest weather, when many of my neighbors are complain-
ing of drought, my corn goes right along. I get from sixty
to eighty bushels of shelled corn to the acre.

I would state that I always break up a piece of ground
three years in succession in order to get the best results.
That clears out all the foul stuff, and gets the land in the
right condition to raise a good crop of grass. In August I
harrow in rye, a bushel to the acre ; in the winter I put my
manure upon that rye again, and when I come to plow that
land under the last of May it is up three feet and just as
thick as it can stand, and worth a good deal as a fertilizer.
I turn that under in the same way that I did the grass. I
want to state that I am talking of reclaiming waste land, for
I call lands that arc worn out waste lands. I will state the
result of sowing that rye. I turned four milch cows on
that four acres, and they got nearly their whole living on
the land. I got sixty dollars as the result. Is there
any business in this world that will pay better than
that? That is the plan I have adopted to bring my
lands up from four or five tons of hay on the whole farm to
forty or fifty tons. I have made it pay, and I can do it with
any other farm. The only way in which we can reclaim
these worn-out lands is by saving every particle of every-

146 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

thing that will make manure ; then utilize the green crops,
which you can do without losing a season. Turn in your
gi*een crop of grass the first year, and the second year your
green crop of rye, without losing any time. I would rather
take an old farm anywhere in New England, and have New
England surroundings, than to go West and have the best
farm given me.

The Chairman. We have heard how peat land is re-
claimed. This is a broad su])ject, and there are different
kinds of soil to be dealt with. The land in Plymouth
County is somewhat different from that in Middlesex County,
and I think that Mr. Cushman of Lakeville can tell us some-
thing that will be of interest in regard to the way it is done
in his region.

Mr. Cushman. It seems to me that the ground has been
pretty well gone over on this subject. I was particularly
pleased with one point brought out in the paper read by the
essayist, where he recommended the planting and cultivation
of the white pine. I was taught by all the associations of
my early childhood to almost reverence the white pine tree,
and to-day there is no sight, perhaps, that is more pleasant
to me, or upon which I look with more loving eyes, than
upon a forest of growing pines. It is beautiful every day
in the year. Twenty years ago it was always my delight
and my pleasure to recommend the planting of the white
pine. I did something in that line myself, but to-day,
owing to the change in the relative value of things, perhaps
it is not wise policy for the State Board of Agriculture to
recommend, or, perhaps, to put it in another form, there is
no necessity of urging the planting of more forest trees, and
especially the white pine. As has been truly said, my
county is the natural home of the white pine, and any one
going down to my old town of Middleborough, in the south
part of the county, will find there three mills that are an-
nually cutting up large quantities of this lumber. One of the
owners told me, not ten days ago, that there would be this
year about the usual amount cut up that had been consumed
for the last four or five years, 3,500 cords, in one corner of
the town. I remarked to him, "Have you any idea, sir,
that the annual growth in the vicinity of these three mills is

EECLAIMING LAND. 147

going to supply your mills for any length of time?" He
told me he had no apprehensions in that regard, for he be-
lieved that the annual growth was fully equal to the annual
consumption.

Again, when the farmers were sowing those light, arable
fields of Plymouth County with the white pine, and starting
those beautiful forests which have been spoken of in former
papers by our friend Mr. Slade and others, white pine logs
found a ready market at |8.50. They have fallen in price,
and find a slow market now-a-days at $7 ; and what the mar-
ket will be when a forest that is planted this year shall
mature, no man living can foretell.

Further, when these forests were planted on those fields,
so admirably adapted for the cultivation of Indian corn,
there were no fertilizers for the farmers to purchase except-
ing the manure that was made in that vicinity. To-day,
the average farmer who knows what he is about can buy
fertilizers adapted to raising crops upon those fields, or any
land of that character, with profit. This present season I
have cultivated corn upon twelve acres of land of that char-
acter which had not been plowed for many years ; it had
been exhausted, so to speak, of plant food by former owners
years ago, in their cultivation of corn and rye ; but with the
application of just $15.50 worth of fine-ground bone and
muriate of potash I have husked 1,000 baskets of corn from
that twelve acres. There was no hand labor until the har-
vest time. That corn, gentlemen, was raised at a profit.
I can and probably shall do the same thing next year with
a larger application, hoping with the same labor to receive
larger returns. So much for the idea of setting white pine
upon land that is adapted to the cultivation of most of our
cereals and veo;etables. But there is another class of land
of a different character, like that described by Captain
Moore, which it seems to me is far more important and
should claim the farmer's attention. There is hardly a farm
in the Commonwealth that has not some waste land of that
kind. I never did any more profitable farming in my life,
allow me to say, than in reclaiming those waste bogs ; and
as my elders who have preceded me have taken the liberty
to draw from their experience upon their own farms, I

148 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

trust I shall not be too severely criticised if I follow their
example.

Ten years ago, when I purchased the faiTn upon which I
now live, there was a run through it, surrounded by quite
high hills, upon the sides of which nothing grew but the coars-
est grass, some skunk cabbage, dog-wood and wild grape-
vines. No creature attempted to go upon that land : it was
springy, and there was no chance for pasture. I commenced
1 system of under-drainage. I was unfortunate in not having
any previous knowledge, and I made many mistakes ; I paid
for what little experience I received with a large price. I
have travelled somewhat in diiferent parts of the State, and
have seen men attempting to reclaim land of that description
who are making similar mistakes to those which I made.
The first thing I did was to put on large quantities of sand,
thinking that I could in that way overcome the water, — I
had not heard our friend Colonel Wilson of Boston lecture
upon under-drainage then as much as I have since ; but I found
that the water would come up as fast as I could put on the
sand, and all that labor was lost. Next I determined upon
a system of under-drainage ; but I was not wise enough to
procure the services of a skilled civil engineer, and went to
work in my own way, and after laying quite an amount of
drain, I found that while the water was taken out of the
mud my drainage was not carried ofl*. I had made the same
mistake that Captain Moore alluded to this morning, — my
outlet was not low enough. I want to emphasize what he
said, — perhaps there is no need of it, — but I know that a
good many make that mistake of not getting their outlet
low enough to begin with. Then I did not have a sys-
tem of drains in between where I laid my original drains,
which is of the utmost importance. I have put them in
since, and now I have got them too close. There was
an extra expense. Perhaps I am taking too much time
upon this point, but I know its importance. It would have
been of great value to me if I had had the advice that I am
giving to farmers now, — to secure the assistance of a com-
petent and skilful engineer, and get the grades of their
drains all right and a proper system of drainage established
to commence with. I was obliged in the locality of which

RECLAIMING LAJSTD. 149

I speak to chop up this gi'ound with a broad axe or cut it
with a hoe that was made for that special purpose, turn it
with a fork, and leave it until it froze in the winter, when I
applied my sand.

It is very important to get a uniform grade, so that there
will be no depressions upon such land in which stagnant
water can stand. If that is allowed, it will always result
in failure and disappointment. The richer grasses will die
out and give place to the coarser. Now, I will in just a
word say that that land had yielded me, by estimation, two
tons and a half of hay at the first crop. I do not mean the
first crop after seeding, but after the first year. I seeded in
the spring, as Captain Moore has advised. The crop that
first year was not half a crop, but I have cut for my first
crop two and a half tons, by estimation, and a ton and a
half at the second crop, making an annual yield of four tons
of hay. I have not applied anything to that land since —
and some of it has been in grass five or six years — but an
annual application of five hundred pounds to the acre of
muriate of potash and fine-ground bone, and you all know
about what that has cost me. There are thousands and
thousands of acres in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
that could be reclaimed and brought into a state of fertility
that would yield four tons of hay to the acre per annum with
an annual expense for fertilizers of not exceeding three dol-
lars per ton, or twelve dollars to the acre. Is there any
crop the cultivation of w^hich holds out a greater inducement
to the farmers of INIassachusetts than this ? You have not
to wait twenty, thirty, or forty 3^ears for your crop to ma-
ture. You know the value of hay, and you know that 3^ou
have a ready market as soon as your crop is produced.
That is proved by the enormous amount of hay that is
annually brought into our State. It seems to me that there
is a brighter prospect for the farmer if he will cultivate more
of the grasses and produce a larger amount of English hay
upon the waste bogs and low lands of the Commonwealth.

The Chairman. We must now take up- another item on
the programme. We may resume the consideration of this
subject later, for it is a very important one.

150 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

SHEEP HUSBANDRY.

BT E. P. BOWBITCH OP PRAJIIKGHAM.

This branch of agriculture has been an invariable source
of profit to the tillers of the soil, as far back as we can get
any information. The Bible tells us much about the flocks
and herds, describing in some passages quite minutely the
ancients' method of tendino; and carinof for their flocks in
those old days.

The origin of domestic sheep is wrapped in mystery, but
they are generally supposed to be descended from the wild
sheep of Asia, which Professor Low describes " as somewhat
less in size than the stag, having enormous horns, measur-
ing more than a foot in circumference at the base and from
three to four feet in length, triangularly rising from the sum-
mit of the head, so as nearly to touch at the root, etc. It
has a fur of short hair covering a coat of soft white wool ;
the color of the fur externally is brown, becoming brown-
ish gray in winter. These sheep are very agile and strong,
and move in a zigzag way, stopping to look at their pur-
suers, like the domestic sheep of to-day."

Of a similar species is the Rocky Mountain sheep of
America. It will be of no practical advantage to try to dis-
cover how the domestic sheep were descended from their
wild ancestors, for we know that in Abel's time there were
sheep that were cared for in flocks, very much as in the
present day, and in those ancient days there was a demand
for wool, besides the skins, for clothing. The lamb business
in those days was rather more in the sacrificial line than
we look to for profit now. The manufacture of cloth from
wool must have begun at a very early date, for it is recorded
" that Laban went forth to shear his sheep."

When this country was first settled many kinds of sheep
were brought over, without doubt, by the various settlers
from the old countries, and from the promiscuous breeding
of these, with perhaps a wild cross, we have the so-called
native sheep, — a lank, gaunt, slow maturing, short-wooled
animal, good for neither wool nor mutton.

Spain seems to have been the first country to improve the
quality of their wool (the Spanish sheep date back before

SHEEP HUSBANDEY. 151

the Christian era) , and so thoroughly did they study and so
practically did they breed and tend their flocks, that they
soon became celebrated for their fine fleece, and as their
sheep were pastured in winter on the plains of southern
Spain and in the spring were driven to the mountain pastures
of northern Spain, a distance of about four hundred miles,
which took six weeks of driving, they became a very hardy
and tough breed, as all those inclined to be weak, died.
The fleeces in those days weighed : ram, eight and one-half
pounds } ewe, five pounds, which shrank about one-half.

The French merino, imported under royal auspices in
about 1786, were very much improved, and their fleeces had
increased in weight to : ram, twenty-four pounds ; ewe, four-
teen.

It would take too long and tax your patience too much
to describe the many old-fashioned breeds of sheep that
were known in various parts of the world, and I shall only
describe briefly a few of the older breeds and speak a little
more fully about some of the newer ones before getting to
the more practical part of my matter.

Most of the known breeds of sheep in England have, at
some time, been brought to this country and experimented
with, and we are all more or less familiar with the names of
the breeds, and many of us have seen, perhaps, some speci-
mens.

The Forest breeds, so called, are of two kinds, the Ex-
moor and Dartmoor, which run wild in the west of Eng-
land, are small, producing a light carcass of high-flavored
mutton, weighing only about forty pounds to the carcass.

The Black-faced Heath sheep is a semi- wild breed found
in the north of England and in Scotland, very hardy and
strong, much prized for its superior high-flavored mutton.
It is a very adaptable breed, and very many flocks are fat-
tened on the rich meadows of Engknd.

AVhere the flocks are exposed to the severity of all the
storms, it used to be the custom to smear the whole flock
with a mixture of tar and butter (8 to 6) in November,
which practice, I have no doubt, kept out a great deal of
wet ; but I believe that kind of wool was never in very great
demand by the manufacturers.

152 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

There are still many breeds to be found in the different
counties of England, such as Cheviot, Norfolk, Wiltshire,
Dorset, etc., but almost all of them show a crossing with
one of the Downs.

The long-wooled breeds include the Lincolns, Romney-
Marsh, Teeswater, Cotswolds and Leicester. The Lincoln
sheep was originally a large, coarse sheep, which found good
grazing on the rich pastures of Lincolnshire, clipping a
fleece of ten or twelve pounds of wool, long and oily. The
breed, as known now, has been crossed with the Leicester,
which has made it a smaller sheep, with a lighter fleece,
better bodied and with a wonderful capacity for feeding ;
mutton of this breed sometimes weighing two hundred and
fifty pounds to the carcass.

The Romney-Marsh breed (southern coast of Kent) was
a similar breed to the Lincolns, but smaller, and has been
very extensively crossed with the Leicester.

The Teeswater breed has been lost by crossing with the
Leicesters.

The Cotswold is a very old and valuable breed of sheep,
and has been a recognized one for about two hundred years.
It was first imported into the United States in 1832 ; this is
one of the large breeds, has a long, wavy fleece (clipping
about eight pounds) ; ewes very prolific and good nurses.
It has also been crossed with the Leicester, which hastens
its early maturing powers.

The old-fashioned Leicester sheep were large, heavy and
coarse, slow feeders, and not fit for mutton till over two
years old. Thanks to Mr. Bakewell of Distley, Leicester-
shire, who, by his untiring energy and patience, has made
the neiv Leicester one of the mutton breeds of the world,
and for a rich pasture and heavy feeding, one of the most
profitable ; its offal is less to the dead weight than almost
any other breed of large sheep that dress one hundred and
forty pounds or more to the carcass.

The great drawback to any of the long-wooled breeds for
general purposes is their inability to stand the exposure of
our cold, wet storms. Their loose, long wool does not shed
the water, their skin becomes wet and the animal eets a
chill, where the middle or short- wooled breeds would stand
a similar exposure with little or no discomfort.

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 153

The different varieties of Down sheep are, for us in Massa-
chusetts, perhaps the most useful breeds, as their short
fleece makes them able to battle with the storms, and their
compact forms and early maturing propensities enable them
to get a profitable living on our stony hill pastures, where
the larger and heavier breeds would find but a scanty sub-
sistence.

Of all the Downs the Southdown is, perhaps, better
known than any of the others, and so strong is its blood and
breeding, thanks to Messrs. Ellman & Webb, that it stamps
its progeny indelibly, no matter what other blood is used ;
they are very quiet, and adapt themselves to any sort of
treatment or feed. Their lambs mature early, and are so
square and plump that they are ready for the butcher Avhen-
ever they will dress enough to satisfy the demands of the
market.

The old-fashioned Shropshire was formerly known as the
Morse Common sheep, from the fact that Morse Common
(600,000 acres) pastured about 10,000 of them. They
then had horns, black or spotted face and legs, and were
very hardy and prolific, but not clipping heavy fleeces. A
Mr. Meire was the first to improve this breed, which he
did by using a Leicester ram ; and as the produce became
too light in the face and legs, he used a Southdown or some
other black-faced ram ; and by in-breeding these he brought
the type of sheep to what we now see and know as Shrop-
shires, — a fine, square sheep, as handsome and stylish as the
Southdown, very nuich larger, with the same early maturing
powers, and clipping a fleece of eight or nine pounds of
wool.

The Hampshire Downs owe many of their good qualities
to the Southdown, and this breed was made by crossing the
Southdown on the old white-faced Hampshire and Wiltshire
breeds. Most authorities believe a little Cotswold blood
was also used. They have been recognized as a true breed
for several years, and are larger than the Shropshire, a little
coarser wooled, but as early maturing as any of the Downs,
clipping about the same as the Shropshires (8 or 9 pounds).

This breed, as well as the Shrops, are most useful to breed
grades from, as they stamp their get in a very marked way.

154 BOAED OF AGRICULTUKE.

The Oxford Downs were, originally, a cross of the Hamp-
shire or Southdown ewe and a Cotswold ram. They were
not recognized as a breed by the Royal Agricultural Society
of England till 1857. Shortly after this date a few were
imported into the United States. It is a very useful breed,
but a trifle loose-wooled for rough weather ; the clip is
rather less than either Shropshire or Hampshire, while equal
in size to either.

And now having given a rough and very imperfect sketch
of the difierent breeds best known amongst us, let me devote
the rest of my time to making you believe in sheep hus-
bandry, and have a practical talk about breeding and raising
lambs for the city markets.

Massachusetts has many hundreds of acres of worn-out
pasture and deserted farms that would make not only profit-
able grazing land for sheep, but the sheep, besides getting
their living, would clear ofi" an immense amount of bushes
and brush, improving the land in a few years enough to
make good pasturage for cattle and horses, and increase the
actual value of the land.

This used to be a wool-growing State, and in 1845 our
clip of wool was over a million pounds, decreasing in 1855
to about four hundred and sixteen thousand. At the end
of the war, when wool was high, the clip increased to about
six hundred and ten thousand pounds, running down as low
as two hundred and seven thousand in 1875 ; the latter fig-
ures would probably be about right for the census of 1885.

The number of sheep in 1865, kept in the State, was
160,997, and in 1875 the number had fallen ofi" to only
58,595.

There is no reason why this State should not again become
a wool-growing one, and every reason why it should.

The first outlay for sheep is less than for almost any other
kind of live stock, and the returns are much quicker.

For instance, good rugged ewes can be bought for less
than four dollars, after they have been shorn and have
weaned their lambs in, say, the month of August.

Any farmer that keeps eight or ten cows can keep an
equal number of sheep without feeling the expense, except
for a little grain to be paid for, which will be more than

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 155

offset by the mouey received for the wool, which ought to
weigh about five pounds to each sheep, worth on the average
$1.25.

The lamb, if an early one and sold to the butcher in
April, ought to bring six dollars, and if sired by a thorough-
bred Down ram would probably bring a dollar more (seven
dollars) .

If the lambs are dropped late in the spring, and not ready
for the butcher till July or August, four dollars, at least,
would be the price.

The ewe, if properly fed, Mall be woi'th more than when
purchased, and this extra profit, added to the amount re-
ceived for the wool, will leave the price received for the
lamb all profit, unless you want to charge everything into
the account, in which case we will take another example.

Take ten ewes for easy reckoning, and we figure out : —

Dr.

To cash paid 10 ewes,

$35 00

" service of Down ram,

10 00

" keep of sheep and hxmbs till killing, one year, .

35 00

Total expense, the manure balancing the labor of feeding, $80 00

Cr.

By 10 lambs sold, at $5, $50 00

" cash received for wool, 50 lbs., at 25c., ... 12 50

" sale of ewes, 40 00

$102 50
Deduct first cost of ewes and keep, one year, . . 80 00

Net profit, $22 50

Deduct 50 per cent for accidents, etc., .... 11 25

$11 25

Or about fourteen per cent, on first cost, and all expenses for
one year. This is in case you desire to sell 3^our ewes at
the end of the year. If you decide to keep on breeding
sheep, the account looks even better, for your ewes (or capi-
tal invested) are worth more than when purchased.

You invested $35 for (he sheep, and the total outlay for
feed, etc., has been as before, $45, — making total outlay as
before, $80.

156 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

Your income from this investment of $35 amounts to
$62.50, or, deducting the total expenses for the year of $45,
you have left as profit $17.50; and after deducting one-
half, $8.75, for accidents as before, you have left a net in-
come of $8.75 on your capital of $35, or a dividend of 25
per cent., which, in these days of cheap money, might be
called A fairly profitable investment.

I am so anxious to do all in my power to bring about
sheep-raising in this State again, that at the risk of making
myself tiresome and tedious I propose to give you a few
practical suggestions.

The first excuse given for not keeping sheep is dogs.

I grant dogs are a nuisance when you want to raise
sheep, and so they are when you want to raise chickens,
ducks or any of the smaller barnyard live stock ; but we now
have a dog law that is pretty good, — not quite as good as
we could wish for, but still good enough to cover all risks,
if a man really wants to keep sheep.

You do not give up raising chickens, etc , on account of
trouble from dogs ; then apply tlie same rule for sheep, —
namely, keep enough sheep in each town and village in this
Commonwealth to give the dogs a liberal education. They
will soon learn. As it is now, sheep are so seldom seen,
that dogs think they ought to be put out of the way, as a
nuisance, as much as if they were wild beasts or vermin.

Of course there are some dogs that are naturally bad, as
there are some bad boys. Do with the dogs as we some-
times want to do with the boys, — kill them, and plant them
four feet under ground.

I would suggest, as soon as you buy any sheep, to dip
them in one of the various preparations to be found in the
market to kill ticks and cure scab. Repeat the dipping in
seven or eight days, and you will destroy everything in the
way of vermin that might have been in the egg state at the
first dipping.

If you start with a flock of sheep free from ticks or skin
disease, it is very easy to keep them clean ; but if you allow
either ticks or scab a little start, you will find it a hard race
to get ahead.

Bells on the necks of sheep are a great advantage, for

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 157

several reasons. If the sheep get out of the pasture, you
can find them easily ; if a dog gets among them with the
idea of chasing them, the ringing of the bells very often will
disconcert him and stop him ; besides, the noise of the bells
made by the sheep, when frightened, is very sure to be
heard by some one on the farm, unless the pasture is a long
way off.

Use hurdles to yard your sheep in at night, and yard
them every night. The advantages are these : if you hurdle
in a pasture, you can hurdle on the poorest spots, and in this
way top-dress them, so that it will show for many years.
If you hurdle on your mowing fields, the same advantage
holds good.

Feed a little grain in troughs, in either case, and take my
word for it, you will top-dress your pastures and fields
cheaper than you ever did before, and you will get no foul
seed on them by using this kind of top-dressing.

The time and labor needed is in changing; the hurdles
every two or three days, or when you have got on as much
manure as you desire.

If you want to raise early lambs, the hurdling will be
almost indispensable, as you can then put your ram in at
night, and by feeding him all the grain he will eat during the
day you will have him fresh for service when turned in with
the ewes at night.

A word about breeding for early lambs. The great trouble
to overcome is, that the ewes refuse to receive the atten-
tions of the ram as early as desired. By feeding a little
more grain than usual, you make the ewes gain a little flesh.
This helps ; the old English saying, ' ' A ewe comes rutting
when she begins to mend," is also true with us to a certain
extent.

But from my own experience, I believe that more than
feed, or even frosty nights, is to have rams enough to turn
out a fresh one every night, and then, by using other rams
in regular succession, give each a few days' rest. When each
one's turn comes to be put with the ewes, he is full of life
and desire, and teases the whole flock over and over again,
till at last the ewes begin to yield to his entreaties.

Using rams in this way, there ought to be a ram for every

158 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

fifty or sixty ewes ; but if used more carefully and not al-
lowed to exhaust himself by constant teasing, thrice the
number of ewes can be covered in a season by a mature ram
in good condition and constantly well fed. Oats are the
best feed for a ram while in active service.

Do not not keep your sheep out too late in the autumn,
and expect them to do as well as they ought.

Frozen grass is no better for sheep than for other kinds
of stock.

Take your sheep from pasture when you house the rest
of your animals ; but remember sheep cannot have their shed
too cold for comfort and health, if it be dry and afford
shelter in case of wet weather.

A sheep with its warm fleece laughs at zero weather, and,
if allowed to choose, will lie out on the ice in an open yard,
in preference to a warm, well-littered shed, if the weather
be fair and not too windy.

Here let me add that it is impossible to keep a flock of
sheep in a healthy, thrifty condition, unless you so arrange
the sheds as to control the ventilation and have a good sup-
ply of fresh air at all times. A good-sized sheep ought to
be allowed at least ten feet in the shed and two feet at the
feeding rack ; the larger the yard for exercise the better.

Running water is almost indispensable, and you will
hardly believe me when I tell you that, in spite of the old
belief that sheep do not need or even care for water where
there is plenty of snow to eat, I have known a flock of
breeding ewes to drink by measure over four quarts of
water each per day, besides eating more or less snow.

Sheep are naturally fond of browsing on all sorts of
bushes and foul growth when at pasture, and so in winter
they can be kept on meadow hay and all kinds of second-
class fodder, that could not with propriety be fed to milch
coAvs, and would be entirely unfit for horses. This sort of
fodder they really seem to prefer, and with a small ration of
grain every day a flock can be kept thrifty and " on the
mend " at very little expense.

In raising lambs for early market you will need a pen for
the ewes to lamh in, that can be shut up warm, or rather
can be kept above the freezing point, for it is generally de-

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 159

cided within the first half hour of its birth whether the lamb
is to live or die. As soon as the lamb is born, if not able
to suck for itself at once, milk some of its mother's milk
into its mouth without delay, and if the lamb is naturally
strong and healthy, and the ewe a decent mother, there will
be very little trouble in raising it.

Do not, from mistaken kindness, keep your lamb in a
warm pen more than a day or two, as nature has provided a
very warm lamb's-wool jacket, and thus clothed it enjoys
jumping about on the ice and snow as much as its dam, and
will gi'ow faster and be ready for market earlier than if kept
close or forced under glass. The lamb for early market
must be forced along with all it can be made to eat, besides
feeding its dam on the kind of food requisite to give the
greatest possible flow of milk.

Arrange a little rack and trough in a corner of the shed,
fenced ofi" in such a way that the lambs can run in and out
freely, but which will keep out the ewes ; in the rack keep
the best of early cut rowen, and in the trough, grain.
. The first lambs are sometimes slow in learning to eat,
particularly if their dams are large milkers ; but after they
once begin to eat, the younger ones soon follow their ex-
ample. Bran seems to he the kind of grain a lamb prefers
at first to any other kind, and for that reason it is easier to
begin with it and gradually substitute other kinds of grain,
until your lambing has fairly begun ; and then my advice is,
to use for lambs intended for market and to be ready as soon
as possible, a mixture of finely ground corn meal with
enough old process oil meal added to keep their bowels in
the proper condition. Should the lambs show signs of con-
stipation add more oil meal, and if they begin to scour,
lessen the quantity of oil meal ; the proper proportions for
the mixture are from one-fourth to one-third oil meal.
The amount of grain lambs can eat and digest is perfectly
amazing, but the more they will eat the sooner they can be
killed for the market ; and if they want a quart and a pint a
day at thirty days old, they must have it. I do not believe
a lamb will or can eat enough of the above-described mix-
ture to hurt it or to produce a fit. With all other mixtures
I have tried, while I have raised some good lambs and had

160 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

them ready for market at a very early age, I never got
through the season without losing a few from fits. This
last season, out of about one hundred and seventy-five lambs,
not one was made sick.

Be regular in your feeding, and let nothing disturb your
ewes and lambs ; only those persons that the sheep know
should be allowed to go among them. A shepherd's crook
is a great help in catching lambs, as the whole flock can be
crowded into a corner, and by slipping the crook on the hind
leg of the lamb sought for, the rest of the flock are but very
little disturbed.

The younger the lamb can be made to dress twenty-five to
twenty-eight pounds, the more the profit. Lamb, to be at
its best for table purposes, should be under sixty days old,
and if you can have them heavy enough when forty or forty-
five days old, the meat will be much more tender.

The sooner the lambs can be dressed after they are sep-
arated from their dams the better, as they begin to fret and
worry at once ; and if kept in this condition for twenty-four
hours without food, as they must be if sent quite a distance,
the meat loses much of its fine, sweet flavor, because the
lambs are in a more or less feverish condition. There is a
right and a wrong way of dressing sheep and lambs, and I
am sorry to say the wrong way is the one generally adopted.

Sheep offal has a peculiar and very disagreeable odor,
which impregnates the meat if allowed to remain many min-
utes after death. The peculiar taste we have all noticed in
mutton, and for want of a better name we call " muttony,"
is caused by this, and not, as many people believe, by the
breed or feeding. The reason that this taste is so frequent
is, that all the sheep killed in large numbers are dressed by
the butchers at so much per head, and in order to work
quickly the butcher or his assistant cuts the throats of sev-
eral at once, and then begins dressing them. The first two
or three are hung up in a few moments, but if six or eight
were killed at once, some of the last ones will have become
impregnated with this ofial flavor, and are very diflerent to
the taste when cooked than if they had been dressed at once.

No one can tell the difference by the eye or nose, but you
discover it very quickly when the mutton is cooked and you

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 161

taste it. It is not so marked in lamb as in mutton, but
enough so to warrant dressing the lamb in as short a time as
possible.

Mr. B. W. Potter of Worcester. I have considerable
land on my farm that needs reclaiming, and I had thought of
saying something about the reclamation of land, but so many
have wished to speak upon that subject that I have not found
an opportunity. I desire to say a word or two in reference
to the essay that has been read, inasmuch as 1 have had a
little experience in sheep culture, and if I had heard this
interesting and instructive address before I began my experi-
ments perhaps I should have come out better ; but I want to
call your attention to one thing which he has not mentioned.
He says that one of the troubles connected with sheep cul-
ture is dogs, but there is another trouble in this part of the
State which I think is a more important matter than the dog
question, and that is the inability to keep sheep anywhere
where they ought to be in the pastures. A few years ago I
found that my pasture was growing up to brush and
brambles, and I thought I would see if I could not devise
some way to make it better ; and, after reading up on the
matter, I came to the conclusion that the way to do it
was to go into sheep husbandry. I thought if I got twenty-
five or thirty sheep and put them in the pasture I could
reclaim it. I read everything I could find on the subject,
and I thought I could put twenty-five or thirty sheep
into that pasture and keep them there without diminishing
the number of cows that I had there, and I also persuaded
myself that I could sell early lambs, and that every part of
the sheep would work up into something of value ; that the
mutton would sell, the pelts would sell, and there would
be a great deal of profit in it. So I arranged my stable for
sheep, and there being nothing but a stone wall around
the pasture, I got barbed wire and put a strand over the
wall, and bought twenty-five or thirty sheep, — Cotswolds,
and some Southdowns ; and I went so far as to speak to
Secretary Uussell about one of his high-bred rams. I got
those sheep and put them in my pasture, and I remember the
satisfaction I felt when I went out on a hill where I could

162 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

overlook this pasture and thought to myself, " It will not
be long before those bushes and brambles will disappear,
and in the place thereof will be growing sweet and nu-
tritious grasses." I thought it would be a profitable
operation. I believed I was going to " kill two birds with
one stone," — that I was going to renovate my pasture and
make a little money at the same time. It went along a little
while, when the dogs came and killed one or two of the
sheep and frightened the rest so much that I soon found they
were in the habit of running over at least two towns. It
was impossible to keep them anywhere. They did not show
any inclination to stay in the pasture. As there were a hun-
dred acres of corn in the neighborhood, I went to work and
put another strand of barbed wire around the pasture, and
thought that would surely keep them there, but they had got
into the habit of jumping, and their long wool protected
them so that they did not seem to feel the barbs, and in a
little while the wire on the top of that fence looked like an
out-door wool-carding machine. They were so troublesome
that the second year I put them into the Worcester market ;
and, for aught I know, they are still jumping somewhere else
in the universe in some other form of existence. But, not-
withstanding that, I sold the lambs and the wool — having
good luck in selling the wool — for enough to get me out of
the scrape without any particular loss except the expense of
the fence. I think they improved my pasture very much,
notwithstanding they did not stay there more than half the
time. I thought, when I got rid of them, I would get a less
unruly breed of sheep, and probably they would stay there,
and I should not have any trouble ; but I have had such
peaceable and quiet times since, I have not done it. I think,
when I try it again, I shall go down to Framingham for quiet
sheep that will stay in the pasture. But any ordinary farmer
up here, who has nothing but a stone wall around his pas-
ture, if he undertakes to keep sheep, will find that he has
got into trouble, unless he has succeeded in getting a quiet
breed of sheep.

Then there is another thing to which the essayist has
alluded which I desire to emphasize a little, and that is the
value of sheep manure. I think it is the best of all kinds

SHEEP HUSBANDRY 163

of manure, and barnyard manure is the best of all fer-
tilizers. Good commercial fertilizers are very useful when
properly applied, but barnyard manure, and especially
sheep manure, will show its good effects for many years.
About twenty-five years ago I left my parents' home for
the purpose of trying to make my way in the world, and
just before I left^ an old barn that stood in a field near my
father's house, where a man had kept sheep in the winter,
was burned down. A year ago last fall, when I went back
to revisit the scenes of my childhood, I found the old house
standing there as of yore, humble, yet beautiful to me. I
looked again upon the orchard in front of the house and
upon the green meadows and pastures around ; I trod once
more the old familiar playgrounds ; I slaked my thirst at
the everflowing spring on the hillside, and I found that what
was left of the old barn had been removed, and there the
aftermath was growing ankle deep, in strange contrast with
the grass in the rest of the field. I found upon inquiry
that the man who had lived there when I left was still the
owner of that field. I sought him out. I found he was the
same simple countryman that he was when he gave me
apples and cherries in my youthful days. He had grown
old with the wear and tear of life, his hair was white, and
as he talked with me about the old times he seemed to be
looking into futurity, and I fancied he could almost see the
"river of the water of life" in the eternal world. After
some conversation with him, in which he reminded me of
many boyish pranks, I asked him how it was that the grass
in that part of the field where the old barn used to stand
was so much better than the rest of the field. He said :
" That old barn was where I kept my sheep in winter, and
from that field I have taken a crop of grain or hay every
year since the barn was removed. I have manured the
other parts of the field, l)ut I have never put any on this
place, because it seemed to be rich enough without it."
That was twenty-five years, a quarter of a century ago ;
but that sheep manure has kept that soil productive. I
may be wrong in my opinion, but I l)olicve if I should go
back there twenty-five years from to-day I should still see
the good efiects of that sheep manure around that barn.

164 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

Perhaps other barnyard manure would do as well, but I
doubt it.

Mr. Moore of New Braintree. I have been very much
interested in this essay. Sheep husbandry is something that
is valuable to us, I believe, in more ways than one, and the
principal drawback seems to be lack of protection from
dogs, — the fact that our sheep are cleaned out, we might
say, by dogs. Mr. Bowditch has spoken of the hurdle, and
I suppose he has a model of it there. I wish he would ex-
plain to us something about the cost of making it, the num-
ber of sheep which it is good practice to enclose together in
hurdles, and if it is a thorough protection in the night-time
from clogs.

Mr. Bowditch. I do not know how perfect a protection
it is from dogs, but we have kept from fifty to three hun-
dren sheep and hurdled them every night during the season
for the last five or six years. We have never had a dog get
through the hurdles. Whether they have ever tried it or not
I can't say, but I have never had my sheep worried. Hurdles
cost about forty cents a length. You merely take common
fence pickets, which always come four feet long, and two by
three inch scantlino- for the rails.

Question. How many lengths are required to enclose
say fifty sheep.

Mr. Bowditch. It depends entirely upon what you
want to do. At night they will stand very close hurdling.
It is according as you want to accomplish the work on your
land or pasture. Where you want to crop it and kill the
bushes, the smaller the hurdle the better, because they will
trample it so continuously that they will kill the underbrush
and enrich the bushes so much they will die ; but if you want
the manure as top-dressing for a mowing field, it would be
better to have a larger hurdle, so that the dressing will be
scattered over a wider space.

Question. Is there any difficulty in getting them into
the hurdle ?

Mr. Bowditch. No, sir. The moment the man comes
in sight to put the grain in the troughs, if the sheep are in
the field where they can see him, they will come at once and
crowd in.

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 165

Question. What kind of a fence do you use ?

Mr. BowDiTCii. If you don't look out when you are buy-
ing sheep you will get jumpers. You want to be as careful
not to buy jumping sheep as you would be not to buy
a kicking cow. I have had some first-class jumpers, but
I do not like them. In using barbed wire you want to
put it on carefully, and notice exactly how your sheep go at
a wall. You want to put the barbed wire so that the barbs
will prick their noses. At one time I had some forty jump-
ers. I put a barb wire on top of the wall, and they had
some very sore noses for a day or two, but it kept them in.
They will jump an eight-foot wall if they can only get a
foothold. I put the barbed wire about three inches above
the top of the wall, so that when they put their feet on a
stone to jump, the barbs would prick their noses.

Question. Have you put cattle and sheep in the same
pasture ?

Mr. Bowditch. I have, occasionally. I think the sheep
do very well, but I don't think the cattle do quite so well,
because sheep feed so close. A pasture which I had of
some forty acres, which carried from early May until Sep-
tember 290 odd sheep, when I began to put sheep on it five
years ago would keep alive seven cows, — it would not give
them enough to eat. I see no reason, from the experience I
have had, why any numl)er of sheep cannot be kept together
if they are healthy and watched carefully, provided you give
them proper ventilation when you house them, for there is
no animal that needs fresh air as much as sheep.

I think the best grain for sheep is a mixture of corn meal,
ground oats and shorts. I would say that in the summer
time I feed a very small amount of cotton seed, — just a bare
pinch. That is a highly concentrated food, and I would not
feed much cotton seed after the ewes are fairly with lambs.
I have had some trouble in using it.

Question. Would you feed cotton seed to lambs ?

Mr. Bowditch. No, not unless I wanted to have them
(lie before I was ready.

Question. I would like to ask Mr. Bowditch if a small
flock of sheep could be profitably kept on a garden farm to
eat up the waste of the crops ?

166 BOAKD OF AGRICULTUEE.

Mr. BowDiTCH. If they could be hurdled close by your
garden, I don't see why not. You can feed them anything in
the way of rubbish, such as turnip tops, old cabbages, or
anything of that sort.

Secretary Russell. I wish to speak in regard to the
protection which sheep owners have under the law. As you
all know, who have heard me at the institutes for the last
seven years, I have continually advocated sheep husbandry ;
and I remember to have said six years ago, in my first sea-
son before the institutes, that if I was secretary of the Board
of Agriculture for four years, and there were not four times
as many sheep in the Commonwealth as at the time of speak-
ing, I should consider that I had lived in vain. Well,
gentlemen, I have lived in vain, so far as that part of my
duty is concerned. There are fewer sheep now in the Com-
monwealth than there were five or six years ago, notwith-
standing we have kept this matter continually before the
agricultural community at the institutes all over the State ;
and the continued complaint of the farmers in regard to the
matter is that they are not sufficiently protected by the law
in this most ancient and valuable of all husbandry. There
are a few here who have had practical experience ; and prac-
tical experience bears out all that you have heard to-day
from Mr. Bowditch, and bears out all the records of the past
which have been so strongly in favor of sheep husbandry in
every part of the world.

In regard to this matter of sheep and dogs, — this " irre-
pressible conflict," — it is not any greater here than it has
been in every other part of the world where sheep and dogs
have been kept together ; and men, notwithstanding, have
been enabled to maintain their sheep husbandry. Mr.
Bowditch's essay indicates a great deal of Bible learning,
which was noticed especially by Captain Moore. The cap-
tain said he could correct him on some points that he made,
having brought his Concordance with him ; but I don't
believe it. You will find that there are constant references
in the Bible to the ravages of dogs, and to the injuries that
the husbandmen in the early days sufiered from them. We
here are no worse off" than men have been in every other part
pf the world.

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 167

But, before I speak in regard to the law, I wish to empha-
size what Mr. Bowditch said in regard to sheep and dogs
becoming acquainted Avith one another. A dog, quicker
than any other creature in the world, can be taught what his
master wants, and to respect what he knows is property. A
dog likes to protect your property rather than to destroy it ;
and the reason that our isolated and small flocks of sheep are
attacked and destroyed by dogs is not so much the inherent
viciousness in the dogs, but the fact that the dog does not
distinguish that creature as one of the domestic animals
which is the associate of man, on a par with himself, and to
be treated as farm stock. I fully believe this. I have had
some hard experience in this regard. Ignorant or inexperi-
enced doffs will sometimes attack calves. I remember an
instance on my place. A dog that I had raised and kindly
nurtured until he had grown to weigh about 140 pounds, one
day suddenly saw a calf, — perhaps the first he had ever
seen, he being about a year old. I heard a noise, and on
looking out saw the calf and dog tumbling upon the ground.
I immediately took part myself in the conflict, and the re-
sult of it was that the next time that dog saw a calf he came
up to me, and, looking in my face with a confidential ex-
pression, manifested to me his profound conviction that he
would never touch another calf as long as he lived. I had no
trouble in teaching him that. Every man who has raised a
pup upon his farm knows that he is liable to lose a chicken or
two until he catches the dog in the act, and then and there
convinces him that a chicken is something to be respected
and taken care of instead of being destroyed. We want to
keep sheep so that the dogs will get acquainted with them ;
for people will keep dogs. There is no use in farmers com-
plaining that their neighbors keep dogs. Dogs are kept all
over the world, and they are going to be kept. You cannot
get a stronger law than we have now ; and if you should suc-
ceed in getting a law ahead of public opinion, it would be of
no use. When you go to the Legislature you find two or
three hundred men who are interested, not in sheep, but in
dogs. There is not a single man in the Legislature, per-
haps, who has the slightest interest in sheep ; while three-
quarters have a direct interest in dogs, either their own

168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

or that of their families. They sympathize with the dog
against the sheep. LaAV is not made to prevent crime;
we can only make laws to punish, and the fear of punish-
ment must act as a preventive. All we can do in this case
is to have a law that will pay a man the damages that he
suffers in his sheep husbandry. We have such a law at the
present time. It is a good law, and it is very easy of appli-
cation. I have used it practically. I have had my sheep
killed to an extent that would perhaps foot up more than
$400 in two years' time, and I could have got six or seven
hundred dollars if I had asked for the full measure of the
law as applied to my flock, but I asked merely the pre-
cise value of the sheep that were killed and found on the
ground ; and I assure any man who wishes to keep sheep,
that although I cannot guarantee him against the distress of
having his flock injured by dogs, I can guarantee that the
money damage will be fully paid back to him.

Mr. West of South Hadley. There is one thing that the
farmers who have lost sheep cannot convince the County
Commissioners of, and that is, that they are entitled to com-
pensation, not only for the sheep killed, but for the worry
caused to the other sheep.

Mr. BowDiTCH. The selectmen are bound to employ an
expert, and if they bring on somebody who is not an expert
you can compel them to get one.

Mr. Houghton of Sutton. We have three flocks of sheep
in our town, and their owners expect every year to lose more
or less by dogs. One man told me that his dogs could not
be made to touch a sheep. He took them up there, and they
killed a sheep before my eyes.

Major Alvoed. I am a believer in keeping a few sheep
on every farm. The first thing I asked of the farm com-
mittee when I went to the college this fall was that they would
get a few sheep ; and we have a small flock, which I think
can be made profitable and sometimes instructive. I do not
believe they are going to be materially injured by dogs
while under our charge. If we turn sheep out where we do
not expect to see them more than once a month, we may
very naturally expect a few losses ; but for the past five
years I have handled from one to three hundred sheep, and

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 169

during that time I have had but one visitation from dogs,
although that was the only flock of sheep within five or six
miles. They were always hurdled from before dusk until
after sunrise, and the only time they were attacked by dogs
was in the middle of the day, when they at once ran to
their open hurdle, which was quite small, and when once in
a compact body in the hurdle the dogs did not molest them.
Only one or two lambs were left out, and they were killed.

The main thing I wished to say was in regard to the
breeds of sheep. Although we have our favorites, of course,
and there are advocates of all the various breeds, when it
comes to a public test, they turn out very nearly equal in
the country at large. Probably the best actual test or com-
petition between the breeds is at the fat stock show at
Chicago.

I have watched for two years to see if there was any uni-
formity in the awards of prizes for the best animals in the
sheep department, either alive or dressed, and I observed
that the sweepstakes for the best fat wether was awarded
last year to an Oxford Down ; that the next prize went to a
Cotswold, and the third to a Southdown ; but when it came
to the carcass prizes, neither of those three took the first
prize, but it went to a Shropshire. Although a Southdown
also took a premium for the best carcass, — the largest per-
centage of edible meat, — that was the only case in which a
breed which had been awarded a prize alive was given a
premium after dressing. This year the first premium for
fat sheep went to a Hampshire Down. That animal, how-
ever, was not noticed in the carcass class, but the prize for
the best carcass went to a Southdown. Comparing these
two years with the record for several years before, I find
that the prizes were about equally distributed, which indi-
cates that the breeds of the most careful breeders and feeders
work just about alike in taking on.

The Chairman. I have understood that they keep sheep
in Franklin County. There is more than one man here from
that county. We have not yet lieard from Mr. Grinnell.
It strikes me that he knows almost as much about sheep as
the Secretary does.

Mr. Grinnell. The little I know about sheep I have

170 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

told in reports to this Board of Agriculture two or three
times ; it is an old story, and to me it is a very painful one.
The attempt that so many of us make to induce the farmers
of this State to engage in sheep husbandry is constantly met
by the answer, " We cannot do it on account of the destruc-
tion by dogs." It has been said here, and said truly, that the
Legislature is composed of dog owners, or dog lovers, ralher
than those in favor of the sheep industry of the country. One
attending a farmers' meeting or a meeting of this Board, and
seeing the expression on the faces of those present, would
suppose that dogs were in disfavor and that sheep were the
favorites ; but it is very different when you go to the polls.
Then you do not think of that, but you choose a man who
keeps a dog and disregards sheep. You take a lawyer or a
shopkeeper, who is not connected in any way with agricul-
ture, and send him down to Boston to make your laws. That
is what is the matter, and that was the difficulty when, three
or four years ago, we submitted amendments to the dog law
which no reasonable being could object to. It was passed
in one branch of the Legislature, but in the other it was
killed by a dog owner, a dog breeder and a lawyer to boot,
in the city of Boston. (Applause) .

Secretary Russell. He has run away since that time.
Mr. Grinnell. I know it perfectly well, and I only
wish he had left no successor. Every man who speaks on
this subject tries to excuse and apologize for the dog. We
have had two or three here to day, — shining lights. They
are dog owners, and think more of their dogs than they
do of their sheep.

Secretary Russell. Do you mean me ?
Mr. Grinistell. Yes, sir, I mean you.
Mr. BowDTiTCH. I will guarantee that I keep more dogs
on my place than any other man here, but still I keep sheep
with them. I say that we can keep sheep and still keep
dogs, and any man who wants to keep sheep is a weak-
backed brother if he cannot keep them in spite of dogs.
For the last five or six years I have kept sheep, and there
have been five or six hundred dollars' worth of sheep, at
least, killed within half a mile of me. That did not frighten
me at all. I buried the dog that attacked my sheep ; the

SHEEP HUSBANDRY. 171

other men hadn't pluck enough to do it. It is very easy to
keep sheep if you want to ; if you don't, it is very easy to
make excuses.

Mr. Grinnell. There is one class of farmers who do a
great deal of good and for whom I have great respect and
affection. They are farmers of means, and can keep any
amount of help they want about their farms. They tell
you to get a steam engine and pump, or to get a wind-
mill, and irrigate your land. You are also told to hurdle
your sheep. But where do the fanners in the western part
of the State pasture their sheep? They are not in the
orchard near the house, they are not within a half a mile or
a mile, perhaps not within three miles of the house.

The majority of our sheep, as Mr. Taft says, are pastured
three miles off. It is impracticable, not to say impossible,
to hurdle those sheep. I know it is a very excellent system,
if you can do it and have the conveniences for doing it ; but
what man is going off three miles to hurdle his sheep when
he is perhaps getting in his hay ? It is impracticable for us
who are living out in the country, and while a most excel-
lent and valuable plan on such a place as the one where Mr.
Bodwitch lives, where he has a beautiful house, from which
he can watch the pastures, and if there is a dog in sight
send out his men and hurdle his sheep. Then he keeps so
many dogs that the others keep off. His mastiffs are a
great protection. I have a great respect for a mastiff —
when he is on the other side of the fence! (Laughter.)
It is unfortunate that we are debarred from this most pleas-
ant and profitable occupation of raising sheep. The num-
ber of sheep in this Commonwealth has been constantly
decreasing for the past twenty-five years, and the reason
undoubtedly is because of the ravages of dogs. The Secre-
tary says that we have got law enough, and yet the senti-
ment of the farmers of this State is,' that they cannot raise
sheep because of the dogs.

Secretary Russell. I said we have got all the law we
can get. All the law you can get ought to be enough.

Mr. Grinnell. We have got all we can get, perhaps,
but we ought to try to get more. I should like to see a
Legislature of sheep owners.

172 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Mr. MooKE of New Braintree. I do not know but we
have got all the law we can get, but we have laws that com-
pel us to keep our cattle on our own premises, and if dogs
are property, if they are farm stock, why should not their
owners keep them on their own premises ? Give us a law
that will do that. If they are kept on the premises of the
owner, unless the owner or some one is with them, then
our sheep are safe ; we can raise sheep, and it will be an
industry worth having in Massachusetts.

Secretary Russell. I have been intrusted by the Board
of Agriculture for seven years with the advocacy of whatever
they wanted to obtain from the Legislature, and I have found
out to my satisfaction one thing, that you have to go be-
fore legislatures with propositions that they will grant.
There is no use going before the Legislature year after year
and pleading, as I have done, for laws that do not meet the
views of the men Avho are asked to make them. They will
report against you, and will not allow your proposition to go
before the House or Senate ; or, if it goes before the House
or Senate, you will be ignominiously defeated there. Mr.
Potter, who has spoken here this morning, was Chaii-man
of the Committee on Agriculture three years ago, I think,
and we ijot throuo:h him some matters before the Leg-islature
that were very important to the farmers, and they were ably
advocated upon the floor of the House, but when presented in
the Senate we were defeated. jNIr. Grinnell says I said we
have got law enough. I said, we have got all the law we can
get. You cannot induce our Legislature to make a law put-
tinsr dosrs under the same restrictions as other domestic ani-
mals. We have tried it over and over again. As the law
stands now, I think it is fairly constituted, and it pays us all
the damages, at least, that we suffer. As to Mr. West's
complaint that he cannot get from the County Commission-
ers—

Mr. West. No, sir, I did not say I could not; I say
that is the trouble in some parts of the Commonwealth. I
don't say it is the trouble with me ; I always get all I ask.

Secretary Russell. You get all you ask, I get all I ask,
and other men get all they ask, so that your complaint is
not well founded.

AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE. 173

Mr. West. I say that is the trouble in the Common-
wealth.

Secretary Russell. I have found that the Selectmen
were on my side and on the side of the sheep when I have
called upon them.

Mr. Taft. That is true in our county.

Secretary Russell. Not only that, but I have found that
the Commissioners of Worcester County, whenever a matter
of this kind has been brought before them for adjustment,
were on the side of the .sheep. If a man is dissatisfied with
the award of the Selectmen he may appeal to the County
Commissioners. I might have got more money than I did if
I had made such appeal. I think there is no inclination on
the part of any of the public authorities to oppress the far-
mers in this respect.

Adjourned to 1.30.

Afternoon Session.

The meeting was called to order at 1.30, Mr. Goddard in
the chair. The first speaker of the afternoon was Mr. M.
W. Bartlett of West Newbury, who read the following
paper on the Influence of Agriculture on Climate : —

INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE.

BY M. W. BARTLETT OP WEST NEWBUKT.

According to the best lights we can get in regard to the
creation, this fair earth of ours has not always been "in
verdure clad." By the description given in Genesis we learn
that it was not until the third day that the grass and herb
yielding seed and fruit tree yielding fruit were brought
forth, and " earth smiled in all its vast attire."

So far as the order of the six days' work of the creation is
concerned, the Mosaic account is confirmed by modern
science. By its light we go in geologic ages to a period
anterior to the creation of animal or vegetable life on this
earth, — to a time, indeed, in which so great was the heat on

174 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

its surface that any organic life was impossible ; and that it
was only after many ages had elapsed, — so many, indeed, as
to be entirely beyond finite comprehension, — that it was fitted
to sustain a few of those lower forms of organic life that were
capable of enduring a super-tropical climate ; and that even
after those lower forms of life were created, still other
geologic ages must have elapsed, each of which may be
modestly estimated at millions of years, before the climate
and soil were fitted for the higher forms of organic life, and
finally for man.

And now, after the great forces of nature, light, heat,
frost, gravitation, electricity, winds and waves, ocean cur-
rents and earthquakes, have been operating for countless ages
to make this earth the beautiful and fruitful abode of the
human family, is it possible that, by human agency, in a
comparatively short period it can be shorn of its beauty and
fertility, or its climate so changed as to render it unfit for
man's abode ? Can man by his works aifect in any appre-
ciable degree the " mad, untamed elements that set on fire
the heavens with falling thunderbolts and drench the earth
with floods"? is the subject for consideration this afternoon.

In discussing the climatic influence of agriculture, the
destruction of forests and irrigation will be considered, as
well as the cultivation of the ordinary field crops.

We suppose it to be an indisputable fact that a large ex-
tent of the earth's surface now a desolate and barren
desert was once clothed in the beauty of a luxuriant vegeta-
tion. No mighty cities could ever have had an existence on
the shifting sands that now almost conceal the sites of the
once proud capitals of those great empires, Assyria and
Babylonia. Their wealth and magnitude and glory, like that
of all other great cities, must have depended on a soil that
within no great distance yielded to the cultivator wholesome
fruits and grains in liberal supply. But where once stood
that mighty city with its walls, hanging gardens and tem-
ples, Babylon, the wonder of the world, and that other
city, little less in its glory and renown, Nineveh, now
desolation reigns supreme. Such is its barrenness that no
village of more than a few hundreds of miserable dwellings
can be found in the whole region.

AGRICULTUEE ON CLIMATE. 175

In Egypt a similar condition has been reached. The val-
ley of the Nile, so far as its annual inundations have
enriched the soil, has continued in a state of unrivalled
fertility ; but beyond this, all is barrenness. As Whittier
says, " The sphinxes question the centuries from their veils
of sand ; " and as a noted traveller says, in speaking of
the pyramids, " The silence of the desert triumphs where
reverent pride made its proudest displays," The world-
renowned remains of immense cities, of those marvellous
proofs of human labor found in the pyramids, sphinxes,
obelisks, catacombs and temples, far exceeding in extent
anything to be found in Greece or Rome, testify of a coun-
try, fertile and populous, outside the narrow bounds of the
inundated valley of the Nile.

This wide desolation in Assyria, Babylonia and Egypt is
now generally admitted to have been caused by a bad system
of agriculture, — taking everything from the soil and return-
ing nothing to it.

As an illustration of the little value placed on fertilizers
even in later days may be mentioned the fabled cleansing of
the Augean stables by Hercules, — who seems to have been
the inventor of the modern system of sewage, — where the
accumulations of 3,000 cattle for 30 years is said to have
been washed into the sea in a single day. This, if the event
could have occurred, would represent a loss of more than a
million dollars' worth of plant food. To produce without
manure the amount of food required for those cattle would
totally exhaust 10,000 acres of our ordinary New England
soil. Authentic instances may be found in ancient history
where too great exhaustion of the soil has been followed by
barrenness and a decrease of population, notably in Pales-
tine, Asia Minor and Persia. Reference to these is enough
for our purpose.

Some years since, in a discussion before the West New-
bury Farmers' Club, a member from Newburyport, T. K.
Bartlett, stated as within his own knowledge that on some
portions of Grasshopper Plains, so called, where was once
good corn land, the soil had been so exhausted as to leave
only shifting sands.

In my own neighborhood is a portion of a pasture that

176 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

years ago was said to be " ryed to death;" that is, its fer-
tility had been so exhausted by repeated cropping with rye,
without any application of manure, that it had become unfit
to sustain the natural pasture grasses, — nothing left but
sand and moss.

The inquiry naturally arises as to the cause of this ex-
treme barrenness, for it would seem by the result as if there
might be some cause other than simply the exliaustion of the
soil by cropping.

In human aflairs we all feel the force of the proverb,
' ' The poverty of the poor is their destruction ; " and of that
other saying, " To him that hath shall be given, and he
shall have abundance, and from him that hath not shall be
taken away even that he hath." This appears to be a nat-
ural law, and just as applicable to the forces that govern the
fertility of the soil as to those that govern the affairs of
human life.

In all soils there is a point above which the natural
tendency is towards greater fertility, and below which the
tendency is towards barrenness.

In the comparatively cool, moist atmosphere and frequent
though gentle rains of England, summer fallowing may be
and is practised with advantage ; but in the hot, dry air and
drenching showers of our summers it tends to impoverish
the soil and is not practised.

' ' It has been proved by experiments that ^8 worth of
nitrates are annually washed away through an acre of bare
fallow, and but $1.50 worth from an acre covered with
crops, a waste of $6.50 from a single acre, simply from the
want of a green covering."

On the other hand, in this country green manuring has its
advocates, and has been practised to some extent. Land
has been enriched by plowing in some green crop, as clover,
that has been allowed to grow during one season. It returns
to the soil more than it has taken from it. By its roots and
leaves it has absorbed certain elements from earth and air,
and by its vital chemistry elaborated certain organic material
that has a stimulating influence on future crops. But it is
manifest that this method can be resorted to only when
there is a certain amount of productiveness already in the

AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE. 177

soil. Below a certain point more elements of plant food will
be taken from the soil by evaporation and leaching than will
be returned to it 1)y plowing under the scanty crop.

If the humus is abundant, the soil not only retains the
fertilizers applied by art, but also that supplied by nature, —
by the atmosphere, rain and snow ; but if the humus becomes
exhausted, the remaining barren eailh fails to retain the
manures applied, the fertile elements being leached through
and lost in the deep subsoil. Hence, above a certain point
in fertility the copious showers of heaven are a blessing, and
below that point they do but consummate the curse.

Green manuring is nature's method of increasing the
fertility of the earth. The yearly return of the whole plant
to the soil, if it is an annual, or if a perennial, the annual
return of its leaves, and in time of its whole ti-unk, kept up
from generation to generation, produces that accumulation of
humus that made the virgin soil of our New England so
productive of the grains and grasses in earlier days, and
still makes the productiveness of the great prairies of the
West ; while, on the other hand, the leaching of the soil that
follows excessive cropping, coml^ined with other causes,
such as diminished rain-fall, dryer winds, and finally moving
sands, has been and is nature's method of producing that
utter desolation found in some portions of the Old World.
To a soil that hath much fertility more shall be given, and it
shall have abundance, and from a soil that hath little fertility
shall be taken away that which it hath, and it shall be poor
indeed.

An indispensable element of plant growth is moisture,
furnished mostly by rain-fall.

In the primitive condition of our country, the dense forests
were conservators of the moisture from the clouds. By their
roots, fallen trunks and leaves ; by the underbrush, ferns and
mosses growing in their shade, they retarded the flow of
streams, they held the water as in a sponge, and prolonged
the period of drainage of the melting snows and spring rains
cA'cn during the entire summer. But the forests having been
largely cut ofl*, the waters rush unckecked down the naked
hill and mountain sides intQ the creeks and rivers and are
carried off in devastating floods, to be followed by droughts,

178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

alike injurious to agriculture, to navigation and to health.
The eflfect of this change may he seen on a small scale, even
in my own town of West Newbury. Three difierent streams
within our borders formerly afforded useful mill privileges.
Now at midsummer one can walk along their beds dryshod.

The disastrous effects of forest destruction have of late
been attracting much attention. New York is much con-
cerned for the preservation of the forests of the Adirondack
region, the great reservoir for the waters of the Hudson
River. The State of Connecticut is waking up to the im-
portance to her of the forests along the head-waters of the
Connecticut River in the States of New Hampshire and Ver-
mont, and the dwellers along the valley of the Ohio are
looking at the destruction of the forests of the Alleghany re-
gion as the cause of the devastating floods of 1882 and 1883.

These disastrous effects are evoking a great deal of discus-
sion. I think we may take it for granted that the amount
of rain-fall, in all forms, that comes to the earth from the
air, is just equal to the amount of moisture evaporated from
the earth, including, of course, its whole surface, — land and
water. As rain-fall depends on evaporation, and is just equal
to it, it follows that increase or decrease of evaporation will
be followed by a corresponding increase or decrease of rain-
fall.

It is a mistaken opinion that, other things being equal, the
soil a few inches below the surface is more moist where shaded
by luxuriant vegetation than where exposed to the direct rays
of the sun. I was once standing with several others in a
potato field where one-half the crop had been dug for early
market, while the other half had been left to mature. The
weather had been warm and dry, and the question came up,
where shall we find most moisture, — where the potatoes
have been dug and the bare earth is exposed to the sun, or
where the potatoes are still growing? The answer, almost in
concert, was, " We shall find most moisture where the
ground is shaded by the vines." Investigation proved the
contrary, beyond all dispute. Where nothing was growing,
three inches below the surface revealed moist earth ; while
among the growing potatoes the soil was dry to twice that
depth, the roots having absorbed the moisture, and the
leaves and stems exhaled it into the atmosphere.

AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE. 179

As a rule, the exhalation from vegetation will be in pro-
portion to the amount of foliage and the luxuriance of its
growth ; least from the mossy, close-cropped pastures ; more
from the thrifty growing grains and grasses ; still greater
from the rampant growing corn, and most from the forest,
with the moisture-lovino- air floating through its one hundred
or more feet of perpendicular growth. The amount of ex-
halation from plants varies with the temperature and moist-
ure of the surrounding air.

Experiments have shown that a sunflower with thirty-nine
square feet of leaf surface gave off in twenty-four hours
three pounds of water ; grass sod, per square foot, one and
one-half pounds per twenty-four hours.

In recent experiments a dwarf-bean exhaled during twenty-
three days in September and October thirteen times its
weight of water, which is more than half its weight each
day ; and if more than half its weight each day on an average
in September and October, it would no doubt exhale double
its weight in one hot day of July or August. An experiment
has proved it. Sir J. B. Laws has proved that most plants
durino; the few months of their growth exhale more than two
hundred times their weight of water. That would equal five
thousand tons of water from an acre of ensilage corn, sup-
posing the crop to be twenty-five tons ; and even that, I
doubt not, is an under-estimate.

EVAPORATION.

Professor Burrill of Illinois says, " The amount of water
exhaled from the leaves of trees in dry, hot weather is prodig-
ious, — vastly greater than any one not acquainted with the
results of experiments upon the subject supposes. As near
as can be made out from investigations upon small plants
in pots, a large-sized forest tree throws into the atmosphere
every favorable summer day about fifty barrels of water,
counting forty gallons to the barrel. One apple tree twenty
years old may be estimated to be one-fifth as large, and to
exhale ten barrels of water each clear and breezy day of
June, July and August. This seems incredible, but it is not
above the accurately determined facts with potted plants of
many kinds."

180 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The Washington elm at Cambridge, a tree of no extraor-
dinary size, was some years ago estimated to produce a crop
of 7,000,000 leaves, exposing a surface of 200,000 square
feet, or about five acres of foliage.

Generally during summer, and especially if the season be
a dry one, plants absorb from the earth all the moisture
their roots can reach ; and here is another element to bo con-
sidered in connection with the fact that plants exhale moist-
ure in proportion to their amount of foliage and luxuriance
of growth. The roots of a scanty pasture grass extend
downwards not many inches ; of corn, they have been found
six or seven feet below the surface, and tree roots have been
found twenty-five feet below the surface. The deeper the
roots, the larger the proportion of water absorbed by them
and exhaled into the air by their leaves, and the less the
proportion that escapes to the deep subsoil, and that finally,
by springs, brooks and rivers, finds its way to the ocean.

It has been observed that forests draw rain. The atmos-
phere always contains more or less moisture ; the higher the
temperature the more it can contain. If, when saturated, its
temperature be lowered it must part with a portion of its
moisture in the shape of rain, dew, frost, snow or hail. If
the air is not saturated it is constantly taking up more
moisture by absorption from the soil, vegetation, water or
snow on the surface of the earth. To give an illustration :
As the trade- winds blow constantly across the tropical ocean
west of Africa, the air becomes saturated, and on reaching
the rising land and cooler air of the South American conti-
nent gradually parts with its moisture, until it finally reaches
the eastern slope of the Andes, which rises up like a huge
barrier, and demands, by virtue of its colder air, almost
the last tithe of moisture it has received from the ocean.
On passing over the summit of the range and down the
western slope of the mountains the conditions are reversed.
The gradually increasing temperature is far above the dew-
point of the dried atmosphere, and gives it a constantly
increasing capacity for moisture, and it demands and receives
of the earth all it can possibly exhale. The rains of the
eastern slope give rise to the largest rivers in the world, the
Amazon and its tributaries ; while on the western slope is

AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE. 181

a region absolutely rainless. I have ventured to refer to
this somewhat hackneyed explanation of some of the phe-
nomena connected with rain-fall, because it so well illustrates
some points hereafter referred to in connection with forests.

Evaporation is a cooling process, and by this means for-
ests cool the air for quite a distance above and around them,
and thus have the same effect in condensing the moisture of
the air blowing over them, as the coldness of the atmosphere
incident to increased elevation. The moisture-laden air com-
ing over an extensive forest is cooled below the dew-point,
deposits its moisture thereon and becomes comparatively*
dry, and passing thence into the warmer air over the mossy
pastures and scanty growth of exhausted fields far above the
dew-point, not only does not give out any of its own scanty
moisture to the parched earth, but carries off also the small
amount evaporated therefrom. Thus though nature is no
respect(?r of moral qualities, but sendeth her rain on the just
and on the unjust, she hath regard for the faithful tiller of
the soil, and sendeth her refreshing showers on his luxuriant
fields and forests, while she withholdeth it from the soil of
the unfaithful, who hath robbed it of all its fertility, again
illustrating that principle in nature already referred to, that
to him that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance,
and from him that hath not shall be taken away that which
he hath.

I quote a few reported facts in regard to the effect of for-
ests on climate. In Italy the clearing of the Apennines is
believed to have seriously changed the climate of the Po val-
ley, and now the African sirocco, formerly unknown to this
region, reaches the right bank of the river in the territory
of Parma.

The removal of the pine forests near Ravenna induced
the same desolating wind, and the same destruction of the
old forests of Vosges and of the Cevennes has had a like
deteriorating influence upon their climate.

In Egypt, where, during the French occupation in 1798,
not a drop of rain fell for sixteen months, and where from
time immemorial the country had been a rainless bed of
sand, Mohamed Ali, by planting his millions of fig and
orange trees, has seen his country blessed with au annual
ram-fall of several inches.

182 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

Previous to the year 1821 the French district Provence
was a fertile and well-watered region. In 1822 the olive
trees which were largely cultivated there were injured by
frost, and 'the inhabitants began to cut them up, root and
branch. This, in effect, was like clearing off a forest, and in
consequence the streams dried up, and the productiveness of
the country was seriously diminished. The French have
discovered that more can be produced with the land two-
thirds cultivated and one-third covered with forest, than if
all is cultivated.

" It is claimed that the rain-belt in Kansas and Nebraska is
moving westward. This is doubtless owing to the breaking
up of the sod by plowing ; the cultivation of the vigorous
growing crops, especially the corn crop ; the planting of
trees, and irrigation. The secretary of the Board of Agri-
culture of Kansas claims that plowing alone tends to retard
drainage and gives the growing crops a chance to arrest and
throw off again into the atmosphere more of the rain-fall.
He claims also that even if the rain-fall is no greater in the
aggregate, yet during the growing season, June, July and
August, it comes more fi"eqUently and more gently than
formerly, and this also gives vegetation a better chance for
moisture than when there were drenching storms and floods
at longer intervals.

In Kansas and Nebraska there are about 20,000,000 acres
under cultivation, nearly half that area in corn.

From the Agricultural Report of the State of Nebraska
we learn that there were planted last year (1885), 248,496
forest trees, and there are now growing in that State 43,000,-
000 forest trees, where a few years ago not a tree was to be
seen.

The Governor of Kansas is authority for the statement
that in that once treeless State there are now more than
20,000,000 fruit trees, and upwards of 200,000 acres of for-
est trees planted by the inhabitants.

In Colorado, the State engineer estimates the area irri-
gated at over 1,000,000 acres.

The vigorous corn and wheat, and the fruit and forest
trees are better evaporators of the moisture from the earth,
as well as better condensers of the moisture in the air, than

AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE. 183

the native prairie grasses of Kansas and Nebraska ; and the
further west these are extensively cultivated in those States,
and the greater the area of barren lands brought under culti-
vation by means of irrigation, the more will the "rainless
desert " of the early explorers be visited by the verdure-
making clouds.

Here in New England we all know how difficult it is to
keep up the fertility of our soils, and how rapidly farms run
down under unfavorable circumstances. It is a hard neces-
sity that compels us to consume all the coarser products of
the farm on the farm itself, — all the hay, grain, roots, etc.,
we take so much pains to garner into our barns and cellars.
But a fertile soil, the world over, is the result of similar
causes and is subject to the same laws, and we may regard
the United States as one huge farm, with its hundreds of
millions of acres, its soil subject to the same laws as any
one of our New England fifty-acre lots. Remembering this,
let us see what America is doing with her large fai*m.

During the last fifty-eight years she has exported more
than 2,000,000,000 bushels of wheat, and of corn more
than 1,000,000,000 bushels; and she is increasing the
amount per annum at a most astonishing rate. In the ten
years ending 1882 she exported to England, France and
Germany more than $6,000,000,000 worth of agricultural
products. This represents the total exhaustion of 260,000
acres of land annually. ^VTiat has she imported to supply
the waste of fertility by this enormous agricultural exporta-
tion? A few cargoes of guano and some Gennan salts, but
little compared with the waste.

But the exportation of agricultural products is not the
only way by which America is impoverishing her farm. A
large proportion of our population is found in cities and
towns of over 10,000 inhabitants, and most of the food con-
sumed therein is as much lost to the soil as if exported.
Our cities — New York and its environs, with two and one-
half millions of inhabitants ; Philadelphia, with its one mil-
lion— and other cities are huge monsters, living on the fer-
tility of the country and pouring what they should return to
the soil into the ocean through their herculean water-ways.

Of wheat, there was raised the past year over 500,000,000

184 BOAED OF AGEICULTUEE.

bushels. If we consider exportation and loss by city
sewage, it would be speaking within bounds to say not
one-fourth ever finds its way back to the soil ; but call it
two-fifths, and then we have a waste of the fertility required
to produce 300,000,000 bushels. The average crop we
know to be about thirteen bushels per acre, and ion the sup-
position that thirty years would be required to exhaust the
wheat-growing soils, we find that to produce the wheat annu-
ally lost requires the annual exhaustion of 800,000 acres,
about equal to the total tillable land in Massachusetts. If to
this we add the corn and other grain largely exported or made
into whiskey, tobacco (all of which is burned), cotton,
hemp and flax, which draw largely from the soil, we get
some idea of the waste annually going on. The Roman
provinces are said to have been exhausted by the tribute
exacted from them by their conquerors ; but we venture to
say that the tribute paid by those conquered provinces to
the imperial government was small compared to the tribute
America is annually paying to Europe, — drawing from her
virgin soil to support the toiling millions of manufacturers
in England, France and Germany.

Let no one suppose that the soil of our Western prairies
is inexhaustible. There is no such thing as an inexhaustible
soil. The surface of the earth was once barren, its elements
all mineral, no humus, no organic matter, no fertility.
Nature has been at work millions of years gradually supply-
ino; the organic matter and humus which now constitutes its
fertility, and it may be remanded back to its natural mineral
constituents, and become as barren as the original rock.

The soil of the West is already exhausted to a considera-
ble extent. Even in Iowa complaint is made that the yield
per acre is falling off. Old lands are being abandoned and
new ones taken up. The average product of wheat per acre
in New England is greater than it is in New York, Ohio,
Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri or Nebraska, and very
nearly equal to that in Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. If
such is the case now with our 60,000,000 of inhabitants,
how will it be when we have hundreds of millions ?

The tendency of our modern farm machinery and the ap-
plication of horse and steam power to agriculture is not only

AGEICULTURE ON CLIMATE.

185

to exhaust the soil much more rapidly than would otherwise
be possible, but also to make the exhaustion more complete,
as by their help the cultivator can get remunerative returns
from a soil so much exhausted as not to pay any profit if
cultivated !>y the old method of hard labor alone.

In the progress of our modern civilization the tendency
to city life is all the time increasing. The increase of
wealth, luxury, education, fashion, amusements, manufac-
tures, art and science makes the agricultural products con-
sumed continually to bear a less and less proportion to the
total expense of living; while the farm machinery, before
referred to as making the exhaustion of the soil more com-
plete, will also make, as it has already made, the proportion
of our inhabitants engaged in agriculture continually less,
because fewer laborers therein will be required to produce a
given amount of food.

According to the census of 1870, of the persons engaged
in all classes of occupation, forty-seven and one-third per
cent were engaged in agriculture ; in 1880, forty-three per
cent were so engaged, — a relative loss of four and one-third
per cent in ten years. It has been estimated that the
eifective force of a farm laborer has been increased five per
cent in twenty years.

From the census of Massachusetts in 1855, 1865, 1875 and
1885 we find the following as the population of the cities
and towns respectively at those several periods : —

Towns, . . .
Cities, . . .
Per cent in cities,

714,521

417,818
.37

726,950

640,081

.43

754,666

897,246

.54

757,372
1,184,769
.61

While the increase in the cities during the last ten years
has been, as you see, large, one hundred and forty-eight
agricultural towns have lost in population, — among them
more than half the towns in this (Worcester) county, and
this town (Barre) has lost nearly thirty per cent in twenty-
live years,

186 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

If to the causes already mentioned as increasing the ten-
dency to city life we add the easy transportation of food
and passengers by steam and horse railroads, it makes the
concentration in large cities possible and probable beyond
anything known in the ancient world. Some now born will
doubtless live to see the time when New York City, with its
environs, will contain 10,000,000 of inhabitants, and from
2,000,000 to 5,000,000 each in Philadelphia, Chicago, Bos-
ton, Cincinnati, St. Louis, San Francisco, and perhaps other
cities. All this indicates a still greater waste from city
sewage in the future than in the past.

As before observed, if the soil is not too much exhausted,
nature is ever ready to attempt its renovation. She fills up
the waste places with the lower forms of vegetation where
the higher forms or wholesome plants will not grow, and
these by their decay tend* to increase the fertility of the soil
and prepare it for a more useful growth. Thus the mosses,
lichens, hardback and birches take possession of worn-out
soil, hold what is left of the humus, gradually add more, and
finally work it back to fertility. But as there is a point in
organic derangements beyond which nature loses her power
or refuses to act and the patient dies, so when by continual
cropping the organic material in the soil is removed, leaving
but little except the mineral constituents of the earth, nature
refuses to endure this repeated abuse and withholds her
beneficent labors. The poverty of the soil will then become
its own destruction. The sun will burn out and the rains
will leach out any fertility yet remaining, and the winds will
complete the work by making it a desert of moving sands ;
and judging by the past, if the soil is once destroyed over an
extensive area there is no redemption.

Under the present prodigal waste of fertility in our coun-
try this result is only a question of time. The enormous
demand from Western Europe, the waste of our cities, the
application of improved implements and horse and steam
power to agriculture, the increased facilities for transporta-
tion both by land and water, will tend to bring the same
result to us more rapidly than it came to the ancient world,
and make the desolation, if possible, more complete.

There are instances where a high state of civilization has

AGRICULTUEE ON CLIMATE. 187

extended over many hundreds or even thousands of years,
while the productiveness of the soil has perhaps increased ;
notably in England, China and Japan. Islands are less de-
pendent for their rain-fall on the evaporation from their
own area than are continents. The British Islands espe-
cially owe their moist climate to the warm waters of the
Gulf Stream by which they arc partially surrounded. Nor
is England an exporter of agricultural products, but, on the
contrary, an immense importer, and not only of food, but, of
raw material for her manufactories, and a large portion of the
waste from these goes to sustain her soil. She is also a
large importer of fertilizers direct, most of the Pacific guano
having gone to her shores.

From China and Japan rice, the only article of food ex-
ported, is largely the product of low lands, partially de-
pendent for fertility on inundations. This is also the prin-
cipal food of the inhabitants. The condition of both these
countries is somewhat analogous to that of some farms bor-
dering on the marshes of our sea-coast, the owners of which
are enabled to sell oif the product of their upland, keeping
up its fertility by the manure resulting from a liberal feeding
of marsh hay to cattle.

The Japanese practise irrigation to a considerable extent.
They also testify their appreciation of the importance of
trees by laws which require the setting out of two for each
one destroyed. It is said that, considering the large popula-
tion on so small an area, the number of trees in Japan is
astonishing.

To place the whole matter in proper light, we have only
to ask the question. Had China and Japan been dependent
on the product of their uplands for food for man and beast,
and had they exported a large portion of all their agricultu-
ral products, and had they also practised our modern system
of city sewage, at the expiration of 3,000 years would they
have contained, as they now do, more than 500,000,000 of
inhabitants, nearly one-half the total population of the globe,
and their soil still furnishing an abundance of food for all ?

Good reasons may perhaps be given for a law taxing cer-
tain kinds of imports, but it is by no means certain that a tax
on some exports would not be the wiser enactment ; nor is

188 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

it indeed certain that the law of self-preservation would not
justify some of the Eastern exclusiveuess, and prohibit the
exportation of agricultural products, except to a very lim-
ited extent. Can any one give a good reason why America
should be am])itious to feed all the rest of the world at the
expense of our posterity, to whom we are to leave exhausted
soils ?

The question may naturally arise, Has the climate of New
England changed during the two hundred and fifty odd years
since its first settlement ? Without presuming to answer the
question, a few suggestions may be made having a bearing
on its discussion.

In regard to the droughts which are said to have occurred
during the first one hundred years of the colony, proofs of
which are supposed to be furnished l)y the number of days
appointed for public prayer for rain, it must ])e remembered
that the early settlers had few cattle and hence little man-
ure, that their ploughing was shallow, and that they were
accustomed to the moist climate of England ; and it may
be added in this connection that they cherished a strong
faith in a special Providence, and hence a few days of hot,
dry weather, that would scarce excite a remark with us,
might fill their minds with fearful forebodings, and prompt
them to fasting and prayer as the most available method of
getting rain. Experience has taught us a more reliable
remedy against drought in deep cultivation and high man-
uring, and hence the less frequent call for the special inter-
position of Divine Providence.

Again, it is now conceded that New England in 1620 was
not the unbroken forest it is popularly supposed to have
been. Forest fires kindled by lightning or otherwise had
raged fiercely, destroying the timber ; and we learn from
history that the first settlers in many towns were attracted
thereto by the ' ' rich and extensive meadows which furnished
abundant and most nutritious grass and hay for their cattle."
In an address before your body last winter, by Rev. Joseph
Temple, it was stated that Sudbury and Sherborn owe their
early settlement to that cause.

For the last fifty or sixty years, during which reliable
records of rain-fall have been kept, no decided change is

AGRICULTURE ON CLIMATE. 189

observable. Why should there be? Thanks to the intro-
duction of coal as fuel, there has been, in the southern half
of New England, no reduction of woodlands. In my neigh-
borhood, where one acre has been redeemed from forest ten
acres of open field or pasture have gone back to wood. To
this we may add the increase of orcharding and the shade
trees which so beautifully adorn our cities, towns and villages.
Our swamps and bogs, our rocks, steep hillsides and sandy
pine lands, which render so large a part of our area unfit for
tillage, may also have had a saving influence on our climate.
It is not New England alone, however, that is to be consid-
ered, but the whole country, especially the vast valley of
the Mississippi, where nearly the whole surface is capable of
cultivation, and where the causes alluded to are most likely
to culminate in disaster. Nor is it for our present popula-
tion or for a few years, but for the hundreds of millions of
people that should be our heirs at our first millenial.

But it is not well to look with sad forebodings into the
future, unless it incite us to efforts to prevent threatened dis-
aster. May we not hope that science and art will lend their
influence toward better systems of agriculture ? In the soil-
ing system, so called, of feeding cattle, and in the ensilage
system of preserving green food, which seems to be meeting
with very general success, we see the dawning of a better
day, as these systems for a given amount of dairy produce
require a high cultivation of smaller areas, leaving the pas-
tures to be remanded back to forests.

When our bleak hill pastures and mossy plains shall be a
thing of the past, and their places supplied by a growth of
cooling, rain-inducing trees, then, without any deleterious
efi'ects, our swamps and bogs may be drained and we shall
find in them our most productive soil. An enlightened civi-
lization may hereafter demand, by legal enactment, that no
man shall own more land than he can properly cultivate and
keep in luxuriant condition, and demand also the utmost
economy in the saving of fertilizers.

Indeed, the aids to agriculture which science has already
furnished may sink into insignificance compared with what
she is yet to achieve in its behalf. She may yet come to the
rescue and furnish the means of preventing the waste which

190 BOARD OF AGRICULTUBE.

now seems unavoidably incident to our large cities, when
perhaps the water-closets shall be detached from the sewers,
and when each family shall receive its supply of deodorizers,
disinfectants and absorbents as regularly as its supply of
food, and all effete matter, made inoffensive, and returned to
the soil of the country. This may seem somewhat like going
back to the bucket system of the Orientals ; but that seems
to have proved superior to our system of sewage, and modi-
fied by modern facilities for transportation and by advanced
chemical science, may solve the problem which thus far has
baffled the skill of engineers, sanitarians and agriculturists.

There is some movement in the right direction. The
State of New York, now owning 800,000 acres in the Adi-
rondack region, seeking to extend that area for the preserva-
tion of its forests ; the premiums offered by the general
government and by some of the Western States for the cul-
tivation of forest trees ; the Arbor Day, originating in Iowa
and now extending through the neighboring States, which has
been the cause of setting out millions of trees, and which
we trust is to become a national institution and legal holiday,
— all tend to impress the general public with the beneficent
effect of forests as conservators of the soil of our national
domain, and will tend especially to make all farmers feel that
not Jove alone is the cloud-compeller, but that they also have
that power and are responsible for its wise use.

When the true value of irrigation shall be understood and
appreciated, less of our rain-fall will be allowed to be car-
ried to the sea by our rivers, but by steam-power or water-
power, or wind-power, which is many times greater than the
water-power, the contents of our streams and ponds and
lakes will be distrilmted over the land, to be absorbed by the
roots of the luxuriant vegetation and exhaled into the air by
its leaves, to be again precipitated as beneficent dew or rain.

If we as citizens are determined to transmit to our children
our glorious heritage of civil and religious liberty, — pur-
chased by the blood of our fathers, — our free schools, free
press, free speech and free church, shall we not also as
farmers feel it a solemn duty to transmit to them those most
glorious of all blessings handed down from the ages, — a
fertile soil and beneficent climate, the prime necessities of
human existence.

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 191

If man will but do his part, he shall find nature no exact-
ing creditor, demanding her pound of flesh, threatening to
remand the earth back to the reign of death and desolation
if her bond is not satisfied, but a generous friend and part-
ner, ever active and vigilant, honoring all his drafts, while
constantly increasing the deposits of plant-food throughout
her ample domain. So shall the earth continue to the latest
generations to bud, blossom and bear fruit in all the beauty,
fragrance, luxuriance and bounty of the fabled garden of
Eden, fit haunt of gods, where with our first pair the angels
walked in converse sweet beneath the clustered vines and
trees of choicest fruit.

No discussion followed this paper, but Mr. W. H.
Bowker of Boston was introduced and delivered the follow-
ing lecture : —

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE.

BY W. H. BOWKER OF BOSTOX.

It may be inferred from the title of this paper that it is
proposed to discuss the application of homoeopathy to agri-
cultural operations, or its adoption by the agricultural
classes ; but such is not the case. I use the term " homoe-
opathy " not in its medical sense, namely, that " like cures
like," but in the popular sense of representing infinitesimal
quantities ; and this paper, therefore, will discuss the infini-
tesimal and indispensable quantity in agriculture.

There are many quantities essential to successful farming.
After the brains and capital are supplied, I take it that the
most important quantity is that of plant food, and it is with
the latter that I propose to deal.

In medicine, especially in the homoeopathic school, it is
claimed by its founder, Hahnemann, for example, that the
one-millionth part of a -drop of medicine of a certain known
strength, frequently administered, is suflicient to effect
cures in obstinate and virulent diseases. The truth or
falsity of this assumption it is unnecessary to consider here.
Certain it is that science has deinonstrated and practice
shown that medicine can be so compounded and afterwards
so minutely subdivided, retaining its efficacy all the while,

192 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

that the assumption of Hahnemann does not seem to be
altogether unreasonable or impracticable. It is known that
one drop of certain poisons or a whiff of certain gases will
kill a healthy man. The drop can be measured, — the whiff
it is impossible to represent. As extraordinary as the action
of these infinitesimal quantities may seem, it is no more
wonderful than the phenomena we witness every day in the
growth of crops, especially where concentrated fertilizers
are applied.

I have hero upon the platform a bag representing the
bulk of 100 pounds of fertilizer, containinij the averaore
amount of plant food which is found in some of the most
concentrated fertilizers in the market; namely, 4 per cent, of
nitrogen, 12 per cent, of total phosphoric acid and 4 per
cent, of potash, or 20 pounds of actual plant food to every
100-pound bag of fertilizer. The smaller bag represents
the bulk of the actual plant food contained in the larger.

Now it is proposed by way of illustration to plant a crop
of corn, and to apply 1,000 pounds of this fertilizer to the
acre, or, in other words, ten of these 100-pound bags. The
actual plant food, if we could extract it, would amount to
200 pounds, which two men could easily carry on their backs
into the field.

And right here you may ask why we are obliged to
handle so much bulk for so little plant food. You have been
told that fertilizers are concentrated plant food, while stable
manure is bulky plant food, which is quite true ; these
statements being only relative. Fertilizers are more con-
centrated than manure, but are not as concentrated as can
be made in the chemist's laboratory. As you have seen, in
applying even the concentrated fertilizer, we are handling
five times more weight than seems necessary ; but it is impos-
sible to extract the actual elements of plant food in a com-
mercial way. All actual nourishment, whether for plants or
animals, is enveloped in or combined with organic matter,
which holds and carries it ; so when we are feeding our
crops, we are compelled to handle more or less of this
organic matter, — a vast amount when applying manure, at
least 100 pounds to 1 pound of nourishment ; while in
fertilizers it is much less, — about 5 to 1.

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 193

But to resume our theme. "We are applying 1,000 pounds
of concentrated fertilizer, or 200 pounds of actual plant food,
to an acre of corn. An acre of land contains 43,560 square
feet. If we take the average depth of agricultural soil to be
12 inches, then the acre contains 43,560 cubic feet of soil,
through which this 1,000 pounds of fertilizer or 200 pounds
of plant food is distributed. In short, it gives to each
cubic foot of soil 160 grains of mixed fertilizer, or 32 grains
of actual plant food. A cubic foot of arable soil, according
to the 1)est authorities, weighs from 80 to 90 pounds. Tak-
ing it at 80 pounds, an acre of soil weighs in round numbers
3,500,000 pounds, or 1,750 tons, and therefore we have
only 2 grains of mixed fertilizer to each pound of soil, or
two-fifths of a grain of actual plant food.

But let us put it in a more practical light. An acre of
land planted to corn, with the rows and hills 3^-|-3 feet
apart, contains in round numbers 4,000 hills. Allowing 5
stalks to each hill, we have 20,000 stalks to the acre.
Applying 1,000 pounds, it gives to each hill of corn one-
quarter of a pound of fertilizer, or 350 grains of actual plant
food, and to each stalk only 70 grains of actual plant food,
which is equal to j\q of a pound.

Is this not applying plant food in homoeopathic doses?
And yet 1,000 pounds to the acre of concentrated fertilizer
such as I have described is a very liberal quantity for most
crops. When I witness the growth of the corn crop, and
think of the infinitesimal quantity of applied nourishment
allotted to each stalk, — so little to produce so much, — it
seems to me one of the miracles of nature, even more won-
derful than the miracles of Scripture, some of which modern
science claims to have explained.

But wonderful as this may seem, yet instances can be cited
where smaller quantities of fertilizer are applied with equally
astonishing results. Let us take, for example, an acre of
grass land to which 100 pounds of nitrate of soda has been
applied, and this quantity put on in the spring will frequently
produce marked results, the grass taking on a very dark
green color ; and if the roots are vigorous, the weight of hay
at harvest will be considerably increased. One hundred
pounds of nitrate of soda contains in round numbers 15

194 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

pounds of nitrogen. Now this 100 pounds divided over the
acre gives 16 grains of the nitrate to each cubic foot of soil,
or one-fifth of a grain to each pound of soil ; the total nitro-
gen which each pound of soil gets, is ^^^ of a grain. Let
us go a step further, and see what each grass plant gets.
We were taught when at the agricultural college that " on
rich old pasture, able to carry a large ox to the acre, it was
found by actual count that a square foot had on it 1,000
grass plants. On a carefully manured and irrigated and very
fertile meadow 1,800 plants were found; on a herd's-grass
field, seeded heavily, but not bunched, 700 plants." Taking
the herd's-grass field, we have in round numbers 30,000,000
plants to the acre. We find, applying 100 pounds of nitrate
of soda, that each plant is entitled to -^-^^ of a grain, and of
actual nitrogen, j o%Vo ^^ ^ grain. To put it more strikingly,
when we apply 100 pounds of nitrate of soda to an acre of
well-seeded herd's-grass, each grass plant gets the very
liberal quantity of 2,oo"o",'oiro ^^ ^ pound of nitrogen ; Ihat is,
each pound of nitrogen applied nourishes 2,000,000 grass
plants.

The more one contemplates the infinitesimal and incom-
prehensible quantity of actual nutriment required for plant
growth, or even for man's development, the more one has
respect for the views of such a scientist and theorist as
Hahnemann, for it certainly seems reasonable to suppose that
if infinitesimal quantities of food will nourish, infinitesimal'
quantities of medicine will cure.

Figures and theories, however, are wearisome, and often-
times misleading. I have not arrayed them here to bewil-
der nor to excite curiosity, but for the purpose of mdking
a few practical deductions. As we have proceeded, you
have reached two important conclusions : first, dealing as we
are with such infinitesimal quantities, you have seen at. a
glance the necessity of having the fertili2;er which is applied
in the best mechanical condition ; second, that it not only
must be distributed evenly, but thoroughly mingled with the
soil, — two important points, but not those which I wish to
emphasize at this time.

We are seeing much in the agricultural papers, and I am
sorry to say in some books, touching the application of fer-

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGEICULTUKE. 195

tilizing materials in their natural or " raw " state. You wiL
read from some writers who know little of science, and prob-
ably nothing of practice, that finely-ground South Carolina
rock will give admirable results ; that ground hoofs, hair,
horns, wool and leather waste, and undigested fish waste
and raw ground bone are all efficacious, and that it is need-
less to manufacture them in order to render them more
available for plant nutrition. It is not for me to quarrel with
these men, because from my standpoint as a manufacturer
it will be said that I am prejudiced, and that if these notions
should prevail, my occupation, like Othello's, would be
gone. Nevertheless, there is reason in all things, and for-
tunately, in the manufacture and application of fertilizers,
there is a great deal of science, which is but another name
for divine law.

Fortj^-seven years ago. Baron von Liebig, the founder of
agricultural chemistry, made a very important discovery, —
perhaps the greatest of the age in agricultural chemistry.
He found that the application of bone treated with sulphuric
acid produced much better results than the untreated bone.
Now, bone is tri-basic phosphate of lime, that is, three parts
of lime to one part of phosphoric acid. It had been found
before Liebig's time that sulphuric acid had a greater affin-
ity for lime than phosphoric acid, and that when sulphuric
acid was applied to phosphate of lime, whether in the form
of bone or in the form of natural phosphate, it would take
one part of the lime, forming sulphate of lime, and leave
two parts of lime in combination with one of phosphoric
acid, or a compound which is soluble in water, and there-
fore, if applied as a fertilizer, much more available as a plant
food. This solu])le combination of the sulphuric acid and
lime is not a chemical liberation of the phosphoric acid, but
is a mechanical condition so finely subdivided that plants
can take it up. It is still a mooted question whether plants
have the power of extracting the phosphoric acid in the lab-
oratory of their roots, or whether the soluble phosphate of
lime is taken bodily into the plant and digested either in the
stalk or leaves. But it is claimed that when this superphos-
phate— for that is its true name — is applied to the soil, the
soluble phosphate of lime reverts, or goes back, to a state in

196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

which it is not soluble in water, but is soluble in the acids of
the soil or in the mechanism of the plant. It is no doubt
true that the soluble phosphate of lime does revert after it
has been in the soil some length of time. From this a few
scientists have reasoned that it is not necessary to dissolve
any phosphatic compound in sulphuric acid, and so con-
clude that phosphate rock or raw ground bone is just as
valuable as that which is dissolved. Such reasoning, how-
ever, is opposed to experience and common sense. Forty-
seven years of experience si-nce Liebig's time have shown
that no mechanical division can be made equal to that pro-
duced by the action of the sulphuric acid upon the phosphate
of lime. Mill after mill has been invented, process after
process tried, for the reduction of phosphates to a condition
equal to that produced by chemical means, and yet all, with
possibly two exceptions, have been cast aside.

It is found that bone, treated with steam under high press-
ure, will yield a small percentage of reverted phosphate of
lime, — never soluble. It is probably true that mixing bone
with an alkali and allowing it to heat will render a portion
more or less reverted, but never soluble. Steam and alkali,
however, have no effect on natural phosphates like South
Carolina rock or Canadian apatite. Neither is effective,
except when animal matter is present to assist by its decay
the process of disintegration.

It being generally admitted that soluble phosphates be-
come partially insoluble after application to the soil, it is
of course a very natural question to ask, " What is the need
of dissolving them at all ? Will not the soil act upon them
if they are finely ground, so as to render them gradnally
available?" Doubtless it will if you give it time ; but time
is an important element. If you are growing century plants
or oak trees, it would not be advisable to apply soluble
phosphates ; but these are not the cultivated crops of this
section. On or before the 25th of next May, if we live, and
the weather and other conditions are favorable, most of us
will plant a crop of corn, which not only must be supplied
with carbonic acid, oxygen and hydrogen, which it gets from
the air and water, but with a large amount of phosphoric
acid, from the time it begins to send out little rootlets until

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 197

the ear turns yellow and sere, — 100 days from the time it
is planted. The question is, will the phosphate rock or the
ground apatite furnish the phosphoric acid that is needed in
the 100 days as rapidly as the plants require it? This really,
then, is the practical problem. No doubt, for the oak tree
or century plant sufficient phosphoric acid would become
available, but for the corn plant, the rock or the apatite
would be a failure. On the other hand, with bone it might
be a success. If the season happens to be early and moist,
and the bone very finely ground and very highly digested
with steam, you may succeed, but if the bone is raw, or
coarsely ground, or the season dry, you will make a fail-
ure ; and how many failures you can afford to make by
adhering to the plan of applying insoluble phosphates to the
corn crop, whether in the form of bone or rock, will depend
upon the length of your purse.

Early potatoes are planted on the first of May and har-
vested on the first of August, — ninety days, — needing
phosphoric acid every day of their growth ; and every prac-
tical farmer knows that a potato must grow quickly and con-
tinuously to be a success. It is possible that on moist soil,
and in a wet season, which is at best an unfavorable one for
potatoes, you would get fair results with the application of
ground bone, but never a great success ; and as to planting
potatoes on raw, undissolved phosphate rock, I have yet to
hear of a successful crop being grown ; and I can't believe
it is possible, even under the most favorable conditions.
There is no quick-growing crop that can safely be planted on
insoluble fertilizers, and the man who advises it reasons from
the side of expense, and not from the side of common-sense
and practice. It is true, it is less expensive at the start to
apply them in their crude state, but in the end the results
will be found uncertain and unprofitable.

England, as a whole, possesses a moist soil and a humid
climate, but her chemists think so little of insoluble phos-
phoric acid and reverted phospiioric acid, that they put no
value upon them. They even go so far as not to make a test
for reverted phosphoric acid, l)elieving that it is so uncertain
a compound that its manufacture should be discouraged. Con-
sequently you will find the English phosphates to be almost

198 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

wholly soluble in water, the manufacturers going so far in
this direction that their goods are usually wet and in poor
mechanical condition. You would not buy them here, for
you could not use them in machines, and you would think
you were getting too much water.

There may be places where insoluble phosphates can be
advantageously applied, as upon lands covered with fruit
trees or devoted to grass. Perennial plants, like grasses
and trees, no doubt extract phosphoric acid more readily
than annual plants, owing to their numerous and well-devel-
oped roots, which, as in the case of trees, not only run deeper,
but are ready at the beginning of the growing season to draw
nutriment from a large mass of soil. Winter grains, espe-
cially wheat, from the long time it occupies the ground and
its growth in the fall, may also be benefited by an insoluble
or partially insoluble phosphate. If these latter crops are
grown in the spring, when the rapid-growing conditions of
heat and moisture exist, then it will be found that these inert
compounds are too slow. So, on the whole, we must conclude
that for most crops it is much better to have the phosphates,
at least, of our fertilizers in a soluble condition. The
quantities of plant food which we apply are so infinitesimal,
and the time so short for growing most crops, that it must
follow that the more finely the phosphate of lime is subdi-
vided, the surer and more profitable will be its application.
In fact, availability is so essential a condition that the wise
husbandman will not overlook it, especially in the growing
of quick crops.

While there may be some latitude allowed touching the
availability of the phosphoric acid that we apply, there is
certainly no question but that the ammonia and potash should
be in active forms. Chemical salts, such as sulphate of am-
monia and nitrate of soda, also blood, meat and fish, are all
more or less active ammoniates, the chemicals especially so,
and particularly essential where nitric acid is wanted in the
first stages of growth, I mentioned the application of one
hundred pounds of nitrate of soda to an acre of grass land,
giving only fifteen pounds of nitrogen to the whole acre.
Now you may apply to an adjoining acre one hundred
pounds of leather waste, containing the same amount of

HOMGEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 199

nitrogen, and never see any results, because in the latter the
nitrogen is so insoluble that plants gain no benefit from it, or
if they do, so slowly that the results are not apparent.
Dried fish, for example, applied to the surface of grass land
is never satisfactory, cither because it loses its ammonia into
the air, or because the process of decay is so slow that no
results are witnessed ; but when the same dried fish is applied
in the soil, where it is converted into nitric acid or some
active agent, then it becomes a valuable plant food, thus
showing that fish when applied under certain conditions is
effective, but reverse those conditions, and it becomes almost
a worthless fertilizer. Indeed, the same holds true of all
other ammoniates, when applied without chemical treatment,
exceptinor chemicals.

If it seems necessary to have the ammonia and phosphoric
acid available, what must be said of the potash? The gran-
ite rocks of our hills contain enough potash for all our crops
for all eternity. Those who think it advisable to use phos-
phate rock in its natural condition should with equally good
reason recommend the application of granite rock. To be
sure, it is not as rich in plant food, but the plant that can
find the thousandth part of a grain of nitrogen can also find
the most minute quantities of potash ; yet no grinding, hoAV-
ever minute, or even chemical dissolving, has rendered in a
practicable way the potash of these rocks immediately avail-
able. Therefore for our potash we are compelled to fall
back u[)on other forms which are soluble in water, and hence
beneficial. The rocks have been, and still are, the great
sources of potash. Virgin soil represents the accumulation
of untold ages, which the husbandman in his greed and
hurry can exhaust in one generation. Would it be wise for
us, who are raising quick crops, and competing with the
AVest and South, to depend upon the granite rocks for our
potash? Yet such should be the advice of those who urge
the application of fertilizers in their natural state.

It seems to me that there can be but one conclusion, and
that is, that the availability of all the essential elements of
plant food is of chiefest importance. We have plowed and
planted ; the seed has come up, and gives promise of a fair
harvest. Perhaps we have staked all on that harvest, — the

200 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

payment of debt, taxes, and support of family ; yet we shall
surely be doomed to disappointment and failure if that infini-
tesimal quantity of plant food, so essential, is yet so tightly
locked in nature's grip that it is of no service when most
needed. A young crop without available plant food at hand
is like the ancient mariner at sea, when the albatross began
to be avenged, —

" Water, water everywhere.

And all the boards did shrink ;
Water, water eveiywhere,
Nor any drop to drink."

So there is air, sunshine, moisture, — an abundance of raw
mineral food on every hand for the young crop, yet it, like
the crew and boards of that ancient ship, shrinks and withers
away because, forsooth, there is not a single morsel of all this
abundance immediately available for the starving crop.

It is a cardinal principle in homoeopathy to eliminate chance,
so far as possible ; hence the single remedy administered in
minute but frequent doses in order never to aggravate the
disease, but to cure it, if it is curable. In a certain sense,
agriculture might adopt this principle. All chance, so far as
possible, should be eliminated. Probably, also, there are
many crops to which it would be well to administer plant
food frequently during the growing season rather than all of
it at one time ; in short, to " feed the crop a little at a time,
and often," in order to counteract any unfavorable weather,
or any unhealthy development, or to push the crop to an
earlier maturity to take advantage of a favorable market.
In 1885 I saved a crop of corn by applying a little nitrate of
soda at a critical juncture. At best, we are obliged to take
a great chance in the weather. Can we in any way afford to
multiply the chances ill matters over which we have control,
and with crops whose short lives span but a brief three
months ?

Next to availability and mechanical condition is that of
adaptability, and by this I mean supplying to plants that
form of plant food best adapted to the crop or classes of
crops to be grown. I know that I am touching a point that
has been much discussed. I know there are men who claim

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 201

that the adaptability of plant food is of no practical conse-
quence, and is too fine a thing for any one to attempt to
fathom. That it is a great problem, there is no doubt, but
the scientist who- contends that it is impracticable, or beyond
us, must also admit that his occupation, so far as further
experiments with fertilizers are concerned, is at an end ; for
if there is nothing to be determined in the direction of the
chemical functions of plant food, what is the use of further
work in this field ? We have learned what we have not to
learn again , — that nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash are the
three leading elements of plant nutrition. We have found
that they should be available for the best results. But this
is not all. The work now in hand is to determine the adap-
tability to crop production of the various forms in which
these essential elements occur ; and not alone this, but also
to ascertain if there are not other compounds valuable as
plant food, with their special oflSices in this great field.

We have already made great strides in this direction. For
example, we know that certain forms of potash are more
beneficial to certain crops than are other forms. In Germany,
they have found that the sulphate of potash is better than the
muriate for the sugar beet, increasing the percentage of sugar.
Valuable and extensive experiments with grapes, conducted
by our own Goessmann, than whom there is not a more ori-
ginal and painstaking observer in the land, point to the prob-
able conclusion that the sulphate of potash will produce a
sweeter grape than the muriate, and therefore is to be recom-
mended for this crop. In the treatment of the peach tree,
Goessmann, in connection with Professor Penhallow, tells us
that chloride of potash and magnesia, together with phos-
phoric acid, is an excellent mixture to apply to peach trees
as a means of preventing the yellows, and developing a
healthy Avood. This, then, is adapting the form of plant
food to the crop, or, in other words, is special feeding of the
sugar beet, grape vine and peach tree. In writing on this
subject. Dr. Goessmann says, in a paper read before the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society in 1882, " The result
of these experiments affords an additional illustration of the
opinion that special fertilization must be considered a factor
of more than ordinary importance in fruit culture."

202 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

And in another paper he says, '* Even the peculiar form
in which potash, etc., has been applied, is known to exert
a decided influence on the production of one or more organic
constituents of plants."

The tobacco growers of this country, especially those in
the Connecticut valley, have found that not only certain
ingredients, like salt, must not be applied to tobacco, but
that certain forms of potash, like the sulphate, are essential
to the production of a good leaf, and that the form of the
ammonia also has an influence upon the crop. Touching
this subject, Professor Johnson of Connecticut, in his annual
report for 1884, says : —

" It would be o;oiniT too far to assert that the use of chlo-
rides (muriates) of fish or slaughter-house fertilizers must
invariably produce tobacco of inferior quality . . . The
tobacco growers will, however, do well to avoid the use of
the above-named fertilizers, which experience in all countries
agrees in indicating to be, as a rule, likely to injure the
burning quality of the leaf;" which means that certain forms
of plant food are probably better adapted to tobacco than are
other forms.

Twelve years ago I was requested by some of the farm-
ers of the Connecticut valley, notably the late Mr. Hurd of
North Hadley, who was one of the most intelligent tobacco
raisers in the State, to manufacture a tobacco fertilizer. I
was then fresh from the instruction of Professors Goessmann
and Stockbridge, and having little experience in business
and knowing nothing of costs, I set to work to make this
compound. I made it of two ingredients, nitrate of potash
and dissolved bone. The nitrate of potash furnished the
nitrogen as well as the potash, and the bone the phos-
phoric acid. It cost $100 a ton, for saltpetre was then
worth $160 per ton in gold, and bone $50 per ton. As you
may imagine, I sold but little, for in announcing its cost I
almost paralyzed the farmers. However, Mr. Hurd and
several other progressive men were determined to try it.
The result was entirely satisfactory, and I think as long as
Mr. Hurd lived he used this mixture, raising a leaf that
brought the highest price in the market. This fertilizer,
however, was doomed to failure on account of its cost, yet

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTUEE. 203

I firmly believe that if farmers could afford to use nitrate of
potash, which is now worth $120 per ton, on their tobacco,
in connection with soluble phosphates, it would furnish the
forms of plant food especially adapted to the tobacco crop.
But, on the other hand, nitrate of soda in place of nitrate of
potash would be out of place. Both are nitrates, one fur-
nishing potash and nitric acid, which are essential to tobacco ;
the other, nitric acid and soda, or only one essential ingredi-
ent, united with one (soda) not only non-essential but prob-
ably injurious.

The French consider the raising of tobacco so important
a subject that they have established a laboratory in France
to investigate all questions connected with its culture and
manufacture. They are trjdng to determine what forms of
plant food applied to this crop will produce a leaf which
more nearly corresponds to that grown on virgin soil,
" which cheers but not inebriates," and which gives so much
solace that it is doubtful if the world is not happier for the
existence of this so-called " vile weed."

I am sure that all genuine lovers of tobacco will consider
that man a great benefactor who discovers a fertilizer that
shall produce in this country, or even in Cuba, where the
climate is more congenial, that old-fashioned dark-brown,
fine-veined leaf which holds fire, burns freely, with a com-
pact and clinging ash, and with an odor, aroma and taste
known only to such tobacco. When such a leaf is pro-
duced, it will mean special fertilization, which has been
more or less ridiculed, but which is bound to come to the
front, if there is anything in science.

Not alone does it apply to a few special crops like the
grape, peach and tobacco, which are difficult to grow, but it
is equally applicable to all classes of farm produce. It is
generally admitted that certain kinds of manure will pro-
duce a better potato than other kinds. For example, that
better potatoes can be raised on horse manure or well com-
posted stable manure, than on hog manure or green cow
manure ; and I think it has also been proved that a better
quality of potatoes can be raised on fertilizers than on any
kind of stable manure. I know that my own experience and
that of many practical farmers point in this direction. I

204 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE.

think better potatoes have been raised upon my farm in
Barre, Mass., which is a heavy clay soil, on fertilizers,
than were ever raised on stable manure. The crop has not
always been as hirge as could be desired, but invariably
of the best quality for the table. The specific for this crop
I believe to be a combination of muriate of potash (not sul-
phate, as formerly supposed) and soluble phosphoric acid,
with a liberal percentage of ammonia, a portion of which
should be in the form of chemicals. Where such a combi-
nation has been applied, the crop has usually been of excel-
lent quality, free from rot and disease of any kind. To
my mind, this favorable action is easy of explanation. It
not only contains the plant food in an available condition,
but so much of it is in the form of sulphates and chlorides
that the immediate and continuous formation of starch is
probably induced in the tuber, and hence a healthy growth
from beginning to end. The fact, also, that some of the
ammonia is in the form of chemicals, and therefore active,
aids in the early development of the plant. On the other
hand, if animal ammoniates are used entirely, time is re-
quired to develop the plant food, which, if conditions of
warmth and moisture are not favorable, might be furnished
so slowly as to retard growth. Also the presence of too
much decaying organic matter favors the generation of para-
sitic germs which appear as rot, rust or blight. I believe
this, in part, explains the reason why fertilizers are better
than manure for potatoes, or in foctfor any crop that matures
its product in the ground, like onions, beets and turnips.
There is less decaying organic matter present in the fer-
tilizer to foster the development of these fungus growths
which are becoming more and more destructive.

Whether the mixture that I have sus^ested is the riojht
one for potatoes or not, I feel confident that the fertilizer of
the future for this crop will be a special one, and be much
different from that used on corn, or grass. I have found that
a fertilizer which is prepared for corn, for example, will not
give so satisfactory results in every case when used as a top-
dressing for grass.

I spoke a few moments ago of the application of one hun-
dred pounds of nitrate of soda to an acre of grass land, that

HOMOEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 205

it would show marked results. On an adjoining acre I have
applied one hundred pounds of animal dust (blood or meat) ,
containing fifteen pounds of nitrogen, with no satisfactory
results. The same quantity of nitrogen is present in each
case, but in one it is present as nitric acid, and immediately
goes to the nourishment of the crop, and in the other it is
present in organic matter, and must undergo a process of
oxidation and decay, and be converted into nitric acid before
it becomes plant food. While it is undergoing that process
it is either subject to loss on the surface, or the process is so
gradual that no apparent results are produced, going to show
that for surface dressing that form of nitrogen which is im-
mediately available is much better than one which requires
time to develop, and hence a surface dressing for grass
should be composed almost entirely of chemicals.

The market gardeners have found that sulphate of ammo-
nia is a specific for spinach, which, applied in March or April,
and being immediately available, forces the crop to early
maturity, and gives a dark green leaf, inducing the rapid
and healthy formation of chlorophyll. Fish will not answer,
blood does not work, and even nitrate of soda does not seem
so efficient on this crop as sulphate of ammonia. On the other
hand, nitrate of soda seems to be a specific for asparagus, and
large quantities are being used in the fertilizers for this crop.
It is applied in the spring, and seems to induce early and
abundant cuttings, which are tender and juicy. Judge
French of Concord, Mass., considered nitrate of soda, if not a
specific, certainly an excellent fertilizer for asparagus, and he
always raised a good crop. Dr. F. Y. Noyes of Billerica,
Mass., has also found that nitrate of soda was especially
adapted to asparagus. In fact, any crop which produces a
large amount of green succulent growth seems to be bene-
fited Ijy the application of ammonia salts, and asparagus
being a native of saline shores, is no doubt benefited by the
soda as well as the nitric acid.

Perhaps the most marked illustration in the way of special
feeding is that of the turnip. It was discovered long ago in
England that phosphoric acid, or soluble phosphate of lime,
was a specific for this crop. An English writer, comment-
ing upon this subject, says : —

206 BOARD OF AGElCULTURE.

" It is as an application to the turnip that phosphoric acid
is so marked in its effects, even when the soil already con-
tains it in considerable quantity. The reason of this it is
not difficult to trace. The seed of the turnip is small, and
it is sown in the warm season, when the growth is rapid.
The seeds themselves have only a limited quantity of phos-
phates stored up for the benefit of the roots and leaves of
the young plants. Unless the roots, therefore, while yet
short, meet with a concentrated supply, the other elements of
the food of the plant, — carbonic acid, water and ammonia, —
however abundantly they may be present, cannot be assimi-
lated, and the growth is arrested. Besides, a liberal supply
of phosphates has the effect of pushing on the turnip through
its early stages, when it is so liable to injury from various
insects."

In this connection I wish to give an experiment with stock
beets raised entirely on plain superphosphate. The variety
is what is known as Joseph Harris' Improved Stock Beet, a
sample of which I have here upon the table, and which, as
you will see, looks very much like the rutabaga turnip. Mr.
W. W. Phipps of Albion, N. Y., raised this year 1,2G6
bushels of these beets on one acre, applying no stable manure,
but, instead, 2,000 pounds of plain superphosphate, con-
taining about fourteen per cent, available phosphoric acid,
but no potash or ammonia. The field in which these beets
were raised is a dark loam, about eight inches deep, with a
clay subsoil well underdrained. The seed was sown May 20,
with an ordinary grain drill, twelve pounds to the acre, in
drills twenty-eight inches apart. The plants were thinned
out from eight to twelve inches. Level culture throughout
the season. The crops that had been raised on the piece in
previous years were wheat in 1881, with twenty loads of
coarse barnyard manure, and one hundred and fifty pounds
of fertilizer to the acre. It was seeded to grass in 1882 and
mowed the two following years. In 1885 it was planted to
beans with one hundred and fifty pounds of fertilizer, — no
other manure ; and in 188G it was planted to beets, as above
stated. The crops of wheat, hay and beans were all large
ones, so it must be concluded that there was but little, if any,
of the value of the previous manuring left in the soil, and that

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 207

this large crop of beets was the result of the application of
the plain superphosphate. The quality of the beets you can
judge. To my mind, a ton of such sweet roots is to be pre-
ferred to a ton of sour ensilage, and the tonnage per acre is
fully as large.

The special fertilizer then for turnips, and probably for
stock beets, is one wherein phosphoric acid largely predomi-
nates ; but who would think of applying phosphoric acid
alone to cabbages, onions or squashes? Yet these crops, no
doubt, have their specifics, and if we only knew them, and
applied them at the right time, would rarely fail of a healthy
and perfect maturity.

Take, for example, the oat crop. It is known that oats
have a great range of weight per bushel ; Professor Johnson
says, " Being nearly twice as heavy when grown on rich
land, as when gathered from a sandy, inferior soil." Ac-
cording to the agricultural statistics of Scotland for the year
1857, the bushel of oats produced in some districts weighed
forty-four pounds, while in others only twenty-four pounds.

Now, knowing the right fertilizing ingredients to apply to
oats, there is no reason why we should not invariably pro-
duce plump, heavy seed, provided always the season is fav-
orable. I believe we do know very nearly what is needed
for this crop. In my judgment, oats require a liberal quan-
tity of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and a moderate amount of
potash in the form of muriate ; also, the presence of soda, —
not because soda is taken up to any great extent by the
crop, but because a little is needed to facilitate the assimila-
tion of silica to stiffen the back of the crop and keep it from
lodging. I know that Sachs, Wolff and many others have
raised oats by water culture, without the presence of soda
or silica ; but this does not prove to my mind that it is not
advantageous to have soda present in the fertilizer applied.
This soda may be present in the form of salt, or in the form
of nitrate of soda ; preferably in the latter form, because the
nitric acid of the nitrate is of great benefit in the early de-
velopment of the crop. Lawes and Gilbert, I believe, con-
sider nitrate almost indispensable in the growing of grain
crops.

I have raised this year on 3.4 acres, 160 bushels of oats

208 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE.

(threshers' measure), that weighed 40 pounds to the bushel,
giving a yield per acre of 57 bushels of 32 pounds each.
The land was given 60 pounds of nitrogen, 100 pounds of
phosphoric acid and 300 pounds of salt per acre ; no potash
at all. The potash, however, had been applied in the four
previous years in more abundant quantity than the alternate
crops of potatoes and grass had taken out. Now one experi-
ment does not establish a rule, and I am therefore not pre-
pared to recommend the application of salt to the oat crop.
Oats, like asparagus and tobacco, are ghittonous feeders.
Planted on a rich soil in a favorable season, or given ample
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, they will grow so
rankly that unless something is present to stiffen the straw,
the crop will lodge and be ruined. My crop had more nitro-
gen and phosphoric acid than was needed, and enough
potash. The season was ftivorable, and the crop would un-
doubtedly have lodged, as it did in some places where the
salt was not applied, had it not been for the presence of the
soda or possibly of the chlorine also, both of which the salt
contained. The precise office of chlorine and soda in agri-
cultural chemistry is not fully known, but I feel, from my
own experience and that of others with whom I have con-
versed, that the* application of soda, either in the form of
common salt or of nitrate of soda, can be advantageously
applied to any greedy crop which is predisposed to lodge
when planted on a rich soil, or one that is over-fertilized.
The oat is plainly such a crop, and is about the only one
growing in this section to which it seems advisable to apply
soda in any form.

Under the head of " Functions of the Ash Ingredients,"
in "How Crops Grow," Johnson says: " The albuminoids,
which contain sulphur as an essential ingredient, obviously
cannot be produced in absence of sulphuric acid, which, so
far as we know, is the single source of sulphur to plants.
The sulphurized oils of the onion, mustard, horse-radish,
turnip, etc., likewise require sulphates for their organization.
. . . The organic acids, oxalic, malic, tartaric, citric, etc.,
require alkalies and alkali-earths to form the salts which
exist in plants, i. e., bi-tartrate of potash in the grape,
oxalate of lime in beet leaves, malate of lime in tobacco ;

HOMOEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 209

and without these bases it is perhaps, in most cases, impossi-
ble for the acids to be formed."

I mio:ht ffo on citiaof instances where certain forms of
plant food seem to be more beneficial to certain crops than
are other forms, showing that plants have the power of selec-
tion, and invariably exercise it if given the opportunity.
And after all, why should it not be so? A plant that has
the delicate organism by which it can run through the soil
and gather up the most minute morsel of nutriment, must be
capable of distinguishing between the forms of plant food
that are present It is known that plants will substitute, for
example, soda for lime, magnesia for potash ; but it is
thought that they never do substitute, when the right form
is present. When plants are forced to substitute, or forced
to wait for some form of food to be developed, then an un-
healthy condition is the result, and we have rot, rust, mildew
or yellows. To be sure, these may not entirely be due to
the plant food in the soil ; but it has been demonstrated over
and over again that a healthy plant will withstand disease,
and a healthy plant means one that is properly fed from
beginning to end.

Dr. Goessmann has taught this over and over asrain. He
says, in speaking of fruits: "It is quite certain that the
practice of returning to the soil, in suitable form and in due
time, those constituents which fruits abstract, will give us
larger crops by stimulating a vigorous condition of the entire
plant."

Again, he says: "A strong, healthy plant is, of course,
better able to overcome interior local disorders, and to resist
external injurious influences more successfully, than feeble
specimens."

Health in man, beast or plant presupposes certain healthy
conditions, one of which is proper feeding. Men have been
ridiculed because they have drawn an analogy between the
feeding of plants and the feeding of animals. It is true
that there is not so much difierence between the feedinsr of
plants as between that of different animals ; nevertheless,
there is a difference, slight though it may appear, and yet so
important that if it is not recognized it means failure every
time.

210 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Because we do not know what the physiological functions
af the different forms of plant food are, it does not follow
that these different functions do not exist ; and if they do
exist, why they should not be considered in the cultivation
of crops. That different forms of plant food have different
functions there is no doubt, and the work of the future is
to discover these functions, and to make combinations that
shall be adapted to the crops we are growing. Agricultural
chemistry began with the discovery of the elements essential
to plant growth ; it will not be complete until it has dis-
covered the various functions of these ingredients, and
adspted them to the wants of man.

We hear a great deal now-a-days about " complete fertiliz-
ers,"— as though a " complete" fertilizer was a "sine qua
non." Ammonia, phosphoric acid and potash form a " com-
plete " fertilizer in the popular acceptance of the terms, but
not necessarily a perfect fertilizer. If it contains but one
per cent, of ammonia, one of phospht)ric acid and one of
potash, it is a " complete" fertilizer; and if it contains ten
per cent, of each it is still " complete." It may contain one
or all three of these forms of plant food in insoluble forms,
and still be "complete ' in the popular sense. A "com-
plete " fertilizer is a kind of raanurial blunderbuss loaded
with several kiuds of shot, and expected to bring down all
kinds of game, or rather to send up all kinds of crops in
abundance and perfection. Now, a "complete" fertilizer
can be made — in fact, is made — that seems to work well on
most crops. A high grade superphosphate with ammonia
and potash is an excellent fertilizer, and when used in con-
nection with stable manure, or on a rich, unexhausted soil,
is probably a good combination for general farm purposes ;
but to contend that fertilizers begin and end with a manure
that is simply " complete " is to assume that there is nothing
more to be learned in this field. Superphosphate of lime
was the starting point ; then followed the addition of ammo-
nia and finally that of potash, and we had the so-called
" complete" fertilizer, still valuable, but by no means per-
fect. After that came formulas based upon the analyses
of crops, — a great step in the right direction, the promul-
gation of which quickened agricultural thought and opened

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 211

the door to that great but almost wholly unoccupied field of
"chemical ph3^siology, " or the specific action of chemical
salts and fertilizing ingredients upon plant growth ; in
short, the adaptability of fertilizers to crops, or plant feed-
ing with specific objects in view.

Out of these many years of discussion, experiment and
practice the plant has come to the front, and says : " Con-
sider me ; soil, season, seed and cultivation are all important
factors, but study me and my WMnts. I sustain man ; know
then how to plant me, how to cultivate me, and above all
how to feed me, for if you feed me, I will feed you." I
believe that we are just at the threshold of discovery in this
field of plant feeding. Since I began the manufacture of
fertilizers, many new forms of plant food have come into our
market, and it must follow that some of these forms have
their special place in the chemistry of fertilization. The
new forms are, notably, sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of
potash, muriate of potash and sulphate of magnesia, — fer-
tilizing substances that were not known to farmers in this
country fifteen years ago, but which are consumed
in enormous quantities to-day. Who knows but that
fifteen years hence other new compounds, like phosphate
of potash, nitrate of ammonia, for example, now known
only to the chemist, will play an important part in the
economy of crop production, while some of those now
prominent may drop out entirely. Salt and plaster have
already taken a back seat ; other forms may follow sooner
than we expect; but whatever the outcome, it stands to rea-
son that all fertilizing ingredients, whether new or old, have
their especial place in the chemistry of fertilization, and it
remains for us to discover that place in order to put agricul-
ture upon a still higher and more rational footing.

We, as manufiicturers, are compounding fertilizers accord-
ing to the best light we have, and the results show that we
have made great improvements over the past, enabling the
exhausted portions of our country to hold their own against
the virgin soils of the West. Nevertheless, we stand at the
door of the Experiment Station, with the question : " Tell us
something further of chemical economy in plant feeding,
that we may still continue to improve the diflerent fertilizers

212 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

which exhausted nature demands, and must have. Tell us,
that we may not fiill into error, and involve our capital and
mislead our customers." You, as farmers, stand at the same
door and ask the same question, that you too may not waste
your capital, impoverish your land and fritter away your
time, — bolh seeking knowledge. Shall we have it? That
depends upon how liberally the State or the Nation endow
and support the Stations already established, how faithfully
the work is conducted, and how wisely and patiently we
study the results.

Mr. BowDiTCH. I wish personally to thank Mr. Bowker
for one of the most able and instructive papers which I have
heard before this Board since I have been a member.

Mr. Myeick of Springfield. The able essay that we have
had this afternoon has covered very thoroughly one side of
the case ; namely, that the plant is the main thing to have
in mind in manuring, — that we must feed the plant. Pro-
fessor At water of Connecticut some years ago originated,
or was one of the originators of, the theory that we should
test our soils and see if there were not some soils on the
farm that did not need so much phosphoric acid or potash as
others, or some soils that did not need but one of these ele-
ments ; and Professor Atwater prepared a plan for trying
such experiments on a small scale. That idea has come to
have a very strong following in this country, because the
farmers say, "If we can try experiments on parallel plots
with different fertilizers, and see what amount of each will
produce the best results, it will save us the expense of put-
ting on all three. If potash or phosphoric acid will produce
as large crops as a fertilizer containing both of those ele-
ments, and also nitrogen, it will save us the expense of
nitrogen, and that means a saving of from five to ten dollars
an acre." Mr. Bowker did not cover that point or consider
that part of the question at all. I would like to get his
opinion upon it.

Mr. Bowker. I would like to ask the gentleman if he
really believes in Professor Atwater's theory of testing the
soil? I do not think he really believes in it, but I think he
has put the question to draw out discussion.

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 213

Mr. Myrick. Mr. Bowker, being a Yankee, answers one
question by asking another.

Mr. Bowker. I do not believe that formers can test their
soils satisfactorily. They certainly cannot by analysis, and
I do not believe they can by raising crops. In the first
place, they are not close enough observers. They have not
been trained to observe all the conditions. I think that the
testing of soils by crops should be left largely to our Experi-
ment Stations. But in this matter of applying fertilizers
we must all remember one thing, that the ability of our soil
to produce crops (this is a truism, and it is coming out in
the years to come) is tested by the minimum quantity of
the elements of plant food in it. For example, we may
have plenty of nitrogen, plenty of potash and plenty of
phosphoric acid, but if the minimum quantity of soda, even,
is not present, then all that nitrogen, all that potash, all that
phosphoric acid has no value at all. We forget that some-
times ; and therefore that is why I feel that in fertilizing our
soils we should give them all the leading ingredients of
plant food, and then, further than that, we should apply
them in the form best suited to the plant, which time
will develop. We do not know to-day the forms of plant
food best suited to all crops. That is what our Experiment
Stations will bring out, we hope. When I think of what
we did not know when the Board came here fourteen
years ago, what we do know to-day, and what we may
know fourteen years hence, with all these Experiment Sta-
tions starting up, I can but feel that we are jirst on the edge
of this great field of plant feeding.

Mr. Slade. Dr. Goessmann told us two or three years
ago, in an analysis, that asparagus consisted largely of mag-
nesia. We had always considered that the three essentials
of plant food were potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen, and
we had the idea that if we put them on asparagus we were all
right. Now, inasmuch as it appears that asparagus consists
largely of magnesia, is it not fair to suppose that in fertiliz-
ing asparagus year after year for twenty years we have
exhausted that magnesia, and that the plants need a special
application of it?

Mr. Bowker. Yes, sir, I think so. I think if you have

214 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

been growing asparagus for years in one place you should
apply magnesia.

Mr. Slade. You know a bed lasts a lifetime.

Mr. BowKER. Yes, sir ; but still that does not necessa-
rily disprove the point which I tried to establish in my paper,
that certain things were almost specific for certain crops.
Magnesia may be essential for asparagus, but I think we should
soon learn that certain things have special effects on certain
crops ; or rather, to put it in another way, that certain crops
have a decided taste for certain kinds of plant food. Nitrate
of soda, for instance, seems to give a great growth to aspar-
agus, and it seems to be just the thing to apply in the spring.
On the other hand, spinach wants sulphate of ammonia. Of
course that is not all that is wanted, — you want potash, phos-
phoric acid and other ingredients present in the soil for that
crop ; but sulphate of ammonia seems to be just what it
wants, — it carries the crop to successful maturity, and that is
what we are after in practical agriculture.

Mr. Hersey of Hiugham. I have listened with a great
deal of pleasure, and I think with considerable profit, to the
paper which has just been read. I believe that the time is
coming when we shall fertilize our crops with that fertilizer
which is best adapted to them, but I can hardly say that
we have got to that period yet. At the present time we
are only, as has been said, on the edge of this knowledge,
and it is knowledge of the highest importance to all of us
who are using commercial fertilizers. I think, however, that
our land has much to do with it, after all ; that we may go to
experts for information and they may give us information in
regard to what is best for certain crops, and yet if we should
undertake to use the fertilizers they recommend on our land,
the condition of our land might be such that they would not
prove beneficial at all. I have had some experience in this
concentrated fertilizer business, and sometimes have been led
astray even by experts, — even by our friend who has given
us this very valuable paper. No longer ago than last spring
I was in his oflice, and he recommended, what he recommends
here to-day, nitrate of soda for asparagus, and having full
faith in his knowledge of the matter, I purchased some nitrate
of soda of him ; I carried it home and put it on every fourth

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 215

row of my asparagus, and no man could see through the sea-
son one particle of difference between the rows to which
it was applied and the others. That shows, that while it
might do well on another man's land it would not do well
on mine. It shows that every farmer has got to have intelli-
gence of his own. He has got not only to learn what is
good for a particular i)lant, but he has got to learn what his
land is deficient in. The farmer, therefore, must place him-
self on a higher plane than where he now stands if he is to
use these fertilizers to the best advantage, and therefore I say
to my friend, who, I acknowledge, is far better acquainted
with the results of fertilizers than I am, that he must not
recommend the use of nitrate of soda for asparagus. He
should say, " Possibly your land may have enough of it and
may not need it." We have got to take that matter into
consideration, for I certainly lost the money which I paid
him.

Mr. Slade. Is there any way by which you can tell
whether your land needs it or not?

Mr. Hersey. I found out last year that it did not need
it ; I don't know but next year it may need it. You see
at once the difficulty. This is an important subject, and it
is one which we at the present time do not fully compre-
hend, and I feel that a large portion of the money which we
spend for these things is lost for the want of that knowledge.
I have not the least doubt of that. AVhen we fully under-
stand how best to use commercial fertilizers, I think they will
be the cheapest things that we can apply to our soil . Of
course we must always make use of our stable manure. We
shall put that on our farms where it can be applied the easi-
est, and on those portions of our farms that are at a distance
we shall use entirely commercial fertilizers, when we get
so we fully understand them. I know men now in Mas-
sachusetts who understand them well enough so that they
can afford to buy them and use them, and can use them to a
profit ; but the time is coming when they will use them to
still greater profit, and I believe that this paper which we
have had here to-day will lead us to inquiry, will inform us
of what we did not know before, and will stimulate us to
endeavor to obtain a better understanding of this subject,

216 BOAED OF AGEICULTUEE.

which is, after all, the thing which is going to build up the
farming interests of New England in the future.

The Chairman. Here is a question, and the answer will
not take five minutes : " Is it best to remove limbs from pine
trees that are from five to eight inches in diameter?" Will
Mr. Slade tell us?

Mr. Slade. I have never had much experience in that.
I passed a plantation last week or week before last where the
farmer and his men were just finishing trimming the trees,
and as I came along he came up and talked with me about it.
He wanted to know what I thought of what he was doing.
I told him I thought he was doing wrong. He had cut those
limbs off close to the tree as high up as he could reach with
a narrow axe. I think that those knots will bleed and they
will ultimately spoil the lumber.

The Chairman. If the trees are sufficiently near together
will not nature provide for it?

Mr. Slade. If they are sufficiently near together they
will take care of themselves, but in the plantation to which I
refer they are not sufficiently near togethei- ; they were set
eight feet by ten. I think the trimming should be done per-
haps the second year. As soon as the tree gets thoroughly
rooted take a knife and go through the plantation and cut ofi"
the two lower limbs the first year, repeat it perhaps the
third year, and so on. The tree will be trimmed gradually,
and it will outgrow any injury that it may receive.

Mr. Hersey. What time of the year would you do it?

Mr. Slade. I would do it in the spring ; take a knife
and cut upward. If he had cut them ofi" two or three inches
from the butt, I think the limb would have died ofi" and the
trunk of the tree would not have been injured.

Mr. Hersey. They will not be injured at all if cut at
this time of the year.

Mr. Slade. Well, I hope it will not injure them, but I
believe it will.

Mr. EooT of Barre. Do I understand friend Slade to say
that he would not remove the small dead limbs from a pine
tree?

Mr. Slade. Oh, no. After a plantation has been set
out a year or two you can take oflf the two lowest limbs on©

HOMGEOPATHY IN AGRICULTUEE. 217

year and the next two the next year, and you will trim the
trees so gradually that they will not suffer at all, and by the
time the plantation is twelve or fourteen years old it will be
trimmed up, perhaps, as high as 3'ou could wish. It would
reduce the risk by fire to a minimum ; the ground would be
clear underneath the trees and fire would not be easily com-
municated.

Mr. Root. There are in many locations large groves of
very thrifty pines which have been growing for ten, fifteen
or twenty years, and the smaller trees dying out. Every
pine tree running up tall and fast has more or less dead
limbs. One of the most successful foresters with whom I
have been acquainted of late years was with me in a forest
of mine, and alluded to that condition of the trees. Says
he, " When it comes cold weather take your man and a long
pole with an iron hook on the end of it, and go through and
break oflT all those withered limbs ; then all the aftersrrowth
will be clear lumber ; whereas, if you leave a little projecting
limb, it remains there for years, and all the accumulated
growth of subsequent years will encircle that little projec-
tion, until it runs almost through the body of the tree.
Break it off; nature heals it over, and from that point of the
circumference you have clear lumber." That is a point well
worthy the attention of every man who owns a forest, in my
judgment.

Mr. Fitch. There was one point which came up this
morning which I want two minutes to speak of, with regard
to reclaiming lands. Everything which has been said since
I came here has been said by those who have had practical
experience, and I will state mine. " Some years ago I was
obliged to use a good many barrels, and I found that I must
have round hickory hoops. I found there were very few
portions of the country where I could get them in any large
quantity, and I also found that I must pay ten or fifteen dol-
lars a thousand for them. Now, I dare say there are some
men in this room who have on their farms a piece of land
with stones on the sides and which is wet at the bottom. If
any of you have such a piece of land, lay aside so many
bushels of hickory-nuts or pig-nuts, and early in the spring
put them half an inch under ground in this place, plantino;

218 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE.

twenty-five thousand to the acre, as I have done. In four
years from that time, if you have taken care of them, you
can cut off a thousand or two thousand hoop poles, and the
fifth year you ought to be able to cut off from one to two hun-
dred dollars' worth ; and if you have any market for such
things here, as there is almost anywhere in Massachusetts,
for five years from that year you ought to be able to cut off
from sixty to one hundred dollars' worth a year. If any of
you have an acre or half an acre of such land as that, suppose
you try it. It will not hurt the land. Your land is not
worth more than five or ten dollars an acre. Plant it in the
way 1 have suggested, and if hoops are worth what they are
worth now, I will guarantee that you will be able to get,
after the first four years, from sixty to one hundred dollars
worth of hickory poles annually from that land.

Mr. Heesey. I want to tell the farmers a great deal bet-
ter thing. If you want to raise hoop poles or binders for
boxes, which are always in demand, take the European
basket willow and plant it on your sandy plains, where your
land is warm and light, and in three years you will get a
good hoop pole. I have them now growing on sandy land,
and they have grown nine feet and seven inches in a year.
I don't say they will all grow so vigorously as that, but they
will grow from five to seven feet in one year. If you are
going to make hoop poles, I think you want to take them,
the first year after they grow up, and strip the leaves down
from the top to the bottom ; then you will have a perfectly
straight, smooth and clear stalk.

Question. Can you sell those for hoops ?

Mr. Hersey. Yes, sir; you can sell them. They make
the best of binders for boxes, and they will be just about as
large at the top as they are at the bottom. If you don't
want to sell them for hoop poles you may sell them the first
year for baskets. They are worth in the market to-day
about seven cents a pound after they are stripped, and they
are a profitable crop. Therefore, I would say to the farmers
of Massachusetts, here is an industry which you can take
hold of and make a profit on it, if you will first find out
whether you have a market.

Mr. Fitch. One word about that. One of the things

HOMOEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 219

that are necessary in a hoop that will sell in the market is
that it must be of such a character that it will not slip on
the barrel easily. I doubt if the basket willow would
answer that purpose. For boxes, where the bands are
nailed on, I suppose it would answer.

Mr. Hersey. I do not stand in this hall or anywhere
else and speak of things I know nothing about. When I
speak of the basket willow as adapted to making hoop poles
and box binders I speak of what I know.

Secretary Russell. Does it make a good hoop ? That
is the question.

Mr, Hersey. Yes, sir, it makes a good hoop. I speak
of what I know, not what I guess at.

Mr. Burgess. I would like to ask the lecturer one ques-
tion. I observed that he recommended one thousand pounds
l)er acre for a field of corn. Suppose that the land raises
fifty bushels of corn per acre, I would like to ask the gentle-
man whether, in his judgment, the same amount of fertilizer
will raise the same amount of corn on the same land another
year, or whether we have got to impoverish our land to feed
in part the corn crop ?

Mr. BowKER. Back of that question is another. A
thousand pounds of a fertilizer such as I described would
give eighty pounds of nitrogen, one hundred and twenty
pounds of phosphoric acid and eighty pounds of potash.
Now, the Stockbridge formula for fifty bushels of corn to the
acre calls for sixty-four pounds of nitrogen, seventy-seven
pounds of potash and only thirty-one pounds of phosphoric
acid ; so that this thousand pounds that I have spoken of will
furnish plant food for more than fifty bushels of corn ; that
is, of the three leading ingredients. But I believe in rotation
of crops. I do not think it is advisable to plant corn, or any
crop, with fertilizers or without fertilizers, continuously on
the same soil.

Mr. Burgess. Then it would be evident to my mind,
and probably to every mind, that this fertilizer does not
feed the crop entirely. Now, I am satisfied, being an old-
fashioned farmer, to use barnyard manure wholly. It may
bo that we cannot raise a corn crop year after year on one
piece of land with the use of barnyard manure, but if we

220 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

can get any fertilizer that will enable us to do it, of course
it is sometimes as convenient to use one piece a second year
as it is the first. That was why I asked the question.

The Chairman. I have planted sweet corn for fodder
upon the same piece of ground for eight years, and I think
I had as heavy a crop this year as I ever had. I put on
nothing except stable manure.

Mr. BowKER. I think that can be done every year, but I
think that it is judicious to rotate, not so much because some
element in the soil has been exhausted, but because some
plants root deeper than others. Corn is a shallow feeder.
Follow that with some deep-rooted plant, like clover, and it
goes down into the soil and takes up the nitrogen and other
plant food which has gone down deeper than the roots of the
corn plant. Some crops are conservators of nitrogen, —
clover belongs to that class, — and they gather it from the
lower strata. That is why I believe in rotation of crops ;
but you can grow corn year after year on the same land.
This gentleman (Mr. Taft) says he knows of a place where
corn has been raised for fifty years on the same piece.

Mr. CiiEEVER. There is one more reason why corn can-
not be raised profitably on the same ground eternally.
Every kind of vegetation is liable to some form of disease.
Corn smut is a serious pest in many localities and in many,
fields, and where corn is raised year after year on the same
ground, it often becomes very difiicult to get a crop on the
land ; the percentage of smut increases each year^ Dr.
Sturtevant, I think, found that difficulty in Framingham, in
raising corn several years in succession on the same piece.

Mr. Gilbert. In one of our cemeteries there is a large
lot of maples that need trimming. At what season of the
year should trees of that kind be trimmed, having limbs as
large or larger than your arm ?

Mr. Hill of Amesbury. My opinion would be, in the
fall. Those trees ought not to have been left until the limbs
became as large as you speak of before they were removed.
I would not remove them all at one time ; trim them up
gradually. The trees might be trimmed at any time from
now to the first of March. I would not cut ofl:' too much of
the growth, as the check would be too severe.

HOMCEOPATHY IN AGRICULTURE. 221

Secretary Russell. Does Mr. Hill understand that the
question is asked about maple trees ?

Mr. Hill. Yes.

Secretary Russell. Would you prepose to trim maple
trees as late as March, where the limbs were four or five
inches througli ?

Mr. Hill. I would not cut off limbs of maple trees that
were four or five inches through. I would not cut off limbs
as large as that from any shade tree that I wished to pre-
serve any length of time. My experience is that the cut-
ting off of limbs as large as that will materially injure the
tree and finally kill it. I would trim those limbs up, leav-
ing the large ones and cutting the laterals. I certainly
should not remove them. I would not cut them later than
the first of March, and if they were maples, I should rather
do it before the first of January.

Mr. Upton. I have had a little experience in trimming
fruit and other trees, and I do not apprehend any trouble
from cutting off the limbs of those maples. In a day or
two after you have cut them off give the cut two coats of
paint, and you will find that the wound will heal over and
the wood be just as sound and good as any part of the tree.
You will not find any rot there.

Mr. Hill. If I was going to cut them off I would do it
two feet from the tree, and instead of using paint I would
use shellac.

Adjourned until 7.30.

Evening Session.

The meeting was called to order at the appointed hour by
the Chairman, Mr. J. H. Goddard of Barre, who introduced
as the lecturer of the evening Mr. Ethan Brooks of West
Springfield.

222 BOARD OF AGKICULTURE.

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE.

BY ETHAN BROOKS.

Geology tells us of the ages required that this world might
pass through those changes necessary to fit it for the possi-
ble abode of man ; and the Bible tells us that one of the first
commands given to man was, " Subdue the earth." So
necessity is laid upon us to be progressive ; for only in lim-
ited portions of the earth can even a small number be fed
from spontaneous productions, much less can they be sup-
plied with those comforts which modern civilization ranks
among the necessaries of life.

Man, having originally been placed upon this earth with no
tools to work with and with no knowledge of material and
methods necessary to make useful tools, with no knowledge
of the producing qualities of the earth and of his own ne-
cessities, must have been slow, indeed, to devise ways and
means for advancement in any direction. From ancient
records we learn that man, in his wanderings, found those
countries watered by the great rivers of the East to be most
productive ; and the valleys of the Euphrates, the Tigris
and the Nile were made the grain-producing centres, while
the hilly regions afforded the pasturage necessary for the
support of those flocks and herds then, as now, so essential
to the needs and comforts of man.

The besrinninsrs of agriculture are said to be lost in an-

o o o

tiquity. We know that at a very early day the storehouses
of Egypt furnished supplies to the famine-stricken progeni-
tors of a once mighty nation ; and the Greeks are accredited
with gaining from their Egyptian neighbors a knowledge of
agriculture which made them noted in this department as
early as a thousand years before Christ; and, as they ad-
vanced in power, they are said to have had fine breeds of
cattle, horses, sheep, swine and poultry, improved by exten-
sive importations, while many of their farm implements
were constructed on principles adopted at the present day.
The Greek farmers utilized those fertilizing materials within
their reach, and gave due heed to the importance of drain-
age and thorough cultivation. They cultivated many of the
most valuable fruits known to our climate, — the apple,

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 223

pear, peach, plum, quince and cherry, with figs, lemons and
other fruits suited to their location. But the leaders and
rulers of Greece were more anxious to build and adorn beau-
tiful cities than to bring her soil to the highest degree of
fertility ; so this work was mainly conducted by the unfor-
tunate whom they had subdued from the weaker nations and
tribes which surrounded them, and fell into a decline.

With the Romans, agriculture was not only a pride, but a
foundation principle. The State apportioned to each citizen
a carefully restricted tract of land ; and one of their orators
said, " He was not to be counted a good citizen, but rather
a dangerous man to the State, who could not content him-
self with seven acres of land."

As Rome by conquest extended her domain, these restric-
tions were removed, and one might hold fifty, and later five
hundred acres. Still they held to the importance of thor-
ough rather than of extensive farming.

Cato the censor, great as an orator, a general and a states-
man, is looked upon as having done the best work for his
country in writing a book on agriculture, and it is he who
says, "Our ancestors regarded it as a great point of hus-
bandry not to have too much land in one farm, for Ihey con-
sidered that more profit came from holding little and tilling
it well." And Virgil says, "The farmer may praise large
estates, but let him cultivate a small one."

We find that following the conquest of Spain by the
Moors, early in the eighth century, agriculture in this coun-
try received unusual attention, and that, owing to a system
of irrigation then adopted, the agricultural resources of
Spain were developed to such an extent that the Moors
derived from this country an annual revenue of $30,000,000 ;
"a sum," as Gibbon says, "which in the tenth century
probably surpassed the united revenues of all the Christian
monarchs."

To produce such results required enormous outlay of skill
and labor in building reservoirs and artificial watercourses,
traces of which still remain. This system was evidently
taken westward from Asia and the valley of the Nile, where
in very ancient times extensive and very costly works for
irrigation were built, exceeding anything of the kind of mod-
ern construction.

224 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

But whence can e that knowledge of the system which the
Spaniards, in their conquests upon our own continent, found
in use by the ancient inhabitants of Peru, of "which Prescott
says : '* Canals and aqueducts were seen crossing the low-
lands in all directions and spreading over the country like a
vast net- work, diffusing fertility and beauty around them"?

No doubt the labor of constructing these works was poorly
paid, judgmg from the American standpoint of service and
compensation ; but is there not here a hint of future possi-
bilities for the New England farmer who for the want of
water just at the right time, even for a few days, sometimes
loses the labor of a year ?

The agriculture of Spain declined when, upon the expul-
sion of the Moors by Ferdinand and Isabella and the discov-
ery of America under them by Columbus, gold was rated of
more account than grain ; so that as one has said, " In the
days of Cortez and Pizarro this continent was ransacked for
gold from Oregon to Patagonia. The fertile slopes of the
Appalachians, the green prairies and rich bottom lands of
the Mississippi valle}^ now supporting tens of millions of
prosperous inhabitants, were marked upon the Spanish maps
'lands of no account' {tierras dp ningum provecho) because
they yielded no gold."

Passing over from Spain to England, we find, early in the
fifth century, after four hundred years of occupancy by the
Romans, a country mainly of forests and marshes, with a
people intent, almost from necessity, upon getting a living
for the individual without regard to the consequences upon
others ; with a government so crude and inefficient as to
afford little protection to life or property and no encourage-
ment to advancement in agriculture, even if the people had
entertained an aspiring thought.

Famines were of frequent occurrence, and farm stock which
could thrive durinor the summer months was so destitute of
food and shelter, especially in the northern portion of the
island, in winter, that a large proportion, estimated at one-
fifth of the whole number in the country, died annually from
exposure and want, and a fatal murrain often destroyed still
greater numbers.

A few, only, of the standard grains were cultivated, and

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 225

these in small quantities. Potatoes, squashes, turnips, car-
rots and cabbages were not known in England till the six-
teenth century. In the days of Henry VIII., Queen
Catherine was obliged to send to the continent for supplies
for her table. The principal food supply of the peasants at
this time was bread made of barley, ground in the quern or
hand-mill.

In these days the peasants, as tenants of the soil, had no
security for their property, being held responsible for the
debts of the landlord for an amount equal to their entire
possessions. Later, they were held only for the amount of
rent actually due from them. Throughout Europe the con-
dition of the peasant (working farmer, we should call him)
was no better than in England, — a struggle for mere ex-
istence.

We have seen that in Spain and portions of the East
much had, in earlier days, been done in certain directions to
develop the resources of the soil ; but this had been done by
such slow and expensive and oppressive methods, — which
afterwards, partly, at least, fell into disuse, — and had been
confined to such comparatively small sections, that the era
of real progress in agriculture can hardly be said to have
dawned till the sixteenth century, when Europe awoke from
her indefinite drowsiness, and men began to think. From
this time onward there has been continued progress, — slow
at first, from necessity, but a real uplifting of those classes
engaged in agricultural pursuits. In 1523, Sir Anthony
Fitzherbert, who prided himself on being " a farmer of forty
years' standing," issued the first work on agriculture ever
published in England, which he entitled the " Boko of Hus-
bandrie." Following this, the same author issued a volume
on land surveying. In touching upon some of the necessi-
ties of the fin'mer of his day, Fitzherbert says, "A hous-
bande cannot thryve by his corne without cattcll, nor by his
cattell without corne"; and fartlicr he says, " Shepe, in
myne opinion, is the most profitablest cattell that any man
can have."

This "opinion," coming down to us through three and a
half centuries, during which theories have exploded, and on
their ashes other theories have risen to explode, entitles the

226 BOARD OF AGBICULTUEE.

author to a place among the benefactors of his race. From
his writings we learn that marl was not only in common use
on the island in his day, but was found to have been in use
when Britain was invaded by the Romans before the Chris-
tian era.

Other writings by different authors appeared from time to
time. One work, entitled " Five Hundred Points of Good
Husbandry," by Thomas Tusser, appeared in doggerel verse
about the middle of the sixteenth century. These volumes
were handed down from one genoration to another, till they
were literally worn out; so that when, in later days, it was
sought to issue a new edition, it was difficult to find in one
copy the entire work, giving, as was said at the time, "a
proof that what was intended for practical use had been sed-
ulously applied to that purpose." Through Tusser we learn
that cabbages, turnips and carrots had just been brought to
notice as table vegetables.

Closely following Tusser's publications appeared a work
which, in our gropings after light, seems by its title to savor
a little of conceit, <'The Whole Art of Husbandry," by
Barnaby Googe. "The Jewel House of Art and Nature,"
by Sir Hugh Piatt, gave the first account we have of the
introduction of white clover into England.

Early in the 18th century there came to the front a man
whose writings and experiments are justly accredited as
" among the first important attempts at real progress in the
agriculture of modern times." Jethro Tull ventured upon
new methods, and sought to understand the principlps of
agriculture. Without that knowledge of geology and chem-
istry within our reach, he made some mistakes for others to
profit by ; but his inquiries and experiments were in the
right direction. He invented the horse-hoe and the thresh-
ing-machine, and introduced into England from the conti-
nent the drill system of cultivation with the drilling-machine,
to relieve hand labor. Tull advocated the use of manures,
but considered their chief advantage to be mechanical, not
realizing that they furnish essential plant food. His theory
was that plants are nourished from minute particles of soil ;
hence he advocated frequent and thorough cultivation, that
the soil might be completely pulverized. It was this theory,

I'ROGRESSiVE AGRICULTURE. 227

also, which led him to adopt the drill system in the cultiva-
tion of grain, which admits of stirring the soil among the
roots of the growing crop.

TuU, like all who are in advance of their age, had few
immediate followers ; and some who would have been such
w^ere obliged to continue in the old paths for want of means
to procure the necessary implements, — a want which it may
be feared will never be entirely outgrown. The most intel-
ligent and most successful farmers of to-day must give this
man credit for wise practices, even if the theories which led
to them were somewhat erroneous.

After Tull not much was published of agricultural litera-
ture for fifty years, but thoughtful men were at work in
various directions. Especial attention was paid in these
days to the improvement of the diiferent domestic animals
by selection and crossing, and thus bringing blessings to
future generations.

Prominent in his day, and deserving of lasting gratitude,
was Arthur Young; for it is said that "to him, perhaps,
the world is more indebted for the spread of agricultural
knowledge than to any other man." He was born in 1741,
and died in 1820. He sought by experiment and inquiry to
learn the actual cause of the fertility of soil. Hitherto,
ammonia had been thought harmful to vegetation ! and the
wise had insisted that plant food was to be found in acids.
Young's experiments with ammonia were always crowned
with success.
. He must have been what in our day is called an enthusi-
ast, for he travelled through England, Ireland and portions
of the continent seeking light on this all-absorbing subject,
and published half a dozen or more works on agriculture.
In 1784 he established the periodical, "Annals of Agricul-
ture," to which George III. contributed under the name of
Ralph Robinson.

It is here that Young, just a hundred years ago (in 1786),
says : " To imagine that we are ever to see agriculture rest
on a scientific basis, regulated by just and accurately drawn
principles, without the chemical qualities of soils and ma-
nures being well understood, is a childish and ignorant
supposition."

228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

For the last twenty years or more of his life he was Sec-
retary of the English Board of Agriculture. Scotland,
France and Gei-many in these days made proportionate ad-
vances ; each learning from others, and each encouraging
in itself inquiry and experiment resulting in lasting good.

Coming to our own land, we find our fathers surrounded
with difficulties and dangers. And here let us be just to a
noble ancestry. That stereotyped phrase, "The beaten
tracks of the ancestors," as applied to the early settlers of
this land, is a libel on worthy men and women ; they were
progressive. We do not, cannot see the country as they
saw'^it, — a wilderness with a climate and soils quite unlike
those of their nativity.

The obstacles they removed were out of sight before we
were born. The bridges we cross with their well-graded
approaches have been so familiar to our eyes, that we forget
the toil of our ancestors under many difficulties by which
these blessings were secured to us.

The thoughtful man who sees more to be done than he
can possibly^do, aims to do the most important thing first;
and in all temporal matters the most important thing is to
provide for immediate wants. Thus they were required to
provide first, shelter, then food, —as their imported supply
would soon be exhausted, — and protection against hostile
Indians and wild beasts. They were distant from all out-
side sources, but were ready in utilizing the resources of
this new world. The Indian corn was at once made an arti-
cle of supply and cultivation for future use.

In the cultivation of those crops introduced from their
early homes they had to learn by actual experiment what
could be made to be of practical use here. The methods and
implements with which they had been familiar were crude
and clumsy ; stock was poor and the opportunities for im-
provement were limited in the extreme. The wonder is that
they accomplished so much. Theirs was the foundation
work, but the visible progress was in store.

In 1747 the first of a series of essays on agricultural topics
was published by Jared Eliot, a Connecticut clergyman ;
but with few exceptions no marked progress was made till
after the Revolution, when, having "fought for peace,"

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 229

our fathers were permitted in peace to develop the resources
of the land.

The South Carolina Agricultural Society and the Phila-
delphia Society for the Improvement of Agriculture were
established in 1784, and one of the same character had its
origin in New York in 1791.

Our own Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture ,
whose worthy works for almost a century have done credit
to its name, and to which the lasting gratitude of all classes
in and beyond the old Bay State is due, was organized in
1792.

The British Board of Agriculture dates from 1793, and
owes its existence mainly to the eiforts of Sir John Sinclair,
a Scotchman possessed of an estate of 100,000 acres, on
which he delighted to make improvements. Sinclair was the
first president of the board, and between him and our own
Washington there was carried on a correspondence showing
the interest taken by the father of his country in the most
vital industry of his race.

The masses were not yet ready for agricultural publica-
tions, and it was a great misfortune that "book farming"
came to be synonymous with theory in contradiction to
practice.

But progress was born, and her breath was in the air.
Gradually local societies were organized, holding their an
nual fairs and bringing together for comparison and informa-
tion the varied animal and vegetable products of the farm,
accompanied by inquiring ones, eager to receive and to give
instruction. And now we have in many, if not all, of our
States organizations like this one, at whose bidding we are
here to-day, seeking continually for new light and best
methods, and urging ever to greater achievements.

The printed reports of these societies, including the state-
ments of those Avho have been successful in special depart-
ments and in the cultivation of particular crops, should
receive careful perusal as sources of great good.

The first agricultural college in our land was opened to
students by the State government of Michigan in 1857, with
seven professors and a farm of 676 acres. An act of Con-
gress providing for similar institutions in all our States and

230 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

Territories, and setting aside nearly 8,000,000 acres of pub-
lic lands for endowment of same, was passed in 1862, and
the advantages thus offered have largely been seized upon
by an eager people.

Our own college at Amherst has now been open for twenty
years, and though not receiving the patronage the cause de-
serves, and laboring sometimes under difficulties, the good
to the State at large and to the country from the work of
this institution find the Experiment Station connected there-
with can only be told when we shall have passed away.

The changes that have come over enlightened lands mainly
within the last fifty years are simply marvellous. Chemistry
has already done wonders for us, showing the actual needs of
animals and plants, and how to supply these needs ; and the
names of Liebig and his followers will stand before future
generations as suggestive of future possibilities

Lands once considered worn out are now found to be defi-
cient only in certain elements which can be readily and eco-
nomically supplied, and the common farmer is coming to
understand so well the needs of the crops he would raise
that he scrutinizes the analysis of any commercial fertilizer
offered him, and thanks the State for a law which protects
him against fraudulent compounds.

Specialists in various departments, by a persistent deter-
mination that knows no defeat, have brought out wonderful
truths and laid them as free gifts at our door.

As discovery leads to discovery, and invention to inven-
tion, it is safe for us only to assume that progress has just
begun.

Variety and Quality of Products.

In ancient times the variety of products was extremely
limited, and often when one of these failed there was famine.
A terrible illustration of this comes to us from the failure of
the potato in Ireland within the memory of this generation.

As we progress we come to depend less on any one article,
and so divide the risks of failure. By careful selections and
crossings and cultivation we have, as common articles of
supply, assortments of fruits and vegetables, — luxuries, in-
deed, yet so easily produced and so cheaply offered as to

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 231

place them among the ordinary necessaries of life, and so
perfectly adapted to human wants as to be promotive of both
bodily health and the higher mental faculties of our nature.

The Northmen who came to our New England shores
before the days of Columbus found the grape thriving in
neglected freedom ; but to Bull and Rogers and our own
Captain Moore and other eminent specialists of our day we
owe the introduction and development of those luscious vari-
eties which gladden our homes during these autumn and early
winter days, while the names of Downing and our own ven-
erable Wilder are suggestive of wonderful possibilities in the
fruit department of farm life.

The potato, known to the world only since the days of Co-
lumbus, has been slow to come into common use, and two
or three bushels were considered a liberal winter supply for
an old-fashioned New England family.

Now the annual production of this one crop in our own
land can only be reckoned by hundreds of millions of bush-
els, while its use for food has become more general on the
tables of the rich and the poor than that of almost any other
article.

Indian corn certainly had no place among the stores of
those who had never heard of this new world. In our times
it proves the one crop suited to our broad lands.

Farm Stock.

The ancients had their flocks and herds, furnishing mate-
rial for clothing, dairy product and a meat supply ; and to
these they were largely indebted for subsistence. It was
left for the men of our day to devise and place within the
reach of the common farmer those appliances which revolu-
tionize the dairy business, and give to the world a quality
of product never before known, while improvements in
dairy and other farm stock, through efforts on the part of
specialists that amount to patriotism, have fully kept pace
with those in kindred departments.

With the aid of chemistry we are able to balance up the
feed of the domestic animal, making each part take its pro-
portionate place ; and the knowledge and skill of the vete-
rinarian give us untold advantages over those of earlier days.

232 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

hnplemeiUs.

From the coming of man bare-handed into the world, and
groping through centuries with a small supply of the most
unwieldy implements, — seemingly devised to produce the
smallest results at the greatest outlay of human musculai
effort, — we have machinery to do much of our work, en-
abling the farmer and his family to accomplish vastly more
than formerly, and relieving us of much of the hardship
which our fathers and mothers endured.

The ancient plow is supposed to have been a crooked
stick, drawn by the hand of man. This implement has
passed through varied changes till we have in the varieties
offered us plows suited to all lanSs and conditions, and
which, in skilful hands, with less horse power than the older
plow required, will lay an unbroken furrow in almost any
soil. It would require too much time to speak of the won-
derful improvements made in the department of implements
in the last thirty years.

Improvement in Lands.

Well-cultivated farms are gradually becoming more pro-
ductive. An intermixing of soils, of which we have a won-
derful variety, is often done at trifling expense and to great
advantage. Lands once quite useless, and often considered
malarious, have, by drainage and cultivation, become our
most productive fields. The cultivation of the cranberry
alone has added hundreds of thousands of dollars to the
valuation of our Atlantic States, affording light and remu-
nerative employment to many who are not able to engage in
heavier work, and giving to the cultivator most satisfactory
returns for his investments.

Long-cultivated lands, in the Old World and in the New,
under the light of modern discoveries and with better treat-
ment, have largely increased their product per acre. It has
been estimated by the highest authority of that day that in
the eleventh century the average yield of wheat per acre
was only six bushels; and we have the statement that " in
1390 one field of 57 acres produced only 366 bushels, and
but little more than this on an average of three years." The

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 233

report of the Commission of Agriculture for 1882 shows the
average of wheat in Vermont and Massachusetts to have
been a fraction over 17 bushels per acre ; in Connecticut, 20
bushels ; in New York, Pennsylvania and other of the larger
States, about 15 bushels per acre.

During the first half of the present century the popula-
tion of England increased 7,000,000, and the production of
wheat in that country increased in the same time to an
amount equal to the demands of the people.

Not many years ago it was claimed by certain enthusiasts
that we had only to resort to deep plowing to find " a farm
under a farm." If this be not altogether true, it is proven
beyond doubt that there are farms within our farms awaiting
development. The most enthusiastic farmer can hardly fix
a limit to the amount of valuable produce that can be grown
on a given quantity of ground. By a careful study of the
nature of difierent plants, and a force of application, we may
often secure two and sometimes three crops in one season
rial and from the same ground.

Demands and Possibilities of the Future.

Down through the ages, notwithstanding the divine injunc-
tion, "Love th}' neighbor as thyself," man has spent his
energies largely in subduing his fellow-man, — who, after all,
will not stay subdued. Let us hope that in the era of prog-
ress now upon us we may learn the importance and the
beauty of complying with that early command, " Subdue
the earth," and we may faintly imagine some of the possible
results. We shall learn to utilize more perfectly the mate-
rial and forces at our command.

As the manufacturer utilizes the forces of nature when he
turns water on to his wheels, and confines steam that it may
do his bidding, so the farmer must utilize the gathering,
digesting and assimilating powers of the various domestic
animals and the forces of gravitation in drainage and irriga-
tion.

We must learn and remember that the difference between
about right and just right may be the difference between
success and failure, and that wo have to contend with sharp
competition and constantly varying circumstances. None

234 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

the less does this require thought, because from the early
days of man this has been one of his chief employments.

Our ancestors could not, from the nature of their sur-
roundings, have lived as wo live ; to have undertaken it
would have been wrong. In our day and with our advan-
tages, it would be wrong for this generation to live as did
those who preceded us. " New times demand new
measures."

Some things long held in doubt are already settled, while
some important matters are still in dispute ; and possibly
others which may 3^et prove of great interest have not re-
ceived a passing thought.

Progressive agriculture means, not necessarily a growing
bank account or heavy assets for executors and adnunistra-
tors, but more comforts to the world, because of more
knowledge and an awakened desire for other possibilities.

An ethnologist of ability, Mr. Charles Pickering, has main-
tained that " the history of the progress of mankind can be
distinctly traced to the extension of the areas of cultivated
plants."

Proofressive agriculture means a love for, and a faith and
a delisrht in, the work which will make the farmer in his
employment the most contented and therefore the happiest of
men.

He of all men is most likely to be blessed with an answer
to that wonderful prayer of old, " Give me neither poverty
nor riches," — a condition which will enable him to look
soberly and candidly upon the realities of life, while he re-
members that " as for the earth, out of it cometh bread."

The quantity, the quality, the variety and the cost of
bread are dependent under certain laws of nature upon the
energy, the skill and the wisdom of the agriculturist.

" Seize upon truth where'er 'tis found,
On Christian or on heathen ground ;
The flower 's divine where'er it grows ;
Neglect the prickle and assume the rose."

The Chairman. We have all been pleased with this lect-
ure to which we have listened, and it abounds in suggestions
for discussion, which I hope will follow. There are many
gentlemen here who are able to speak on the subject.

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 235

Mr. Root. I do not rise to make any remarks. I know
that this auciience have been charmed and instructed by the
admirable lecture to which we have listened, and I rise sim-
ply to sui2:gest that the Chairman call upon a gentleman
whom I notice in the audience ; a gentleman whose wide ob-
servation and experience in carrying on experiments both in
this State and the State of New York, in positions of high
responsibility, abundantly fit him to speak on this occasion ;
a gentleman who has been selected by the Board of Trustees
of your Agricultural College to preside over an important
department, that of agriculture, and to guide our youth and
stimulate them to the acquisition of a thorough knowledge
of progressive, scientific agriculture. I refer to Professor
Alvord of the Massachusetts Agricultural College.

The Chatrmax. The audience will be pleased to listen to
Major Alvord.

Major Alvord. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, —
This is a very unexpected call to me. Naturally enough I
took this opportunity to again be present at a meeting of
the Massachusetts Board, and while I might have joined in
any discussion arising after the entertaining paper which we
have heard, I confess to being a good deal staggered by the
introduction with which I am called forward at this time.

Perhaps nothing can be more appropriate in following the
paper that we have just heard read with so much pleasure
and profit, than to take up a suggestion of the writer and
enlarge briefly upon it ; namely, considering the plow as an
illusti"ation of the progressive agriculture of the world.

I believe that our first recorded history is in the form of
sculptures upon ancient tombs and monuments in Asia Minor
and Egypt. In Asia Minor an ancient slab has been found,
which probably dates back between 3,500 and 4,000 years,
and shows the plow in the form which has been mentioned,
of a crooked stick, managed by six men. The plow then
consisted of the essential pails which we recognize to-day.
The plow-beam was long, extending upwards at a sharp
angle so as to rest upon the shoulders of the two leaders of
the four-man team. About half-way down the beam the
other two men grasped it by hand. It turned at the junction
of the beam and the share,' and there had two handles at-

236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

tached, which were managed by two other men, one on
each. The share was simply a stick which projected into
the ground, through which pegs were driven, so that the
men could assist with their feet in forcing the point into the
ground, as well as use the handles. When it was desired to
raise the point from the ground somewhat, the leaders of the
team slipped back under the beam, raising the point, and
therefore lifting the share out of the ground, on the princi-
ple of the lever.

The first record of a team of animals used in the operation
of plowing comes later, on Theban tombs. There I believe
the plow was essentially in the same form, but it seems that
when they began to use cattle for drawing it they considered
one handle as sufficient, and the person who guided the plow
with one hand sometimes sowed the grain with the other.
Some of their representations indicate that the sower of the
seed preceded the cattle, sowed in advance of them, and the
plow was used largely for covering the seed. Other repre-
sentations give us a third person, whose duty it seemed to be
to make noises and gesticulations, which have been interpreted
as intended (and that is indicated also by engravings) to
scare away birds and distract their attention, so that they
should not see that seed was being put into the ground.
Here again, with the oxen, the beam was long, projecting
above their heads, and lashed to a plain stick, that in turn
was fastened across in front of the horns of the cattle. The
plow itself at that time appears not to have been changed in
form. It was of wood and the share a forked stick. From
that time there was little change or luodification for a long
series of years. Two handles were substituted for one, and
the share itself appears to have been changed somewhat in
form, applying the principle of the wedge ; but except in the
recognition of the lever in the construction of the plow itself,
there seems to have been no essential change. This application
of the wedge in"raising the earth, making a chisel edge of the
share, so that it simply raised the earth vertically, upon the
principle of the wedge, appears to have been the second ap-
plication of mechanics to agricultural implements. In this
form, which dates back to between 1,700 and 1,800 years be-
fore Christ, the plow comes down to the time when we get

PEOGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 237

the first written history of agricultural implements ; and I
suppose we may consider the earliest to be that of the Greek
writer Hesiod, between seven and eight hundred years before
Christ. He describes the plow very minutely, and he also
gives us, after the Greek style, something of its origin.

You know the Greeks had legends to account for almost
everything, and among them was one as to the origin of the
plow. The daughter of Saturn and Rhea — the goddess
and guardian of agriculture — was Ceres, who needs no in-
troduction to an audience so largely of The Grange. Ceres
had a daughter, Proserpine, a likely maiden, and it is easily
understood that while duly considerate and affectionate, the
worthy goddess looked forward with great satisfaction to the
time when her daughter should relieve her from household
cares. But like so many mothers, Ceres was doomed to dis-
appointment. One day while Proserpine was gathering flow-
ers in the fields of Enna, Pluto came and carried her away
to be the queen of the lower regions. Ceres was disconso-
late over the loss of her daughter, and vainly wandered about
in search of her, and neglected her duties ; so the harvests
fiiiled and the earth was in dano^er of becomino; barren.
Jupiter and all the gods besought her to give up the search
and return to Olympus ; but she would not. Finally the gods
succeeded in persuading Pluto to allow Proserpine to revisit
the upper world and remain with her mother two-thirds of
the year, or during the growing season, and then she was to
spend the winter with her husband in — a warmer climate.
Ceres was appeased by this arrangement, and consented
to return to Olympus. She was then in Eleusis, and before
leaving, as a parting gift to her host, Triptolemus, she
taught him the art of agriculture. Triptolemus learned fast,
and under the inspiration of Ceres he invented the plow.
So that we have the plow represented as, indirectly, the gift
of the goddess Ceres.

Now, whatever reliance may be placed upon a legend
existing in those days, there is no doubt of the reverence
which the ancients paid to all of their mythological gods and
to all the things which they regarded as gifts from them ; and
I think we may fairly suppose that the fact that the ancient.
Greeks and Romans, believing that the plow was a gift from

238 BOAED OF AGtMCULTURE.

the gods, and dreading, as they did, the enmity of any of
the gods, and especially of the goddess Ceres, so important
to their material welfare, hesitated for this reason in making
even such changes as might occur to them as desirable in the
plow. This is a reasonable supposition, I say. At all
events, from the time Hesiod wrote, seven or eight hundred
years before Christ, until Virgil wrote, just about the time of
the Christian era, there eeems to have been absolutely no
change. The written descriptions of the plow as it was then
used, one in Greek and the other in Latin, are almost iden-
tical. And for a long time after that we find substantially
no progress in the development of the plow. It appears that
they did change the use of the principle of the wedge ; for
whereas, in the time of Virgil, the wedge ran horizontally
and simply raised the earth, loosening it and dropping it
substantially where it was before, the wedge was turned on
edge along somewhere in the Dark Ages, when we have very
little record ; and when the plow reappeared, as described
about the time of William the Conqueror, the wedge was set
up on edge, so that the earth was thrown sometimes one side,
sometimes the other, according as the plow was used, for
they do not seem to have made much distinction between a
right and left hand plow, according to the illustrations that
are given.

Then again, we have old calendars of somewhere in the
eleventh century still in existence, which give rough repre-
sentations of the plow, and there for the first time appears
the coulter. So we may date that improvement from that
time. It is about 700 years since the coulter first appeared
attached to a plow. Very nearly at that time wheels were
used for guiding the plow. The wheels preceded the plow,
and instead of the implement being guided directly by the
animals at the head of the team, it was guided by these
wheels. The animals were harnessed with long strips and
traces, which are described in some cases as being made of
the skin of whales, and the traces were attached to the axle,
and drew directly from it. The wheels were small, and
the beam of the plow was lashed to the centre of this axle.
The wheels assisted in some dcOTce in the draught and in reg-
ulating the depth of the plowing. At this time it is found that

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 239

the shape of the plow was, as I said, sometimes a horizontal
wedije and sometimes a vertical wedije, but still no indica-
tion of any idea of combining the two wedges in anything
like a twist form.

Then about the fifteenth century we find later illustrations
of the plow, when something like a mould-board first
appears, protected with strips of iron or brass and a metal-
lic point, the pieces of metal attached to the wood simply
to preserve it from wearing so rapidly. At this time, in the
fifteenth century, is the first we see of anything of the
mould-board character that would turn a furrow at all, or
that would give width to the furrow. Several forms of mould-
board then appeared, one of which is of a diamond shape,
with one of the acute angles pointed downward, shod with
iron, the sides turning upward ; and the earth by this means
was raised from the ground, on the principle of the wedge,
carried upward and separated on either side of the standard.
Then, as the plow moved along, the earth was thrown back,
separated l)y the standard and dropped over the back part of
this mould-board, pulverizing it by this process better than
any plow had done before that time, and dropping it in the
same furrow from which it was removed. Another mould-
board appears about the same time which has the idea of a
double wedge, and it carried the earth well to the right,
leaving the passage clear for the next furrow. There are
plows now in the museum of the New York State Agricul-
tural Society in Albany that answer perfectly the descrip-
tion of the plow of the year 1100 and the year 1500, as we
have them recorded in the old manuscripts of Great Britain ;
and there are plows there that came from the south of
France, Greece and Albania, that are believed to be, and no
doubt are, from three to four hundred years old, and which
answer this description perfectly ; and duplicates of those
plows can be found still in use in parts of Spain, France
and Italy.

The next step in the progress of the plow was within one
hundred years of the present time, in the time of Tull and
Sinclair, although Tull can hardly be set down as one of
the persons to whom we arc indebted for the advance of the
plow. There was a plow lliat came into England from Hoi-

240 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

land in 1750, known as the " Rotherham," — probably a
corruption of Rotterdam, — and that is really the basis of
all the progress that has been made in the plow in England
and Scotland for the last hundred years. That had a pretty
fair mould-board; it had two handles and a clevis, — the
latter used for the first time just about one hundred years
ago. To that plow Tull devoted his best energies, think-
ing that by developing it he would do a great deal to assist
husbandry. He attached wheels to the truck which were
five or six feet in diameter, and there was a very clumsy sys-
tem of chains, drawing something like the ordinary draught,
but not exactly like that of the present day. That was the
only redeeming feature of his improvement ; but it was a
very cumbersome affair, requiring five or six oxen to draw
it, and the wheels were both alike, no provision being made
for the fact that one wheel was to run over soft ground, and
perhaps in a furrow. We cannot thank Tull much for im-
proving the plow.

But I have said enough about England. We are not very
much interested in that. In the last hundred years we have
got ahead of them very fast in this country. I want to call
attention to the fact that the first person we can find who
took a particular interest in developing the plow upon sci-
entific principles was Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, who,
while he was Washington's minister to France, is found by
his note-book making a record of the unscientific and im-
practicable character of the plows which he saw used by the
peasants in France ; and in that note-book, afterward
published, we find the idea first expressed of making the
mould-board on the principle of the twist, which is the
recognized principle of the correct mould-board of the
present day. Jefferson submitted two papers to eminent
scientific societies upon the construction of the plow before
he returned to America, and he stands to-day, in France and
Great Britain, as the author of the first plow made upon
scientific principles. He made plows after his own pattern
upon returning to this country, and was one of the first, also,
to have the entire mould-board made of iron, if not the first.
Probably he was the first in this country. We all know the
interest that Webster took in the plow and in the history of

PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 241

the plow. Daniel "Webster stands, perhaps, in this country
next to Jefferson, as being the one to whom we are indebted
for great strides in the development and progress of the
plow.

Then, coming to more recent years, it is within the memory
of all of us here that one of the successful plows in the
present generation is the invention of Governor Holbrook,
who, perhaps, perfected the geometrical demonstration of the
construction of mould-boards, so that any number of plows
could be made of a given size for a given purpose, and they
would all be alike. So we see in the progress of agriculture,
as illustrated by the plow, some of our most eminent Ameri-
can statesmen — men whom we would hardly expect to
devote their time and talents to this purpose — doing for us a
very great service.

I think that we must all recognize the plow as the most
important implement of agriculture. The stirring of the
soil and the operation of pulverization by the use of a single
implement lies at the basis of all our agricultural industry,
and the plow therefore is our most important implement.
I thought it was as good an example as I could take to follow
up the very interesting paper with which Mr. Brooks has
opened this discussion.

The Chairman. Has any other gentleman any remarks to
offer on this subject, or is there any one whom you desire to
hear? If you will name him, I will call him out.

Mr. Houghton. I suppose this is about the last time we
shall have an opportunity to hear from oilir Secretary. You
know, Mr. Chairman, that everybody likes to hear him.
[Applause.]

Secretary Russell. Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentle-
men,— I think it is rather unkind in my good friend from
Sutton to remind you and me that this is probably one of
the last times that I shall have the pleasure of standing
before these assemblies.

Mr. Houghton. You are going up higher. That is what
I had in mind.

Secretary Russell. No, sir ; nobody rises from agricul-
ture. Men boast of going higher when they become place-
men or politicians, but it is not a rise. The noblest pursuit

242 BOAI^D OF AGmCULTUUE.

of man is reached when one is an independent tiller of the
soil [applause], and it is a matter of great regret in my
mind to-night that this is the last evening that I shall occupy
this official position as tho head of the Board of Agriculture
of Massachusetts. I have no fitting words for this occasion ;
but I hope that the man who follows me will have the same
earnestness of feoling and the same pride in his position that
I have had, and will enjoy the same delightful and friendly
relations that I have had with tho agricultural interests of
Massachusetts. If he does, his life will be a happy one, and
when he resigns his office it will be with as much pain at
parting as I feel to-night.

The Chairman. Perhaps we had better now adjourn.

Adjourned until Thursday, at 9.30.

THIRD DAY.

The meeting was called to order at 9.30 by Mr. Goddard.
The Chairman. I have the pleasure to announce a lecture
by Mr. Edward Burnett of Southborough.

SWINE FOR THE HOME MARKET.

BY iDWARD BURNETT OF SOUTHBOEOIIGH.

Gentlemen and Fellow-Farmers, — The origin of the mod-
ern pig dates back only about a century, and the first cross
towards the remarkable improvement brought about during
this period was undoubtedly made by the introduction of the
Chinese and Siamese blood.

From what I have read in the various English authorities
on this subject and from old wood-cats, this Chinese pig,
either white, spotted or black, was of medium size, with
rather a short ftice, large, coarse body, and smallish bones.
This animal fattened rapidly, but the flesh was inclined to
be soft and flabby and always very thick on the belly. The
cross, by a survival of the fittest and fresh importations

SWNE FOR THE HOME MARKET. 243

extending over a period of many years, founded the thor-
oughbred families of to-day, — the Yorkshire, Berkshire,
Essex and other well-known English strains.

Few people realize what good work these early English
breeders did, and how much the whole civilized world is in-
debted to them for their great efforts in the improvement of
all our domestic animals, especially those for beef, mutton
and pork. They reduced the cost of actual production at
least one-half. I find in Pearce's " History of Berkshire,"
published in 1794, that, speaking of the hogs, he says:
'*They are the long-eared kind, having long legs, high,
narrow backs and low shoulders ; they are slow feeders, and
require good meals to keep them even in tolerable condition."
Contrast this description with the Berkshire of to-day.

Lord Weston in 1834 made a violent outcross, and by
importing from Italy some black Neapolitan boars founded
the Berkshire and Essex fomilies ; and Fisher Hobbs, a ten-
ant farmer of his, continuing this cross, devoted a lifetime to
improving and establishing these two breeds.

Lord Ducie, on the other hand, did much for the white
breeds, and to his skill is largely due the improved York-
shire of to-day, which is in my opinion the most perfect mod-
ern specimen of the porcine ftimily.

In our own country I find that the farmers began to im-
prove their swine about the beginning x)f the present cen-
tury, and to the sea-captains of our merchant marine, and
a few wealthy gentlemen in Philadelphia, New York and
Boston, was largely due the infusion of fresh and improved
blood. Chinese pigs were the first imported, and from some
of these animals, bought in Philadelphia by the Quakers of
Butler Cuunty, Ohio, originated the once famous Magic
breed ; and this stock, in turn crossed with an imported Berk-
shire boar, produced the Poland China, a breed to-day more
commonly found among the large farmers, especially in the
West, than any other. The Chester Whites, another Amer-
ican family, originated about fifty years ago, in Chester
County, Pennsylvania. It received its first cross from Eng-
lish white stock, and is found quite extensively among the
Eastern farmers. The originators of this breed boast of
their never having made any but the original cross. I think,

'2U BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

however, the infusion of some first-class Yorkshire and Suf-
folk blood into New England has, during the past quarter of
a century, greatly improved the originals.

These so-called American breeds, in my opinion, are not
true thoroughbreds, and this opinion has been formed by per-
sonal observation at the State Fairs, not only here in the
East, but throughout the West.

I have always found a marked difference in the same lit-
ters ; among the Poland Chinas, some pigs with the long,
sugar-loaf head of the old-fashioned Magic type, and others
with the short-dished face of the thoroughbred Berkshire.
Among the Chester Whites in the same litters I have found
the drooping ear, with a sort of teat on the under side,
coarse bones and crooked legs, the early characteristics of
this breed, and with these same pigs the finer, shorter head
and clean limbs of the Yorkshire or Suffolk.

The definition of a thoroui^hbred is when "like begets
like, or the likeness of some ancestor ;" and how clearly this
is found in the modern English breeds, every pig in the
litter having the characteristics, and only the characteristics,
of its distinct family, even to the markings of the bristles.
I fully appreciate that I am casting a bomb into the camp of
our American breeders ; but I will stand my ground. In
Greenfield, a few years ago, when talking on this same sub-
ject before a farmers' institute, the farmers objected to this
assertion of mine, but proved it, to my great satisfaction,
soon afterwards by admitting that their present Chester
Whites were no more like the original parent stock, brought
twenty-five years ago from Chester County, than the im-
})roved shorthorn steer is like the coarse ox found to-day on
some of our New England farms. Among the English farm-
ers, a few men — generally of wealth, and always with great
intelligence and perseverance — make the developing of a
breed a life study.

I find Mr. Sanford Howard's paper on " Swine," published
in the Report of our State Board of Agriculture in 1853, by
our late secretary, Mr. Flint, most complete and interesting.
He speaks of Capt. John Mackay, a wealthy sea-captain and
ship-owner of Boston, who brought pigs on his ships from
all parts of the world, beginning in 1830. He did a great

SWINE FOR THE HOME MARKET. 245

deal to improve our stock, and a breed called the Mackay
breed was soon well known throuorbout New England and
the Middle States. These pigs, although a great improve-
ment, varied very much in size and shape, as one might
naturally suppose.

The Stickneys, William and Josiah, imported, from 1842
to 1848, a number of the improved Suffolk, and created a
great demand for this stock throughout the country ; and
the effects of this importation are found to-day in many a
New England pen.

Later, the old Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agri-
culture, always ready to lend a generous hand to improve
the condition of our common fiirm-stock, imported Berk-
shires, Essex and Yorkshires, selected from tho best pens in
England, and from time to time has distributed them
throughout the State.

The question of to-day is. What pig is the most profitable
for us to breed for our home market ? This can be easily
answered by saying, That pig which in the shortest space
of time on a given amount of food will produce the most
pork.

Our market has changed, even in my day, very greatly.
Formerly, the packers wanted a large hog, weighing from
400 to 600 pounds, from one to two years old, and paid the
highest price for such pork. To-day, these same buyers
want pigs weighing from 200 to 300 pounds, and prefer those
not over ten months old.

Compare a grade shorthorn steer of to-day, with its
almost perfect symmetry and small amount of waste, to the
beef animal of fifty years ago, and what do we find by the
comparison ? In the former, as much beef at two years of
age and of much better quality than in the latter at four
years of age. Similar results are obtained with our best
grade pigs, for we get as much pork in eight months as we
formerly did in twelve.

Nearly all writers on this subject agree that for the
ordinary farmer, with his usual facilities for fattening pigs,
a thoroughbred boar of small bone, with a short nose and of
early maturity, crossed in sows that have plenty of constitu-
tion, and that might, perhaps, be considered a little coarse;

246 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

produce the best average results. I have followed this
practice myself, and will give you the results of my experi-
ence.

My first boar was an Essex, and his pigs were most satis-
factory, maturing early, docile and easily fattened. At the
bench, in cutting up, I found the strips for the barrel of fine
quality and very thick ; but the belly stock, which I put into
bacon, was heavy and too fat. The hams were very large
and the fresh meat a little dark.

My next purchase was a Yorkshire boar, and I was much
pleased with the results ; pigs were most easily kept and
always fat. I obtained the whitest and best loins and
spare-ribs for the market, a firm and thin-rind pork for salt-
ing down, but a beliy strip that was just the reverse of the
Essex grades, — too light and thin.

My next boar was a Berkshire, and, with the exception
of the bacon and hams, which were almost perfect, I found
these pigs did not fatten as easily and were inclined to be
restless.

After many experiments, I should select to-day for my
special business strong, hearty, grade Yorkshire sows and
cross with the Berkshire boar, or the reverse, when they are
almost sure to be white.

Pigs, like all domestic animals, require plenty of good
feed, fed regularly, clean quarters and proper care. With-
out either one of these requirements, no matter how good
stock a farmer may have to begin with, he will not be suc-
cessful and his stock will soon begin to deteriorate. No
other animals require greater skill in in-and-in breeding
than pigs, and for the ordinary farmer fresh blood every few
years is indispensable.

Nothing should be bred under a year old, and experience
has taught me that a well-shaped sow that throws large
litters and is a good mother can be kept to advantage eight
or nine years. 1 he flow of milk increases up to four years,
and will hold as long as she continues to be a good feeder.

There is, perhaps, more skill in feeding swine than any of
our domestic animals, and I have frcqu< ntly found that one
man would make pigs thrive on a certain amount of feed,
on which with another they would hardly hold their own.

SWINE FOE THE HOME MAEKET. 247

There is nothing like skim milk for young pigs, and yet
it cannot be fed profitably for any length of time at over
half a cent a quart.

As a substitute, I have used to advantage good bran and
crushed oats scalded so as to make a thin mush. After
the third month some meal can be added, and gradually
increased until it takes the place entirely of the bran and
constitutes three-fourths of the grain feed. With spring
pigs this feed of grain can be supplemented by one feed a
day of green fodder ; freshly-cut clover being the best of all.
Young pigs should be fed three times a day. Some of the
farmers that supply me with pnrk. have been most success-
ful in turning weaned pigs out to clover, and feeding only a
small ration of skim milk or slops once a day, continuing
this until six weeks before marketing, and then finishing off
in close pens, kept clean, with corn meal and whole corn.

One litter of sixteen, by a Berkshire boar out of a very
good Chester White sow, raised in this way by Mr. Childs
of East Thetford, Vermont, only cost tho owner $35 for
grain, and at six months and a few days averaged over 250
pounds, dress weight, Mr. Childs, I may add, was a skilful
feeder. A neio^hbor of mine in Southborousfh last season
obtained almost similar results with eleven pigs, very high
grade Berkshires. He cut his clover from an old garden
patch and fed daily in a large, dry pen. Four crops of
clover were cut off the same grounds during the season, and
1 never saw finer pigs of their age than these. They
averaged 208 pounds, dress weight, at less than six months.

The anatomy of the pig resembles very closely that, of
man. The stomach is very small, but they have great
power of assimilating food, and if fed properly will put on
flesh very rapidly. Originally a herbivorous animal, the
modern pig requires more or less condensed and nitrogenous
food, and the latter explains the value of clover. A good
illustration of the great improvement in the modern pig and
of the small amount of waste, is an experiment tried in
England a few years ago. A thoroughbred Yorkshire,
about twelve months old, that dressed over 600 pounds,
was carefully dissected, and the bones, cleansed, weighed
only 21 pounds.

248 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

One important question I have not touched upon, and
that is the comparative value of cooked and uncooked food
for pigs. I am well aware that on this subject there is a
great difference of opinion. I personally think localities
best determine this disputed point, and that you all will
agree with me that here in New England the majority of
our best farmers scald or cook their pig feed.

During the past two or three years, especially, the whole
country has seriously felt the scourge of hog cholera, which
has swept off large numbers of pigs From recent reports
by Dr. F. S. Billings, received from the State Experiment
Station of Nebraska, I find that he hopes to prove shortly
that by inoculation this dread disease may be averted. If
this can be brought about, it will certainly be a great stride
in the advancement of veterinary science and demand public
recognition.

In conclusion, let me add that I have purposely made this
paper short, and have endeavored to throw out assertions
enough to create a lively discussion, and am now ready,
gentlemen, to defend my position.

The Chairman. Gentlemen, I think you will all agree
that although this paper is short, it is packed as full of meat
as any animal you ever saw ; and now there is opportunity
and time for discussion, which I expect will be fully im-
proved. At a fair in this town last fall, those who were
present and looked over the stock noticed some remarkably
fat and clean-looking pigs, and I will ask Dr. Charles G.
Allen to tell you how those pigs were raised, fed and cared
for, and anything else that he chooses to say about pigs will
be in order. I am glad to know that there is such a simi-
larity between the human race and pigs ; I did not know it
before. I see it is now demonstrated scientifically.

Dr. Allen. This matter of raising pigs and pork is one
which interests me, and always has, very much. Unlike
most people, I have said that I liked my hogs much better
than my horse. I like to take care of them better than a
horse. I take better care of them, because I like tending
them better. There are a few things which are essential, in
my opinion, to success in raising pork. One of those things

SWINE FOR THE HOME MARKET. 249

is that the pig shall be kept comfortable, shall be kept dry.
The opinion that they like to wallow in the mud and enjoy
filth is not well founded. Pigs like to be neat and clean
much better than some of their owners do, and, if they are
properly tended, will keep their pen clean much better than
any other animal I know of. I do not know of any other
animals that I have had the care of, that of their own accord,
if they have fair facilities, will make their nest and keep it
so clean, keep it in such good shape, as a well-trained and
well-behaved pig will.

Last fall I was looking for some pigs to keep under my
barn during the winter, and going to one of my neighbors I
saw some pigs which were in as bad a condition as one could
well imagine. They were probably five or six weeks old,
apparently of the Yorkshire breed. I bought the four for
five dollars. I did not want them, and took them more out
of pity than anything else ; but I thought I would like to
try such specimens and see what could be done with them.
I put them into my stable, which can be kept very warm;
I gave them dry litter, and if any creature ever seemed to
be thankful for a vrarm place those little fellows did. They
were completel}^ covered when we went out to feed them.
The essayist saj^s a pig should be fod three times a day. In
my opinion small pigs should be fed at least five times a
day. If they are fed only three times a day and allowed to
have what they really need, I think they will eat too much.
I agree perfectly with the essayist that nothing is so good
for small pigs as skim milk, but after they have left the sow
I feed them a little bran, or bran and oats ground together.
I have been told that common middlings arc better than bran,
but I have been satisfied myself with oats and bran. I
found that one of these four pigs was so much of an under-
ling with the others that he was in the habit, when he got a
chance, of eating too much and did not do well, and I made
a present of that pig to a man, with the understanding that
I should receive a dollar for the pig. That left the cost of
my three pigs four dollars. I kept thom from some time in
November until March. They cost me twenty-two dollars
and a few cents. I sold them in March for thirty-eight dol-
lars and some cents. I was well satisfied with the operatiou.

250 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

Those pigs had good care, good feed, and all they wanted to
eat. If I remember correctly, the best one of the lot
weighed about two hundred and fifty pounds.

The eleven pigs of which the Chairman spoke as having
been seen at the fair were raised part by myself. Those
which I raised were grade Chester County. I kept them
from the 12th of April until the 1st of December, — some
seven or eight months. Those that I have raised myself,
dressed from 250 to 325 pounds w^hcn about eight months
old ; the others weighed from 200 to 240 pounds. The pigs
which I bought were as nearly starved as pigs could well be.
Almost up to the time I killed them, no matter how much
they had in the trough, they would fight and push each other
from one end of the trough to the other, and waste about as
much as they ate. They got into that habit when they were
small, and they were alyyays squealing and fighting when any-
thing was put into their trough until the last month or two,
when they got so lazy that they did not care to fight. But
I believe that a young pig, if kept warm and clean, and hav-
ing all he wants to eat, is no more inclined to fight than the
human family, which they have been said to so closely re-
semble.

I think pigs do better when three or four are kept
together than when kept singly ; I think company rather
stimulates them, and they take hold and eat better than
when alone.

The general idea seems to be that pigs can stand any
amount of cold. Their pen is generally in as cold a place
as you can find about a farm, and no care is taken to protect
them from the cold. Now, every animal is kept warm either
by what he eats or by artificial heat, and the food fed to pigs
in such cold and uncomfortable quarters as they are usually
kept in is about thrown away. I think they should be kept
warm, and the nest where they sleep should be as close as
possible. In warm weather their quarters should be well
ventilated. I like best for bedding the brakes which we
find about our pastures, which makes a very fine straw. I
do not like to use rye straw, it is too valuable.

I think the pig is very useful as a manure manufacturer.
I found my farm not as fertile as I wanted it ; I could not

SWINE FOR THE HOME ISIAEKET. 251

afford to buy fertilizers, and I am trying to get it back into
condition by keeping pigs.

Question. Will Mr. Burnett tell us the difference be-
tween ham and bacon ? I think many of our farmers con-
found the two things.

Mr. Burnett. I hardly know how to define the differ-
ence ; " ham " means the leg with me. They make bacon of
the sides in the South and in England, but they use there
what they call a "grazer." Those arc generally herbivor-
ous animals. They live on acorns, grass and whatever they
can pick up in the South, and are what we call "racers."
They are of good size, large frame, but the hams are lean ;
and they cure the whole sides, and, in fact, the whole
back goes into bacon. With me, "bacon" is the belly-
strip. It is not the belly-strip that you generally see : it is
trimmed, and it begins upon the back ; two or three inches
of the lower part of that strip is cut off. The pieces that
go into my little packages of fifteen and twenty-five pounds
are only six or eight inches long, and what I call " bacon"
is all the rest of the side. These strips are cured by the
dry process, by rubbing in salt. It takes four or five weeks
to convert the meat into bacon, and those bacon strips cost
me a great deal more than any other pork that I pack.

Mr. Myrick. How do you cure your hams?

Mr. Burnett. That is something I would not like to tell
you unless I can be persuaded that it will be for my pecu-
niary advantage. It has cost me a good many dollars to find
out how to do it. You seem to forget that I have a good
friend here who is also in the pork business.

Mr. Williams. I wish you would press the question as
hard as you can. i Laughter. ]

Mr. Burnett. I suppose he would give a thousand dol-
lars to know how I cure my hams. I will simply say this : I
do not cure my hams by dry salting. They are rubbed for ten
days and then packed in })icklo from four to six weeks. I
will say this, gentlemen, about curing hams, and it is from
experience, because for many years I did every part of my
pork business myself, up to the extent of 150 pigs a year. I
packed my own i)ork, cured my hams and tried my lard with
my own hands. I have found out from personal experiencg

252 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

that to cure a ham and do it well you must have an even
temperature, and for that reason all the large packers watch
the temperature of their bacon and ham rooms as carefully
as you would watch the temperature of your dairy room in
which you make your butter in summer. It is the most
indispensable point in curing hams to have an even tempera-
ture. You cannot cure them where the temperature is below
zero one day and the next is up to sixty or seventy degrees.

Question. You do not put your bacon in brine at all ?

Mr. Burnett. No, sir, I do not.

Question. What temperature do you allow?

Mr. Burnett. I should say between sixty and seventy
degrees.

Mr. Bill. I was in Bristol County a few weeks since,
and a prominent agriculturist there was talking about the
pork market, and referred to Mr. Burnett's raising pork.
He said to me, "You would hardly credit, Mr. Bill, that
Mr. Burnett's sale of pork amounts to some $80,000 a year ? "
I said, '* No, sir ; I would not credit it." Now, we are face
to face to-day with Mr. Burnett, and perhaps it would not
be just the thing to say I do not credit it, but I would like
to ask him if he raises upon his own farm all the pork that
he puts into the market.

Mr, Burnett. I thought everybody knew that my busi-
ness within the last few years has grown so that I do not
raise all the pork that I put into the market. My cus-
tomers generally know that I am buying pork all the time,
and I tell them so. But I do exercise the greatest care.
In the first place, I have scattered about in the three great
pork sections of this part of the country three buyers.
Those men are in my employ through the pork season.
Their pork is engaged frequently six months before it is
taken, and that pork is paid for above the market price. It
comes to my place, and is there generally fi'om two to four,
sometimes six weeks ; and then that pork, after going through
these men's hands, after being killed and dressed and cooled
for forty-eight hours, is put on the bench. I have two
or three men in my employ who can tell, and I myself
am such an expert that the moment my knife touches a pig
I can tell, whether the animal was fed on slops or corn-fe4.

SWINE FOR THE HOME MAKKET. 253

There is just as much difterence in the meat or pork of a pig
that has been well fed and one that has been poorly fed, as
there is in milk from a cow that has been well fed and one
that has been kept on distillery slops. I know that an ex-
pert can tell the moment his knife touches a pig, when it is
ready for the bench, whether that pig has been well fat-
tened or not.

Mr. Bill. At what age would you stop feeding skim
milk?

Mr. BuRXETT. If I had to feed my skim milk or throw
it on the ground, I would feed some of it up to the time I
killed them. I think you can feed it four months to advan-
tage. There is a great deal of difference in feeding pigs.
Some men, even with skim milk, cannot make pork so read-
ily as other men without ; but the conclusion I have come
to, and it is backed up by the experience of careful breeders,
is that there is nothing like skim milk for young pigs, and it
can be fed with safety up to the time of killing. Some of
the poorest pork that I ever put my knife into had been fed
on the refuse of a cheese factory.

In England, they are feeding pigs on nothing but barley,
and that pork is prescribed by physicians for consumptives.
A barley-fed pig is as different from a corn-fed pig as a
corn-fed pig is different from a slop-fed pig. The meat is
not oleaginous ; it is more like the fat on a pig's foot, — glut-
inous ; and that pork is considered very healthy, and is pre-
scribed for people with delicate lungs. Barley-fed pork is
sold in the London market at from four to six cents more a
pound than ordinary pork. That shows exactly what feed
will do in producing a given result. You all know, here in
this dairy region, what a difference the character of the feed
makes. in the milk of cows. I have made this assertion
many times, that I did not care what breed of cows you
gave me, unless you would give me the food to back the
breed up. I would not give a rap for the cows, whether
they were Channel Islands breed or any other. If you
have not got good butter feed you cannot make good butter.

Mr. Bill. I am very glad I have drawn out the remarks
of the gentleman. Wc all know that pork has been consid-
ered an objectionable article of diet for the human family,

'254: BOAUD OF AGHICULTUKE.

as productive of a great many skin diseases. This discus-
sion has brought out what was new to me, and I presume
may be new to many of the audience, that the meat of
this animal, so objectionable when fed as it is ordinarily
fed, may become a medicine.

]\Ir. Burnett. The statement comes directly from an
Englishman who has prepared that pork for the London
market.

Secretary Russell. I recommend that this question be
discussed at the institutes, and the fact stated by Mr. Bur-
nett published in the newspapers. If you can only get some
of our fashionable Boston doctors to recommend barley-fed
pork, your fortunes are made. It will have a great run.

I will say further, that four or five years ago I had a crop
of barley, and, there being no special market for the grain
at that time, I fed it to four pigs, and I never knew pigs fat
better. They were killed at seven months and a half old,
weighing about 225 pounds. I disposed of the pork in the
neighborhood. If I had known that it was medicinal I
should have got a high price for it. [Laughter.] I pro-
pose the next time I have barley-fed pork to get all the ad-
vantage out of it I can.

Mr. Hartshorn. I wish to say one word in regard to
pork as a medicine. Some three years ago I received a
postal card from a gentleman in "Worcester, saying that he
wished to see me. I called on him and found he was sick.
He said the doctor had seen him and questioned him very
closely in regard to his diet, and among other things asked
him if he ate pork. "Pork! no; I have not eaten pork
for ten years. I don't use any lard ; I won't have it in my
family." The doctor said, " That is what is the matter with
you. You have got to eat pork, and my advice to you is to
go to some farm where you know you can get nice fresh
pork, have it cooked well, and eat it." That gentleman is
living to-day. I furnished him with pork for a year or two.
I don't know where he gets his pork now, or whether he has
given up eating it or not.

The subject of caring for hogs and keeping them clean
has attracted my attention somewhat. I have kept hog?
under my stable, and I have had some trouble in this waj

SWIJ^E FOR THE HOME MARKET 255

I would find that a hog could not move his hind legs. In
one case, when the hog was so lame that I thought he was
worthless, I took him out of the stable, made a pen out of
doors, Avhere he would be cool and dry, put in some corn,
and left him, as I supposed, to die. He wouldn't die. He
lingered along for some days in about the same condition,
and then beo;an to drasj himself about. He couldn't use his
hind les^s, but in two or three weeks he came out all ri^ht
and matured well. This last summer I kept some hogs
under the stable in the same way, and my men told me that
one of them was so lame he couldn't walk. I went down to
the stable and found that the only way he could get about
was by pulling himself along with his fore feet, dragging his
hind feet. I took that hog outside and put him in a clean,
dry pen. The trouble seemed to come from the kidneys.
He had no power over his hind legs. I gave him a cathar-
tic and a thorough rubliing across the kidneys, and in a
very few days, less than a week, that hog had perfect con-
trol of his hind leo^s and came out of it all rio-ht.

I think fresh air and fresh grass are very necessary some-
times to keep hogs in good condition. I found at one time
that my hogs, instead of sleeping together, were scattering
themselves about the pen singly and did not come to their
feed well. I turned them out to gi'ass one pleasant day in
the morning. Some of them appeared to enjoy it very
much indeed ; others hid themselves down in a corner, and
did not seem to have any desire to move. In the afternoon
it began to rain and they were put under cover, with the ex-
ception of two that seemed to be all right. The hogs were
put into different pens, with clean, dry straw. They came
out all right. The two that were all right previous to going
out, I put into the old pen, and in a couple of days I had the
same trouble with them, until I put them into clean, dry
quarters. I think these troubles are the result of careless-
ness, and that we bring them upon ourselves.

I find that it is a good plan in hot weather to give hogs
fresh water to drink. I think tlicy enjoy it as much as men
do. I don't know but they take to it better than men. 1
have seen hogs that would go, if they did not have fresh
water given them, to a pool of filthy water and drink.

256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Water is as cheap as anything we can give our hogs, and that,
with good food and clean quarters, will give us healthy hogs.

Mr. Wheeler. I would like to ask Mr. Burnett if he
has had any experience in feeding buttermilk to pigs, d.nd if
so, with what result? The reason I ask is, that in the but-
ter factories there is a good deal of this product, and in some
places it is not turned to any account. I know that in my
immediate vicinity one has been recently started, and in con-
versation a few days ago with the superintendent I asked
him what he was doing with the buttermilk. He said he
had been selling it to the farmers along back for a cent a gal-
lon ; but they did not take it any more, and he had to open
his sluice and let it go into the drain. Since I have been
here some one connected with a large creamery, where they
are making, I presume, two or three hundred pounds of but-
ter a day, has made the same statement, — that they had to let
that product go to waste. I remember some time within the
last year reading an article in a journal that I usually con-
sider good authority, that is, the paper with which Dr.
Nichols is connected, "The Journal of Chemistry," on this
point, which stated that buttermilk as food for hogs was not
a perfect food, that the tendency was to constipation, but
that that was remedied wholly by a small addition of linseed
meal ; and I think the article gave the proper proportions of
linseed meal and buttermilk to make the food nearly or quite
equivalent to new milk. Now, I would like to ask Mr. Bur-
nett if he can give us any information on that point ?

Mr. Burnett. I am glad to have that question asked me.
I regret that I cannot answer it more definitely, but I will
say that from experience I have found buttermilk not a com-
plete food. Knowing the chemical analysis of buttermilk, I
have always thought that it is, or should be, of the same
value as skim milk, gallon for o-allon. Yet it is not a com-
plete food. Mine goes into my skim milk, and that perhaps
is diluted so much that I really cannot give you any practi-
cal experience in feeding buttermilk, and nothing but but-
termilk, except one test which I tried some years ago, in
which case it was not successful. But there is no question
in my mind that it can be utilized to very great advantage
by our New England creameries.

SWINE FOR THE HOME MAEKET. 257

I would like to mention one point which I think most im-
portant. Skim milk, as I have told you, is very valuable as
food for young pigs ; but it should be fed at about the tem-
perature that they get it from the sow, — from 95^ to 100°.
It will pay you well, if you have a litter of pigs and have
plenty of skim milk, to warm it before feeding. Farmers
often come to me and say they cannot keep their calves from
scouring. There are always two questions I ask in such a
case. The first is, "Do you heat your skim milk?" If the
man says "No," I say, "Try it, and see what the result will
be, and do it every time." The next question is, " Do you
allow your calves to be gluttons ? " You can train an animal
to be a glutton very easily, and all these big records made
by cows are simply obtained by training, which takes from
six months to a year. They are taught to eat enormously.
So you can train a calf to become a glutton, and it will put
its head into a pail containing six or eight quarts of milk,
and the milk will disappear very rapidly. In order to avoid
that, you can use Small's calf-feeder, which compels a calf to
take its food gradually. Don't let your calves or small pigs
become gluttons ; feed in small quantities and feed often.
Mr. Root says he believes in feeding five times a day ; I
agree with him. I said that young pigs should be fed three
times a day. I have in many cases ordered my young pigs
fed four times a day ; I don't think I have five ; but I can
well understand that a good feeder will watch his pigs closely,
and with their small stomachs, a given amount of food spread
over five feeds would be better for them than if given in three
feeds.

Mr. Porter. I have been connected with a creamery on
the Connecticut River since it was first started, and the butter-
milk that came from our factory when we made three or four
hundred pounds of butter a day was fed to small pigs. One
man bought all our buttermilk, and a year ago I shipped
fifty pigs that came from his place to Mr. Burnett. They
were fed on buttermilk and Indian meal.

Mr. Burnett. They came through one of my buyers, —
Mr. Smith, probably. I will say this for Mr. Smith, that I
very seldom have any difficulty with the pork that he pur-
chases. I should think that Indian meal and buttermilk

258 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

would make just about as good pork as anything you can
feed.

Mr. Porter. You must use judgment. You cannot be-
gin with a large amount of Indian meal ; you must work into
it gradually.

Mr. BiGELOW. Do you warm your milk at the fire or with
hot water ?

Mr. Burnett. I should warm it by fire. I would not
add water to it. Of course, you gentlemen do not know the
fact, but my farm is really a creamery and pork-packing
establishment on a very small scale ; and 365 days in the
year I have steam up, very seldom less than sixty pounds.
I have two or three steam jets which are handy for the men
who look after my calves. In my piggery I have a small
portable steamer, which works under a pressure of three or
four pounds, and I cook all my feed for the pigs with direct
steam. I have found that the most economical, the simplest
and the quickest way to heat my milk and cook my food.
If I had Holstein milk I should not want to dilute it with
hot water ; Jersey milk I should. [Laughter.]

Mr. Porter. We don't have Holstein, we have Jersey
milk.

Mr. Williams. The experience of Mr. Burnett has been
much longer and wider than mine. Although I am older in
years, yet he is older in this pork business, and for me to
attempt to add anything to this very interesting and instruct-
ive paper would be very much like a man in ordinary finan-
cial circumstances endorsing the paper of a Vanderbilt or a
Rothschild. Nevertheless, I do fully endorse every point
which Mr. Burnett made ; but as I look at the clock and re-
member that the hogs we have been talking about have not
been fed for a long time, I think I had better not stand
between them and the corn which they ought to have directly
on my reaching home.

Mr. Ware. Mr. Hartshorn alluded to some of his pigs
beino; unable to use their hind lefli;s. I have had the same
experience, and I learned by observation that the disease was
brought on by keeping the pigs confined in rather close
pens. They were kept clean, but their pens were so situated
that they did not get a sufficient amount of light and air for

SWINE FOR THE HOME MARKET. 259

their health. I mention this because I think it is a matter
of great importance. This clifEculty is a grave one, and I
am quite sure is induced in that way. Allusion has been
made here to keeping pigs under barns and on horse manure.
I am very sure from my experience that while it may add to
the value of the manure to have it rooted over by the hogs,
it is very detrimental to their growth to sleep in horse
manure that is fermenting and hot. In cold weather th oy
will bury themselves in it very nearly, and become very
warm indeed, and I have found that hogs do not thrive well
that sleep in horse manure.

Mr. Burgess of Nantucket. I have cut a great deal of
pork in my time, and I think that if two hogs were put into
a refrigerator and cooled at the same temperature, and you
should blindfold me, I could tell the quality of the pork by
putting a knife into it. I bought fifteen pigs last spring and
took them home ; I sold eight of them within a short time
and the other seven I summered. I have been in the habit
of feeding those seven pigs with buttermilk, which has gone
directly from my house to the pigs. They have had about
thirty quarts of buttermilk per day, and that is all the milk
they have had, but they have had a reasonable amount of
grain with it. The pigs did not weigh over forty pounds
apiece when I bought them, and they have dressed from 270
to 300 pounds. My opinion is that buttermilk is very good
feed for hogs, with a sufficient amount of grain.

Something has been said here about keeping hogs under
barns. I had an opportunity of buying at one time of S. F.
Perry & Sons at New Bedford twelve hogs which were
under his stable ; that is the number he has been in the
habit of keeping there year after year. There is no chance
for air to get to them except through a small space on the
south side of the stable. He keeps about one hundred and
fifty horses, and those twelve hogs were kept under that
stable. They weighed more than 5,400 pounds dressed. I
have seen hogs that were kept in the same place a great
many times since, that came very close to that weight. So
it seems to me it is not just right to say that hogs cannot be
kept under a stable with very little light and air. Mr. Perry

260 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE.

has been in the habit of raising a lot of hogs under that
stable yearly.

Mr. Ware. We were told the other night by Mr. Hersey
that one experiment was not proof. We have had the state-
ment here of those hoo;s thriving so well under a barn with
very little light and air. The man who kept the Essex
House in Salem for many years had a large stable in connec-
tion with the hotel ; he had forty or fifty horses, and the
manure was put down in the cellar where there was very
little chance for the admission of light and air, — about as in
the stable cellar to which the gentleman from Nantucket has
referred. He put a lot of hogs in there and fed them with
the swill from the hotel, and gave them an abundance.
They were there several months, and when they came out
they did not weigh any more than they did when they went
in. So you see there are two cases under very similar con-
ditions, in one of which the hogs throve well, and in the
other they did not.

In the statement I made I alluded to my own experience
where I had kept a few hogs on horse manure under a barn.
I found that they did not thrive nearly as well as they did
when kept where they could sleep in straw. I believe that
horse manure is very detrimental to the good condition of
hogs.

Mr. Burnett. I think the pig is the best judge of this
thing, and one of the best men that I have ever seen to fat-
ten pork is Peter Davis of Framingham. Many of the older
gentlemen in this audience have heard of him. He has one
of the best and simplest contrivances for keeping pigs that
I have ever seen in this State or elsewhere. He has a cel-
lar which in the summer is wholly open on the south side.
A pen is built in every section of that cellar under the
rafters and sleepers, but they are only closed up sutSciently
to keep the pigs from dropping out. Those pens hold from
four to six pigs apiece, and they walk up a plank to go to
their nests. They keep their nests and themselves clean. I
agree with Mr. Allen, who spoke here about pigs, that there
is no doubt about it that if you give a pig a chance he will
take a clean nest rather than a dirty one. In that way Peter

SWINE FOR THE HOME IMARKET. 261

Davis raises some of the best pork that comes into Boston.
I am always glad to get it.

Mr. Myrick. Do you consider buttermilk worth half a
cent a quart -for pigs? At the creameries they consider
from seven-eighths to a cent and an eighth a very good price
per gallon.

Mr. Burnett. I am not prepared to answer questions
about buttermilk. As I have just said, my buttermilk goes
into my skim milk. I really do not know its value. When
you come to feeding pigs towards maturity, I could not
afford to pay half a cent a quart. You might afford to pay
that price. I should be willing to pay a cent a quart for
skim milk.

Mr. CiiEEVER. There is a great deal of water in butter-
milk.

Mr. Burnett. I am aware of that.

Mr. Bartholomew of Blandford. Perhaps I have not
had as much experience in raising pigs as others here, but
such as it is, I desire to give it to you, because it is different
from some statements made by gentlemen here.

A number of years ago I built a barn with a cellar under
it the entire length and width. Upon the east side of the
cellar is a receptacle for manure ; through the centre are
stables for cattle ; upon the west side are pens for my pigs
and hogs ; upon the north side an alley- way was left, by
which the hogs could run from their pens upon the manure.
I kept them in this way for several years, thinking that the
hogs, by rooting over the manure, increased its value. Tiie
manure from the cattle was thrown into this receptacle and
also the manure from my horses, of which I keep from four
to six. I have made a specialty, until a year ago, of butter-
making, and have kept from sixteen to twenty cows. My
pigs were fed upon the buttermilk and sweet milk from the
creamery mixed together. This was always heated to
ninety-five degrees before being fed to the young pigs. And
let me say here, gentlemen, that when you attempt to heat
your buttermilk or your skim milk for the feeding of either
pigs or calves, never guess at it by putting your finger in.
Use a thermometer, and then you will know at just what
degree your milk is. In this way I have never had any

262 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

trouble with the bowels of either my calves or pigvS. But I
found that by allowing my hogs to run upon the manure 1
did not get satisfactory results. As Mr. Ware has stated,
in the cold weather they would bury themselves in the
manure, and in the warmer weather they would get very
dirty. I did not find, as some gentlemen have said, that
they would return to their pens where they had nice clean
beds of straw, particularly in cold weather. If it was cold
they would bury themselves in this manure and lie there the
whole time. Of late years I have entirely shut my hogs off
from the manure and I get better results. My pigs are
clean and they are more healthy.

Mr. Grinnell. I have bred thirty or forty pigs a year,
kept them until they weighed from two hundred to two hun-
dred and fifty pounds, and then sold them to Mr. Smith, Mr.
Burnett's agent, and, as he says, he gets the best pigs that
he buys from our section. He sends down from twenty to
thirty car-loads a season.

What I want to speak, about is a little foreign to what has
been said. There has been very little said about the diseases
of the hog. It is proper that something should be said on
that subject.

Rheumatism is not an uncommon thing among hogs, and
it is rheumatism, probably, that affected those hogs, — kept
in wet, damp and illy ventilated places. I have had rheuma-
tism in hogs in certainly two instances where they were kept
in quite dry pens, but I have always had them cured by rub-
bing. But I want more particularly to say, and I say it with
i\ good deal of positiveness, that in our part of the State we
have not had a single case of hog cholera. I do not believe
there has been a case of hog cholera in this Commonwealth
that did not come from the Boston and Albany Railroad,
directly or indirectly, with one exception, where a car on
the Fitchburg Railroad broke down and caused the famous
Hawkes case of damao;es a^-ainst the State railroad, of which
you have heard. All the other cases of hog cholera you
will find traceable to such points as Pittsfield, Westfield,
Springfield and the like, where the Boston and Albany Rail-
road have brought whole car-loads direct from the West.
The disease by which we have lost a good many pigs in our

S^yiNE FOR THE HOME J^IARKET. 263

county, and up and down the river, has been scarlet fever, —
as true scarlet fever as any human being ever had. My first
experience was two years ago. I had among my hogs eight
or ten shoats that were four or five months old. I had a
very choice breeding sow, a thoroughbred Yorkshire, which
is my favorite breed. She was the handsomest animal of
the hog family that I ever saw. She was then eight months
old, and I was keeping her to breed from the coming spring.
My shoats had a warm, dry pen, they had a run out into
l)erh:ips an eighth of an acre of grass, and they had for
fed some house swill and ))ran, and small potatoes boiled
up and mixed in a barrel with a little salt. Those little
shoats died olf one after the other, the weakest ones first.
I did not pay particular attention to it ; I thought it was
inevitable, and I must endure it. Finally I sequestered the
last two with this eight months' old sow in a warm, well-
ventilated pen, with a dirt bottom ; that is why I put them
in there. The two young shoats died, one after the other.
The sow was evidently not entirely well ; she ate, but was a
little sluggish. One night she took her feed and the next
morning was dead. Her sides and breast were bright scarlet.
She was as white as snow before, with very little hair, and
of course this appearance was very marked. I determined
to have a diagnosis of this case, and called Dr. Gardner,
who, as you know, was a thoroughly educated veterinary
surgeon. He oponod her and found every organ in that pig
in a sound and perfectly healthy condition until he came up
to the throat, which was filled with inflammation. It was
asphyxia, as we terra it in the human being. She died of
suffocation from scarlet fever.

THere were other cases near me. A neisfbhor of mine had
a lot of pigs that he kept in a good, dry condition, not under
a barn. Some of his pigs died, and as he did not want to
bother with the rest of them, he gave them away, four or five,
to a Dutchman. These pigs were six or eight weeks old. The
Dutchman took them home and took care of them ; of course
he handled them some, and about ten days afterwards he was
taken sick. On his hand had been a little pimple which he
had irritated until it bled and became raw. From that began
a suffusion of red, which extended over his whole body ; he

264 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

had a sore throat, a slight cough, and every symptom of
scarlet fever. He undou1)tedly had scarlet fever, which
he took by inoculation in that hand from those pigs.

(Secretary Russell in the chair.)

Mr. Bill. I have been exceedingly interested in what
Mr. Grinnell has said. The subject of the diseases of pigs
which he has taken up is a very important matter. In my
own town, about two years ago, I think, citizens lost near
half a hundred pigs, — shoats and full-grown hogs. It was
called hog cholera by most people, and yet from the account
he has given, and from those that I saw sick, I should say it
was the identical thing Mr. Grinnell has described, — scarlet
fever. They turned red, the color spread upon them, until
finally, after death, they turned purple ; and the difficulty of
breathing, the difficulty with which they partook of their
food, indicated that that was the trouble.

Now I rise for the purpose of asking what remedy
the doctor who made the diagnosis recommended or sug-
gested ?

Mr. Grinnell. He had no remedy. He said he could
prescribe no further remedy than a good physician would
prescribe in a case of scarlet fever, and I believe in scarlet
fever as little medicine as possible is administered, the main
reliance being upon good care and nursing. At any rate,
he could not prescribe any medicine. But I would like to
draw the attention of farmers to this subject, because I do
not like to have them frightened with the idea of hog cholera
when it does not exist. Cholera is a specific disease. There
cannot be a case of hog cholera without showins: its effects
upon the bowels or intestines. In the cases to which I have
referred those organs were perfectly sound, perfectly natural,
the trouble being in the inflammatory condition of the throat.

Mr. Burnett. The diagnosis of hos; cholera has changed
a good deal within the last few years. It has been pretty
firmly established that hog cholera is due to the presence of
bacteria in the blood, and that it is not a contagious disease
except by actual contact. That is, if you have pigs in one
pen that are taken down with this disease, the pigs in an
adjoining pen, unless they come in direct contact with the
diseased pigs or their excrerpent, or unless the man who has

SWINE FOR THE HOME MARKET. 265

fed them steps from one pen to the other and carries the
genus in his clothes, will not take the disease.

There is a good deal of hog cholera in New England. I
know it, because I watch it very closely on account of my
business interests. A good many diseases which used to be
called cholera are not really cholera. I do not question Mr.
Grinnell's statement, but from Mr. Bill's description, I should
say that he had hog cholera in Paxton. If the disease breaks
out among your pigs, isolate them and disinfect their pens at
the earliest possible moment ; or, better still, leave your sick
pigs where they are, keep them clean, do all you can to dis-
infect them and prevent the spread of the disease, and
remove j^our healthy pigs to another place and have them
tended by another man.

Mr. Bill. Would it not be better to kill them at once?

INIr. BuENETT. That is something that every man does not
like to do. I should say there would be nothing better than
extermination.

Question. Will the meat of diseased hogs fed to healthy
hogs spread the disease?

Mr. Burnett. I should say, most decidedly, yes. These
bacteria are described by microscopists as white in color and
oblong in shape. I have no doubt that Major Alvord can
tell you a great deal more about them than I can.

Major Alvord. Just a word in reference to the question
of the relative value of skim milk and buttermilk as food
for pigs. There is a large butter factory in Amherst where
they make from 800 to 1,500 pounds of butter a day, and
a very large quantity of buttermilk is sold. A series of ex-
periments has been conducted at the Experiment Station
under the supervision of Dr. Goessmann, in which a very
careful comparison was made between the value of butter-
milk and skim milk as a food. We have had there the ad-
vantasrc of knowing what the buttermilk was. Of course
everything connected with the food of the animals was care-
fully analyzed right along. You- will find the results of those
experiments in the reports of the Massachusetts Agricultural
Experiment Station. I think these were the most careful
experiments ever made in this country on the comparative
value of buttermilk and skim milk.

266 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Mr. Bartholomew. In regard to the question one gen-
tleman asked relative to the feeding of the meat of diseased
hoo's, I wish to say that we have within the last six months
had quite a number of cases of hog cholera in several of the
adjoining towns, and in every one of those cases we traced
the disease directly to hogs, or the refuse of hogs, brought
into the State by the Boston & Albany Railroad. A butcher
in the town where I reside has recently lost some eleven hogs
by hog cholera. Professor Stockbridge decided it to be hog
cholera. Wishing to ascertain the facts about the case, I
asked the man a few days ago how hog cholera came among
his hogs. He said he did not know. I asked him, " Have
you had your pork from the West ? " He says, ' ' Yes, I have
been constantly using it." " Well, has the waste from your
house been fed to the hogs?" " No," he says, " I think not.
But," says he, " now I think of it, I will tell you that when
I came in with my cart and found a piece of meat that had
become naturally a little dirty and unsightly, I have thrown .
it down into the hog pen and those hogs have eaten it." I
believe that in the State of JNIassachusetts there cannot, be
found a case of hog cholera that cannot be traced directly
either to the use of the meat of Western hogs or to hogs ob-
tained from the West.

Mr. Root. I have no desire to prolong the discussion of
this question, but I desire to add a single word to what has
been said by the gentleman from Greenfield and the gentle-
man who has just taken his seat. I am sorry that we have
none of our veterinary surgeons here to-day who were here
yesterday and the day before, but we have abundance of
evidence that this disease is conveyed by meat. In the
winter of 1885 there were many cases of diseased hogs.
The attention of the Cattle Commissioners was called to the
matter, and a hearing was had before a committee of the
Legislature, with a view to legislation which would enable
the Commissioners to more completely control such cases.
In the investigation at that time there were some very pecu-
liar and very interesting cases stated. I will state one fact
which was mentioned to me hy the Cattle Commissioners,
which may illustrate the very peculiar way in which this
disease is communicated.

SWINE FOE THE HOME MARKET. 267

The Commissioners were called to the Danvers Hospital
to examine into the condition of some hogs there that were
supposed to have the hog cholera. The hogs were examined,
and the Commissioners said, "Yes, you have got it ; here
are the unmistakable signs." The head man was asked,
"Where have you been buying your pork ? " "I have .not
bought any pork." "What hogs have you had brought
here?" " I have not had a hog brought here for years."
' ' Where do you get your pork ? " " We make our own pork.
We never allow any animals to come in with our animals for
any purpose whatever. Our hogs have had no communi-
cation whatever with anybody's else hogs for years and
years." Well, there was a mystery ; there was a case of
hog cholera well defined. "Are you sure you have not
bought any pork? " " Let me go and look on my books."
He went and looked, and when he came came back he said
they had bought four hundred pounds on a certain date.
"Where did that pork come from?" "It came from
Armour's pork packing establishment." There was nothing
to lead to any conclusion but that the disease came from that
pork. I give you what was given to me. There have been
numerous cases just like that at South Hadley, Chicopee and
various places. The Fitchburg line of railroad may be free
from these things, but I have seen evidence that to my mind
was satisfactory that in one of the principal towns on that
line of railroad over fifty hogs died of hog cholera. There
is no mistake about it. To my mind the evidence is clear.

Isolate your hogs and be careful not to use any of the waste
from hogs of any kind, and you will be free from hog cholera.
I think this question is worthy of the consideration of all,
and our friend IMr. Cheever of the Cattle Commission can
give you all the light that is necessary.

The Chairman. The time has fully arrived when we
should take up the next question, — Corn Culture. 1 may
close this discussion by saying that I know the Cattle Com-
missioners have warned the public generally against feeding
scraps of Western pork to hogs. It is pretty well settled
that it is dangerous to do so. But we are approaching the
close of this meeting and must go to the next question.

268 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

CORN CULTURE.

BY MR. J. H. GODDARD OF BaRRB.

The subject upon which I am to speak on this occasion
is corn^ an article of substantial and wholesome food for
both man and beast, and with which we have been acquainted
from our childhood's days, when with such a keen relish
we ate our basin of mush and milk, or the nice "Johnny
cake," crisp, golden and hot, spread with butter of similar
golden hue. And it may well be questioned whether it
would not be better for the health of the rising generation
if they were to use more corn meal and less fine flour than
is the prevailing custom at present.

I said corn is a crop with which we have long been famil-
iar, and I appreciate the difficulty of saying anything in
regard to it that shall be new or interesting in this presence.

What can be more beautiful than a field of growing corn
in July and August, as it rustles in the breeze and glints in
the sunshine, giving promise of the golden harvest of
autumn ; and it would seem very strange, perhaps, to any
of us that any one should hesitate in recognizing this mag-
nificent crop at sight, — and yet, according to Thomas Nast,
such a one has been found. In one of his illustrations, a
substantial and apparently well-to-do farmer is seen looking
over the fence upon his fine field of corn, when a city
" dude" comes along and says, " That's a fine-looking field,
captain; may I ask what kind of grain tliatis?" "Cer-
tainly," the farmer replies, "that is corn." "Ah! corn,
did you say? I never saw any corn like that. I always
thought corn was a liquid, you know."

I hope no member of this Board is accustomed to use his
corn in liquid form.

Corn is king ! If not the absolute monarch of all vegeta-
ble products, it certainly may be reckoned as king of the
cereals. Its origin is very ancient, and in those early times
the term " corn" was used in a very comprehensive sense,
and included all cereal and farinaceous grains which grow
in ears and are used for food ; as wheat, barley, rye and
maize. In England, corn means wheat. In this country,
maize.

CORN CULTURE. 269

We read in the Scripture that Pharaoh dreamed, "And
behold seven ears of corn came up upon one stalk, rank
and good ;" and Joseph's interpretation of the king's dream
shows that this prefigured the maximum yield in a season of
exceptional fruitfulness. Some of us have seen as many ears
of maize upon a single stalk. It was the corn which Joseph,
by his wise foresight, stored up in Egypt that kept the peo-
ple and their flocks and herds alive during the seven years
of grievous famine that succeeded the seven years of abun-
dant crops. It was in the grain fields and at the threshing
floor of the princely Boaz that he wooed and won the beau-
tiful and lovely Ruth, who in the fields had gleaned " ears of
corn" after the reapers. The Psalmist also speaks of the
valleys as being covered over with corn, and as shouting
and singing for joy.

In this country, whenever corn is spoken of it is under-
stood that maize is referred to, and this includes the various
kinds, from the wild corn of America, with its kernels sepa-
rately enclosed in a little husk, up to the *' Chester County
Mammoth," with its stalks eighteen feet high and ears six-
teen to eighteen inches in length, and of proportionate
thickness.

Indian corn is indigenous to America, where it has always
formed a chief article of food for the Indian races, from
whom its name is derived. Its cultivation was early intro-
duced from America to Southern Europe and Asia, and to
Northern Africa, where it spread with great rapidity. It is
alleged that corn was known in very ancient times to the
Chinese; but if so, it subsequently fell into comparative
oblivion. Indian corn is properly a sub-tropical grain ; a
native, probably, of the table lands of Mexico or Peru,
the great elevation of which gives them a distinctive charac-
ter from the low lands in the same latitudes. It thrives
best under a hot summer's sun, and its rapid growth and
early ripening give it a peculiar value for high northern
latitudes, where the summer's iieat is as intense as the win-
ter's cold. In England the summer's heat is not suflBciently
intense to favor its production.

From a book published in London in 1857 I make an
extract : —

270 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

" The maize is the noblest-looking of the cereal grasses.
It is considered to be a native of South America, to have
been cultivated in Mexico and Peru from time immemorial ;
to have been introduced to Europe about the beginning of
the sixteenth century, and to England in 1562. It is at
present cultivated in almost every part of the universe
where the summer temperature equals or exceeds that com-
mon to latitude forty-five degrees, or even to forty-eight
degrees. In France, in 1787, the principal country of the
maize was to the south of forty- eight degrees thirty-five
minutes, but it is now cultivated as far north as latitude
forty-nine degrees. It flourishes on the western continent
from about the fortieth degree of southern to higher than
the forty-fifth degree of northern latitude. It is extensively
produced in Africa and in Asia, on all the shores of the
Mediterranean, in Spain, Italy and parts of France. Of
the cultivated cerealia, it is that which, next to rice, sup-
plies food to the greatest number of the human race, and it
may be held to be the most valuable gift of the New A¥orld
to the Old. In England it has been cultivated for upwards
of a century in nursery gardens in the neighborhood of the
metropolis, for the common purpose of supplying seedmen
in all parts of the island with ears of corn to ornament their
shop windows ; it has also been grown in the kitchen gar-
dens of some individuals who have lived in America, for the
purpose of using the ears in a green state."

The chemical ingredients of Indian corn are chiefly starch
and oil ; it yields an abundance of phosphorus, and is a
highly nutritious and healthful article of diet.

There are many varieties, — the lower types being the
small pop-corn and rice corn, and perhaps the highest the
" Improved King Philip." The lower types hybridize
much more readily than the higher, and it is found by a
corapai ison of the chemical ingredients of the different vari-
eties that the effect of careful cultivation is to increase the
starchy at the expense of the fatty elements.

The yield of corn varies from ten bushels per acre or less,
on the worn-out land of the Gulf States, to 200 bushels, the
apparent maximum yield, which in a few instances has
been produced under very exceptional circumstances from

CORN CULTURE. 271

small and carefully tended patches in Kentucky and Ten-
nessee. In the Central States, or " corn belt," the average
yield is twenty-five to thirty bushels per acre.

The crop of 1879, according to the last Federal census,
averaged as follows : For the United States, 28 bushels per
acre, — Iowa and Nebraska, 41 ; Massachusetts, 34; Illinois,
36; Kansas, 30; Louisiana, 13; Alabama, 12; Florida, 9
bushels (fractions being omitted).

The price has fluctuated from five or ten cents per bushel,
at which it was often sold in Kentucky and Ohio early in
the present century, to one dollar and more, at which it has
been sold in our Eastern markets.

The height of the full-grown corn varies from three to
eighteen feet, according to variety, soil and climate.

The corn crop in New England is so overshadowed by the
immense products of the Western prairies, that we are accus-
tomed to regard it as of minor importance. And, in fact,
when we compare the corn crop of Massachusetts with the
grass crop of the same section, the farmer seems insignifi-
cant in the comparison. But I think 'that every general
farmer in Massachusetts should raise corn. Of course it is
not to be expected — and I would not seem to encourage
the idea — that the New England farmer is to grow corn for
market in competition with his brother of Illinois. But I
do say that, in my judgment, farmers generally in this
region should raise an abundant supply of corn for their
own use. Forty years ago farmers in Worcester County
rarely bought any corn, but on the other hand they gener-
ally had corn to sell. Fifteen years ago very few ftirmers
in this vicinity raised enough corn for their own use,
and many large farmers did not grow corn enough to make a
♦« Johnny cake ;" but within a few years past there has been
a marked increase in the amount of corn grown in the cen-
tral portion of our Commonwealth.

During these years of fluctuation in the growing of corn
in ^Massachusetts the production of this superb grain has
been steadily and rapidly increasing in the great West.
Vast tracts of virgin soil have been opened to its cultivation,
and new and improved methods and machinery have been
brought to bear upon the work, until the product of corn

272 BOABD OF AGRICULTURE.

upon those vast and fertile prairies has become immense, —
almost beyond computation.

I should like to give a very few figures from the census
report already referred to, but not more than, I hope, you
will be able to remember.

The corn crop of our own State in 1879 was, in round
numbers, seventeen hundred thousand bushels (to be exact,
1,797,768), while the crop of the United States was seven-
teen hundred million bushels (exactly 1,754,591,676).
Recollect, Massachusetts seventeen hundred thousand bush-
els ; the United States seventeen hundred million bushels !

But the human mind fails to grasp adequately that im-
mense quantity of corn. Let us load it on cars, 500
bushels to the car, and we find that more than three and a
half million cars will be required for its transportation,
making a train long enough to extend quite around the
earth, without allowing any room for locomotives. Think
of that, and then doubt, if you can, that our country can
furnish the world with corn.

Is any one ready to say it does not pay to raise corn ? Then
I will ask what crop can the farmer raise that will pay any
better? Of course I am speaking of general farming, not
market gardening. When corn is worth, say, sixty cents
per bushel, and even when it is as low as fifty cents, I think
it can be raised at as good a profit, provided your land is
suitable, as almost any other crop. I do not feel satisfied
with less than seventy bushels of shelled corn per acre,
which gives a return of from $35 to $42 per acre. And it
should not be forgotten or overlooked in the calculation of
the profits, that the stover will pay the cost of cultivation.

Then there is another thing to be considered : there is no
better way of working a piece of land that is to be enriched
and prepared for grass bearing. The liberal fertilizing and
the clean culture which are so essential in securing a good
crop of corn will leave the land in the best possible condi-
tion to be seeded down to grass, — which is the ultimate
object of the average farmer in this section, — for it must be
conceded that to bring our lands into condition to produce
large crops of grass is the most desirable thing to accom-
plish ; at any rate, that is the belief of the farmers generally

CORN CULTURE. 273

in this and other localities where the production of milk has
become a specialty.

Corn is undoubtedly the most prolific of all the grains.
The best ears of ei<jht-rowed corn averao^e more than 500
kernels, and it is said that the large varieties frequently reach
1,000 grains to the ear. Some varieties common in this
vicinity frequently produce three or four well-developed
ears from a single grain of seed, so that a yield of ten
hundred fold is by no means uncommon.

I have said that every farmer should raise corn, and I will
now add that every one should strive to reach a high stand-
ard in the excellence of his crop. Do not aim to grow a
certain number of acres of corn, but look well to the bushels.
If you have not a suitable quantity of manure for two acres,
plant one. Let the ground be well plowed and the manure
thoroughly worked in, and the soil rendered as fine as possi-
ble. It is a good rule to harrow it as much as you think
sufficient, and then harrow it again. Have this work all
done, if you can, before the lath of May ; but do not be
in a hurry to plant until the ground is warm enough to en-
sure the immediate germination of the seed. The sooner it
comes up, the more rapid and healthy will generally be its
ijrowth afterwards.

Farmers generally should give more attention to securing
the best varieties, and especially to saving their seed-corn,
for by this latter means the quality and yield of the crop
may be materially improved.

I said it is well to seek for the best varieties. But we
sometimes do not feel satisfied with what we have, although
it may be the best thing for us, and in looking for some-
thino; better we make a mistake.

I am satisfied that it is not safe to change the seed of corn
from one locality to another, as we do with great advantage
in the case of potatoes. A variety of corn that has become
acclimated, so to speak, in a certain locality will continue
to improve year by year in the same locality ; but if taken
to another place, even though but a comparatively short
distance, will be very likely to disappoint 3^ou by not ripen-
ing as early, by some weeks, as it had done in the locality

274 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE.

from which it was brought. That is exactly what happened
to me the present season.

For several years I have raised a variety of improved
"Canada Cap" corn, which has always been ready to har-
vest in September. The ears are small, but numerous and
closely packed, and the yield has been equal to seventy or
seventy-five bushels of shelled corn to the acre. Last fall,
at one of the fairs which I attended, I saw some seed-corn
that attracted my attention, and upon inquiry it appeared
to be an improvement upon what I bad, so I procured and
planted it. It came up and grew beautifully, and my field
was often spoken of as a fine piece of corn ; but at the time of
harvest I was disgusted with the result. The ears and ker-
nels were large, and the number of basketfuls quite satis-
factory ; but the corn was not matured, even as late as the
first of November. And where I had, with the small kind
of corn, not more than one basket of pig corn in a hundred,
this year the pig has more than he can eat. I had better
have " let well enough alone,"

In preparing ground for corn, I prefer to have rows both
ways, because the after cultivation can be better and more
easily done than when the rows are only one way. I use a
marker adjusted to make five rows to the rod, which gives
4,000 hills per acre. Four or five stalks to each hill, ac-
cording to the variety, are enough.

In my own operations upon a small farm I do not use the
corn-planter nor the Thomas harrow, both of which imple-
ments may be advantageous where large areas are to be
planted and cultivated. Neither have I anything to say in
regard to growing corn for ensilage, as I have no knowledge
of my own in regard to those matters.

The preparation of the ground for corn, as we have seen,
is of primary importance, both as regards the mechanical
manipulation of the soil, and supplying it with an abundance
of the most suitable fertilizing elements. Indeed, without
proper attention to these matters we have no right to expect
a satisfactory result.

But all important as these matters are, they are not more
so than the after cultivation. No farmer can afibrd to put
manure upon his fields to be absorbed by a growth of weeds,

CORN CULTURE. 275

and thus allow his corn to be robbed of the nutriment in-
tended for it, and to be overshadowed and choked out by
the noxious growth.

As soon as the corn is well up so you can see the rows
plainly across the" field, put the horse before the cultivator
and drive in ; go through both ways, and repeat the opera-
tion as often as needful to keep the ground light and the
weeds down, until the corn is large enough to shade the en-
tire ground, and after that the weeds will not be likely to
eive much trouble. In cultivatinof a field of corn I make
but little use of the hoe except at the first cultivating.
My object is not to hoe the soil up around the corn, but to
entirely clean it from weeds and leave the whole surface as
level as possible. The roots of corn reach out long dis-
tances during the season of growth, and they keep compara-
tively near the surface, so that deep plowing or hoeing is
liable to destroy them and sensibly injure the crop.

This flat cultivation is not the method of our fathers,
exactly. AVhen 1 was a boy, and rode the old marc to plow
out the corn, there was no such implement on the farm as a
cultivator. The plow was allowed to run to a good depth,
generally turning the furrows towards the rows. Then the
men with their hoes hauled tho soil up around the corn to
cover the weeds and make a " hill " There are some farm-
ers who still adhere to this custom, perhaps not wliolhj
because their fathers did so, but they think this way the
best, not having tried any other method.

There is a difference of opinion among intelligent farmers
in regard to the best method of harvestinsr corn. There is
probably some saving in labor in the harvesting by cutting
the crop at the ground instead of topping the stalks, and it is
claimed that the fodder is better. But I do not think the
process of husking is so pleasant when the corn is cut up
near the roots and shocked, as when the stalks have been
topped and the corn harvested in the good old way of our
fathers. Neither do I think the grain is as good and as
heavy as when ripened in the old-fashioned way. I am
aware that this is disputed ground, and I shall not be sur-
prised if somebody claims that the grain is even heavier and
better if cut before the kernel has become hardened than

276 BOARD OF AGKICULTURE.

when allowed to ripen upon the growing stalk. In fact, I
have heard that statement made alread}^, but have never
heard any reason given which seemed at all satisfactory. Of
course, if the crop is late in ripening, and there is much
danger from frost, it will be the better course to cut and
shock, for by that means you save the grain and the fodder
at the same time.

But every intelligent farmer will, after experience, be
able to judge what method is best for him to follow ; but I
would take that course which seems to give the best results,
both in the grain and in the stover, even if more labor is
required. From the same book already quoted I take
another paragraph : —

"The time for topping is when you, upon stripping
the husks, open a little at the tops of the ears, find the
grains to be hard, — not hard enough to grind, but hard
enough to resist the strong pressure of the thumb nail. A
second criterion is, all the farina having quitted the tassel
and the tassel having become dead and dry. A third is, the
perfect deadncss of the silk ; where, instead of the bright
green that appeared before, hanging gracefully down,
you will perceive it to be a little contemptible bunch
of withered-up and brown-looking stuff. When all these
signs appear, the top and the blades have performed their
office, and the sooner they are taken away the better ;
because after this they do no good, and only serve to retard
the ripening of the ears by the exclusion which they cause
to the sun and wind. These tops are now a precious deposit
for the winter, and weight for weight will give more nutri-
ment to cattle than hay."

This estimate of the value of well-cured corn-tops,
though somewhat ancient, has been substantially corrob-
orated by the statements of members of this Board, and by
experiments by a no less careful man than Hon. George S.
Boutwell, who published the results in the "Ploughman"
some years ago.

A suitable and convenient place for storing and drying
the corn after it has been husked is indispensable on every
well-regulated farm. If it is spread upon a floor it must of

CORN CULTUEE. 277

necessity occupy a good deal of room, or there will be dan-
sfer of mouldinor. Sometimes the season is too short or
unfavorable — like the one just past — to admit of the crop
being fully matured and ripened in the field, and in such
a case the danger is much greater.

I think a building of suitable size — say six feet wide at
the base and a foot wider at the top, and six and one-half or
seven feet high, and of suitable length — is the best arrange-
ment for the purpose. It should be enclosed with perpen-
dicular strips about three or four inches wide, with spaces
three-eighths of an inch between them, to admit of a free
circulation of air. There should also be cracks in the floor.
Set the building upon posts two feet from the ground, and
have a door at one end. Each section of four feet in such a
corn-house will contain at least one hundred bushels of ears ;
so one can easily calculate how long to make his corn-house
in order that its capacity may be suflficient for his needs.
With such a corn-house properly constructed you can store
your crop in very compact shape, and still feel no apprehen-
sion in regard to its curiug, if it is reasonably well ripened.
You may also have your corn secure from the depredation
of rats, if you use proper care in the construction of your
building, which is a matter well worthy of attention.

Corn is a grain so universally used as food for almost
every kind of domestic animals, that it is hardly worth the
while to say anything in regard to its uses. There is one
minor point, however, about which people difier somewhat,
and I suppose they always will : Does it pay to grind the
cobs? If the meal is to be fed to milch cows I should pre-
fer to have the cobs ground with the corn ; but the grinding
should bo finely done. I am not prepared to say just how
much intrinsic value there is in the cob ; but when we con-
sider the saving of labor in shelling the corn, I think we can
afford to pay for the grinding of the cobs with the corn, and
I think such is the practice of a majority of our farmers.

My remarks in regard to corn, thus far, have related en-
tirely to field corn, as distinct from sweet corn. But I am
unwilling to close this paper without a suitable recognition
of the merits and importance of that branch of the porn
family.

278 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

No dinner table in New England, at least, can well afford
to be habitually without a supply of this succulent article of
food in its season, — sweet corn. It is so easily grown
and so universally relished, and withal so wholesome and
nutritious an article of food, that it is surprising that so
many good farmers, and in many respects good providers,
neglect to provide for an adequate supply of this substantial
luxury for both early and late use. There is no good rea-
son why sweet corn, tender and fresh, should not be upon
every farmer's table from July or early in August until the
frosts of autumn destroy it.

How often do we hear some farmer say, in the season
when the luxuries of the early kitchen garden should load
his table, I meant to have planted some early peas and
beans and sweet corn, but I was so busy I couldn't find
time ; and when we hear this we always tldnk that is not
true. You can take time for these things, and you can
afford to, besides. Even if the important operations of the
farm have to be delayed one day, in order to have the gar-
den attended to at the right time, there need be no conse-
quent loss. And then think of the satisfaction you will
have given your wife, to say nothing of the direct results to
your own palate.

But it is not alone for the table that sweet corn should be
raised. Every owner of a cow and a bit of land should
plant a suitable quantity of sweet corn to supply green
feed from the first of August until frost comes, at least.
The " evergreen " variety I regard as the best for this pur-
pose. The ground should bo liberally manured, deeply
plowed and thoroughly harrowed. Make the rows three and
a half feet apart, and plant in hills twelve or fifteen inches
apart, with eight or ten grains in each hill. If planted in
this way in a favorable season, the ears will develop abun-
dantly in the latter part of the season, affording an abundant
supply for the table and the cows, besides plenty of seed
for next year's planting. The first planting should be at
about the time of planting other corn, so that by the first
of August, when usually the feed in the pastures begins to
fail, the corn will be of good size, with tassels well devel-
oped, and ready to begin upon.

CORN CULTURE. 279

If the ground is rich, as it should be, there will be a
rank growth ; but it is so sweet and tender that even the
largest stalks will be eaten up clean, and the results will ap-
pear in the improved condition and increased products of
the animals.

It is the practice of very many farmers to grow Soutiiern
corn for green feed in preference to sweet corn, because
they say it grows faster, and they plant at several different
times for a succession of crops, intending to use it before
the tassels appear. But I think they make a mistake. For
it has been demonstrated by experiments that green corn is
of little value as feed for cows before the tassels appear, in
comparison to its more mature growth, and that its greatest
nutritive value is only attained when the ears are well
grown, at which stage it is of double the value, pound for
pound, to what it is before tasselling. From experience and
observation I am fully satisfied that it does not pay to feed
half-grown corn ; in fact, I regard it as a positive waste.
Hence I would advise to plant sweet corn, and plant it early,
so that it may be well grown by the first of August, from
which time it will continue to increase in feeding value un-
til frost comes.

Gentlemen, I have thus given you, in response to the
courteous invitation of the Honorable Secretary of this
Board, my views in regard to the cultivation of corn, to-
gether with some results of experience and some hints as to
what I regard the mistakes of others, not so much with the
expectation of instructing any one, as with the hope of
awakening an interest among the farmers of Massachusetts
in a matter which I think is to have an important bearing
upon their success, whether engaged especially in the rearing
of stock, the fattening of beef or the production of milk.

The Chairman. Gentlemen, there is no more important
subject than the one which has just been so well treated by
Mr. Goddard, and it is a subject which heretofore, when
presented to the Board, has always been very thoroughly
discussed. I hope in the time which we have you will pro-
ceed to that discussion with your essayist.

Mr. Waee. I would like to ask Mr. Goddard one ques-

280 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

tion. I am not certain that I understand fully his position.
He says that the stover will pay for the cost of cultivation.
What I want to know is, whether he intends to include the
cost of fertilizers also, or simply the cost of cultivation?

Mr. GoDDARD. I don't think I should hesitate to include
that.

Mr. Ware. That being a fact, what does a bushel of
corn cost the farmer?

Mr. GoDDARD. I have not figured it exactly, but I have
in my experience become satisfied that I cannot afford not to
raise it.

Mr. Ware. Is it not evident that if the stover pays for
the cost of cultivation and fertilization, we get the corn for
nothing? That is it, isn't it?

Mr. Goddard. I know very well from what I have heard
the gentleman say that he thinks he is able to demonstrate
that it will cost nothing.

Mr. Ware. I want to know whether that is not your
position ?

Mr. Goddard. Thfit is my opinion, but I have not gone
into figures, as I think you have.

Mr. Ware. I only want to say that I am rejoiced that
so able a man as the gentleman who has presented this essay
has so fully demonstrated the position I took last year,
which was so vigorously attacked. It is evident to my
mind that the world moves, and that we as agriculturists
arc moving in the line of progress.

Mr. Burgess. I would like to say a few words relative
to the com crop. All I can tell you is the experience I
have had on my own place. I had an opportunity of enter-
ing for premiums two pieces of corn this year. The land
for one of the pieces was plowed last fall, and about fifty
loads of barnyard manure to the acre put on. I call a load
what we draw out of our barnyard at this time of the year,
say twenty-five bushels. I plowed this piece late in the fall
for the reason that the land was clayey, very hard, and the
last time it was plowed, which was in the spring, it was
rather stubborn, and so I adopted this method. Right
alongside of it I left the green sward, and put the same
amount of manure on the sward early in the spring. That,

CORN CULTUEE. 281

I plowed under. I treated both pieces just alike. The corn
was planted iu hills three feet and a half apart, and the
result Avas, that on the piece where the manure was plowed
under I got seventy-five l)ushels of shelled corn to the acre ;
on the piece where I put on the manure and cultivated it in
I had seventy-two bushels to the acre. I shocked that fod-
der and weighed it on the 21st day of November. I had on
the piece of ground where the manure was plowed in 7,680
pounds of fodder ; on the piece of ground where the manure
was cultivated in I had G,700 and some odd pounds. I fig-
ured the corn at just what I could buy it for delivered on
the wharf at our place, and I figured the fodder at eight
dollars a ton. I presume that after that time the fodder
would have shrunk more or less, because where we are pro-
ducing that amount of corn there is a good deal of moisture
in the stalk, which it takes a long; while to jjet out. The

' 0 0

result was,jifter charging all the expense of plowing and
cultivation, and charging the crop with twenty-five loads of
manure, at one dollar a load, the balance of the manure
being charged back to the land, I had sixteen dollars and
some odd cents profit on one acre, and ten dollars and some
odd cents on the other. That was the result of my experi-
ence in corn culture this year.

The Chairman. Perhaps Mr. Brimblecomb of Barre can
tell us something about his success with corn this year.

Mr. Brimblecomb. My experience in the management
of corn is not very extensive, so far as this present season
is concerned. I had a small piece of ground last year in
potatoes, just half an acre, I suppose ; I had a piece of
green sward adjoining which I wished to break up for the
purpose of working out some foul matter that had got into
it. That was, perhaps, about an acre ; making an acre
and a half in the whole. That green sward I broke up and
put upon it about thirty loads of stable manure, got some
seed from Mr. Goddard of his small corn, and planted it
about the 25th of May on the green sward. I spread the
manure after it was l)roken up, cultivated it in with a wheel
harrow very thoroughly ; and the corn, I thought, was not
coming up. Finally it began to come out of the ground,
but very late. It was several weeks before it fairly got

282 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

started. My men who worked for me thought I had better turn
it all in and sow some barley. I went up and looked at it, and
concluded to let it grcJw and come to what it would. There
were a great many hills that did not come at all ; some had
one stalk, some two or three, some five, and some six. I
let them all stand and make what they would. I did not
adopt flat cultivation ; the corn was hilled, and it was hoed
twice, and cultivated both ways with a cultivator. That is
the length and breadth of the cultivation. It was cut up
from the bottom, and we have just husked it out. It was
shocked up and stood in the field until towards the latter part
of November. From the acre and a half we had two hun-
dred and ten baskets of sound corn, and some twelve baskets
of soft and poor corn. That makes, as we usually estimate,
seventy bushels of sound shelled corn to the acre. Many
of the stalks bore three ears, a great many two, of good,
well cured, sound corn, and there was a great stand of
stover. I don't know how much I should have had if it had
all come up well. I ought to say that I used a very small
amount of Stockbridge fertilizer in the hill.

Mr. Wheeler of Great Barrington. I was a little sur-
prised at the answer Mr. Goddard gave to the question
asked him by Mr. Ware, I think, in regard to the maturity
of this corn, — whether it was ripening earlier under his
cultivation. Having been brought originally from Canada,
further north, I was surprised to hear him say that it ripened
earlier now than when he commenced with it. Am I right ?

Mr. Goddard. I would like to say that I procured this
seed from a farmer in this town, who said he had grown it
for tbirt}' years.

Mr. Wheeler. That was so at variance with the nature
of the plant and with my own observation that I wanted to
get some explanation of it, if it was really a fact. But with
the explanation I consider it thoroughly acclimated corn
when he took hold of it.

Mr. Grtnnell. Before any more members of the Board
go I desire to oflfer a resolution : —

' ' That the members of the Board of Agriculture desire
at this time to express their satisfaction at the success of this
meeting, and their thanks to those citizens of the town who

CORN CULTURE. 283

have contributed to that success by their presence, and by
their hospitality to the comfort and convenience of the Board."

The rcsokition was adopted unanimously.

Mr. T. P. Root. I desire to say, sir, while it has been
the custom, perhaps, to pass this complimentary vote thank-
ing the people of the community for their hospitality, and
while fourteen years ago it was my privilege to welcome the
Board here as its local member, and while we have felt a
great desire from that time to this that we should enjoy the
same privilege of meeting the Board in its oflScial capacity,
until this week we have failed of the realization of our
hopes, and I desire, in behalf of the people of Barre and its
vicinity, to tender to you our sincere and warmest thanks for
your kindly presence, for the able papers which you have pre-
sented to us touching the most important features of agricul-
ture, starting with the position of Holsteiu cattle in America,
and going through the programme, taking up the most im-
portant and vital questions which relate to the success of
ao;riculture. We want to thank these gentlemen for their
painstaking care, for their careful and scientifically pre-
pared papers. We have listened attentively to them. We
have been charmed with the spirit and style of their pro-
ductions, as well as instructed and inspired to new and more
vigorous action on our part to rise to a higher standard in
our chosen profession. We want to thank you as a Board,
collectively, for the investigations which you have made,
with unpaid labor, and presented from year to year at 3^our
various meetings, for the benefit of Massachusetts farmers
and of the world at large. We want to tell you that we
have appreciated those labors, that the farmers of Massa-
chusetts generally have appreciated those labors, that the
country at large has appreciated those hibors, and that now
in many a quiet farmer's home the Massachusetts Agricultural
Reports are sought for, carefully laid in the library, to be
attentively perused in the evening, or whenever leisure shall
enable the farmers and their families to do so, and the treas-
ures there found carefully stored up for future use.

I want to thank the public press for disseuiiiiating the
proceedings of this Board through the daily papers and the
agricultural papers of the State, and thus spreading abroad

284 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

the facts which you have given us. The only trouble has
been, that some of us who live at some distance from this
village have been denied the privilege of welcoming you to
our homes, sitting with you at our quiet tables and enjoying
your interesting and instructive conversation.

Mr. Chairman (Secretary Russell), I want to thank you
for your inspiring presence here. I want to thank you for
the years of labor which you have given for the promotion
of the interests of the farmers of Massachusetts, for your
most happy and felicitous way of carrying forward the work
which you have had in hand. You have said that you do
not expect to go higher, that you have taken an honest pride
in your chosen work ; yet we know you will go higher, be-
cause, when a man is honest and disinterested, place him
where you will, he will remain faithful to his trusts. You
are a farmer yourself, and have been reared with farmers, —
honest men, proud of their calling. We know that you will
do the work in the higher position to which you have been
called with independence of thought and clearness of action,
and we have no fear that you will not give us all the " pro-
tection" that we need. [Applause.]

Adjourned to 1.30 p. m.

Afternoon Session.

The closing session of the Board began at 1.30, and the
meeting was called to order by Mr. Goddaed.

The Chairman. 1 have great pleasure in saying that we
are to hear from Major Alvord of the Agricultural College.

Major H. E. Alvord. Mr. Chairman, there are points
which I wish first to mention. To begin with, I supposed
that the interest in dairy matters here in Barre and its
neighborhood was so largely confined to the production of
milk for sale or for manufacturing whole into cheese, that
butter making would not be a subject to attract much atten-
tion locally. In the second place, my grist about associated
creameries has been ground over so often in Western Massa-
chusetts before audiences in this part of the State, in the pub-
lic press and in the Massachusetts reports, that it cannot be

THE DAIRY. 28j

made much finer by running through the mill again, and it will
hardly improve the quality. In the third place, I came here
yesterday to attend your meeting without any expectation
of taking any prominent part in the proceedings, and there-
fore I am not properly prepared to present this subject to
you as I would like to do. I do not like to rely altogether
on my memory for facts and figures on any such subject ;
but it is one of very great interest to me, has been for
years, and I claim to be so far familiar with the general
subject as to be ready to do what I can towards giving facts in
connection with it, especially in the way of answering ques-
tions. This morning I received a request to say something
on this subject, understanding that it was desired by some
of those present that I should do so ; but I was not given,
perhaps, as full an idea of what was wanted as I should like,
and I think probably the better way would be simply to
open the subject, and then to allow those interested in the
matter to ask questions of me, and others who are, no doubt,
more competent in many respects to answer them.

I must go over somewhat old ground and give some of
the reasons for my belief in the economy, profit and desira-
bility of butter making as a specialty in farming. In this
region, as a rule, we have lands which need to be improved
in fertility, which we cannot afibrd to draw upon and reduce
their fertility any more. In order to do this we must have
manure in some form. While a firm believer in commercial
manures to supplement the home supply, and in their
economy under certain circumstances, I believe that they
should not be used, as a rule, until every effort has been made
to produce the greatest possible quantity of manure upon
the farm, especially through a full stock of domestic animals ;
and when we come to look over the various classes of domes-
tic animals, while those which have been presented to us yes-
terday and to-day — sheep and swine —have a good many
desirable qualities, yet I think we must generally admit that
the milch cow, when well handled, is the best domestic ani-
mal in the way of profit, both as a producer of milk and a
maker of manure. Of course the better a cow is handled
the better the profit from both these sources, — the milk pro-
duced and the manure made. We find a home market with-

286 hOAUT) OF AGRICULTURE.

out any difficulty for the manure that we can make ourselves,
but the question what to do with our milk is a good deal
more serious. Under certain circumstances I believe fully
that milk can be made to sell at a profit, and that it is
economical to sell milk from a farm ; but I do not believe it
iri profitable unless the conditions arc so favorable that the
milk commands a price which will justify the farmer in lib-
eral purchases of food, if not of manure to be brought back
to the farm to replace the fertility which is constantly re-
moved in the form of milk. The old saying will bear
repetition, that when you are disposing of milk, year after
3'ear, when the milk is taken off from the farm, whether
you are shipping it for sale or whether it goes to a cheese
factory, you arc really selling your farm by the gallon or by
the pound ; and these drafts upon the fertility of the soil must
be returned in one form or another. Cons'^quently, you are
not justified in selling milk or in removing it from the farm
unless the income from it is sufficient, and unless you recog-
nize it as sufficient, and are willing to replace the manurial
elements removed with the milk in the form of food or fer-
tilizers. But we may sell the cream of the milk from the
farm indefinitely without any appreciable efiect upon the
fertility of the ftirm. If butter alone is removed, or the
cream that makes butter, and the skim milk is kept at
home, or brought back again and used on the farm, there
is no appreciable draft on the fertility of the farm. This
is my foundation argument in favor of the disposition of
the cows' milk product solely in the form of butter, and
of using the milk, as a rule, upon the farm. No matter
what your class of live stock may be, skim milk and butter^
milk are as economical as any food that is at the command of
the farmer for the rearing of young stock, properly supple-
mented by other food or mixed with other food.

I am in favor of butter making, on the ground of economy,
on the farms in this region. And then comes the question.
How shall that butter be made ? If the work is done on the
old system of private management, two or three things are
absolutely necessary. The butter maker, in order to get
anything like the value of his product, must have a special
market ; he must have either one or more reliable cus-

THE DAIRY. 287

tomers to take his product through the year, or he will have
to submit to the chances of the general market, which are
very unsatisfactory. If a man undertakes to dispose of his
butler product, as it has been done for years, by delivering
a few pounds here and there to the consumer, the cost
per pound of this method of disposition of the product is a
great deal more than is generally recognized. It is rarely
known how much it costs to put «i pound of butter into the
hands of a consumer who lives one, two or five miles dis-
tant, every week or every fortnight. Hence, I do not believe
there is any profit in that way of realizing, with butter at
ordinary prices ; and if a man simply ships his butter from
his farm to a large market, taking his chances, it is per-
haps even less satisfactory. If we go into the markets, and
examine back for eight or ten years, we find a very general
preference for what is known as " creamery butter" among'
large sellers in the trade, and among large buyers and con-
sumers. What is meant in the market by "creamery but-
ter," is not butter made in any particular way, with any
special appliances, but it means butter made at a factory
from the milk or cream which comes from two or more
farms. Mixed milk or mixed cream from a number of farms
is the only thing that makes what is recognized in the mar-
ket as creamery butter, as distinguished from dairy butter,
which means the product of a single herd on a single farm,
sent directly from that farm to the market.

Creamery butter for ten years has ranged from one to
seven cents a pound more in its wholesale selling price than
dairy butter, at difierent seasons of the year. There has
been no one year for ten years that the average price of dairy
butter at its best has come within a cent of the average price of
creamery butter, and for the greater part of every year the
difierence has i)een nearer seven cents than one. The averasre
difierence for ten years upon the weekly quotations (I state
this from memory, but from a table that I compiled myself
from the most careful market reports which I could find and
which I consider reliable, and it has borne the test of a good
many careful criticisms), — the difference for the last ten
years, by weekly averages during the year, between creamery
butter and dairy butter, both in Boston and in New York, has

288 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

been in the neighborhood of four cents. The experience of
creameries in this State, in New England and further west,
has been that butter can be made, on the average, for less
than four cents per pound. It is true that a weak creamery,
which has certain expenses that are just as much as those of
a larger and stronger one, may run its expenses up so that it
will cost five, five and a half or six cents a pound to make its
butter ; but, as a rule, a creamery well managed and strong
enough to be prosperous can be so conducted that, if we
take, for instance, the cream-gathering system, the cream
can be taken from the farmer's dairy without any expense to
him after his milk has been set for creaming, carried to the
factory, the butter made, salted, packed, taken to market
and sold for four cents or less per pound. Therefore, it is
a safe statement to make, that by the creamery S3'stem the
butter from a hundred cows, scattered, if you please, upon
ten or twenty farms in this neighborhood, may be made and
put into market and as much money returned to the owners
of those cows in the course of the year, without any labor
to those owners after the milk has been set for the cream to
separate, as if the owners, in the present or old-fashioned sys-
tem of dairy butter-making, did all the work and took all
the trouble, pains and expense of making their own butter.
This has been the actual experience in many places where
the creamery system has been adopted, and especially the
cream-gathering system, which point I suppose I need not
stop to explain or enlarge upon.

Now this seems to justify the substitution of one system
for the other. If we can get as much money from our prod-
uct by adopting a new system as by following the old, and
rid ourselves, our homes and families of all the labor of
making butter, it certainly does seem worth while to do it.
Of course I am speaking of the average result.

When I talk in this way, the probability is I am talking
to persons who believe in creameries, or to men who have
enterprise enough to make a special market and get a good
price for their product. The persons who need most to be
informed on this subject do not hear me. The creamery sys-
tem, in substitution for the dairy system, is not a benefit to
those who are on the top of the market, but to the average

THE DAIRY. 289

butter-maker, whose butter is not of the best quality, and
who labors under the greatest disadvantage in getting it to
market.

Again, I believe the creamery system of the greatest ad-
vantage to such communities as have poor facilities for mar-
keting anything. I believe it is especially favorable to those
who own a few cows, rather than to those who have a large
enough herd to have a complete dairy of their own, and can
make it really a business on their own premises. I think,
from observation and careful study of the matter theoretically
and in practice in this and other States, that where butter
factories of this kind have been established, and where, in-
deed, the system has been introduced into the community, it
has been found to be a great public comfort, and that it has
been of such advantage as to fully justify the change, and
that those communities, as a whole, would be very loth, and
the individuals who are interested in them, separately, to go
back to the old system. I believe it is especially adapted to
New England as a whole, and especially to the districts remote
from railroads ; and that of the various forms of butter fac-
tories, the one which is best adapted to the present needs of
this part of the country is the cream-gathering system, where
only the cream is taken, where the only labor expended on
the farm is that of removing the cream, so much less bulky
than whole milk, and where the factory itself has but the
cream to handle, without the labor and expense of disposing
of a vast amount of skim milk, which is almost a waste prod-
uct on their hands, and have therefore remaining only the
buttermilk as a waste product, which, where I have had the
management, has always been disposed of to outside parties.
In many companies the rule is that the buttermilk shall sell
for enough to pay for the fuel, the salt and the coloring mat-
ter of the factory. I see some gentlemen smile when I say
" coloring matter." I believe the coloring matter, in certain
seasons of the year, to be just as much a necessary part of
butter as the salt, because people who buy the butter to eat,
and who are the final judges, and for whose taste we are
catering, require that it shall have a color which it does not
have naturally, which nature does not give to it at all, if it
is done in a harmless way.

290 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

I do not believe that there is any need of going any tiir-
ther on this subject in the way of opening, but I should be
very glad to answer any questions which may be asked. I
think that is the l)etter way from this time on. And let me
add, that I think there are those here who have had much
more practical experience than I have had who wi^'-be glad
to answer questions, as glad as I shall be, and to whom I
shall take the liberty of referring personally if I cannot
answer any question.

Mr. Grinnell. Can you tell what the farmers receive
per quart for their milk at any creamery within your knowl-
edge in Massachusetts? You have one at Amherst, I know
they have one at Hadley, and I do not know but that there
are others.

Major Alvord. That is a very difficult question to answer,
because the patrons of the different factories differ so much
in the ratio of cream to milk. A cream gatherer may go
to one farm where ten cows are kept, and get a certain quan-
tity of cream, and from a neighboring farm he may get the
same amount of cream from fifteen cows. He may get from
one farm a certain amount of cream which makes, say, ten
pounds of l)utter from a given amount of milk, and from the
next farm he may get milk enough to furnish cream sufficient
to make ten pounds of butter, and yet tbe milk may be much
more, because of the different quality of the cows. I may,
however, answer the question from my knowledge of the
details of these matters. I know of some factories where the
dividend per pound of butter has ranged during the year in
the neighborhood of twenty-five, twenty-three and twenty-
six cents, where, as near as the facts could be obtained, it
required ten or eleven quarts of milk to make a pound of
butter the year through . In these cases the farmers were
getting two and a quarter cents a quart, not for their milk,
but two and a quarter cents for the cream that every quart of
milk produced, and the}^ had their milk left sweet on their
hands at home.

Mr. Myrick. And none of the work of butter making?

Major Alvord. None of the work of butter making.
The value of that milk would depend upon the use to which
they could put it. But generally I think the cream-gather-

THE DAIRY. 291

ing factories throughout New England for the last year have
paid about two cents for the cream of a quart of milk, leav-
ing three quarters of a cent a quart, or whatever it may l)e,
remaining on the farmer's hands in the form of skim miik,
to be used as best it may. A good many factories, not
merely in New England, but the country over, take whole
milk and pay for it by the quart or hundred pounds. The
Amherst factory, which is making from six hundred to one
thousand pounds a day, — last June I think they made some-
thing over twenty-tivc thousand pounds of butter, — has been
paying us lately, net, between twenty-three and twenty-four
cents a pound for our cream. I think my last check for the
college was the September check, and my recollection is that
it was twenty-three and three-quarters cents for a pound of
butter. The October check will be better, because we are
on the upward scale now.

Mr. Grinnell. Then our farmers had better continue tO'
sell their milk for three cents a quart. You say they only
get two and a quarter cents, and you allow three-quarters of
a cent for the skmi milk. That would make three cents »
quart.

Major Alvord. On the face of it, the sale of milk at
three cents a quart would be equally good, but you have got
to offset against that the fact that the milk is depriving the
farm of its fertility, which must be broug'ht back in some
form, and also the fact that the farmer is saved the perplexi-
ties and expenses which attend the business of shipping
milk, which is a subject which others here present are better
able to discuss than I am. But the Avhole matter of cans,
shipments, commissions and losses comes in there to be con-
sidered. The factories are very generally in neighborhood
hands ; your dividends are sure. It is a good deal like your
road tax. The matter is in the hands of men whom you
know, and if you are not satisfied you can change thi
administration. You cannot always regulate these other
matters.

Mr. IlooT. Perhaps I ought to make a statement of the
plan which is generally pursued here in disposing of milk.
The price of milk delivered at our station has hcon, for the
past year, eighteen cents for au eight-and-a-half quart can,

292 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

which amounts to about a cent a pound for the summer six
months, and during the other six months it has been twenty-
three cents for an cight-and-a-half quart can. Now, the
question is, Can the farmers by any associated effort do any
better? We have baeu in the habit here for the last fifteen
or twenty years of acting in an associated way in disposing
of our milk through the medium of our cheese factories,
which, until the last two or three years, have taken our milk
during the summer months, and the milk contractors have
taken it during the winter months. Can we do any better by
associated effort in creameries ? In North Brookficld they have
a creamery, — one which is flourishing, and good dividends
are paid ; I should say better than those that you have men-
tioned in Amherst. This is a large milk-producing section.
We live by milk ; by it" we support our families, pay our
taxes and educate our children. Perhaps there is no section
of Massachusetts which produces a larger amount, with the
same natural facilities for it, than we do. Had we better,
instead of sending our milk to Boston at the prices named,
put our milk into butter, keeping our skim milk at home?
I can well believe the statements which have been made by
Mr. Burnett and by Major Alvord touching the value of skim
milk. For four years I had a creamery on my farm ; the
product of about a hundred cows was made into butter,
mainly sold in the home market, at adequate prices. The
sweet skim milk was fed to pigs or to calves, and the results
were very satisfactory. Now the farm is run down, and I
have to buy fertilizers to keep up fertility.

There is another question which is so nearly allied to this
that I shall be pardoned for diverging a moment upon it.
Our milk has to travel about one hundred and ten miles to
get to Boston. We hope in the next three months to be
able to send it to Boston over the Central road, a distance of
only sixty-three miles. Up to the present time we have
been in the hands of one firm. It is the only firm that runs
a milk car over the Boston & Albany. We are at the mercy
of this firm. Without desirino; to charge them with any un-
fair dealings, we are, I say, in that position. Now, we have
this impression, that the milk contractors of Boston are go-
ing to manage in such a way that they will continue to con-

THE DAIRY. 293

trol the miJk. It has been said — I do not know whether it
is true or not, but I am inclined to think it is — that within
the last few weeks a combination has been made by parties
who would naturall}^ run over the Central road, by which the
parties who have run for the last ten years over the Boston
& Albany are going to combine with them and run over the
Central, so that in that case the farmers will be left really
bound hand and foot. If these two firms combine, we are to
be no better off. We hope that will not be the case.

I have outlined very briefly our general situation, and if
you, sir, from your "very wide experience, can give us any
suggestions for our future action, we shall be indebted to
you. We arc all laboring men here, sir ; genuine " Knights
of Labor;" w^e all milk our own cows and work our own
farms, and we feel at the present time, as we never have
before, the necessity of adopting in the immediate future
some positive course of action.

Mv. Ware. I think the question that Mr. Grinnell asked
here is a very important and vital question. It is one that I
have asked a good many times of farmers who were dispos-
ing of their cream to" creameries, and of the oflBcers of the
creameries themselves ; that is, how much the farmers got
for their milk ? I never got an answer. I felt quite desir-
ous to obtain that information, and as usual, when I am puz-
zled on any agricultural question, I sent to Dr. Goessmann^
the Director of the Experiment Station. They have two
cows there that they have been experimenting on for the last
year, and I knew that they kept exact records. He replied
to my question by giving me the record of those two cows,
which I will say are ordinary cows, such as would generally
be bought by a farmer, without any special purity of breed.
They are grade cows, bought when they were new milch.
He gave me a statement of just how much money they had
received during five months for the cream, how much milk
they had given, and the value (as they could tell as no farmer
can tell) of the skim milk for feeding purposes to pigs.
They have an exact record of that, as near as can possibly
be obtained, and also of the buttermilk. I have not the
figures with me, and cannot give you the fractions, but I can
approximate very nearly the amount. Summing up the

204 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

amount that was received for the cream and the value of the
skim milk fed to pigs, the value of the milk per quart, for
the five months, v^as a small fraction over two cents. It
seems to me that that is a pretty fair average of the value of
the product to farmers in general.

Major Alvord. Which five months?

Mr. Ware. It commenced in February, I think, and
ended in June, — about a fair average of the year. It seems
to me that that would be a fair average of farm milk in gen-
eral, taking the herds as we find them, and as the milk is
colleited and put into the creamery ; so that I think it is
fair to consider that all the farmers receive for their milk,
taking into consideration the value of the skim milk for feed-
ing purposes, according to the results of experiments made
at the Experiment Station, is a fraction over two cents a
quart.

As I say, I found great difiiculty in getting the question
answered. I have never ))een able to get an answer from any
source except this. That is all I have to say.

Mr. Taft. How much did it cost to make that milk?

Mr. Ware. That did not come into the question.

Mr. Taft. I know, but I suppose Dr. Goessmann has it.

Mr. Ware. I do not know. I did not ask him.

Mr. Taft. They got a little over two cents a quart, you
say. Now, my question is. How much did it cost to keep
the cows during the time ?

Mr. CiiEEVER. A little less than a cent a quart, I think
3I,r. Vrare reported at Boston.

Mr. Ware. No ; I said that the value of skim milk was
n little less than two cents a gallon for feeding purposes.

Mr. Childs of Warren. As 1 understand it, this record
Clovers the first five months from the time the cows came in,
4M' soon after.

Mr. AVare. Or soon after. Perhaps not immediately at
the time, but the}' were what would be called new milch
cows. I think the five months ending in June would make
about a fair average of the year.

Mr. Guilds. Is it not a fact that the milk for the first
iive months after- a cow is in milk, and especially if it be
ju the spring of the year and during the month of June,

THE DAIRY. 295

has a much less percentage of cream than during the next
five months, and therefore is it a fair estimate?

Mr. Waee. Most likely that is the fact; but you will
remember the five months included a part of the winter
months, and then they were nearer new milch cows than
they were the latter part of the five months. Probably
the milk would not be quite as rich, on an average, as it
would be taking the whole year through. I presume that
might be so.

Mr. CiHLDS. Instead of saying " not quite as rich," I
should say that the milk produced in February, compared
with the milk of the same cow the first wx'ck in November,
for instance, would be not over two-thirds as rich.

Mr. Ware. That is a matter of conjecture.

Mr. Myrick. This matter of the payment per quart for
milk, as we have had it explained here, is a pretty hard thing
to get at. The report from the Experiment Station is proba-
bly figured quite accurately. Dr. Goessmann never makes
mistakes in such matters, l)ut I should depend more upon the
results in creameries in actual operation than upon any two
cows for any five months, at any place. There are creameries
in operation in this State in milk-shipping towais. There is
one at Lancaster, there is one at North Rrooktield, there is
one up in New Hampshire. At Whitins, where they used to
sell milk, they have started a creamery, and the farmers in
those places arc uniformly better pleased with the present
.system than they were when they sold milk to contractors.
Very few of them leave the creamery to sell whole milk.
Down in Connecticut, where they have some forty-live
creameries, they get from three-quarters of a cent to one
cent and a quarter a (|uait for their skim milk at the door,
taken by peddlers, and they get what they claim and what
they believe is equivalent to one and three-(]uarters cents per
quart in summer, or two cents (they n)ostly figure it at two
cents in sunnner),and two and a half cents in winter for
their milk. That is to say, the cream from a quart of milk
gives them a return equal to aliout two cents in summer and
two and a quarter or two and a half in winter, and on top
of that they get what the skim milk is worth. It is the
actual exi)erience of these creameries in milk-shipping sec-

296 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

tions which it seems to me should determine this question to
the satisfaction of practical men who are selling milk or
who arc making butter.

Major Alvord. I, of course, can express only my indi-
vidual opinion. There are, no doubt, gentlemen here who
have had experience with factories that handle whole milk,
but certaiuly from my own observation I have been fully
convinced that the cream-gathering system is the one which
gives the most satisfactory results. That is a system by
which the milk is set for creaming upon various farms, the
milk is skimmed, and the cream taken to the creamery by
the agent.

Mr. Root. By the Cooley process, or some other?

Major Alvord. I do not think that makes so much dif-
ference. If there is uniformity on the part of patrons in
the way in which they handle their milk, I am not prepared
to say that one set of tools is any better to do the work
than another. I think that the work (although good tools
are a necessity) generally depends on the workman ; and
with reasonably good tools a man in these days can get
about all there is out of his milk, no matter what the sys-
tem may be, and that there is no such difference between
factories differently equipped in that respect as would make
it fair for me, at least, to say that one set of appliances is
any better than another. In fact, there are factories using
things as different as the old-fiishioned shallow pan, or
its equivalent, the Ferguson Bureau Creamery, as opposed to
the different forms of shallow setting, the Lincoln & Moseley,
and other systems, and they all seem to be doing equally
well. Others prefer open pails set in water, without any
covering at all, and they get very satisfactory results. I
think there are none of those in New England, but they are
quite common in New Jersey and in New York.

Let me add, that I am not willing to admit that, as a rule,
the butter factories in New England receive less than the
value of three cents a quart for their milk, on an average,
through the year. I am not prepared to support that now
by an array of focts and figures, but I have the data at
home, and I am so thoroughly convinced, that I will risk t?he
assertion that they will bear out the statement that the butter

THE DAIRY. 297

factories of New England for the last two years, if you will
allow a fair valuation for the skim milk, have realized very
nearly, if not quite, three cents a quart for their milk through
the year, as the result of this system of butter making. I
have stated that to be the fact in connection with the
Amherst creamery, and I have no hesitation in saying that
the stock from which the Amherst factory gets its cream is
not any better stock than the stock from which other facto-
ries are supplied. Ten or eleven pounds of milk to a pound
of butter does not mean good butter-making cows. If I
had a herd of cows that I was making butter from and could
not get the average down to eight or nine quarts, I should
think I was in poor business ; I should think I had a milk-
man's herd, and that I had better ship them off. I have
made a pound of butter from every seven and a half quarts
of milk, and I got rid of every cow that would not give me
that amount of cream.

Mr. Taft. If you increase the quality, don't you decrease
the quantity?

Major Alvoed. Not necessarily. You do not decrease
the total number of pounds of butter from the number of
cows, which is what we are after. As I understand Mr.
Root, the returns here do not exceed two and a half cents a
quart for the last year for whole milk ; rather below than
over it.

Mr. Root. Yes, sir ; I should say so.

Major Alvord. I venture to say that the creatneriea
generally through this part of the State have done a great
deal better than that. I will say this, that the two cows at
the Experiment Station are poor cows. I am sorry the Ex-
periment Station has not got better stock, if that is the
report they make.

Mr. Mykick. Those must be the same cows the milk
from which averaged about eleven per cent, solids last year
and the year before.

Major Alvord. They are not up to the Massachusetts
standard in butter-makino: rc«i:ions. I a<rree entirclv with
Mr. Myrick, that it would not do for us to rely upon the
record of two cows, no matter who lias them. I don't care
if, instead of showing two cents a quart or less, they showed

298 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

four cont.s ;i quart or more, they would be just as unreliable.
We eanuot depend upon any report from any two cows ; we
have got to cover a very large field. If Mr. Porter is here,
I w^ould like to have him tell us what their milk is worth a
quart, for a rough guess.

Mr. Portp:r. I have no figures with me or in memory.
We have our superintendent and treasurer, who has charge
of all the business. I think, however, I am not wrong in say-
ing that we get three cents a quart the year round, although
ours is a small factory. We were the first that started, and
we are not in a butter-makinsr town. We are on the Connec-
ticut River, where the land is rich and our farmers raise
tobacco mostly ; but there are a few of us who have cows
and wanted to go into this system. I must say that we
have not made so much as we should if we had better cows.
We have made three or four hundred pounds a day, l)ut the
herds of some of our farmers have been scattered, and some
of them have moved out of the township, so that we are
left with not so many cows as we formerly had ; but we still
keep the thing going.

Major Alvord. How much does your butter cost a
pound y

JNIr. Porter. It costs us six cents a pound. We hire
one man to gather the cream, who takes it to the factory,
churns his butter, furnishes his fuel for the engine, finds his
own salt, markets the butter, pays the rent for the building
and various incidental expenses, for six cents a pound.

Mr. Washburn. What is the lowest return per pound
for the last year.

Mr. Porter. I should say, in the hottest weather in the
summer, from twenty-two to twenty-three cents. We are
selling it now for thirty, thirty-two and thirty-three cents a
pound.

Mr. Wheeler. The creamery with which I am connected
has not been in operation long enough for me to give any
statistics that would be of value on this line. I wish to
call attention to one point to which Major Alvord did not
allude. When you come to the question of associated
dairying as compared with individual dairying, one advan-
tage that the associated system has is the facilities which it

THE DxVIRY. 299

affords formers to judge of the value of their cows. I know
that in the short time that our creamery has been in operation,
some of our farmers have been very much disappointed in
the quality of their cows. It is a co-operative concern ; each
one knows prett}' well what the others are doing, and when
one fanner finds that he is getting only seven or eight spaces
of cream to a can of milk, and learns that his neijyhbor is iret-
ting twelve or tiftecn, he begins to ask what is the trouble,
wherein is the difference, and he is stimulated to improve
his stock. There is a point that will in a few years affect a
great change in the value of the dairy stock of the country.

Mr. Ware has asked a question in regard to the price
which farmers are getting for their milk at the Victories. It
depends, of course, on the quality of the milk. I can tell
what my milk has brought me per quart. That is, I can
tell him how much milk it takes to make a pound of butter.
It takes a little less than nine quarts, on the average, the
year through. Three or four years ago, when I had facilities
for keeping accurate accounts and had an equal number of
cows through the year, I found that I got two hundred and
fifty pounds of butter from each cow, and the butter netted
me thirty-one cents a pound. It is very easily figured what
the {jross return from each cow was.

Mr. Root. What did I understand Mr. Wheeler to say
was the net income per pound for butter from the creamery?

Mr. Wheeler. I don't know exactly. The Urst return,
I think, was twenty cents a pound, and it has been of late,
I think, about twenty-seven or twenty-eight cents.

Question. What is the expense of manufacturing per
pound?

Mr. WiiEELEU. I would not undertake to say from
memory. I have only been part of the season a i)atron my-
self, and have not had the details of the manufacture. I
know that the butter at our creamery has commanded a
price above the market. I know that buyers from New
York have been there, and when the quotations were twenty-
.seven or twenty-eight cents a pound, they have offered
thirty-three cents for it at the factory, which Avas a good
deal better than the farmers who were making their own
butter were getting. I presume that the expense- of making

300 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

butter at the Egremont Creamery is now in the neighbor-
hood of six cents. It is a new enterprise, and not as
largely patronized as it will be another season.

Mr. Fitch. The last speaker has touched a most import-
ant point in the milk question. He said that when some of
his neighbors found they were getting only eight spaces of
cream to a can of milk, while others were getting twelve,
they we]"e dissatisfied with the character of their cows ; but
that is not conclusive, because the cream of the eight spaces
may have given as much butter as the cream from the twelve
spaces. The only way to get at that is to have the cream
paid for by the amount of butter which it will produce after
it is churned. That is the only way to run a creamery
properly. If you will take ten quarts of milk and set it
in deep cans, and have the cream tested for the solids and
the kinds of solids, and the milk tested for the solids and
the kinds of solids, you will very soon find that you have
two or three sets of cows : one set that gives a large amount
of butter and a small amount of cheese ; another set that
gives a larger amount of cheese and an average small amount
of butter. This latter kind of cow would be the kind that
you would want to keep for your own use and that of your
family. If you are going into the business of making milk
for a creamery, test your cows and find out what they are
worth ; put into beef those that are cheese cows, and use
the butter cows for your creamery, and you will find that it
will make a great difference with you. If you are going to
run a cheese factory, take the other set of cows.

Mr. Myp.ick. The figures given here a moment ago of
the pi'ice of milk — eighteen cents a can in the summer and
twenty cents in the winter — give an average return of two
and one-third cents a quart. It is not quite as much if you
allow from one to two cents a can for carrying the milk
fi'om your farm to the station. I think there are very few
well-manasred butter factories in New England that do not
return two cents a quart. When you come to the price of
milk, the figures Mr. Wheeler has given do not support the
position taken by our friend over there, that there is such a
great variation in the quality of cream. When it has been
raised under exactly the same conditions, the variation is so

THE DAIRY. 301

slight that I do not believe the ordinary methods of churn-
ing and convci-ting it into butter can detect it. It may be
that chemical analysis might show a large difference ; but
with cream raised under exactly the same conditions, stand-
ing the same length of time, in the same temperature, while
you will get a large variation in the quantity of the cream,
you will find but a very slight variation in the quality.

Mr. FiTCii. In answer to the gentlemen, I will state that
what I said was from careful experiments. I kept in my ofiice.
for three months at a time, test tubes set up so that every-
body could see them. You could see from across the room the
butter at the top and the cheese matter at the bottom. The
gentleman was never more mistaken in his life than in sup-
posing that two lots of cream are alike. I have seen cream
which, when put into the test tube, you could not detect a
particle of diiference between that and the cream in the
next tube to it, and yet one would produce a much larger
quantity of butter than the other.

QuESTiox. Was that cream raised under precisely the
r^ame conditions?

Mr. Fitch. It was taken from two herds. The best test
gave over two pounds on the gauge. The cream was from a
Holstein cow, one which had been shown over the country,
and fed until it was a perfect machine. That cow gave
nearly double what any other cow would. I have had men
bring me Avhat they said was carefully handled cream that
did not produce but five-eighths of a pound. I set the test
tubes up, and I never saw more angry persons than three
whose tests stood there : but they had to submit to the
tests.

Mv. Wheeler. 1 do not accept any such test. What
w'G want to do is to set two cans of milk, filled to the same
height, into one tank, at a temperature of say thirty-nine and
ii half or forty degrees, let them stand there a given time,
and then take them out, and I say you will find so slight a
variation between the milk in one can and the other, that
you cannot detect it Ijy any ordinary method of churning.

Mr. Fitch. If that is the case, then the report of the
Massachusetts Board is entirely wronsr. "Farmers have

302 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

for a long time supposed that while milk might vary in its
constituents, cream was about the same thing, but since it
has been found that cream is only less variable than milk in
its character," — and then it goes on.

Mr. Wheeler. I remember the quotation very well.

Mr. FiTCii. You can set your two cans as you please^
and you will find that the two creams are not alike. I say
as you do, that the difference is not so great as it is in milk,
by any means, but still it is a great deal more than you
think.

Major Alvord. Both gentlemen are right, and they are
both, I think, a little off. I have watched this sul)ject of
test churning with a great deal of interest. I agree per-
fectly with the statement that cream is only less variable,
comparing l)ulk with bulk, than milk. So far, I agree with
the gentleman on my right: Now, I claim that cream is so
slightly variable, comparing bulk with bulk, that it does
not pay to quarrel about it in most Xew England factories.
Hence, I agree with the gentleman on my left. I go beyond
this, and I say, that notwithstanding the excellent appli-
ances that have been introduced at the West, — first, the test
churn, where a pound of cream from every patron was
churned by itself in gang-churns (a dozen or more little
churns strapped on the same board) , and next the Hall test
churn, where they take only a fraction of cream, and, after
churning it, melt the butter and measure it on a scale, — all
of which was theoretically very Ijeautiful, and perhaps, on
strict principles of equity, it was desirable to have such
tests, — yet, as I say, notwithstanding these appliances, I
found by attending the meetings of the Illinois and Wiscon-
sin State Dairymen's Association, and from very extensive
correspondence with a large creamery association in Iowa,
that a good many factories which went to the expense of
buying these test churns, have finally concluded that the
difference is not enough to pay for the cost ; and there were
a good many cases of just the same character as that to
which my friend has alluded, where the patrons of a factory,
obliged to yield to the decision of those tests, presented
before their OAvn e^'es, were so discontented that they could

THE DxVlRY. 303

not quite believe them, and it actually did more harm and
created more disturbance in a factory than it did to assume
that the cream was substantially alike. They have come to
the conclusion that the most important element in a factory
is to have a good business backbone somewhere to keep the
patrons up to the mark. But I really think it is an open
question yet in the West, in spite of all that has been done
and said aI)out it, whether it will really do to assert as a
fact that there are any very great difterences in cream.

Mr. . There is a slight difference, perhaps, in

the quality of difierent cans of cream, 1)ut there is a great
diiference in the color of different cows' cream. That I
have noticed a number of times in testing several cows^
cream at once. Does the quality of the cream vary with
the color?

Major Alvord. As far as I know, there is no relation,
or certainly no law of relation, between color and quality.
The coloring matter in a cow is just as distinct from her
milk-producing organs as the quality of her hair, and a cow
may have the property of coloring her milk to the highest pos-
sible point and yet be a very poor dairy cow, and vice versa.

The Chairman. Is there any danger of establishing so
many Ijutter factories as to overstock the market with
butter ?

Major Alvord. I do not believe that is a consideration
which is of sufficient weight to be dwelt upon.

Mr. Myrick. Those little test tubes have been peddled
through the country and sold for a dollar each. Some of
the Orange County dairymen tried them thoroughly, and
rejected them. When they churned they found there was^
no such difference as the test tube indicated. I would ask
Major Alvord how much dependence can be placed upon
those tubes ?

Major Alvord. I think that those little glass test tubes
are better than nothing for comparing the milk of cows, but
I should want to go beyond that, and ap[)ly the churn test to
a larger quantity. I do not think there can l)e any conclu-
sion drawn from the test tube which cannot be applied to a
large quantity.

304 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Mr. Brooks. We have in Springfield a co-operative milk
association, and our system of doing business is of a differ-
ent character from those which have been described. I
suppose we average about three cents a quart for our milk at
the farm. Our milk association has proved a splendid thing
for those farmers who had nothing to do with it, never sub-
scribed to the stock, and never sent any milk there, in this
way : it has compelled tho peddlers, who could not get milk
where they had formerly been getting it, to pay a higher
price for milk to those farmers who kept out of the associa-
tion than they h:id been paying the same men before, and
the farmers who have not joined the association have re-
ceived more for their milk than their next-door neighbors
who have, because the peddlers, being unable to get milk
of us, were obliged to get it somewhere or give up their
business. They hated the association so desperately that
they would not give up the business, and it is that bitter
spirit of the middle-man that is keeping us back ; but we
are outgrowing it, and there are milk routes offered
occasionally to us, and nol)ody is buying milk routes to
any extent outside of the association. The old peddlers
hold on to their old trade, but new men are shy about
cominsr in.

Mr. MvEiCK. Arc you not shy about buying any more
routes, and don't you l)uild up your trade better without
buying them?

Mr. Brooks. 1 said they were offered us ; I did not say
we were buvina; them.

Major Alvord. Is it not a fact that the great load that
the Springfield Milk Association is carrying is the large
amount of money that they have paid for the intangible
thing called '• milk routes"?

Mr. Brooks. It is, sir. We had farmers who were
large milk producers who wore so in sympathy with the
milk peddlers, — one was a nephew and another was a
eousin, — that they Avould not consent to come into any
organization unless the organization would agree to buy out
these men and pay them for their routes, which is a differ-
ent thins. You might as well buy out the Piutes on the

THE DAIEY. 305

plains and pay them for their ponies, guns and blankets.
There were some pretty shrewd men among these milk ped-
dlers ; they were like the lady who loved her husband, but
loved another man, twice as well. They would sell their
milk route to the association, and then they would sell their
best customers to some other peddler. We were wise
enough to take some precaution. We made the peddlers sign
an agreement that they would not interfere, directly or indi-
rectly, with our business for two years. There were two or
three young men who were minors, and they actually took
advantage of the law, and said, "We are not holdeu by
any contract," and they went directly out and sold milk to
persons living on the route that they had sold to us.

But here is an item that is of considerable importaEce.
We get our money for what milk goes to the association.
There have been thousands of dollars absolutely lost by
the farmers in selling milk to men who were not responsi-
ble ; and when farmers tell how much a peddler gives for
milk, if they do not look out, they do not tell it just as it
is, because the majority, or at least a large percentage, of
the peddlers are not responsible. They will buy milk of a
farmer until they run in debt perhaps $50 the first month,
and $50 the next, and the next ; and the first thing he knows
they have disappeared, or if not, they have no property,
and the farmer has lost his money. They lose by dishonest
peddlers running away and leaving large unpaid bills, so
that when a farmer says he gets three and a half cents a
quart from a peddler, perhaps he has one, two or three hun-
dred dollars to take out of that, of actual loss, in one lump.

Mr. Myrick. I understand that your association takes
all the milk its patrons make and Avorks up its surplus into
butter.

Mr. Brooks. That was a great consideration in going
into this association. I had milk left on my hands when it
was not worth a cent a quart. I had no way of making but-
ter, and I did not want to be bothered with providing means
for making butter.

Mr. Root. Your association attempts to supply Spring-
field with milk ; do you believe that it is practicable for the

306 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

dairymen of the border towns of Massachusetts to furnish
Boston with milk on the same plan that you are furnishing
it to Springfield?

Mr. Brooks. If I should attempt to answer that ques-
tion it would be merely guess-work. I can tell you how the
plan has worked with us. We have brought into Spring-
field too much milk ; there is no question about that. The
peddlers who could not buy milk of the farmers of whom
they had obtained it before, went outside for their supply of
milk, so there was too much milk brought into Springfield.
We expected there would be at times, and we provided for
working up our surplus milk ; but this enmity on the part of
the peddlers and their desire to keep the thing going brought
in so much that we have had to work a larger percentage
into butter than we expected ; but as we cannot always sell
our skim milk to advantage, we prefer to retail all the milk
we can. We do not retail half the milk that is sold in
Springfield.

Mr. . Your cans are returned to you clean?

Mr. Brooks. They are.

Mr. . That is worth something. I know more

than one farmer's wife has been killed by washing eight-and-
a-half quart cans. I know an instance where I believe the
washing of cans was what killed the wife. As somebody
has said, the old man sold his farm by the can, and threw
his wife in to the bargain.

Major Alvord. Although it may seem a little indelicatp^
to say so, I would like to put myself on record in answering
Mr. Root's question. I believe that the farmers now produc-
ing the milk which supplies the city of Boston and its vicin-
ity can, through the New England Milk Producers' Associa-
tion, or some other association, sup})ly Boston and its vicin-
ity with milk without the intervention of any contractors or
middle-men, and can divide with the consumers of the milk
the missinoj five cents that we hear about. But I believe
that it would require an organization not only of men with
brains, but with a large amount of capital, prepared for a
long fight, because you would have a combination, small,
compact, with plenty of money at their back, to fight you

THE DAIEY. 307

to the death. You cannot afford to buy out the milk con-
tractors of the city of Boston. In order to get your mar-
ket you have simply to say to them, " Gentlemen, we
have not any quarrel with you, but there is not room for
both. We propose to take possession of the market, and we
will see who will last the longest, — you with your money^
without the milk, or we with the cows." [Applause.]

The meeting then adjourned sine die.

MNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD.

[309]

ANNUAL EEPORT.

The Board met at the oflace of the Secretary, in Boston,
on Tuesday, February 1, 1887, at 12 o'clock, it being the
Tuesday preceding the first Wednesday in February. In
absence of the Governor, on motion of Mr. Damon, Mr.
Grestnell was called to tho chair.

Present : Messrs. Barrus, Bartholomew, Bird, Bo wen,
Bowditch, Brooks, Cushman, Damon, Douty, Edson, Grin-
nell, Goodell, Gocssmami, Goddard, Hartshorn, Hersey,
Hill, Lynde, Moore, Owen, Porter, Slade, A. A. Smith,
Zeri Smith, William W. Smith, Taft, Upton, Varnum,
Ware, 'NYheeler, Whiting and Wood.

Voted, To dispense with the reading of the minutes of the
last meeting.

Voted, To appoint a committee of three to examine and
report on the credentials of newly elected members : Messrs.
Edson, Upton and Goddard.

Mr. Stockwell, successor to the Hon. jNIarshall P. Wilder,
said : —

Mr. President, It seems proper that I, having been
appointed to fill out the unexpired term upon this Board left
vacant by the death of Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, should
propose on the very threshold of our meeting that a com-
mittee be appointed to draft and present to us suitable reso-
lutions to be placed on the records of the Board of Agricul-
ture.

I first became acquainted with the venerable member in
1879, and that acquaintance and those associations, together
with the friendship that followed, I hold as among the
choicest memories of my legislative experience. liut it is

[311]

312 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

not for me to speak the words of eulogy in this presence, nor
is this the time to do it.

I move that the Chair appoint a committee of three, to
draft and present to this Board at its next daily session
resolutions expressive of the sentiments of this Board in
view of the character and services of the deceased member ;
and if you, Mr. President, will pardon the suggestion, I will
request that my name be not used, but that those older on
the Board, and therefore better able to give expression to
the feelings of his associates, be selected.

Before a vote was taken, the motion was amended so that
the chairman of the meeting, Mr. Grinnell, was made one
of the committee. The committee was then constituted as
follows : Messrs. Grinnell, Moore and Wood.

Reports of delegates being in order, Mr. Porter reported
on the Berkshire ; Mr. William W. Smith reported on the
Blackstone Valley ; Mr. Owen reported on the Deerfield ;
Mr. Cushman reported on the Franklin ; Mr. Brooks
reported on the Barnstable ; Mr. Slade reported on the
Hampden East ; Mr. A. A. Smith reported on the AVorces-
ter North.

The Board then adjourned until 2.30 p. m.

The Board was called to order at 2.30 p.m., Mr. Grin-
nell in the chair.

Mr. Zeri Smith reported on the Hampshire, Franklin and
Hampden ; Mr. Zeri Smith also reported on the Highland.

Mr. Ware moved that the reading of the reports of dele-
gates be suspended and that Dr. Goessmann be allowed to
submit his annual report on Commercial Fertilizers. This
being approved, Dr. Goessmann read his report on Commer-
cial Fertilizers, which was discussed and adopted.

Mr. Bowen reported on the Hingham ; Mr. Douty re-
ported on the Hoosac Valley ; Mr. Damon reported on the
Housatonic ; Mr. Hartshorn reported on the Hillside.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD.

313

The Committee on Credentials, to which was referred the
credentials of newly elected members, reported the following
members duly elected : —

At large, by the Governor, J. S. Grinnell and J. W.
Stockwell, to fill the unexpired term of Marshall P. Wilder,

Essex Society,
Highland,
Worcester North,
Plymouth,
Hillside,

Worcester West,
Bristol,

Middlesex South,
Deerfield Valley,
Worcester,
Bay State,

Benj. p. Ware.
W. H. Snow.
Geo. Cruickshank.
Elbridge Cushman-
S. W. Clark.

J. H. GODDARD.

Avery P. Slade.
S. B. Bird.
F. G. Howes.
C. L. Hartshorn.
Edw. Burnett.

It was voted that the report of the Committee on Cre-
dentials be laid upon the table.

The Board adjourned at 4.30 p. m.

SECOND DAY.
The Board met at 9.45 a. m., Mr. Grinnell in the chair.

Present : Messrs. Bartholomew, Bird, Bowditch, Brooks,
Clark, Cruickshank, Cushman, Damon, Douty, Edson,
Grinnell, Goodell, Goessmann, Goddard, Hartshorn, Hor-
sey, Hill, Howes, Lynde, Moore, Owen, Porter, Slade, Zeri
Smith, W. W. Smith, Sessions, Snow, Stockwell, Taft,
Upton, Varnum, Ware, Wheeler and Wood.

Minutes of the previous day were read and aj^proved.

Dr. Lynde reported on the Horticultural Society.

Voted, That the Secretary be ordered to print the rcpoi-t
of Dr. Lynde.

Report of the Committee on Credentials was taken from
the table and adopted.

314 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Voted, To appoint a committee of three on the assign-
ment of delegates to the annual fairs : Messrs. Taft, Cush-
man and Dr. Lynde.

Voted, To appoint a committee of three on the changes
of time for holding fairs : Messrs. Bowditch, Wheeler and
Bartholomew.

Voted, To appoint a committee of five on time and place
for holding the Country Meeting : Messrs. Brooks, Damon,
Hartshorn, Owen and Hill.

Mr. Taft reported on the Middlesex South ; Mr. Wheeler
reported on the Martha's Vineyard ; Mr, Edson reported on
the Middlesex North; passed over, — Middlesex and Nan-
tucket ; Mr. Goddard reported on the Plymouth.

The committee of three, on chansfes of time for holding:
fairs, reported as follows : Amesbury and Salisbury Society,
fifth Tuesday after the first Monday in September; The
Bristol Society, fourth Tuesday after the first Monday in
September ; Middlesex North Society, third Wednesday
after the first Monday in September; Worcester Society
(this year only), first Tuesday in September.

Voted, That the Massachusetts Horticultural Society be al-
lowed to hold their ensuing fair, beginning on the thirteenth
of September.

Mr. Moore, from the Committee on Essays, reported as
follows ; —

ESSAYS.

Chemistry as applied to the Corn Crop, . C. A. Goessmann.

Our Homes, ...... Jas. W. Stockwell.

Agricultural Education, . . . . H. H. Goodell.

Chemistry of the Kitchen, . . . Dr. J. P. Lynde,

Mr. Wood read an essay on " Fruit as a Farm Product,"
which was discussed and adopted.

Mr. Barrus reported on the Union Society ; Mr. Ware
reported on the Worcester North ; Mr. Upton reported on
the Worcester South.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOAED. 315

The committee on time and place for holding the Country
Meeting reported by their chairman, Mr. Brooks, that the
meeting should be held at Springfield. On motion of Mr.
Sessions the time for holding the meeting Avas fixed at Tues-
day, the 6th of December. The report and motion were
accepted and adopted.

The Governor and Dr. Lynde were made a committee to
consult the Attorney-General to get his opinion whether a
member of the Board of Agriculture, and elected to the
Board of Control, would vacate his position on the Board of
Control at the expiration of his term as a member of the
Board of Agriculture.

Mr. Varnum reported on the Essex Society ; Mr. Hill re-
ported on the Hampden Society ; Mr. Barrus reported on the
Worcester ; Mr. Sessions reported on the Worcester West.

Mr. Hersey moved that the rule requiring all societies
receiving the bounty of the State to hold three Institutes
during the year be enforced. After discussion, the motion
was laid on the table.

The Board then adjourned.

THIRD DAY.
The Board met at 9.45 a.m., Mr. Grinnell in the chair.

Present : Messrs. Bartholomew, Bowditch, Brooks, Clark,
Cruickshank, Cushman, Damon, Douty, Edson, Goessmann,
Goddard, Goodell, Grinnell, Hartshorn, Hersey, Hill,
Howes, Lynde, Moore, Porter, Snow, Sessions, Zeri Smith,
Wm. W. Smith, Stockwell, Slade, Taffc, Upton, Varnum,
Ware and Wheeler.

Minutes of the previous day were read and approved.

Voted, That the time for the election of Secretary be
fixed at 12 o'clock, m.

316 BOAED OF AGRICULTUEE.

Mr. Hersey's motion, made the previous day and laid on
the table, in relation to the holding of Institutes, was taken
up, and after a very animated discussion was amended and
adopted as follows : That the rule requiring societies receir-
ing the bounty of the State to hold, at least, three Insti-
tutes during the year be restated and enforced.

On motion of Mr. Hersey it was

Voted, That a committee of three be appointed to con-
sider the whole subject of Farmers' Institutes and report to
the Board, at the Country Meeting in December, a plan for
holding Institutes by the societies receiving the bounty of
the State, so as to secure the best results with the least ex-
penditure of money to the societies and the members of the
State Board : Messrs. Hersey, Hartshorn and Bartholomew.

Ml'. Grinnell from the Committee then submitted the
resolutions of respect to the memory of Marshall P. Wilder.
The resolutions were adopted, and ordered to be printed in
the Annual Report and a copy to be sent to his family.

RESOLUTIONS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS BOARD OF AGRICULTURE
ON THE DEATH OF HON. MARSHALL P. WILDER.

As on this thirl^'-fourth annual meeting of the Massachusetts
State Board of Agriculture, we, its members, miss the noble
presence, the benign face, the genial manner and the encouraging
words of the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, the oldest member and
almost the founder of this Board ; we of all other associations and
individuals most appreciate his loss, and desire to record some ex-
pression of our feelings, and therefore resolve, —

That in the death of Hon. Marshall P. Wilder we have lost a
personal friend, the State one of its most distinguished citizens,
and the country one of the most universally acknowledged bene-
factors of the whole people, in our recorded history.

That during his long life in and near the metropolis of this
Commonwealth, he had in every relation of society endeared him-
self to all with whom he came in contact ; and in his daily walk
and conversation was an exemplar for the young, and a guide and
director for the older.

His life was beautiful, and on the scene where he had long lived
and labored, " of no distemper, of no blast he died ;" but his

ANNUAL ^MEETING OF THE BOAED.

317

doath was the gentle, painless passing away of one " who had
so long walked hand in hand with time," and had illumined a long
pathway- with the light of a faithful Christian continuance in well-
doing.

Mr. Taft made a report on the assignment of delegates as
follows : —

Amesbury and Salisbury,

Barnstable,

Berkshire,

Blackstone Valley,

Bristol,

Deerfield Valley, .

Essex, .

Franklin,

Hampden,

HampJen East, ,

Hampshire, .

Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden

Highlands,

Hingham,

Housatonic, .

Hoosac Valley,

Hillside,

Massachusetts Horticultural,

Marshfield, .

Martha's Vineyard,

Middlesex,

Middlesex North, .

Middlesex South, .

Nantucket, .

Ph' mouth, •

Union, .

Worcester, .

Worcester North, .

Worcester North-west,

Worcester South, .

Worcester West, .

The report was accepted and adopted.

Wm. R. Sessions.

C. L. UARTSnORN.

Nathan Edson.

D. Upton.

A. C. Varnum.
Ethan Rhooks.

E. W. Wood.

B. P. Ware.
Daniel E. Damon.
S. W. Clark.

W. H. Snow.
Henry L. Whiting.

B. DOUTY.

S. B. Bird.

E. F. BOWDITCH.
J. H. GODDARD.

F. G, Howes,
h. h. goodell.
Geo. Crdickshank.
V. Taft.

S. A. Bartholomew.
Wm. W. Smith.
Edmund Hersey.
J. B. Moore.
J. S. Grinnell.
Zeri Smith.
M. I. Wheeler.
J. D. Porter.
A. P. Slade.
H. M. Owen.
Elbridge Cdshman.

On motion of Captain Moore it was voted that Mr. Stock-
well be a delegate to the Bay State Fair.

318 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

Voted, That a committee of three be appointed to nomi-
nate members of the Executive Committee : Messrs. God-
dard, Brooks and Slade.

Mr. Varniim read an essay on the ' ' Effect of Farm Life
upon Manhood."

The report from the petition of the Board of Agriculture
to the Governor and Council to define the duties of the
Board of Overseers of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col-
lege was received, read and ordered to be printed in the
Annual Report.

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

Council Chamber, Boston, May 12, 1886.
The committee to whom was referred the petition of committee
of the State Board of Agriculture, that the powers and duties of
the Board of Overseers of the Massachusetts Agi-icnltural College
be defined, report and recommend the adoption of the following
order : —

John Haskell Butler,

For the Committee.

Ordered., That in pursuance of the authority conferred by section
5 of chapter 20 of the Public Statutes, and of every other authority
hereto enabling, the powers and duties of the Board of Overseers of
the Massachusetts Agricultural College are hereby defined and
shall be as follows : —

1. To visit the college as often as they ma_y deem essential for
the proper performance of their duties, but at least once in each
year.

2. To inspect the property of the college, including the land
and buildings, especially with reference to the adaptability and
sufficiency thereof for accomplishing the objects of the institution.

3. To observe the methods, extent and character of the in-
struction which it gives.

4. To attend the commencement exercises and examinations,
and, so far as they deem it expedient, participate therein.

5. To make report of their doings and observations, with their
views, suggestions and recommendations, conceroing the institu-
tion and its work, annually, to the legislature.

6. Power is given to perform the foregoing duties by and
through a sub-committee, of not less than five members of the

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD. 319

Board, to be selected annually, and at such times as the Board
may elect.

7. To have and perform such other powers and duties as may
be, from time to time, defined by the Governor and Council.

In Council, May 12, 1886.
Adopted :

Henry J. Coolidge, Deputy Secretary.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts,
Secrbtartt's Department, Boston, Jan. 13, 1887-

A true copy :

HENRY B. PEIRCE,
Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Voted, On motion of Captain Moore, that Professor
Charles H. Fernald be appointed Entomologist to the State
Board of Agriculture.

The committee to report names for the Executive Com-
mittee reported as follows : Messrs. Moore, Hersey, Slade,
Bqwditch and Hartshorn, — who were elected.

Voted, On motion of Mr. Wheeler, that the chair appoint
a committee, with full authority to represent this Board
before a committee of the Legislature, in reference to any
action by that body in any way affecting the interest or
functions of the Board : Captain Moore and Messrs. Stock-
well and Goddard.

Voted, That Messrs. Bird and Goddard serve on the
Examining Committee of the Agricultural College.

Voted, That a committee of five be appointed on the
Country Meeting: Messrs. Brooks, Sessions, Bartholomew,
Porter and Douty.

Voted, On motion of Mr. Taft, that a committee of three
be appointed to sort and count the ballots for the election of
Secretary, and that the first ballot be informal: Messrs.
Taft, Bird and Bowditch.

Result of ballot : —

Burton W. Potter, 1

E. W. Wood, 3

El bridge Cushman, ...... 6

320

BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

Alvan BaiTus,
F. H. Appleton,

Total,

It was voted to make the next ballot formal.

9

16

35

Result of ballot : —

E. W. Wood,
Elbridge Cushman,
Alvan Barrus,

F. H. Appleton, .

Total.

2

2

12

19

35

Mr. Appleton was then declared elected Secretary of the
Board, his term of office to begin July 1.

Mr. W. H. Griffith was unanimously elected Secretary, to
serve from March 1 to July 1.

Votedf That a committee of three be appointed by the
chair to prepare a list of questions for delegates to the
Country Fairs ; Messrs. Stock well, Hersey and Hartshorn.

Mr. Varnum read the report of the committee upon the
Agricultural College, which was discussed and accepted as the
committee's report to the Board and also to the Legislature.

Mr. Sessions resigned as a member of the Examining
Committee of the Agricultural College, and Mr. Taft was
elected in his place.

Dr. Lynde presented the following resolution, which was
adopted by a rising vote : —

" In view of the fact that this is the last meeting of this
Board of Agriculture with the Hon. John E. Russell, who
for seven years has discharged the duties of Secretary of the
Board, to the entire acceptance of every member, we tender
to him our thanks and assurance of our personal regard and
our best wishes for his happiness, success and future pros-
perity in life."

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE BOARD. 321

Voted, That the Committee on Legislation, Messrs.
Moore, Stockwell and Goddard, be instructed to procure
legislation to allow the printing of 12,000 additional copies
of the Report of the Experiment Station, the same to be
bound with the Report on Agriculture.

All papers lying upon the table were taken up, read by
their titles and adopted.

Voted, That all unfinished business be referred to the
Executive Committee with full powers.

Adjourned.

JOHN E. RUSSELL,

Secretary.

THE FINANCES OF THE SOCIETIES.

[323]

324

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

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32

328

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Analysis of Premiums and Gratuities Awarded. — Concluded.

SOCIETIES.

"a

a

Cud

f

«|

b a
o —

rded
trlct-
turnl
peci-

lis

1-2

not
icul-
estic

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cturc

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ly Ag
not aire
ficd.

mount
and pa
Trottin

or Obj
strictly
tural :
Manufa

umber
sons wh
Premiu
Gratuit

^

o

f^

<5

<]

fe

«

Amesbury and Sails
bury, .

Barnstable, .

Berkshire, .

Bristol, .

Blackstone Valley

Deerfield Valley,

Essex, .

Franklin,

Hampden,

Ilampden East,

Hampshire, .

Hampshire, Franklin
and Hampden,

Highland,

Hlngham,

Hoosac Valley,

Houaatonic, .

Hillside,

Marshfield, .

Martha's Vineyard

Middlesex, .

Middlesex North,

Middlesex South,

Nantucket, .

riymouth.

Union, .

Worcester, .

Worcester North,

Worcester North-west

Worcester South,

Worcester West, .

Mass. Horticultural,

S25 00

35 00
150 00

52 00

15 00
19 00

8 00
6 00

14 00
19 00
2 00

9 50
8 00

$10 00
30 00

30 00
10 00
30 00
25 00
8 00

20 00

50 00
11 00
50 00

30 00
21 00

11 00
25 00
30 00
40 00
30 00
10 00

$15 00

10 00

|$442 50

$557 75

$G1 00

6 50
127 00

1 50

55 00

28 50
33 00

48 30

10 00
28 55

25 00

$230 00

750 00

1,746 00

405 00
185 00

371 25
37 00

1,040 00
685 00

125 00

834 00
290 00
1,075 00
390 00
540 00
575 00
490 00

$145 00 I $466 35 $10,762 25

$94 00
163 90
479 59
725 00

94 50
197 71
166 00
145 85

45 75

101 25

102 74

104 50
100 25

82 65
264 50
353 50
122 85
143 90
116 19

77 00

26 25

43 65

118 30

192 25

139 90

83 00
232 15

55 85
196 35
73 50

$4,842 73

150
487
749
445
162
300
357
260
115
146
154

164
206
315
290
473
317
475
200
148
253
145
250
399
231
168
217
142
207
210
167

OFFICEES OF THE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES, 1887.

AMESBURT AND SALISBURY.

President — FUEDFMICK W. SARGENT of Amesbury
Secretary— JOHN Q. P:VANS of Salisbury.

BAY STATE.

President— JOSFFH BENNETT of Southborough.
Secretary — \Y. S. LINCOLN of Worcester.

BARNSTABLE.

President— AZA.'RIKH ELDRIDGE of Yarmouthport.
Secretary— YFiED C. SWIFT of Yarmouthport.

BERKSHIRE.

President — JOm!^ B. HULL of Stockbriclge.
Secretary — \Y. H. MURRAY of Pittsfield.

BLACKSTONE VALLEY.

President— DANIEL W. TAFT of Uxbridge.
*Sec?'etor?/ — CHAS. E. CROCKER of Uxbridge.

BRISTOL.

President— PHILANDER WILLIAMS of Taunton.
Secretary — B. L. MITCHELL of Taunton.

DEERFIELD VALLEY.

President — Dr. JOSIAH TROW of Buckland.
Secretary— M. M. MANTON of Charlemont.

ESSEX.

President— BF.'S J. P. WARE of Beach Bluff.
Secretary — DAVID W. LOW of Gloucester.

FRANKLIN.

President— CH AS. E. WILLIAMS of Deerfield.
ASecretor?/— FREDERICK L. GREENE of Greenefield.

HAMPDEN.

President— GFO. S. TAYLOR of Chicopee Falls.
Secretary— J. N. BAGG of West SpringQeld.

[329]

330 BOARD OF AGEICULTUEE.

HAMPDEN EAST.

President — WM. HOLBROOK of Palmer.
Secretary — 0. P. ALLEN of Palmer.

HAMPSHIRE.

President — D. A. HORTON of Hadley.
Secretary— FRA'^K E. PAIGE of Amherst.

HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN AND HAMPDEN.

President— EDGAR M. SMITH of Deerfield.
Secretary — L. C. FERRY of Northampton.

HIGHLAND.

President— AJJSTm STOWELL of Peru.
Secretary— JO'S ATUAIS McELWAIN of Middlefield.

HILLSIDE.

President— ALYAl^ BARRUS of Goshen.

Secretary — WU. G. ATKINS of West Cummington.

HINGHAM.

President— EBED L. RIPLEY of Hingham Centre.
Secretary— WU. H. THOMAS of Hingham.

HOGS AC VALLEY.

President— WM. L. BROWN of North Adams.
Secretary — H. CLAY BLISS of North Adams.

HOUS ATONIC.

President— HENRY W. SMITH of Alford.
Secretary— HE'NRY T. ROBBINS of Great Barrington.

MARSHFIELD.

President— W. J. WRIGHT of Duxbury.
/Secreiar?/— FRANCIS COLLAMORE of Pembroke.

Martha's vineyard.
President — WM. J. ROTCH of Tisbury.
Secretary— B. T. HILLMAN of Chilmark.

MASSACHUSETTS.

President — TUOS. MOTLEY of Jamaica Plain.
Secretary— E. F. BOWDITCH of Framingham.

MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY.

President— T>R. HENRY P. WALCOTT of Cambridge.
.Secretary — ROBERT MANNING of Boston.

OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETIES. 331

MIDDLESEX.

President— J OBlSi CUMMINGS of Woburn.
Secretary — W. H. HUNT of Concord.

MIDDLESEX NORTH.

President— 1<!. B. CASE of North Reading.
Secretary — E. T. ROWELL of Lowell.

MIDDLESEX SOUTH.

President — S. B. BIRD of Framingham.
Secretary — F. M. ESTY of Framingham.

NANTUCKET.

Presiderit — GEO. H. GARDNER of Nantucket.
/Secrefar?/ — ALBERT E ASTON of Nantucket.

PLYMOUTH.

President— ELBRIDGE CUSHMAN of LakeviUe.
Secretary — LEWIS G. LOWE of Bridgewater.

UNION.

President — CU AS. B. HAYDEN of Blandford.
Secretary — E^OS W. BOISE of Blandford.

WORCESTER.

Preside7it — JOSEPH H. WALKER of Worcester.
Secretary — GEO. H. ESTABROOK of Worcester.

WORCESTER NORTH.

President— 3. A. BATTLES of Fitchburg.
Secretary— C. S. KEITH of Fitchburg.

WORCESTER NORTHWEST.

President — W. H. BOWKER of Boston.
Secretary — J. F. WHITCOMB of Athol.

WORCESTER WEST.

President — T. M. HARWOOD of Bane.
Secretary— S. BOTH WELL of Barre.

WORCESTER SOUTH.

President— WALDO JOHNSON of Webster.
Secretary — C. V. COREY of Sturbridge.

AGRICULTUEAL EXHIBITIONS, 1887.

Amesbury and Salisbury at Amesbtiry, October -4 and 5.
Bay State (date not given) .
Barnstable at Barnstable, September 27 and 28.
Berkshire at Pittsfield, September 13 and 14.
Blackstone Valley at Uxbridge, September 27 and 28.
Bristol at Taunton, September 27, 28 and 29.
Deerfield Valley at Charlemont, September 15 and 16.
Essex at Peabody, September 27 and 28.
.Franklin at Greenfield, September 29 and 30.
Hampden at West Springfield, September 21 and 22.
Hampden East at Palmer, September 13 and 14.
Hampshire at Amherst, September 22 and 23.

Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden at A^orthampton, October .5 and 6
Highland at Middlefield, September 7 and 8.
Hingham at IIingha?n, September 27 and 28.
HOOSAC Valley at North Adams, September 20, 21 and 22,
HOUSATONIC at Great Barrington, September 28 and 29.
Hillside at Cummington, September 27 and 28.
Massachusetts Horticultural, September 13, 14 and 15.
Marshfield at Marshfield, September 14, 15 and 16.
Martha's Vineyard at West Tisbury, October 4 and 5.
Middlesex at Concord, September 27 and 28.
Middlesex North at Lozvell, September 21 and 22.
Middlesex South at Framingham, September 20 and 21.
Nantucket at Nantucket, September 7 and 8.
Plymouth at Bridge-water, September 21 and 22.
Union at Blandford, September 14 and 15.
Worcester at Worcester, September G and 7 (this year only).
Worcester North at Fitchburg, September 27 and 28.
Worcester North-west at Athol, September 20 and 21.
Worcester South at Sturbridge, September 15 and 16.
Worcester West at Barre, September 29 and 30.

[332]

APPENDIX

[333]

FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS,

By C. A. GoESSMANN, State Inspector.

The consumption of commercial fertilizers is apparently,
from year to year, still increasing. Lower prices and better
returns, in consequence of a more judicious selection to meet
the deficienc}'" of the soil under cultivation, tend to increase
the demand.

Most of our standard fertilizers have maintained their good
reputation, as far as a satisfactory mechanical condition and a
fair compliance with the guaranteed composition are con-
cerned. The reduction in the cost of soluble phosphoric
acid, of the best forms of organic nitrogen and of the sul-
phate of potash has not infrequently lowered their valuation
from three to four dollars per ton, as compared with that of
the preceding years. The lower grades of compound fertil-
izers have proved, as on previous occasions, the more costly
articles for the consumer. The unusual large margin of this
class of fertilizers has, no doubt, misled consumers in their
choice. Some farmers seem to forget that the responsibility
of the dealer ceases with furnishing an article of the lowest
stated guaranty. No redress can be secured by law as long
as the analysis shows that the composition of the article is
still within the lowest guaranty, however inferior and worth-
less it may be.

The only safe course for farmers to pursue is to discard
all fertilizers which are offered for sale without a printed

[335]

336 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

guaninty of composition on each package ; and to look with
suspicion, at least, upon all fertilizers with a wide margin in
the guaranteed composition, until otherwise convinced that
the article is worth the amount charged.

The samples of fertilizers which served for the analyses
reported upon subsequent pages have been collected, with
but two or three exceptions, in the general markets and in
accordance with our State laws, by a responsible and compe-
tent party.

Valuation of Fertilizers.

The valuation which accompanies the analysis of a fertil-
izer should inform the consumer, as far as practicable, regard-
ing the cash retail price at which the several specified ele-
ments of plant food, in an efficient form, have been offered
for sale in our principal markets at the beginning of the
season.

The market value of manurial substances, as bones, salt,
ashes, various compounds of lime, barnyard manure, factory
refuse and waste materials of difierent description, quite
frequently does not stand in a close relation to their chemi-
cal composition. Their cost varies in different localities.
Local facilities for cheap transportation, and more or less
advantageous mechanical condition for a speedy action, ex-
ert, as a rule, a decided influence on their selling price.

The market reports of centres of trade in New England,
New York and New Jersey, aside from consultations with
leading manufacturers of fertilizers, have furnished us the
necessary information regarding the current trade value of
fertilizing ingredients.

The subsequent statement of cash values in the retail
trade is obtained by taking the average of the wholesale quo-
tations in New York and Boston during the six months pre-
ceding March 1, 1886, and increasing them 20 per cent., to
cover expenses for sales, credits, etc.

These trade values, except those for phosphoric acid sol-
uble in ammonium citrate, were agreed upon by the Experi-
ment Stations of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New
Jersey, for use in their several States for the last season.

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

337

Trade Values of Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials and

Chemicals.

1886.

Cents per pound

Nitrogen in ammonia salts,

Nitrogen in niti-ates, .......

Niti'ogen in dried and lino ground fish,

Organic niti'ogen in guano, and fine ground blood and

meat,

Organic nitrogen in cotton seed, linseed meal and in castor

pomace,

Organic nitrogen in fine ground bone,

Organic nitrogen in fine medium bone.

Organic nitrogen in medium bone, ....

Organic niti'ogen in coarse medium bone.

Organic nitrogen in coarse bone, horn shavings, hair and

fish scraps, .

Phosphoric acid, soluble in water, ....
Phosphoric acid, soluble in ammonia citrate,* .
Phosphoric acid, insoluble in fine ground fish, and in fine

bone,

Phosphoric acid, insoluble in fine medium bone.
Phosphoric acid, insoluble in medium bone.
Phosphoric acid, insoluble in coarse medium bone, .
Phosphoric acid, insoluble in coarse bone,
Phosphoric acid, insoluble in fine ground rock phosphate
Potash, as high grade sulphate, ....

Potash, as kainite, .......

Potash, as muriate,

18i

17

17

17
17
15
13
11

n

7
6
o
■4
3
2

H
H

The above trade values are the figures at which, on March
1st, the respective ingredients could be bought at retail for
cash, per pound, in our leading markets, in raw materials,
which are the regular source of supply.

They also correspond to the average wholesale prices for
the six months ending March 1st, plus 20 per cent, in case
of goods for which we have wholesale quotations. The cal-
culated values obtained by the use of the above figures will
be found to agree fairly with the reasonable retail price in
case of standard raw materials, such as Sulphate of Ammo-
nia, Dry Ground Fish, Nitrate of Soda, Castor Pomace,
Muriate of Potash, Cotton Seed, Sulphate of Potash, Bone,
Dried Blood, Azotin, Plain Superphosphates.

* Dissolved from two grains of phosphate, unground, by 100 C.C. neutral solution
of ammonium citrate, sp. gr. 1 09, in 30 minutes at 65° C, with agitation once
in live minutes ; commonly called " reverted " or " backgonc " phosphoric acid.

338 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Trade Values in SuperphospJiates, Special Manures and Mixed
Fertilizers of High Grade.

The organic nitrogen in these classes of goods is valued
at the highest figure laid down in the Trade Values of Fer-
tilizing Ingredients in Raw Materials, viz., seventeen cents
per pound ; it being assumed that the organic nitrogen is
derived from the best source, viz., bone, blood, animal mat-
ter or other equally good forms, and not from leather
shoddy, hair or any low-priced inferior form of vegetable
matter, unless the contrary is ascertained.

Insoluble phosphoric acid is valued at three cents, it being
assumed, unless found otherwise, that it is from bone or
similar source, and not from rock phosphate. In this latter
form the insoluble phosphoric acid is worth but two cents
per pound. Potash is rated at four and one-quarter cents, if
sufficient chlorine is present in the fertilizer to combine with
it to make muriate ; and also in cases where no distinct form
of potash is specified.

To introduce large quantities of chlorides, as common
salt, etc., into a fertilizer claiming sulphate of potash as a
constituent, is a practice which in our present state of infor-
mation ought to be considered as of doubtful merit. The
use of the highest trade values is but justice in the articles
in which the most efficient, and thus costliest, materials are
expected to be used.

In most cases the valuation of the ingredients in super-
phosphates and specials falls below the retail price of these
goods. The difference between the two figures represents
the manufacturers' charges for converting raw materials into
manufactured articles. These charges are for grinding and
mixing, bagging or barrelling, storage, transportation, com-
mission to agents and dealers, long credits, interest on in-
vestments, bad debts, and finally profits.

The prices stated in this report in connection with analy-
ses of commercial fertilizers refer to their cost per ton of
2,000 pounds on board of cars or boat near the factory or the
place for general distribution.

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

339

Bridges' Fish and Potash.
(Collected of B. F. Bridges, So. Deerficld, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 3 to 4
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 3 to 4 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2|
to 4 per cent.

Per cent.

26.18
3.69

Moisture at 101° C,
Total phosphoric ajid, .
Soluble iihosphoric acid,
Reverted jihosphoric acid,
Insoluble 2)liosplioric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

19 2 jjounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
41. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
13.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
73 8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
81.4 pounds of nitrogen,

Standa rd Superphosphate.

.96
2.05

.68
3.69
4.07
2.20

$1 54

3 08

41

3 14

13 84

$22 01

(Standard Fertilizer Company, Boston; collected of Joseph Breck & Sons, Boston,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 9 to
13 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ;
potassium oxide, 2 to 4 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.3 per
cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble jihosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

157.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
48.4 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
39.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
38.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .
67.4 pounds of nitrogen.

Per cent.

12.65
12.25
7.87
2.42
1.96
193
3.37
4.15

$12 59

3 63

1 18

1 74

11 46

$30 60

340

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Williams, Clark & Co.'s ^^Americus" Ammoniafed Superphos-
phate.
(Collected of John Sullivan, Northampton, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 13
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 7 to 8 per cent. ; re-
verted phosphoric acid, 3 to 4 per cent. ; insoluble phospho-
ric acid, 1 to 3 per cent. ; potassium sulphate, 2 to 3 per
cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen,
2.5 to 3.3 per cent.) ; magnesium sulphate, 3 to 4 per cent.

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosi?horic acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thoweand pounds : —

207.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
48.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
21. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
51.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .
65.0 pounds of niti-ogen.

Per cent.

9.50
13.85
10.36
2.44
1.05
2.58
3.28
1.53

$16 58

3 66

63

2 84

11 15

$34 86

Bradley's " Original Coe" Superphosphate of Lime.
(Collected of D. J. Wright, Northampton, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 14
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 7 to 8 per cent. ; re-
verted phosphoric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ; available phos-
phoric acid, 9 to 11 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2
to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.05 to 2.85 per cent, (equivalent
to ammonia, 2.5 to 3.5 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

13.50
13.84
8.00
3.33
2.51
3.47
5.68

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

341

$12 80

5 00

1 51

11 80

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

160. pounds of soluble ])hosphovlc acid,
6Q6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
50.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
69.4 pounds of nitrogen, ....

$31 11
Bradley's XL Superphosphate.
(Collected of D. J. Wright, Northampton, Mass )

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 14
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 7 to 8 per cent. ; re-
verted phosphoric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ; available phospho-
ric acid, 9 to 11 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 to 3 per
cent, (equivalent to potassium sulphate, 3.77 to 5.55 per
cent.) ; nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.25 per cent, (equivalent to am-
monia, 3 to 4 per cent.).

Per cent.

13 80

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoi'ic acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Niti'ogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

162 2 pounds of sokible phosphoric acid,
18.8 pounds of reverted phosjihoric acid,
67. pounds of insoluble phosjihoric acid,
57.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
55.4 poimds of nitrogen,

12.45
8.16
.94
3.35
2.86
2.77
6 15

$13 06

1 41

2 01

3 15
9 42

$29 05

Williams, Clark & Co.'s ^'■jhnericus" for Potatoes.
(Collected of John Sullivan, Northampton, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 7 to 10
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 5 to 0 per cent. ; re-
verted phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; insoluble phospho-
ric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 8 to 10 per cent,
(equivalent to potassium sidphate, 15 to 18 per cent.) ; am-
monia, 4 to 5 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 4.1
per cent.).

342

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble 2)hosplioric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide (sulphate).
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

153.6 pounds of soluble phosi^horic acid,
32.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
20.G pounds of insoluble phosjjhoric acid,

170. pounds of potassium oxide, .
87.4 pounds of nitrogen,

8.23
10.45
7.68
1.64
1.03
8.50
4 87
1.20

$12 29

2 46

62

9 35

U 86

$39 58

Williams^ Clark & Co.'s ^^Americus" for Tobacco.
(Collected of John Sullivan, Northampton, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 5 to 6
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 3 to 4 per cent. ; reverted
phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid,
1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 7 to 8 per cent, (equiv-
alent to potassium sulphate, 13 to 15 per cent.) ; ammonia,
6 to 7 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 5 to 5.8 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosjihoric acid,
Insoluble j^hosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

102.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
36.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
11.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoi-ic acid, .

168.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
48. pounds of nitrogen (in organic matter),
32. pounds of nitrogen (in ammonia salts),

Per cent.

9.18
7.54
5.12
1.84
.58
8.41
4.00
2.60

$8

19

2

76

35

9

25

8

16

5

92

$34 63

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

343

Chittenden's Fish and Potash.

(National Fertilizer Company, Bridgeport, Conn.; collected of Slate & DeWoIf,
Greenfield, Mass )

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 6 to 8
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 3 to 4 per cent. ; ammonia, 4 to
5 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 4.1 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble i^hosphoric acid,
Keverted phosiihoric acid,
Insoluble i)hosplioric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent .

18.83
9.28
.61
5.45
3 22
6.33
4.13

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

12.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
109. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,

64 4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
126.6 pounds of i^otassium oxide, .

82 6 poimds of nitrogen,

. $ 98

8 18

1 93

5 38

14 04

$30 51

H. L. Phelps' Complete Manure. (Swift Sure Guano and

Potash.)

(Manufactured by M. L. Shoemaker & Co , Philadelphia, Pa. ; collected of Slate &
DeWolf, Greenfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Soluble and reverted phosphoric
acid, 3 to 4 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 4 to 5 per
cent. ; potassium oxide, 5 to 6 per cent. ; ammonia, 4 to 5
per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 4.1 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phos2)horic acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, ,

Per cent.

8.15
9.07
259
2.27
4 21
4.92
3,2:3
3.23

344

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

51.8 pounds of
45.4 pounds of
84.2 pounds of
98.4 pounds of
57.4 pounds of
2. pounds of
5.2 pounds of

soluble phosphoric acid,
reverted phosphoric acid,
insoluble phosphoric acid,
potassium oxide, .
nitrogen (in organic matter),
nitrogen (in ammonia salts),
nitrogen in nitrates,

$4 14

3 41

2 52

4 18

9 76

37

96

$25 34

CrocTcer's Potato, Hoj) and Tobacco Fertilizer.
(Collected of Slate & DeWolf , Greentielcl, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Soluble phosphoric acid, 6 to 8
per cent. ; precipitated phosphoric acid, 2 to 4 per cent. ;
insoluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium sul-
phate, 6 to 8 per cent, (equivalent to potassium oxide, 2.9
to 3 per cent.) ; ammonia, 2.5 to 3.5 per cent, (equivalent
to nitrogen, 2 to 2.9 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C ,

13.39

Total phosphoric acid,

12.95

Soluble phosphoric acid,

8.09

Reverted phosphoric acid, .....

2.29

Insoluble ijhosphoric aciil

2.57

Potassium oxide,

3.54

Nitix»gen, ........

2.63

Insoluble matter,

3.95

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

161.8 i^ounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
45.8 pounds of reverted jihosphoric acid.
51.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid.
70.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
52.6 poimds of nitrogen,

$12 94

3 44

1 54

3 89'

8 94

$30 75

Chittenden's Complete Fertilizer {Tobacco).
(Collected of Slate & DeWolf, Greenfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 8 to 10
per cent. ; available phosphoric acid, 6 to 8 per cent. ; po-
tassium oxide (sulphate), 8 to 10 per cent. ; ammonia, 4 to
6 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 5 per cent.).

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

345

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 11.03

Total phosphoric acid. .

9.60

Soluble ijhosphoric acid.

6.43

Reverted phosphoric acid,

1.33

Insoluble phosphoric acid.

1.84

Potassium oxide, ....

7.94

Nitrogen, ....

4.23

Insoluble matter, ....

1.10

$10 29

2 00

1 10

8 73

14 38

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

128.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,

26.6 poimds of reverted jihosphoric acid,

36.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
158.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .

84.6 pounds of nitrogen,

$36 50
Chittenden's Universal Phosphate.

(National Fertilizer Company, Bridgeport, Conn.; collected of Slate & DeWolf,
Greenfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 12
per cent. ; soluble and reverted phosphoric acid, 8 to 10 per
cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 to 4 per cent. ; ammonia, 2.5 to
3.5 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2 to 2.9 per cent.).

Moisture at 100" C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

13.06
11.75
5.57
3.36
2 82
2.52
4.13
1.36

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

111.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
67.2 poimds of reverted phosphoric acid,
56.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
50.4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
82 6 pounds of nitrogen,

$31 82
Crocker's Ammoniated Bone Superphosphate.
(Collected of Slate & DeWolf, Greenfield, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition: Soluble phosphoric acid, G to 8
per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 2 to 4 per cent. ; in-

546

BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

soluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium oxide
(sulphate), 1 to 3 per cent. ; ammonia, 3.5 to 4.5 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, 2.9 to 3.7 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C , 10.70

Total phosphoric acid, .

11.27

Soluble phosjihoric acid,

7.42

Reverted phosphoric acid,

1.98

Insoluble phosphoric acid, .

1.87

Potassium oxide, .

1.29

Nitrogen, ....

2.13

Insoluble matter, .

3 98

$11 87

2 97

1 12

1 42

7 24

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

148 4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
39.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
37.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
25.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
42 6 pounds of nitrogen,

$24 62

H. L. Phelps' Complete Manure for Grass.

(M. L. Shoemaker & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.; collected of Slate & DeWolf, Green-
field, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 8 to 10

per cent. ; soluble and reverted phosphoric acid, 4 to 5 per

cent ; potassium oxide, 7 to 8 per cent. ; ammonia, 5 to 6

per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 4.1 to 5 per cent.).

Per ceut.

Moisture at 100° C, 9.35

Total ijhosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble i^hosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

9.48
4.54
2.75
2.06
7.62
3.93
1.83

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

90 8 pounds of soluble i)hosphoric acid,
55. pounds of reverted pliosphoric acid,
41.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
152.4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
78.6 pounds of nitrogen, ....

$7 26

4

13

1

24

6

48

13

36

$32 47

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

347

Mitchell's Standard Superpliosphate.
(Collected of J. & J. A. Rice, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Total phospiioric acid, ILo to
12.5 percent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 7.5 to 8.5 percent. ;
reverted phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium oxide,
3 to 4 per cent. ; ammonia, 2.5 to 3.5 per cent, (equivalent
to nitrogen, 2 to 2.9 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted jihosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Niti'ogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

163.2 i^ounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
59.4 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
45.6 poimds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
40.6 poimds of jjotassium oxide, .
40. pounds of nitrogen,

Tcr ccut.

20 48
13.41
816
2.97
2.28
2.03
2.00
7.42

$13 06
4 46
1 37
1 73
6 80

$27 42
E. Frank Coes Geyiidne Ammoniated Bone SuperjyJiosphate.

(Collected of J. S. Clark & Son, Worcester, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Soluble phosphoric acid, 7 to 10
percent.; reverted and insoluble phosphoric acid, 1.5 to 3
per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 3 per cent, (equivalent to ammo-
nia, 2.25 to 3.5 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosjihoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds

157.4 iiounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
38.6 i^ounds of reverted j)hosphoric acid,
24.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
62.4 poimds of nitrogen,

Per cent.

21.18

11.01

7.87

1.93

1.21

3.12

.50

$12 59

2 90

73

10 61

$26 83

348

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Bay State Bone Superphosphate.
(J. A. Tucker & Co , Boston ; collected of J. S. Clark & Son, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Soluble phosphoric acid, 7 to 10
per cent. ; reverted and insoluble phosphoric acid, 1.5 to 3
per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 3 per cent, (equivalent to ammo-
nia, 2.75 to 3.5 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosi^horic acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

164.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
36.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
25 6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
71 8 pounds of nitrogen,

Per cent.

20.60
11.31
8.22
1.81
1.28
3 59
.8S

$13 15
2 72'

77
12 21

$28 85
Bowker's Hill and Drill Phosphate.
(Collected of Earle & Peckham, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 13
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 8 to 10 per cent. ; re-
verted phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium oxide
(sulphate), 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.25 per cent,
(equivalent to ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 12.78

Total phosphoric acid, . . . . . . . 11 60

Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

130.4 poimds of
55.4 pounds of
46.2 poimds of
25. pounds of
56. i^ounds of

soluble i^hosphoric acid,
reverted phosphoric acid,
insoluble phosphoric acid,
potassium oxide, .
nitrosren.

6.52

2.77

231

1.25

2.80

4.45

$10 43

4 16

1 39

1 38

9 52

$26 88

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

349

ChurcWs Fish and Potash.
(Collected of Earlc & Peckham, Worcester, Mass )

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 5.32 per
cent. ; potassium oxide, 3.58 per cent. ; ammonia, 5.08 per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 4.18 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100' C, 29 80

Total jjhosphoric acid, .
Soluble lihosjjhonc acid,
Reverted jDhosiphoric acid,
Insoluble jjliosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Niti"ogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

17.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
42.8 pounds of I'everted phosphoric acid,
12 4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
85 4 povmds of potassium oxide, .
72.0 pounds of nitrogen,

$21 37
StocJcbridge's Manure {Seeding down).
(Collected of Earle & Peckham, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Soluble phosphoric acid, 2.5 to
3 per cent. ; available phosphoric acid, 14 to 15 per cent. ;
potassium oxide, 4 to 5 per cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.3 per cent.).

Per cent.

3.G2

86

2.14

.62

4 27

3.76

1.3.5

$1 38

3 21

37

3 63

12 78

Total i^hosphoric acid, .

14: oo

1270

Soluble phosphoric acid,

7 42

Reverted phosphoric acid,

3.51

Insoluble jshosphoric acid,

1.77

Potassium oxide, .

2 53

Nitrogen,

2.77

Insoluble matter, .

3.68

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

148.4 povmds of soluble phosphoric acid,
70.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
35.4 pounds of insoluble pliosphoric acid,
50.6 joounds of potassium oxide, .
55.4 i^ounds of niti'ogen,

$11

87

5

27

1

06

2

15

9

42

$29 77

350

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Jefferd's Animal Fertilizer, with Potash.

(Collected of Earle & Pcckham, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 14 to 15^

per cent.) ; potassium oxide, 3| to 4 per cent. ; anmionia,

5 to 5| per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 4.1 to 4.5 per

cent. ) .

Moisture at 100= C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reveited phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

26 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
104.4 pounds of revei'ted phosphoric acid,
210 6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,

96.4 pounds of potassium oxide, .

85.6 pounds of nitrogen,

Per cent.

9.58

15.46

.13

5 22

10.53

4.82

4.28

.56

$0 21

7 83

8 42
4 10

14 55

11

BowJcer's Fish and Potash.
(Collected of Earle & Peckham, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 8 to 10
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 6 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to
3 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C,

10.20

Total phosphoric acid,

10.86

Soluble j^hosphoric acid, ....

4 00

Reverted phosphoric acid, ....

3.91

Insoluble phosphoric acid, ....

2.95

Potassium oxide,

3.68

Nitrogen,

3.83

Insoluble matter, ......

5.10

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

80. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,

. $6 40

78:2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid.

5 87

69. poimds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .

1 77

73 6 pounds of potassium oxide, ,

3 13

76.6 pounds of nitrogen,

13 02^

$30 19

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

351

Mape's Com Manure.

(Collected of Earle & Peckhara, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 12

per cent. ; potassium oxide, 6 to 7 per cent. ; nitrogen, 3.7

to 4.1 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 4^ to 5 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 14.06

Total phosi^horic acid, .

13.99

Soluble phosphoric acid,

8.89

Reverted phosphoric acid.

2.66

Insoluble phosphoric acid, .

2.44

Potassium oxide, .

4.76

Nitrogen (in anamonia salts) ,

1.18

Nitrogen (in niti-ates) , .

.82

Nitrogen (in organic matter) ,

1.60

Insoluble matter, .

.68

$14 22

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

177.8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
53.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
48.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
95.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
23.6 pounds of nitrogen (in ammonia salts),
16.4 pounds of nitrogen (in nitrates), .
32. pounds of nitrogen (in organic matter),

$36 56
Mape's Comp)lete Manure.
(Collected of Earle & Peckbam, Worcester, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 12
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 5 per cent. ; nitrogen, 3.3
to 4.1 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 4 to 5 per cent.).

Per cent.

3

99

1

46

4 05

4

37

3

03

5

44

Moisture at 100" C,

1316

Total phosphoric acid, .

12.24

Soluble phosphoric acid.

5.69

Reverted phosphoric acid.

2.83

Insoluble i^hosphoric acid.

3.72

Potassium oxide, .

4.06

Nitrogen (in ammonia salts),

1.00

Nitrogen (in nitrates), .

1.04

Nitrogen (in organic matter),

1.12

Insoluble matter, .

.5ft

352

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

113.8 pounds of
76.6 pounds of
74.4 pounds of
81.2 pounds of
22.4 pounds of
20.8 pounds of
20. pounds of

soluble phosphoric acid,
reverted j^hosphoric acid,
insoluble phosphoric acid, .
jjotassium oxide, .
nitrogen (in organic matter),
nitrogen (in nitrates), .
nitrogen (in ammonia salts) ,

$9 10

5 75

2 23

3 45

3 81

3 85

3 70

$31 89

C W. Belknap & Son's Pure Ground Bone Fertilizer.
(Collected of J. & J. A. Rice, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 24 to 38
per cent. ; ammonia, 3.35 to 4.41 per cent, (equivalent to
nitrogen, 2.8 to 3.63 per cent,).

I'lr cent.

10 56

23.15

none.

6.32

16.83

3.47

24

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble i^hosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Niti'ogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

126.4 pomids of reverted phosphoric acid,
336.6 pomids of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
69.4 pounds of nitrogen, ....

$9 48

13 46

9 72

$32 66

Bosivorth Brothers' Superpliosphate of Lime.
(Collected of Wilson & Holden, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Soluble phosphoric acid, 7 to 8
per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 4 to 5 per cent. ; in-
soluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 5 per cent. ; potassium oxide,
2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 2\ per cent.

Per cent.

8.90
14.76

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

5.25

4.69
4.82
161
2 54

.85

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

353

Valuation per

105. pounds of
93.8 j)ounds of
96.4 povinds of
32.2 pounds of
50.8 pounds of

two thousand pounds :-

soluble pliosplioi'ic acid,
reverted phosijhoric acid,
insoluble phosphoric acid,
potassium oxide, .
niti'ogen,

Pure Ground Bones.

$8 40

7 04
2 89
1 37

8 64

$28 34

(Warren Glover, North Grafton, Mass. ; collected of J. & J. A. Rice, Worcester,

Mass.)

I'er cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 7.95

Total phosphoric acid, .

Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

124.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
304.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
84. pounds of niti'ogen, ....

21.47

none.

6.23

15.24

4.20

1.53

$9 35
12 19
11 76

$33 30

Lawn Dressing.

(Manufactured by L. B. Darling Fertilizer Company, for Earle & Peckham, Wor-
cester, Mass. ; collected of Earle & Peckham, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 6 to 8 per
cent. ; available phosphoric acid, 5 to 7 per cent. ; potas-
sium oxide, 4 to 5 per cent. ; ammonia, 4 to 5 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 4.1 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,

Total phosphoric acid,

Soluble phosphoric acid, ....
Revelled phosphoric acid, ....
Insoluble phosphoric acid, ....

Potassium oxide,

Nitrogen,

Insoluble matter,

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

68. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
55.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
41.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
67.4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
80.6 pounds of nitrogen.

Per cent.

10.67

8.27

3.40

2.76

2.06

3.37

4.03

1.52

$5 44

4 14

1 24

2 86

13 70

$27 38

354

BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

C A. Bartletfs Ground Bones.
(Collected of C. A. Bartlett, Worcester, Mass.)

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

9.6 i^ounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
142.2 poimds of reverted phosphoric acid,
395.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
47.8 pounds of niti'ogen, ....

Per cent.

6.18
27.35

.48

7.11

19.76

2.39

.23

$0 77

10 67

19 76

7 17

$38 37
RandalVs Field and Farm.
(Collected of J. J. Stanley, Lawrence, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 14
per cent. ; available phosphoric acid, 8 to 10 per cent. ; po-
tassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent. ; ammonia, 2\ to 3^ per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2 to 2.9 per cent.).

Per cent.

16.43
7.84

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

4.73
1.65
1.46
2.16
1.85
2.58

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

94.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
33. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
29.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
43.2 jjoirnds of potassium oxide, .
37. pounds of nitrogen, ....

$19 06
Sparrow's B. B. Supe^'jAosphates.

(Collected of G. W. Atkinson, Reading, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 12
per cent. ; available phosphoric acid, 8 to 10 per cent. ; po-

$7 57

2 48

88

1 84

6 29

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

355

tassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.06 to 2.88 per
cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 2^ to 3| per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Niti'ogen (in organic matter),
Niti'ogen (in nitrates), .
Nitrogen (in ammonia salts),
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

157.8 pounds of
56.4 pounds of
14.2 pounds of
38.4 pounds of
26.4 pounds of
0.2 poimds of
23.4 pounds of

soluble phosphoric acid,
reverted phosphoric acid,
insoluble phosphoric acid, ,
potassium oxide, .
nitrogen (in organic matter),
nitrogen (in nitrates), .
nitrogen (in ammonia salts) ,

Per cent.

21.10

11.42

7.89

2.82

.71

1.92

1.32

.26

1.17

3.38

$12 62
4 23

43
1 63
4 49

96
4 33

$28 69
Lowell Bone Fertilizer.

(Mannfactured by J. M. Bntman, Lowell, Mass.; collected of J. M. Butman,

Lowell, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 18
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 6 to 10 per cent. ; po-
tassium oxide, 2 to 5 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2^ to 4 per cent.

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 17.35

Total phosphoric acid, 12.80

Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

129.8 pounds of soluble phosijhoric acid,
98.6 jjounds of reverted jjhosphoric acid,
27.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
46.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
54.2 pounds of nitrogen.

6.49

4.93

1.38

2.34

2.71

1.15

$10 38

7 40

83

1 99

9 21

$29 81

356

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Sparroro's Grass Fertilizer.
(Collected of G. W. Atkinson, Reading, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 8 to 10
per cent. ; soluble and reverted phosphoric acid, 4 to 6 per
cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 5 per cent. ; nitrogen, 4.11 te
4.94 per cent.

Moisture at 100= C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted jihosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen (in ammonia salts),
Niti'ogen (in nitrates), .
Nitrogen (in organic matter) ,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

Per cent.

12 38
11.84
2.43
4.18
5.23
4.53
1.21
.94
1.96
1.00

48.6 pounds of
83.6 pounds of
104.6 pounds of
90.6 i^oimds of
24 2 pounds of
18.8 pounds of
39.2 pounds of

soluble phosphoric acid,
reverted phosphoric ac'd,
insoluble j^hosphoric acid, .
potassium oxide, ,
niti'ogen (in ammonia salts),
nitrogen (in nitrates) , .
nitrogen (in organic matter) ,

$3 89

6 27

3 14

3 85

4 48

3 48

6 66

$31 77
Maynard's Perfect Mineral Fertilizer.
(Collected of C. A. Maynard, Lawrence, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Moisture, 19.4 per cent. ; chlo
rine, 7.69 per cent. ; sulphuric acid, 2.61 per cent. ; car-
bonic acid, 22.25 per cent. ; total phosphoric acid, 1.37 per
cent. ; calcium oxide, 33.39 per cent. ; sodium oxide, 7.55
per cent. ; potassium oxide, .44 per cent. ; ferric oxide,
1.03 per cent. ; insoluble matter, 5.15 per cent. ; soluble
and available phosphoric acid, 8 to 10 per cent.

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Magnesium oxide, .
Calcium oxide.
Sodium oxide,

I'er cent.

23.05

.76

trace.

.74

.83

1.71

36.39

8.35

COMMEECIAL FERTILIZERS.

357

Chlorine,
Sulphuric acid,
Insoluble matter,

Per cent.

9.25

5.32

23.55

This fertilizer is evidently a mixture of wood ashes, gyp-
sum, salt and lime compounds ; one sample was very defi-
cient in available phosphoric acid. It ought to sell at the
cost of ordinary wood ashes.

Flamingo Guano.

(Flamingo Guano Company, Liebig & Gibbons, General Agents, Baltimore, Md.;
collected of J. B. Cover & Co., Lowell, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Soluble and reverted phosphoric

acid, 10 to 14 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 3 to 5

per cent. ; potassium oxide, .25 to .75 per cent. ; nitrogen,

1.03 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 1.25 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, . . . . . . . 36.85

Total phosphoric acid, 12.99

Soluble phosphoric acid, .13

Reverted phosphoric acid, . . . . . . 6.61

Insoluble phosphoric acid, 6.25

Potassium oxide, .32

Niti'ogen, .63

Insoluble matter, . . 3.40

Valuation per two thousand pounds : -

2.6 j)ounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
132.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
125. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
6.40 pounds of potassium oxide, .
12.60 pounds of nitrogen.

$0 21

9 92

3 75

27

2 14

$16 29
Dole's Common Sense Fertilizer.
(Common Sense Fertilizer Company ; collected of C. W. Howard, Lawrence, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 4 to 6
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 3 to 5 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to
5 per cent.

Moisture at 100'-' C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

12.80
5.21
.13
3.03
2.05
4.45
2 26

22 68

358

BOAED OF AGRICULTUKE.

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

2.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
60.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
41. povmds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
89. pounds of potassium oxide, .
45.2 pounds of nitrogen,

$0 21
4 55
1 23

3 78
7 68

$17 45
Dow's Nitrogenous Superphosphate.
(Collected of J. Stackpole & Sons, Ipswich, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 8 to
10 per cent. ; muriate of potash, 3 to 4 per cent. ; ammonia,
2^ to d^ per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2 to 2.9 per
cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 18.42

Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation jer two thousand pounds : —

128. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
56.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
14.6 pounds j^ :i soluble phosphoric acid,
67.2 poimds of potassium oxide, .
54. pounds of nitrogen,

9.97
6.40
2.84
.73
3.36
2.70

$10 24

4 26

44

2 86

9 18

$26 98
Darling's Animal Fertilizer.
(Collected of W. E. Livingston, Lowell, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 12
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 6 per cent. ; ammonia, 4 to
6 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 5 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 12.54

Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

12.49
2.49
5.32

4.68
4.45
3.40
1.02

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

359

Valuation per two thousand pounds : -

49.80 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
106.4 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
93.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
89. pounds of potassium oxide, .
68. pounds of nitrogen,

$3 98

7 98

1 91

3 78

11 56

629 21

Pure Raio Bone Fertilizer.
(A. L. Ames, Peabody, Mass. ; collected at Danvers Asylum, Danyers, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 8 to
11 per cent. ; ammonia, 2| to 3^ per cent, (equivalent to
nitrogen, 2 to 2.9 per cent.) ; potassium chloride, 4 to 6 per
cent.

Per cent.

16.58

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassivun oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

73. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
174. poimds of reverted phosphoric acid,
29.4 poimds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
45.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .
61.4 pounds of nitrogen, ....

13.82
3.65
8.70
1.47
2.28
3.07
.75

$5 84

13 05

88

1 94

10 44

$32 15
Bowker's Hill and Drill Phosphate.

(Collected of Scott & Vietor, Lowell, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 13
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 8 to 10 per cent. ; re-
verted phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium sulphate,
2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.5 per cent, (equivalent
to ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 16.05

Total phosphoric acid, 11.91

Soluble phosphoric acid, 7.20

Reverted phosphoi-ic acid, 2.60

Insoluble phosphoric acid, 2.11

Potassium oxide, 1.12

Nitrogen, 2.54

Insoluble matter, 3.18

360

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

144. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
52. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
42.2 pounds of insoluble lihosphoric acid,
22.4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
50.8 pounds of nitrogen,

$11 52
3 90
1 27
1 23
8 64

$26 56
Zee, Blackburn & Co.'s Potato Fertilizer.
(Collected of Scott & Victor, Lawrence, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 8 to 10
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 6 to 7 per cent. ; ammonia, 4
to 5 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 4.1 per cent.)

Moisture at 100° C ,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted jDhosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

19.80

12.55

10.81

1.52

.22

3.05

2.63

.83

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

216.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
30.4 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
4.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
61. pounds of potassium oxide, .
52.6 pounds of nitrogen.

$17
2

30

28

13

2 59

8 94

$31 24
Lawrence Fertilizer.

(Lee, Blackburn & Co., Lawrence, Mass. ; collected of Scott & Vietor, Lawrence,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 12 to 14
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to
3 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosj^horic acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Niti-ogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

18.20

13.61

11.58

1.87

.16

2.32

2.46

1.30

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

361

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

231.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
37.4 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
3.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
46.4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
49 2 pounds of nitrogen.

18 53

2 81

10

1 97

8 36

$31 77
Darling's Ground Bone.

(Collected of C. N. Pearsey, Danvers, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 22 to 25
per cent. ; bone phosphate, 52 to 55 per cent. ; nitrogen,
3.5 to 4.5 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 4 to 5 per
cent.).

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

9.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
170.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
312.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
64.6 pounds of nitrogen.

Lee, Blackburn & Co.'s Ground Bones.
(Collected of Lee, Blackburn & Co., Lawrence, Mass.)

No guaranty stated.

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid, .
Nitrogen, ....

Insoluble matter, ....

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

82. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
361.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
42. pounds of nitrogen.

Per cent.

7.42

24.65

.48

8.53

15.64

3.23

.70

fO 77

12 80

15 64

9 69

$38 90

Per cent.

9.37
22.19
none.

4.10
18.09

2.10

1.96

$30 54

362

BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

Riverside Fertilizer.

(Manufactured by J. O. Whitten, Boston, Mass. ; collected of J. S. Stackpole &
Sons, Ipswich, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Moisture, 3.03 per cent. ; total
phosphoric acid, 22.99 per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid,
1.28 per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 10.60 per cent. ;
insoluble phosphoric acid, 11.11 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.87
per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3.48 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 1111

Tola] phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

20.57

.72

6 93

12.92

2.91

1.40

fl 15

10 40

10 34

8 73

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

14.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
138.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid, .
258.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .

68.2 pounds of nitrogen,

$30 62
Stockhridge' s Mamire Roots.
(Collected of E. W. Wood & Co., Lowell, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 9 to
11 per cent. ; nitrogen, '2\ to 3^ percent, (equivalent to am-
monia, 3 to 4 per cent.) ; potassium oxide, 2 to 4 per cent.

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 14.85

Total phosphoric acid, .

Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

9.41
6.49
2.20
.72
5.81
3.90
2.96

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

129.8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
44. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
14.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,

116.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
78. pounds of nitrogen,

1 10 38

3 30
43

4 95
13 26

$32 32

COMIVIERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

363

Zee, Blackburn & Co.'s Ground Bone.
(Collected of Scott & Vietor, Lawrence, Mass.)
No guaranty stated.

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

160.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
284.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
49. pounds of nitrogen, ....

Per cent.

11.90
22.22
none.

8.01
14.21

2.45
.90

$12 02

14 21

7 35

$33 58
George W. Miles' Fish and Potash.

(Collected of B. F. Bridges, Jr., South Deerfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 5 to
8 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 3 per cent. ;
potassium sulphate, 4 to 6 per cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 6 per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2.5 to 5 per cent.).

Per cent.

14.75

10.75

6.08

2.70

1.97

3.08

2.32

5.88

Moisture at 100° C,

Total phosphoric acid,

Soluble phosphoric acid, ....
Reverted phosphoric acid, ....
Insoluble phosphoric acid, ....

Potassium oxide,

Nitrogen,

Insoluble matter,

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

121.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
54. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
39.4 poimds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
61.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .
46.4 pounds of niti'ogen,

$9 73
4 05
1 18
3 39
7 89

$26 24
B. F. Bridges, Jr., ^^ Fish Fertilizer."
(Collected of B. F. Bridges, Jr., South Deerfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 3 to 4
per cent. ; nitrogen, 2| to 4 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 3
to 4 per cent.

364

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoiic acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds ;

25.6 pounds of soluble phosi^horic acid,
39.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
9.6 poimds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
49.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
84 6 pounds of nitrogen,

Per cent.

27.23

3.72

1.28

1.96

.48

2.49

4.23

4.44

$2 05

2 94

29

2 12

14 38

George W. Miles' IXL Ammoniated Bone Superphosphate.

(Collected of B. F. Bridges, Jr., South Deerfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available piiosphoric acid, 8 to

12 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 3 per cent. ;

potassium sulphate, 1 to 3 per cent. ; ammonia, 2^ to 4 per

cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2 to 3.3 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100^ C, 17.80

Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosi^horic acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

129.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
85.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
23.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
19.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .
44.2 pounds of niti'ogen.

11.91

6.46

4.28

1.17

.98

2.21

5.98

$10 34

6 42

70

1 08

7 51

$26 05

Dole's Fertilizer 203.
(Collected of B. F. Bridges, Jr., South Deerfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 12
per cent. ; soluble and reverted phosphoric acid, 3 to 10 per
cent. ; potassium sulphate, 3 to 4 per cent. ; nitrogen, 3 to
4 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3^ to 4^ per cent.).

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

365

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Xitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

162.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
32.-4 pounds of reverted jihosphoric acid,
78 4 pounds of insoluble phosijhoric acid,
81.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
32.8 poimds of nitrogen,

$27 82

BrirjMman & Co.'s Ammoniated Bone Superphosphate.
(Collected of Pease & Easterbrook, FaU River, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 11
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 8 to 10 per cent. ; po-
tassium oxide, 3 to 5 per cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 5 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, 2.5 to 4.1 per cent.).

Per cent.

12.10

13 66

8.12

1.62

3.92

4.06

1.64

4.68

. $12 99

2 43

2 35

4 47

6 58

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

21.22
8.33
5 25
1.51
1.57
2.57
2.95
8.50

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

106. pounds of soluble j^hosphoi-ic acid,
30.2 pounds of revei'ted phosphoric acid,
31.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
51.4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
59. nounds of nitrogen, ....

$8 40

2 27

94

2 19

10 03

$23 83

Soluble Pacific Guano Company* s Fish & Potash
(Collected of H. D. Mantor & Co., Plymouth, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 6 to 9
per cent.; soluble phosphoric acid, 3 to 5 per cent.; re-

366

BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

verted phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; insoluble phospho-
ric acid, 4 to 7 per cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.3 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

108.8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
35.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
34.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
82. pounds of potassiiun oxide, .
56. pounds of nitrogen.

Charles H. North's Animal Fertilizer.
(Collected of Charles H. North, Somerville, Mass.)
No guaranty given.

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoinc acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

77.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
133.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoi-ic acid,
120 4 pounds of nitrogen.

Per cent.

16.13
8.91
5.44
1.76
1.71
4.10
2.80
4.03

$8 70

2 64
1 03

3 49
9 52

$25 38

Per cent.

11.06

1054

none.

3.88

6.66

6.02

.52

$5 82

4 00

20 47

$30 29
Soluble Pacific Guano.

(Collected of Pease & Easterbrook, Fall River, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Moisture, 15 to 18 per cent. ;
total phosphoric acid, 12 to 14 per cent. ; soluble phosphoric
acid, Q\ to 8 per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid; 1^ to 3
per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 4 per cent. ; po-
tassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 3 per cent,
(equivalent to ammonia, 2\ to 3|^ per cent.).

COMMEECIAL FERTILIZERS.

367

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid.
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosi^horic acid,
Insoluble i)hosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

12.38
12.77
7.20
1.86
3.71
2.33
2.66
5.82

. $11 62

2 79

2 23

1 98

9 04

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

144. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
37.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
74.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
46.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .
63.2 pounds of nitrogen,

$27 56
Bay State Fertilizer.

(Clark's Cove Guano Company, New Bedford, Mass. ; collected of J. R. Atwood,
Plymouth, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 13
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 6 to 9 per cent. ; re-
verted phosphoric acid, 2 to 2| per cent. ; available phos-
phoric acid, 8 to 11 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 to SI per
cent. ; nitrogen, 2.1 to 2.8 per cent, (equivalent to ammo-
nia, 2.55 to 3.5 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

16.00
13.00
10.11
1.76
1.13
1.98
2.60
6.26

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

202.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
36.2 pounds of reverted phosphoi-ic acid,
22.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
39.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .
50. pounds of nitrogen,

$16 18

2 64

68

1 68

8 50

^29 C8

368

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Church's Standard Fertilizer.
(Collected of Globe Coal Company, Fall River, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 12
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 6 to 7 per cent. ; re-
verted phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; insoluble phospho-
ric acid, 3 to 4 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 5 per cent. ;
nitrogen, 2 to 3 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3 to 4
per cent. ) .

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid.
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, . . .

Per cent.
21.66
10.60
7.36
1.41
1.73
3.54
3.33
5.10

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

147.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
28.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
34.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
70.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
66.6 pounds of nitrogen,

$29 27

Soluble Pacific Ouano.
(Collected of H. D. Mantor & Co., Plymouth, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Moisture 15 to 18| per cent. ;
total phosphoric acid, 12 to 14 per cent. ; soluble phosphoric
acid, 6^ to 8 per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 1-| to 3
per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 4 per cent. ; po-
tassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 3 per cent,
(equivalent to ammonia, 2^ to 3^ per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 20.56

Total pho.sphoric acid, 12.61

Soluble phosphoric acid, 8.32

Reverted phosphoric acid, 1.76

Insoluble phosjihoric acid, 2.o3

Potassium oxide, 1.60

Nitrogen, 2.10

Insoluble matter, 8.74

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

369

Valuation per

166.4 pounds of
34 2 pounds of
50.6 pounds of
32. pounds of
42. pomids of

two thousand pounds ;

soluble phosphoric acid,
reverted phosiihoric acid,
insoluble phosphoric acid,
potassium oxide, .
nitrogen.

$13 31
2 57
1 52
1 36
7 14

$25 90
SjKirrow's Bone and Potash Fertilizer (B).
(Collected of J. H. Bourne, Marshfiekl, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 12
per cent. ; soluble and reverted phosphoric acid, 9 to 11 per
cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 5 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2\ to
3.3 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent.).

Percent.

Moisture at 10(P C, 19.75

Total phosplioric acid, 10.45

Soluble phosphoric acid, 8.32

Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid, .
Potassium oxide, .....
Nitrogen (in ammonia salts),
Niti'ogen (in organic matter),
Insoluble matter,

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

166.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
36.4 pomids of revei'ted phosphoric acid,
6.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
88.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
26.4 pounds of nitrogen (in ammonia salts),
35. pounds of nitrogen (in organic matter),

$30 63
Brightman & Co.'s Dry Ground Menhaden Fish.
(Collected of Pease & Easterbrook, Fall River, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Ammonia, 10 to 12 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, 8.2 to 10 per cent.) ; bone phos-
phate of lime, 15 to 20 per cent.

1.82

.34

4.19

1.32

1.75

1.65

13 31

2 73

20

3 56

4 88

5 95

Per cent.

Moistvu-e at 100° C, 9.65

Total phosphoric acid, .

8 04

Soluble phosphoric acid.

.58

Reverted jjliosphoric acid.

3.17

Insoluble pliosphoric acid,

4.29

Nitrogen,

7.64

Insoluble matter, .

213

370

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

11 6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
63.-1 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
85.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
152.8 pounds of nitrogen, ....

$0 93
4 76
2 57

25 98

$34 24
Brightman & Co.'s Fish and Potash.

(Collected of Pease & Easterbrook, Fall River, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 5 to 6
per cent. ; potassium sulphate, 3 to 5 per cent. ; ammonia,
4 to 5 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 4.1 per pent.).

Per cnnt.

Moisture at 100° C ,

22.68

Total phosphoric acid,

4.66

Soluble phosphoric acid, ....

2.17

Reverted phosphoric acid, ....

2.16

Insoluble phosphoric acid, ....

.33

Potassium oxide,

3.10

Nitrogen,

2.52

Insoluble matter, . ....

7. .52

/"aluation per two thousand pounds : —

43.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,

$3 47

43.2 pounds of reverted i^hosphoric acid,

3 24

6.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .

20

62, pounds of potassium oxide, . . . .

3 41

50.4 pounds of nitrogen, ....

8 57

Mayors Superphosphate.

(Atlantic Fertilizer Company, Boston ; collected of P. Williams & Co., Taunton,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Soluble phosphoric acid, 8 to 11
per cent. ; available phosphoric acid, 10| to 11| per cent. ;
insoluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium oxide,
2.5 to 3.5 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 2.i per cent, (equivalent
to ammonia, 2.5 to 3.5 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moistm-e at 100° C, 21.22

Total phosphoric acid, .

12.86

Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .

9.53
1.79
1.54

.85

Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

3.43
3.37

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

371

S15

25

2

69

92

72

11

66

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

19n.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
35.8 pounds of reverted jihosphoric acid,
30.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
17. pounds of potassium oxide, .
68 6 pounds of nitrogen,

$31 24
Stockbridge's Manures. {Corn and Grain.)
(Collected of A. B. Lawrence, Fitchbnrg, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 7 to 9
per cent. ; available phosphoric acid, 6 to 7 per cent. ; po
tassiura oxide, 4 to 5 per cent. ; nitrogen, 3^ to 4^ per cent,
(equivalent to ammonia, 4 to 5 per cent.).

Moisture at 10i.° C ,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

12.30
11.63
7.20
2.91
1.51
3.43
4.04
2.96

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

144. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid.
58.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
30.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
68.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .
80 8 pounds of nitrogen.

Mayo's Acme Superphosphate.

$11 52

4

37

91

2

92

13

74

$33 46

(Atlantic Fertilizer Company, Boston, Mass.; collected of Sprague & Williams
South Framingham, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Soluble phosphoric acid, 9 to 11
per cent. ; available phosphoric acid, 10| to 11^ per cent. ;
insoluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ; potassium oxide,
2| to 3^ per cent. ; nitrogen. 2 to 2^ per cent, (equivalent
to ammonia, 2| to 3i per cent.).

I'er cent.

17.31

]\Ioisture at 100° C ,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted jjhosphoric acid.

13 26
8.06
2.51

372

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Insoluble phosphoric acid,

Potassium oxide,

Nitrogen,

Insoluble matter,

Valuation per two thousand pounds

161. 2 pounds of soluble j^hosphoric acid,
50.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
53 8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
20. poimds of potassium oxide, .
59.4 pounds of nitrogen,

Cumberland Siiperijhosphate .

Per cent.

2.69
1.00
2.97
4.92

$12 90

3 77

1 61

85

10 10

$29 23

(Cumberland Bone Company, Portland, Me.; collected of G. B. Knowlton, Fitch

biirg, Mass )

Guaranteed composition : Moisture, 14 to 15 per cent. ,
total phosphoric acid, 11 to 14 percent. ; soluble phosphoric
acid, 5 to 7 per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 1 to 3 per
cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 4 per cent. ; potas-
sium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 3 per cent.
(equivalent to ammonia, 2.41 to 3.64 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C , 18.62

Total phosphoric acid, 12.20

Soluble phosphoi-ic acid, 6.91

Reverted phosphoric acid 3 13

Insoluble phosphoric acid. ...... 2.16

Potassium oxide, 2.91

Xitrogen, 2.93

Insoluble matter, . ...... 3.56

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

138.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
02.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
43 2 pounds of insoluble ishosj^horic atnd, .
58.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
58 6 jDounds of nitrogen, ....

. $11 06

4 70

1 30

2 47

9 96

$29 49

Sjyear'fi Perfect Fertilizer.
(Collected of Benjamin Spear & Co , Springfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 3.1 per
cent.; potassium oxide, 2.1 per cent.; ammonia, 1.10 per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, .8 per cent.).

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

373

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen, . . . '
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

35. G pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
15.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
8.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
2). 8 pounds of nitrogen, ....

I'er cent.

17.05

2.55

none.

1.78

.77

.41

1.04

37.48

32 67

46

35

3 54

$7 02

W. J. Bright mail & Co.'s Fish and Potash.
(Collected of A. P. Slade, Somerset, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phospiioric acid, 5 to 6 per
cent. ; potassium sulphate, 3 to 4 per cent. ; ammonia, 4 to
5 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 4.1 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .

Niti'ogen

Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

29. pounds of soluble phosphoi'ic acid,
36 2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
37. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
56. pounds of potassium oxide, .
73.4 pounds of nitrogen,

Fish and Potash.

22.75
5 20
1.45
1.81
185
2.80
3.67
7.30

$2 32

2 72
1 11

3 08
12 48

$21 71

(Collected of W. J. Brighnnaii & Co., Tiverton, R. I., by A. P. Slade, Somerset,

Mass.)

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,

Per cent.
22.75
5.20
1.54
1.81
1.85

374

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Potassium oxide (sulphate), .
Nitrogen, ....
Insoluble matter, .

rer ceut.

2.80
367
7.30

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

30.8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,

36. 2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,

37. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .

56. pounds of sulphate of potash,

73.4 pounds of nitrogen,

$21 85
Ground Bone.

(Hargraves Manufacturing Company ; collected of C. A. Lincoln, Taunton, Mass.)

Per cent.

$2

46

2

72

1

11

3

08

12

48

Moisture at 100° C, . . . .

10.40

Total phosphoi'ic acid, ....

22.39

Soluble phosphoric acid.

none.

Reverted phosphoric acid,

9.13

Insoluble j^hosphoric acid, .

13.26

Nitrogen,

3.60

Insoluble matter,

1.73

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

182.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
265.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
72. pounds of nitrogen, ....

$13 70
13 26
10 80

$37 76
Soluble Pacific Guano.
(Collected of H. C. Haskell, Deerfield, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Moisture, 15 to 18| per cent. ;
total phosphoric acid, 12 to 14 per cent. ; soluble phospho-
ric acid, 6^ to 8 per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 1| to
3 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 4 per cent. ;
nitrogen, 2 to 3 per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 2^ to 3^
per cent.) ; potassium oxide, 2 to 3 percent.)

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

12.35
11.95
7.74
1.70
2.51
3.02
2.35
5 25

co:mmercial fertilizers.

375

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

154.8 pounds of soluble phosphoi-ic acid,
34. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
50.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
60.4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
47. pounds of nitrogen.

$12 38
2 55

1 51

2 57
7 99

$27 00

Lister Brothers' Standard Pure Bone Superphosphate.

(Collected of W. S. Westcott, Amherst, Mass )

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 10
to 12 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 9 per cent. ;
ammonia, 2.85 to 3.25 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen,
2.35 to 2.68 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moistui-e at 100° C, 1698

Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

1159
8.51
1.41
1.67
1.80
2.85
2.23

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

170.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
28.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
33.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
36. pounds of potassium oxide, .
57. pounds of nitrogen.

$13 62
2 12
1 00
1 53
9 69

$27 96
George W. Miles' Dry Fish.
(Collected of W. S. Westcott, Amherst, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Bone phosphate, 10 to 14 per
cent. ; ammonia, 10 to 12 percent, (equivalent to nitrogen,
8.2 to 9.9 per cent ).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoi'ic acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

9.00
7.07
.67
3.36
3 04
8.59
3.04

376

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

13.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
67.2 pounds of reverted jahosphoric acid,
60.8 pounds of insoluble 2:)hosphoric acid,
171.8 jDounds of nitrogen,

$1 07

5

04

1

82

29

21

37 14

Lister Brothers' United States Phosphate.
(Collected of W. S. Westcott, Amherst, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Soluble and available phospho-
ric acid, 6 to 7 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 1^^
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 to 2| per cent. ; ammonia, 1
to 2 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, .82 to 1.65 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 17.68

Total phosphoric acid, ,
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoi'ic acid,
Insoluble phosj^horic acid.
Potassium oxide, ....

Nitrogen,

Insoluble matter, ...

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

131 8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
31.6 pounds of reverted i^hosiihoric acid,
15. pounds of insoluble phosi^horic acid,
50. pounds of potassium oxide,
38 6 pounds of nitrogen,

$22 05
Lister's Ammoniated Dissolved Bone Phosphate.
(Collected ofW. S. Westcott, Amherst, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 8 to
10 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ;
potassium oxide, \\ to 2 per cent. ; ammonia, 2 to 2^ per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 1.6 to 2 per cent.).

8.92

6.59

1.58

.75

2.50

1.93

1.56

. $10 54

2 37

45

2 13

6 56

I'er cent.

Moisture at 100° C, . . . .

13 85

Total phosphoi-ic acid, .

12.12

Soluble phosphoric acid,

. ' . 8.60

Revei'ted phosphoric acid.

2.13

Insoluble phosphoric acid, .

139

Potassium oxide,

1.51

Niti'ogen,

3.73

Insoluble matter,

2.12

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

377

$13 76

3 20

83

1 28

12 G8

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

172 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
42.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
27.8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
30.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
74.6 pounds of nitrogen,

S;>1 75

George W. Miles' IXL Ammoniated Bone Siqyerphosphate.
(Collected of W. S. Westcott, Amherst, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 8 to
12 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid. I to 3 per cent. ;
potassium oxide, 1 to 3 per cent. ; ammonia, 2^ to 4 per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2 to 3.3 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid. .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid, .
Potassium oxide, .
IS^itrogen, ....
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

118.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
54.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
37 2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
62 2 povTuds of potassium oxide, .
51.4 pounds of nitrogen,

$26 08
Quinnipiac Pine Island Phosphate.
(Collected of B. F. Bridges, Williamstown, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 8 to
12 per cent. ; insoluble pho.sphoric acid, 1 to 3 per cent. ;
potassium sulphate, 1 to 2 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 3 per
cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 2| to 3.^ per cent.).

Per cent.

15 53

10.52

5 92

2.74

1.86

3.11

2.57

7.14

. $9 47

4 11

1 12

2 64

8 74

Moisture at 100- C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble pliosplioric acid,
Ficverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosplioric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
In.solublc matter, .

Tcr cent.

17.78
10.67
7.39
2.13
1.15
2.59
293
4.35

378

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Valuation per two thousand pounds :■

147.8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
42.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
23. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
51.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
58 6 pounds of nitrogen.

$11 82

3 20

69

2 85

9 96

$28 62
Darling's Animal Fertilizer.
(Collected of W. S. Westcott, Amherst, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 10 to 12
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 6 per cent. ; ammonia, 4
to 6 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.3 to 5 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Revei'ted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitx'ogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

5. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
89.2 poimds of reverted phosphoric acid,
161. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
98. 6 poimds of potassium oxide, .
92.8 poimds of nitrogen,

Per cent.

10.75
12.76
.25
4.46
8.05
4.83
4.64
1.10

$0 40
6 69
4 88
4 19

15 78

$31 89
George W. Miles' Fish and Potash.
(Collected of W S Westcott, Amherst, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 5 to
8 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 3 per cent. ; po-
tassium sulphate, 4 to 6 per cent.; ammonia, 3 to 6 per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2^ to 5 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
jSTitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

16.16
9 52
537
199
2.16
3.69
2.83
6 67

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

379

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

107.4 pounds of soluble phosphofio acid,
39.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
43.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
73.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
56.6 pounds of nitrogen, ....

$8 59
2 99
1 30
4 06
9 62

$26 56

H. J. Baker & Brothers' Complete Potato Manure.

(Collected of S. N. and T. E. Hall, Pittsfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 5|

per cent. ; potassium oxide, 10 per cent. ; sodium oxide, 1

per cent. ; ammonia, 4 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen,
3.3 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 10.43

Total phosphoric acid, .
Siluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Niti'ogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds

80. pounds of

63.2 pounds of

2.6 povmds of

152.6 pounds of

85.2 pounds of

soluble phosphoric acid,
reverted phosphoric acid,
insoluble iDhosphoric acid,
potassium oxide, .
nitrogen.

7.29

4.00

3.16

.13

7.63

4.26

1.88

$6 40

4 74

8

6 49

14 48

$32 19

Bay State Fertilizer.

(Clark's Cove Guano Company, New Bedford, Mass. ; collected of Richardson &
Flagg, North Adams, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Moisture, 10 to 18 per cent.;
total phosphoric acid, 9.5 to 14 per cent. ; soluble phospho-
ric acid, 7 to 8.5 per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 1 to
2\ per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 1.5 to 3 per cent. ;
potassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.1 to 2.8 per
cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 2.5 to 3.5 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.

17.60

10.66

8.95

380

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Reverted phospLovic acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide. .....

Nitrogen,

Insoluble matter, .....

Valuation per two thouisand pounds :

179. 2)ounds of soluble phosiihoric acid,
25.4 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
8 8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
47.2 pounds of potassiiun oxide, .
56 2 pounds of nitrogen,

Per cent.

1.27
.44
2.36
2.81
4.38

$14 32

1 91
26

2 00
9 55

$28 04
Cumbe rlan d Superphosphate .

(Cumberl.ind Bone Company, Portland, Me.; collected of W. H. Lalley & Co.,

IS'ortb Adams, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Moisture, 14 to 18 per cent. ;
total phosphoric acid, 11 to 14 per cent. ; soluble phosphoric
acid, 5 to 7 per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 1 to 3 per
cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 4 per cent. ; potas-
sium sulphate, 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 to 3 per cent,
(equivalent to ammonia, 2.44 to 3.88 per cent.).

I'er cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 18 18

Total phosphoric acid, ....

Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble iihosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, ....

Nitrogen, ......

Insoluble matter,

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

147.8 pounds of soluble jihosphoric acid,
67.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
47 6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
37 pounds of potassium oxide, .
47.4 pounds of nitrogen,

$28 44

'■^AmericAis" Brand Ammoniatpd Bone Superptho^phate.

(Williams, Clark & Co., New York; collected of J. A. Brewer, Great Barrington,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 13
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 7 to 8 per cent. ; re-

13.16

7.39

3.39

2.38

1.85

2 37

5.02

$11 82

5 09

1 43

2 04

8 06

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

3cSl

11 lU

9 47

1.18

.45

2.80

3.04

.89

15 15

1 77

27

3 08

10 34

verted phosphoric acid, 3 to 4 per cent. ; insohible phospho-
ric acid, 1 to 3 per cent. ; potassinm oxide, 2 to 3 per cent,
(equivalent to potassium sulphate, 4 to 6 per cent.) ; nitro-
gen, 2.35 to 3.3 per cent, (equivalent to auunonia, 3 to 4
per cent.) ; magnesium sulphate, 3 to 4 per cent.).

l"cr cent.

Moisture at 100" C, 13.41

Total phosphoric acid, ....
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.

Potassium oxide,

Niti'ogen, ......

Insoluble matter, .....

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

189.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
23.0 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
9. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
56. pounds of potassium oxide, .
60.8 pounds of nitrogen,

$30 61
Adams' Ground Bone.

(Adams & Thomas, Springfield, Mass. ; collected of C. W. SLaw, Springtield,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 18 to 20
per cent. ; nitrogen, 4 to 5 per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, . .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,

Nitrogen,

Insoluble matter,

Valuation per two tliousand pounds : —

2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid, ....
130 pounds of reverted phosphoi'ic acid,
243 pounds of insolul)le phosphoric acid,
79 pounds of nitrogen,

$33 91
Bradley's XL Superphosphate of Lime.
(Collected of Merritt I. Wheeler, Great Barrington, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 14
per cent. ; soluhle phosphoric acid, 7 to 8 per cent. ; re-

Per ct'iit

4.95

18.77

.10

6.50

12.17

3.95

2,27

$0 16

9 75

12 17

11 83

382

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

verted phosphoric ac'd, 2 to 3 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2| to 3|
per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent.) ; potas-
sium sulphate, 3.7 to 5.55 per cent, (equivalent to potassium
oxide, 2 to 3 per cent.).

Moisture at 100= C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Revert:ed phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

163.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
57.4 poimds of reverted phosphoric acid,
45. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
32. pounds of potassium oxide,
54.6 pounds of nitrogen,

Extra Fine Ground Bone with Potash.
(Bradley Fertilizer Company, Boston; collected of H. P. Lucas, Pittsfield, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Moisture 10 to 20 per cent. ;
total phosphoric acid, 8 to 12 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.25 to
3.25 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent.

rer cent.

Moisture at 109° C, 7.08

Total phosphoric acid, 12.65

Soluble phosphoric acid,

Percent

17.62

13.28

8.96

2.87

2.25

1.60

2.73

5.48

. $13 06

4 31

1 35

1 76

9 28

$29 76

{Circle

Brand.)

Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

61.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
103.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
88. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
44. pounds of potassium oxide, .
43 6 pounds of nitrogen.

3.07
5.18
4.40
2 20
2.18
2.82

84 91
7 77
2 64
1 87
7 41

$24 60

CO^IMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

383

Darling's Ground Bone.

(Collected at Experiaient Station, Amkerst, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Total phosphoric acid, 22 to 25
per cent. ; bone phosphate, 52 to 55 per cent. ; ammonia, 4
to 5 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 3.5 to 4.5 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C. . . . . . 4.12

Total phosphoric acid, 24 78

Soluble phosphoric acid, .32

Reverted phosphoric acid, 7.81

Insoluble phosphoric acid, 16.65

Nitrogen,

Insoluble matter,

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

6.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
156.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
333. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
67.4 pounds of nitrogen,

$38 99

H. Preston & Son's Ammoniated Superphosphate.

(Collected of C. A. Dewy, Pittsfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Reverted phosphoric acid, 9 to

11 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent. ; ammonia,

3 to 4 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.3 per

cent.).

3.37

.70

$0 51

11 72

16 65

10 11

JVIoisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

15.09
12.24
7.07
2.19
2.98
.16
3.07
3.14

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

141.4 pounds of soluble phosphoi'ic acid,
43 8 pounds of reverted phosplioric acid,
69.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,

3.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
61.4 pounds of nitrogen.

$11 31

3 29

1 79

14

10 44

$26 97

384

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Bowker's Lawn and Garden Dressing.
(Collected of H. P. Lucas, Pittsfield, Msss.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 5 to
(i per cent. ; potassium oxide, 5 to G per cent. ; ammonia, 5
to 6 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 4 to 5 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at lOO'^ C, 11.4:3

Total phosphoric add, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Niti-ogen, ....
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

243.8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
44 4 pounds of I'everted phosjjhoric acid,
7.6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
69. pounds of potassium oxide, .
71.2 pounds of nitrogen,

S38 09

E. Frank Cob's High Grade Ammoniated Bone SuperphospJiate.
(Collected of D. J. Barber, North Adams, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 9 to
12 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 1 to 2 per cent. ;
ammonia, 2| to 3 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2 to 2^
per cent.). ; potassium sulphate, 2 to 3 per cent.

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C , 10 20

Total phosj^horic acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

154.8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
47.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
4-S 6 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
57 4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
40 } pounds of nitrogen,

$27 65

12 28

7 74

' 2 36

2.18

1.87

2.46

5.65

. $12 38

3 54

1 31

2 06

•

8 36

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

385

Boifkei''s Dissolved Bonehlack.
(Collected of Pease & Easter brook, Fall River, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Soluble phosphoric acid, 15 to
18 per cent.

Moisture at im° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Sohible phosjihoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

282.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
22.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
9. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,

Per cent.

15.90

15.72

14.13

1.14

.45

2.78

$22 01
1 71

27

$24 59

Pratfs Magnesia Fertilizing Compound.
(Eureka Fertilizer Company, Boston; collected of John J. Pratt, Wakefield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 2 per
cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 per cent. ; nitrogen, 2 per cent. ;
calciiun oxide, 12 per cent. ; magnesium oxide, 17 per cent. ;
sulphuric acid, 17 per cent.

Vex cent.

1.63

Moisture at lOu^ C ,
Total phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Xiti'Ogen,
Calcium oxide,
Magnesium oxide, .
Sulphuric acid,
Carbonic acid.
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

38.4 pounds of phosphoric acid, .
24. pounds of potassium oxide, .
35.4 pounds of nitrogen, ....
340. pounds of magnesium oxide,

1.92

1.20

1.77

11.45

16 90

14.08

3.00

30.23

$2 30
1 00
6 02

16 00

$25 32
Sea Fowl. [HD]
(Bradley Fertilizer Company, Boston; collected of D. ,1. Wright, Northampton,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 11 to 14
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 7 to 8 per cent. ; re-

386

BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

verted phosphoric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ; insoluble phospho-
ric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 2 to 3 per cent,
(equivalent to potassium sulphate, 3.7 to 5.55 per cent.) ;
nitrogen, 2^ to 3^ per cent, (equivalent to ammonia, 3 to 4
per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoi'ic acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Xitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

181.6 i^ounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
58.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
29.-1: pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
2S 4 pounds of potassium oxide, .
44 2 pounds of nitrogen.

Per cent.

12.08
13.49
9.08
2.94
1.47
1.42
2.21
7.18

$14 53

4 41

88

1 56

7 51

§28 89

Bradley's Dry Fish Guayio.
(Collected of D. J. Wright, Northampton, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 6 to 8
per cent. ; ammonia, 10 to 12 percent, (equivalent to nitro-
gen, (S to 10 per cent.).

Moisture at 100" C,
Total phosphoric acid, ,
Solulile phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

27.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
67.4 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
42.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .
172.2 pounds of nitrogen, ....

rer cent.

9.41
6.86
1.38
3.37
2.11
8.61
8.60

$2 21
5 06
2 11

29 27

$38 65
Standard Fertilizer.

(Collected of H. C. Haskell, Deerfield, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 9 to

13 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ;

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

387

potassium oxide, 2.09 per cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.3 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

174. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
56.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
38. jjouuds ofinsoluble phosphoric acid,
41.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
C1.6 pounds of nitrogen,

WJiittimore's Complete Manure.

(Wbittimore Brothers, Wayland, Mass. ; collected of H. P. Ilodgers

bury, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 8 to
12 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 3 to 5 per cent. ; ammo-
nia, 2 to 4 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, l.G to 3 3 per
cent.).

I'er cent.

13.10

13.41

8.70

2.81

1.90

2.09

3.08

5.00

$13 92

4 22

1 14

1 78

10 47

f31 53

South Slid

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid,
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

155.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
118.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
8.6 pounds ofinsoluble phosphoric acid,

46.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .

53 2 pounds of nitrogen,

Per cent.

12.38
14.11
7.77
5.91
.43
2.31
2.66
2.05

§12 43

8 87
26

1 96

9 04

§32 56
Ground Bone.

(Hargrave's Manufacturing Company, Fall River, Mass.; collected at Mill.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 18.8 per
cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, .51 per cent. ; reverted

388

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

phosphoric acid, 3.61 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid,
14.67 per cent. ; nitrogen, 3.93 per cent, (equivalent to
ammonia, 4.77 per cent.).

Moisture at 1C0° C,
Total phosphoric acid,
Soluble 2)hosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds

157.6 pounds of reverted f)hosphoric acid,
320. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
76.4 pounds of nitrogen,

Per cent.

8.60
23.88
none.

7.88
16.00

3.82
.47

$11 82
16 00
11 46

$39 28
Breck's Lawn and Garden Dressing.

(Standard Fertilizer Company, Boston; collected of Joseph Breck & Sons, Boston,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 8 to 9
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 6 per cent. ; ammonia, 5 to
6 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 4 to 5 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid,
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoi'ic acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

141.4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
72.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
38. pounds of insoluble jihosphoric acid,
77 2 pounds of potassium oxide, .

101.8 pounds of nitrogen.

Per cent.

7.60
12.51
7.07
3.64
1.80
3.86
5.09
2.63

fll 31

5 46

1 08

3 28

17 31

138 44
Breck's Top Dressing.

(Standard Fertilizer Company, Boston ; collected of Joseph Breck & Sons, Boston,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 6 to 8
per cent. ; soluble phosphoric acid, 5 to 6 per cent. ; potas-

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

38S

sinm oxide, 2 to 3'^ per cent. ; ammonia, 7 to 8 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, 6 to 6.6 per cent.).

Moisture at 100'' C,
Total jjhosphoric acid, .
Soluble [)hosplioric acid,
Ilev(>rte(l phosijlioric acid,
Tnsolul)le phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Per cent.

11.83

10.78

7.20

1.43

2.15

2.02

6.41

3.50

811 52

2 15

1 29

1 72

21 79

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

144. pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,

28.6 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,

43. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,

4 1.4 pounds of jJotassium oxide, .
128 2 i^ounds of nitrogen,

$38 47
Allen's Fertilizer.

(Allen, Richardson & Co., Boston; collected of Allen, Richardson & Co., 44 Kilby
Street, Boston, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total phosphoric acid, 6 to 9
per cent. ; potassium oxide, 4 to 5 per cent. ; ammonia, 2\
to 3^ per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2 to 2.9 per cent.).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 31.35

Total iDhosi^horic acid, . 7.22

Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

106.8 i^ounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
24. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
13.6 pounds of insoluble i^hosphoric acid,
76.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
63 4 pounds of nitrogen.

5 34

1.20

.68

3.84

317

3.32

$8 54

1 80

41

'3 26

10 78

.$24 79

Acushnet Fertilizer.

TMamifacturcil by George Hathaway, Acushnet, Mass.; collected of George Hatha-
way, Acushnet, Mass.)

No guarant}'^ given.

390

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Moisture at 100° C ,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Revei'ted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

31. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,

15. G poxinds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .

52.6 pounds of potassium oxide, .

34 8 povmds of nitrogen, ....

Per cent.

6.40
2.33

none.

1.55

.78

2.63

1.74

64.07

$2 32

47

2 24

5 92

$10 95

Davis' Stiperphosphate and Animal Charcoal Fertilizer.
(Manufactured by Jane M. Davis, New Bedford, Mass.; collected at Factory.)

Guaranteed composition; Total phosphoric acid, 14.97
per cent. ; reverted phosphoric acid, 10.61 per cent. ; insol-
uble phosphoric acid, 4.36 per cent. ; potassium oxide, 3.97
per cent. ; nitrogen, 2.39 per cent. ; sulphuric acid, 16.38
per cent.

Moisture at 100*^ C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Sulphuric acid.
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

7 6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
107.6 pounds of revei'ted phosphoric acid,

81.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
136.2 povmds of potassimn oxide, .

60.6 poimds of nitrogen,

Standard Superphosphate.

Per cent.

17.82
9.82
.38
5.38
4.06
6 81
3.03
6.18
8.44

$0 61
8 07
2 44
5 79

10 30

627 21

(Standard Fertilizer Company, Boston; collected of George A. Cobb, Acubbnet,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 9 to
13 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ;

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

391

potassium oxide, 2i to 4 per cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 4 per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2.5 to 3.3 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

184.2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
55.2 pounds of reverted j)hosphoric acid,
24.4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
40.2 pounds of potassium oxide, .
61.6 pounds of nitrogen.

Per cent.

10.78
13.19
9.21
2.76
1.22
2.01
3.08
5.05

114 74

4 14

73

1 71

10 47

;i 79

Standard Superphosphate.
(Standard Fertilizer Company, Boston ; collected of C. H. Thompson, Boston, Mass.)
Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 9 to
13 per cent. ; insoluble phosphoric acid, 2 to 3 per cent. ;
potassium oxide, 2^ to 4 per cent. ; ammonia, 3 lo 4 per
cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2.V to 3.3 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds :

174.6 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
68.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
38. pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
38.8 pounds of potassium oxide, .
63.6 pounds of nitrogen.

14.87
13.54
8.73
2.91
1.90
1.94
3.18
4.60

$13 97

4 37

1 14

I 65

10 81

$31 94

BangJi's Economical Fertilizer.

(Manufactured by Baugh & Sons, Philadelphia; collected of J. C. Stanley, New-

buryport, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 5 to
6 per cent. ; bone phosphate, 7 to 8 per cent. ; potassium

392

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

sulphate, 4 to 5 per cent. ; aramouia, 2 to
(equivalent to nitrogen, 1.7 to 2 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide, .
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

105 6 pounds of soluble jihosphoric acid,
39.2 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,

106 8 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
24 pounds of potassivim oxide, .

49.8 pounds of nitrogen.

2^

per cent.

Per cent.

7.90
12.58
5.-i8
1.96
5.34
.12
2.49
4.62

#8 45

2 94

3 20
11

8 47

$23 17
Baugli's Double-Eagle Phosphate.
(Baugli & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa. ; collected of J. C. Stanley, Xewburyport, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 5 to
6 per cent. ; bone phosphate, 7 to 8 per cent. ; ammonia, 2
to 2^ per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 1.7 to 2 per cent.).

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

73.6 pounds of soluble jshosphoric acid,
62. pounds of revorted phosphoric acid, .
72.6 pounds of insoluble i^hosphoric acid, .
40.4 pounds of nitrogen, ....

Per cent.

1172
10.41
3.68
310
3.63
2.02
4.45

f5 89
4 65
2 18
6 87

$19 59

Baugh's Dissolved Animal Bones.
(Baugh & Sons, Philadelphia, Pa.; collected of J. C. Stanley, Newburyport, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 10
to 12 per cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 3^ per cent, (equivalent to
nitrogen, 2.5 to 2.9 per cent.).

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZERS.

393

Per cent

Moisture at 100° C, . . . .

4.80

Total phosphoric acid, ....

17.44

Soluble phosphoric acid,

2.43

Reverted phosphoric acid,

11.99

Insoluble phosphoric acid,

3.02

Niti'og-en, ......

3.38

Insoluble matter,

7.17

Valuation i)er two thousand pounds : —

48. G 250unds of soluble ])hosphoric acid,
239.8 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
GO. 4 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid,
G7 G pounds of nitrogen, ....

•S3

89

17

99

3

02

lu

14

$35 04

Stearns & Co.'s Ammoniated Bone Siqnrphospliate.
(Collected of Wilson & Holclen, Worcester, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Available phosphoric acid, 8 to
11 per cent. ; insolul)le phosphoric acid, 1 to 3 per cent. ;
ammonia, 2.75 to 3.5 per cent, (equivalent to nitrogen, 2.3
to 2.9 i)er cent. ).

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C,

11.10

Total jihosphoric acid, .

12.82

Soluble phosi^horic acid.

7.87

Reverted phosphoric acid.

•

2.34

Insoluble ijhosphoric acid,

2.61

Potassium oxide, .

2.53

Niti-ogen,

2.58

Insoluble matter, .

4.15

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

157 4 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
4G.8 pounds of I'cverted jjhosi^horic acid,
52 2 pounds of insoluble jjhosphorie acid,
61. G pounds of potassium oxide, .
50.6 pounds of niti-ogen,

$12 59
3 51

1 57

2 19
8 GO

$28 46

Jefferd's Fine Ground Bones.
(Collected at Experiment Station, Amherst, Mass.)

Guaranteed composition : Total pliosphoric acid, 27 to 30
per cent. ; ammonia, 3 to 4 per cent, (equivalent to nitro-
gen, 2.5 to 3.3 per cent.).

394

BOAED OF AGKICULTURE.

Moisture at 100° C,
Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid,
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

12 2 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
188. pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
347.4 poimds of insoluble phosphoric acid, .

^1. pounds of nitrogen, ...

Per cent.

3.48

27.38

.61

9.40

17.37

2.85

.46

$0 98

14 10

17 37

8 55

$41 00

Swift Siire Guano.

(M. L. Shoemaker, Philadelphia; collected of H. W. Gaylord, South Hadley Falls,

Mass.)

Guaranteed composition: Ammonia, 8 to 9 per cent,
(equivalent to nitrogen, Q.6 to 7.4 per cent.) ; total phospho-
ric acid, 13 to 14 per cent.

Per cent.

Moistiu-e at 100° C, 5.24

Total phosphoric acid, .
Soluble phosphoric acid.
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Nitrogen,
Insoluble matter, .

Valuation per two thousand pounds : —

5.8 pounds of soluble phosphoric acid,
71.4 pounds of reverted phosphoric acid,
224.2 pounds of insoluble phosphoric acid, •
124. pounds of nitrogen, ....

15.07

.29

3.57

11.21

6.20

1.23

. $4 64

5 36

6 73

21 08

$37 81

C. A. GOESSMANN,

State Inspector.

EEPORT OF CATTLE COM:\nSSIONERS. 395

ANJN^UAL REPORT

OF THE

CATTLE COMMISSIONERS

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts.

The undersigned Cattle Commissioners submit their an-
nual report.

Neat Stock.
Though contagious pleuro-pneumonia has caused serious
loss to the cattle interests of several of our sister States, it
has not made its appearance in any of our herds. In the
early fall, no little alarm was created by rumors of an out-
break of the disease near Chicago, and great fear expressed
lest cattle in transportation to Eastern markets should be-
come infected and bring it here. To ascertain the condition
of affairs there and our real danger, if any existed, corre-
spondence was had with the United States Commissioner of
Agriculture and the officers at the West who had charge of
the diseased and infected cattle. We learned that all in-
fected herds were securely quarantined miles away from the
lines and marts of traffic, and that though for want of legal
authority and pecuniary means it was next to impossible to
" stamp out" the disease at once, yet they were confident it
would be controlled, and there was no reason to fear that
we should be injured thereby. It has been our endeavor to
keep informed in relation to the condition of affairs in that
section, so that if our safety required it, we could quarantine
all Western cattle as soon as they crossed our State lines.
We shall always be in more or less danger so long as this
disease exists in any of our border States or along the great
lines of cattle transport, however remote, and our interests

39G BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE.

dictate the most hearty co-operation in " stamping it out"
in all the States, by urging the Congress of the United States
to make large appropriations for the purpose, and the enact-
ment of better laws for the regulation of our inter-state
commerce. No cases have occurred of other fully recognized
contagious disease. As in former years, we have been fre-
quently notified of pulmonary disease among this class of
animals, which it was feared might take on a contagious type ;
but in none of them was that the case, unless it has been in
the form of tuberculosis. This finds a i)lace in the category
of contagious diseases that has not as yet been fully appre-
ciated by the farmers of this or any other State, from the
fact that it is so little understood, its period of incubation so
long, and the general susceptibility of animals so opposite.
As regards its heredity there are so many indisputable facts
to prove it, that at the present time it can hardly he ques-
tioned. It will develop itself in other animals if they have
in any Avay taken the specific germ into their system, and
the constitution of the animal is such as to allow of its
growth. Experiments have proved that a large proportion
of this class of animals is susceptible to its ravages if they
are inoculated. Its period of incubation is uncertain, vary-
ing from a month or two to a year ; and, in the former, death
may occur in a short time, while in the latter, the animal
may live to old age, provided no complications occur. The
milk and beef of animals in any stage of this disease should
])e proscribed, as it is transmittable to man. Bad hygienic
conditions increase the activity of the trouble. The disease
is not confined to any special organ or organs ; it is extremely
difficult to detect it in its earliest stages, but as the lungs
and pleura are more generally involved, the first thing
noticed will bo a dry, deep cough, though feeble, and not
usually accompanied with a discharge from the nose. When
the joints are affected there is lameness, and should the hock
joints be the seat of the disease, there will be a wasting of
the tissues of the posterior part of the body. The lym-
phatics are always involved, and some forms of its develop-
ment are not unlike scrofula.

Notwithstanding all that is certainly known of the disease
and the great losses it entails, j^et it is surrounded with such

EEPORT OF CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 397

obscurity :ind uncertainty, and presents such apparently
insurmountable obstacles to its eradication, that we have
made no direct attempts to combat it ; l)ut some of our citi-
zens, to rid their herds and premises of the pest, have, dur-
ing the past year, destro^^ed many thousand dollars worth
of cattle. It may not be beyond the limits of our duty,
and result in some good, if we here make mention of a dis-
ease which made its appearance in Methuen, causing tiie
death of several animals and leading the community to fear
the presence of contagion. A post mortem disclosed the
fact of intense inflammation of the stomach and l)0wels, and
indicated the presence of mineral poison. A portion of a
stomach and its contents was sent to Professor Goessmann
at the Massachusetts Experiment Station, with the informa-
tion that the feed of the animal had been meal and ninety
pounds of ensilage per day, and the request that he would
test for mineral irritants. In due time Professor Goessmann
reported, " We have carefully tested your samples of con-
tents of stomach and of corn ensilage. The contents of the
stomach are free from any metallic poison, and the corn
ensilage contains no extraordinary amount of acid. Corn
ensilage ought not to be fed in such large quantities, thirt}"^-
five to forty pounds per day with hay and grain or shorts
gives the best results, so far as the flow of milk and the
general good condition of the cows are concerned." The
report indicated clearly that the mucus inflammation was
caused by the acid in the large quantity of the ensilage fed ;
and lessening the amount the trouble disappeared.

Glandeus.
The disease known as glanders or farcy has prevailed to
a greater extent than in any previous year. Seventy-five
animals have been condemned and destroyed by this Board,
and many individual owners who were convinced their
animals were infected with the disease have caused them
to be killed without the intervention of the law. But all
horse owners are not careful of their own safety or that of
the public, and in our attempts to eradicate the disease we
have had many obstacles to contend with. In many of our
cities the nuuiicipal officers utterly disn^gard the specitic

398 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

provisions of law relating to this disease. When they are
notified of cases they are referred to the Board of Health,
or the Board is directed to take cognizance of them without
the knowledge or intervention of the mayor and aldermen.
It may be that it is assumed that as such Boards are em-
powered to take measures to abate nuisances and guard the
public health, they would therefore have authority to take a
horse suspected of being glandered from its owner and destroy
it. But their powers extend only to infected persons and
things, and it is morally certain that the owner of every
horse they destroy has good cause for action against them
at law ; and as is provided in section 15, chapter 90, of the
Public Statutes, and sections 1 and 2 of chapter 148 of the
Acts of 1885, all these persons are liable to fine and impris-
onment in every case where they fail to notify the Cattle
Commissioners of their knowledge of this contagion. Though
without warrant of law Boards of Health have doubtless
destroyed some dangerous animals, but the practice tends to
secrete a full knowledge of the extent of the disease from
the Commissioners, and to weaken or destroy the force of
their regrulations. In several instances in the towns indi-
viduals whose horses have been legally isolated on suspicion,
or condemned as glandered, have secreted or Removed them
to other localities before they could be destroyed ; and in
'one case the keeper of such a removed horse contracted and
died of this loathsome disease. Assuming it to be in the
line of our duty, Ave have caused prosecutions to be instituted
in two of these cases, where the facts could be proved. One
of these has been carried to conviction, and a bill of indict-
ment has been preferred by a grand jury in the other, which,
on trial, will doubtless lead to the same result.

Hog Cholera.
We have been called to take charge and direct in more
than a hundred cases of hog cholera, involving the safety of
many hundreds of animals in the infected herds, as well as
all the swine stock in the vicinity of their occurrence.
While the eastern part of the State has not been exempt
from the disease, much the largest proportion of the cases
has been in the four western counties. In a former report

REPORT OF CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 399

the specific nature and characteristics of this disease were
described quite fully, and its origin and manner of propaga-
tion in this State, and our experience the present year has
only served to confirm the opinion then expressed. Its
outbreak here is very peculiar, and it is not as malignant and
fatal as in the Middle and Western States. Although it more
generally makes its appearance near our large villages and
cities, where the swill from hotels and boarding-houses is
carried into the country to be used as swine food, yet we
have quite frequently been called to cases in remote and
isolated localities, where all the animals were home bred and
contact with other herds impossible. The inference in such
cases is that the disease is sporadic rather than contagious,
or that a mistake has been made in the diagnosis. But our
oft-repeated post mortems, and those of the heads of our
veterinary colleges to whom specimens have been sent, prove
bej'ond a doubt that it is the true swine plague of the West ;
and, with few exceptions, we have been able to trace the
infection in these isolated localities to the travelling meat-
carts and to the markets from which Western pork is sold.
By strict isolation and acid treatment of the infected animals
we have been able in all cases to prevent the transmission of
the contagion to adjacent herds, and to save fifty per cent,
of them ; and were it not that the seed germs were brought
to us from week to week, the trouble would have ceased long
ago. Our law for the suppression of contagious diseases
among domestic animals was originally enacted only to meet
the great emergency caused by the outbreak of contagious
pleuro-pneumonia in 1860. Heroic treatment was believed
to be necessary in dealing with that fell disease, and great
powers, tending to the destruction of all infected herds,
were given to mayors and aldermen, to selectmen and com-
missioners. Doubtless the controlling purpose of the law
was to save the property of the general public from the
calamitous ravages of a spreading contagion, by killing and
paying for the healthy animals of a person who had been so
unfortunate as to have his cattle contaminated. In practice,
however, it was to a certain extent a measure of compensa-
tion to the owner for property which had already lost its
value ; for the tainted herd had no real market value, and a

400 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

portion of eveiy such herd would be a final loss to their
owner in consequence of death liy the disease. The prevail-
ino; sentiment with unfortunate stock-owners has jjone far
beyond this, — by claiming compensation for animals which
had died before they were aware that contagion was present,
and for all animals that Avere sick at the time the municipal
officers or commissioners assumed control of the case. Such
claims have not been allowed, and our administration of the
law has been in accordance with the view above given. The
original law in most of its provisions was extremely rigid,
and supported by public opinion its execution was only in
the line of extermination.

There were several subsequent enactments relating to
other less destructive diseases : but the stringent measures
of the original act remained, and were necessarily applied
to all alike. Our observation of the type and progress of
hog cholera in this State, and our experiments in the isola-
tion, disinfection and treatment of the infected animals,
early convinced us that the prime object for which the law
was framed could be attained (except in rare cases) with-
out slaughtering the animals found apparently healthy at the
time the officers took control of the infected herds. Direc-
tions were therefore given for strict isolation ; to remove
all animals from their infected enclosures, to separate the
sick from the healthy, to disinfect and feed with acid, and
appraise such animals as showed no evidence of being dis-
eased at that time ; and if the disease developed in any of
the appraised animals causing their death, a bill according
to such appraisal, and the expense of appraisal, care and
disinfection, would be approved. Many such bills were
paid. But a subsequent examination of the strict letter of
the law by the approving officers led to the opinion that
though the method secured the objects for which the law
was framed, and saved a large sum of money to the State
and cities and towns, yet the bills were not strictly legal
unless the animals were killed ; and their further payment
was stopped. There are quite a number of such bills now
outstanding, and it would be only a measure of common justice
to pass an enal)ling act that they may be paid. Our statutes
conferring power for the suppression of contagions among

REPORT OF CATTLE COMMISSIONERS. 401

domestic animals have been enacted piecemeal to meet
sudden emergencies, that their provisions might be adapted
to the peculiarities of different diseases or in compliance
with public opinion ; and some of them are not in harmony,
others are incongruous or obsolete, and others are too rigid
and confer too much power or do not direct it wisely. We
recommend that the law in its different provisions l)e re-
arranged, modified and made more elastic to meet contin-
gencies liable to occur, and to be in harmony with them-
selves, believing that its administration will thereby be
simplified, made more effective, and the public good pro-
moted.

LEVI STOCKBRIDGE,

A. W. CHEEVER,

J. F. WINCHESTER, D. V. S.,

Cattle Commissioners.
BosTox, Jan. 7, 1887.

402 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

REPORT ON THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY FOR 1886.

By James P. Ltnde of Athhi.

The report of the Hon. J. S. Grinnell upon the FTorticul-
tural Society last year was so comprehensive and exhaustive,
— covering its history, methods, work and financial stand-
ing, — that it is only left for me to review the past year's
transactions and consider their influence upon progressive
agriculture.

The sum appropriated for premiums was over $6,000, dis-
tributed through four exhibitions, held in March, June, Sep-
tember and November, covering a i)eriod of three or four
clays each, to which an admission fee was charged, and
through eleven weekly exhibitions, from July 3, which were
free to the public.

Thirteen meetings for essays and discussions, free to the
public, were held during the winter and spring, at which the
following topics were considered : —

Jan. 16. — A Trip to the Tropics, by Joseph H. Woodford of

Newton.
Fruits that Promise well, by E. W. Wood of Newton.
Jan. 23. — The Forest Interests of Massachusetts, by William C.

Strong of Newton Highlands.
The Most Desu-able Varieties of Fruit, by Marshall P.

Wilder of Dorchester.
Jan. 30. — Forestry, by Rev. J. B. Harrison of Franklin Falls,

N. H.
Feb. 6. — The Gladiolus, by William E. Eudicott of Canton.
Feb. 13. — Bulbs and Tubers for Out-door Culture, by Mrs. T. L.

Nelson of Worcester.
Feb. 20. — The Food Question, by Edward Atkinson of Boston.

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 403

Feb. 27. — Vegetable Growing, by Warren W. Rawson of Ar-
lington.

Mar. 6. — The Progress of Orchid Culture in Americn, by Edward
L. Beard of Cambridge.

Mar. 13. — Hoi'ticultural Landscape, by Dr. George A. Bowen of
Woodstock, Ct.

Mar. 20. — Care and Embellishment of Cemeteries, by John (r.
Barker of Lynn.

Mar. 27. — Nitrogen : Why the Crops must have it, and how they
must get it, by Prof. G. C. Caldwell of Ithaca, N. Y.

Apr. 3. — The Nomenclature of Fruits.

Apr. 10. — The Ripening and Preservation of Fruits, by Marshall
P. Wilder of Dorchester.

This is a brief outline of the year's work. The essays
and discussions are embodied in the Society's publications,
and are of great value. Vegetables, fruits and flowers are
the specialties that receive attention.

The exhibitions are held in the two large halls in the
Society's building in Boston, — fruits and vegetables in the
lower, and flowers and plants in the upper hall. At the four
principal exhibitions the display of flowers and plants com-
pletely filled the upper hall, presenting a scene of enchanting
beauty, especially in the evening under the mellow radiance
of the electric light.

Who can describe a rose, — the queen of flowers, — an
orchid, a chrysanthemum, a rainbow, a glorious sunset, or
the glittering sapphires and rubies, painted by a morning-
sunbeam in a drop of dew ? The pen of another must record
the beauty and perfume of these floral collections. Every
specimen was an object-lesson in itself, many of them of
great value and of absorbing interest to all beholders. The
mystic goddesses of horticulture, Pomona and Flora, held
high court, displayed their rich treasures, and received the
homage of their votaries.

AVe have stood before the statue of one we have known,
honored and loved : so faithfully had the artist wrought, that
the cold, insensate marble seemed instinct with life, and to
our imagination the inarticulate lip and eye would almost
seem to move in recognition of our presence.

We have looked upon a picture of the great Nazarene,

404 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

painted by the hand of an old master with such perfection
that the countenance seemed so illumined with an expression
of grace, pity and love that we could almost feel the influence
of His personal presence, and we have looked and turned
away, only to return spell-bound with tender admiration.

Who has not felt the mysterious influences and been moved
in the profound depths of consciousness by the "Divine
Art " of Mozart, Handel and Beethoven ? What an inspira-
tion to deeds of heroic self-sacrifice for real or supposed
good ! And what a source of comfort, pleasure and happi-
ness to mankind, holding its power through the ages over all
races of men !

Can we not properly claim a place as a companion of high
art for skilled Horticulture, which, directing the forces of
nature, evolves from the lifeless clod objects of utility and
beauty, croAvned with blessings and delights far excelling; in
perfection works of sculpture and painting, speaking to
human hearts throuo-h a silent language as suggestive and
uplifting in influence and culture as the finest music? There-
fore, is she not entitled to at least honorable mention and
high rank among the so-called Fine Arts ?

" Your v'oiceless lips, O flowers, are living preachers,
Each cup a pulpit, every leaf a book,
Supplying to my fancy numerous teachers
From loneliest nook.

" Were I in churchless solitudes remaining,
Far from all voice of teachers and divines.
My soul would find in flowers of God's ordaining
Priests, sermons, shrines."

— Horace Smith.

The work and influence of this Society is a constant public
benefaction, by the introduction of new and improved varie-
ties of vegetables, fruits and flowers, and illustrating the
best methods of their cultivation, stimulating the ambition of
people to improve and excel in these specialties.

Some one has said that no person could eat of our choicest
grapes, apples and pears without being indebted to the genius
of :Marshall P. Wilder.

The influence of the Society is not confined to this or the
New England States. Its members and patrons are, many

HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 405

of them, the most successful cultivators of gardens, fruits
and flowers in this country or the world ; and wherever hor-
ticultural societies have been organized in this or other coun-
tries, even in distant Japan, its influence is felt. It was
incorporated in 1829, and is the oldest horticultural society
in this country. It has steadily increased its membership,
enlarged its plans, collected its valuable library, prospered
financially, extended its influence and established its reputa-
tion in this and other countries as one of the leading horti-
cultural societies in the world. It has outgrown its once
ample accommodations and is vexed with the problem of their
enlargement.

It was a happy thought that suggested a union of this
Society with this Board of Agriculture and the other societies.
All will be benefited. We needed its help and influence,
perhaps, far more than it needed ours. Let us endeavor to
make the relation mutually pleasant and helpful.

Almost at the close of the year we were startled by the
sudden death of the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, at the ripe
age of 88. He had been connected with this society fifty-
six years, and was more widely known and more prominent
than any other member. He was the father of this Board
of Agriculture and an active member thereof since its organ-
ization in 1851. He was the father of the Agricultural Col-
lege and one of the trustees for many years and one of its
chief benefactors. He was the father of the American Pomo-
logical Society and its president since its organization, thirty-
eight years ago. He was for twenty years president of the
Norfolk Agricultural Society and made honorary president
on his retirement. In 1852, he assisted in forming the
United States Agricultural Society and was for six years its
president.

He was an active or honorary member of many societies at
home and abroad. He was distinguished in military, political
and Masonic circles, and as a citizen was held in high esteem.
He was a man of fine personal presence and bearing, — honest,
true to his friends, — a cultivated Christian gentleman.

This Board shares with the Horticultural Society in a deep
sense of loss by his removal from the earth, and will cherish
his memory with afiectionate regard.

406 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

He wooed Nature with a passionate love, ministered at lier
altar, sought for her secrets with which to bless mankind.

•' For all his life was poor without !
O, Nature ! tnalie the last amends :
Train all thy flowers his grave about
And make thy singing birds his friends

" Revive again, thou summer rain,
The broken turf upon his bed !
Breathe, summer wind, thy tenderest strain
Of low, sweet music overhead !

" With calm and beauty symbolize

His peace, which follows long annoy ;
And lend our earth-bent mourning eyes
Some hint of his diviner joy.

" For safe with right and truth he is, —
As God lives he must live alway.
There is no end for souls like his :
No night for children of the day."

— Whittier.

[Essay and Discussion at the Chamberlain Club, Worcester, Dec. 9, 1886.]

CORN.

By PHrLANPER S. Sears.

The common maize, or Indian corn, is generally believed
to be a native of the warmer parts of America, where it was
cultivated by the aborigines before the discovery of America
by Columbus. But the representation of the plant found
in an ancient Chinese book in the royal library in Paris, and
the alleged discovery of some grains of it in the cellars of
ancient houses in Athens, have led some to suppose that it
is a native also of the East, and has, from a very early period,
been cultivated there, and even that it is the corn of Script-
ure, although on this supposition it is not easy to account
for the subsequent neglect of it until after the discovery of
America, since which time the spread of its cultivation in
the Old World has taken place with a rapidity such as
might be expected from its great productiveness and other
valuable qualities.

Columbus himself brought it to Spain about the year
1520. It is now in general cultivation in the south of
Europe, and supplies a principal part of the food of the
inhabitants of Asia and Africa. It is by far the most pro-
ductive of all the cereals, in the most favorable localities
yielding an increase of eight hundred for one. It succeeds
better in a subtropical than in a tropical climate, and being a
shortlived annual is cultivated where the heat of summer is
intense, no matter what may be the cold of winter. There
are few plants of which the uses are more various than the

[407]

408 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Indian corn, and few which are of greater importance to
man. There are many kinds of corn, but you are all so well
acquainted with them that I will not weary your patience by
enumerating them. But one kind called Chili maize, or
Valparaiso corn, is distinguished by its serrated leaves. It
is a smaller plant, a native of Chili, and has won a super-
stitious regard, because its grains when roasted split in the
form of a cross.

Makner of Cultivation.

It would be folly for me to attempt to tell the members of
this club how to raise corn, for each person has some special
reason for cultivating it in his own way. But there are
some general rules which all are obliged to follow.

First. Apply plenty of fertilizers, for it is a grass feeder
and will well repay a liberal application of plant food.

Second. If your land is stubble it will pay well to plow
twice ; if sod, plow not too deep and harrow thoroughly.

Third. Be sure and have good seed, and to be sure of that
it is best to select the ears from the field and trace them up ;
for if we defer selecting seed until spring it is frequently
the case that the corn has been heated and will fail to germi-
nate, as was the case with many the past season.

Fourth. Be sure and keep well cultivated and free from
weeds, for one crop is enough at a time, and it does not pay
to raise a crop of weeds. I was never so thoroughly con-
vinced of the value of cultivation as I have been the past
season. On one part of a field I had not time, during the
press of work, to finish hoeing for about ten days. It was
so grassy that you could hardly tell where it was hoed and
where not ; but the part hoed last was always smaller and the
difference could be seen from quite a distance, showing con-
clusively that although we may plow, fertilize, have good
feed, and yet if we fail to properly cultivate the land we
shall fail to receive the full compensation for our labor.

Manner of Harvesting.
The old-fashioned way of harvesting was, when the corn
had become mostly glazed, to cut the stalks above the ear,

CORN. 409

then stack until cured and leave the corn to ripen. I must
say that I think we can get the best and soundest corn in
that way, and I know that it makes the best and sweetest
bread; but most farmers, at the present time, practise cut-
ting up at the root. The reasons are explained in a quota-
tion from Allen's " American Farm Book " : —

If the stalks are designed for fodder they should be cut when
the corn is well glazed, and this should be done in all cases when
frost is expected. Scarcely any injury will result either to leaf
or grain if the corn be stooked, while both would be seriously
damaged from the same exposure if standing.

The stalks of corn should never be cut above the ear but always
near the ground, and for this obvious reason, — the sap which
nourishes the grain is drawn from the earth, and, passing through
the stem, enters the leaf, where a change is effected analogous to
what takes place in the blood when brought to the surface of the
lungs in the animal system, with this peculiar difference, however,
that while the blood gives out carbon and absorbs oxygen, plants
under the influence of light and heat give out oxygen and absorb
carbon. The change prepares the sap for condensation and con-
version into grain. But the leaves which thus digest the food for
the grain are above it, for it is while passing downward that the
change of the sap into grain principall}^ takes place. If the
stalk be cut above the ear, nourishment is at an end. It may then
become firm and diy, but it is not increased in quantity ; while if
cut from the root, it not only appropriates the sap already in the
plant, but it also absorbs additional matter from the atmosphere,
which contributes to its weight and perfection.

There is no doubt but that the stover is better cut from
the root and it is less work ; but when it is claimed that the
corn is better, I shall disagree. As a forage plant for dairy
farmers I think it is of more importance than when raised
for the grain ; for when we can liuy corn at the present prices
we can make a specialty of dairying by using corn as the
leading plant for a system of soiling in summer, and for a
feed for winter it can be cured either by drying or by put-
ting it into a silo. We are thus enabled to keep a large
amount of stock on a small area of sround.

410 BOARD OF AGRICULTUEE.

Discussion.

From the reports of the members this evening, it appears
that 60 bushels shelled corn (or 70 pounds on the ear) per
acre may, with a fair amount of fertilization and clean culti-
vation, be reasonably expected; it also appears that dry
stover, if clean and sweet, is at least equal in feed value to
the best hay, and that meal made by grinding the whole ears
is equal, pound for pound, in feeding value to that produced
from Western corn (such as is usually sold by dealers), and
further, it is conceded that if at the time of husking the grain
is dry enough to crib and the stover to pack without danger
of heating or mould, the ears and stover are about equal in
weight, and as 60 bushels of corn at 70 pounds per bushel
weighs 4,200 pounds, or 2yV tons, it follows that the weight
of the stover must be the same, making its feeding value at
the present price of hay from $35 to $40. If this estimate
is correct it can be easily seen that the corn has cost nothing,
the members reporting that $35 or $40 will cover the entire
cost of the acre, including fertilizer, cultivation and har-
vesting.

Many careful trials have proven that one bushel (70 pounds)
of cobbage meal, together with 70 pounds of stover, is a good
and sufficient feed for a milch cow one week ; so that one acre
of average corn will keep two cows nearly or quite through
the entire winter.

Having settled these points, it would seem as though
nothing more need be said to induce every dairy farmer who
is a member of this club to raise all the corn he uses, thus
removing the greatest burden with which we have to contend,
— the grain bills. But you say you have not the manure
or the money to buy it. Well, that is bad, but it is much
easier to raise one dollar for fertilizer than three dollars to
pay for the feed which it will produce ; if you will try it one
year, I think you will be in better condition the year after.

There is one other point, the growing of corn, commonly
called fodder or ensilage corn, to be fed green or siloed.
From the statements made by members of the club, it appears
that the largest yield in this vicinity is 25 tons, just equalling

CORN. 411

71 bushels (green weight) of common field corn ; the largest
yield reported of common field corn is 90 bushels shelled
corn, equalling 31 tons green weight, showing an advantage
of 6 tons in favor of the latter.

The ensilage corn, at the time of cutting, contains about
13 or 14 per cent, of dry matter, while common field corn
contains 20 or 21 per cent., showing an advantage of 6 or 7
per cent, in favor of the latter. The cost of harvesting the
fodder corn, if all done at one time, will be about $1 per
ton ; if drawn daily from the field, much more. The expense
of harvesting the field corn I itemize as follows : For 90
bushels, stooking $3, husking $7.20, carting $3, making a
total of $11.20, or an advantage of $13.80 in favor of the
field corn.

In the case of fodder corn you have only the coarse por-
tion of the feed, the grain must be obtained from some
foreign source, while field corn furnishes not only the filling,
but also the grain in just the right proportions, pound for
pound. Like most new things, the former will not stand the
test.

Experience proves that most satisfactory results are ob-
tained from rations made up and fed in the following man-
ner : First in the morning a ration of cut feed, compounded
of one or two pounds of coarse butts left by the cattle from
a previous feed, cut fine and mixed with five pounds of cob-
bage meal, the whole having been in soak about 12 hours ; in
15 or 20 minutes this will be eaten and the cattle ready for
5 pounds of dry uncut stover, which completes the morning
feed ; in an hour, or before the cattle are quite done eating,
water them, then clean all up and mix the feed for the next
meal. Nothing more is needed to be done until 3.30 p. m.,
then repeat the morning's programme, except the watering,
which may be omitted. From the foregoing it will be seen
that each animal receives 10 pounds of meal and 10 pounds
of stover daily.

From my experience of the last few years, I am satisfied
there is much yet to learn in relation to the growing and
feeding of this crop.

412 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE.

FRUIT AS A FARM PRODUCT.

Bt E. W. Wood, of Newton.

Within the memory and practical experience of some of
the members of this Board the routine work and general
management of the farms in this State required little thought
or business ability ; the main object of the farmers was to
supply as far as possible the family wants from the farm,
exchanging whatever surplus products they had for such
articles of domestic necessity as they could not or did not
produce. But with the immense population, creating a cor-
responding increase in the demand for farm products, with the
establishment of railroads and steamboat lines, furnishing
rapid and comparatively cheap means of transportation, ex-
tending over a wide area where quickly perishing prod-
ucts may be gathered and concentrated at the centres of
consumption, at the same time bringing the Western prairie
lands, enriched by centuries of decaying vegetation, in com-
petition with our New England hills, enabling the cultivators
of those distant fields to place some of the leading products
in our markets at prices that leave a narrow margin of profit
to the farmers of this State, — all these changes have ren-
dered necessary on the part of the farmers of the present
day a degree of care in the selection of crops and skill in
their management, requiring as much thought, care and
business ability as is required for the successful manage-
ment of any mercantile or manufacturing enterprise.

Fruit has not, with few exceptions, been a principal or lead-
ing product with the farmers of this State. It has been gen-
erally an incidental, though not unfrequently an accidental
one. While the cultivation of the small fruits as conducive
to the health, comfort and enjoyment of the farmer's family,
as an attractive feature increasing the value of every farm,

FRUIT AS A FARM PRODUCT. 413

as a source of profit if favorably located as to markets,
presents a subject worthy the attention of every farmer,
the limits of this occasion will not permit their considera-
tion in detail, and I shall ask your attention mainly to New
England's most valuable fruit, the apple.

The apple is becoming every year more exclusively
the farmer's crop. The limited grounds in the cities and
larger towns will not permit its cultivation, owing to the
space required to grow the trees. The area of production
is constantly decreasing, while the demand for the fruit in
far greater ratio is constantly increasing.

In 1876, the late Colonel Wilder, in an address before the
Pomological Society, said, "The foreign market for our
fruit is as well established as for our wheat." Yet few farm-
ers in Massachusetts at that time had any practical knowledge
of the fact. In that year there were exported three hun-
dred and forty thousand barrels of apples ; in some of the
years since, the number has reached nearly a million and a
half barrels ; the number the past season having some weeks
exceeded eighty thousand barrels. Formerly an abundant
crop was a disadvantage to the growers, as the accumulation
of fruit in the dealers' hands forced the market and reduced
prices below a paying profit. The past year has been the
bearing year for orchards in this vicinity, and there has been
an unusually large crop ; but there has been no accumulation
of fruit among the dealers, and the prices have steadily ad-
vanced from the beginning of the season to the present
time.

Apples grown in some of the Canadian Provinces, the New
England States and the northern portion of the Middle and
Western States possess more points of excellence than the
same fruit grown in any portion of this country ; the more
Southern States grow the summer and early autumn varieties
in fair quality, but the later varieties are wanting in flavor
and the keeping quality, — two essentials requisite for their
profitable cultivation.

Massachusetts is near the centre of the apple belt, most
favorably situated as regards both the domestic and foreign
markets, with Boston as a distributing centre, having steam-
boat connection with the more Southern ports, aflbrding

414 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

facilities for meeting the demands of the coastwise trade, and
being nearer the foreign markets than any port having
equal facilities, and with railroads running through every
portion of the State, affording quick and cheap transporta-
tion. The difference in the cost of freight transportation,
owing to the balance of trade between different points and
other causes, is a matter of importance to the farmers. At
the present time growers can ship their fruit from Boston to
the London market at less cost than those whose orchards
are situated within forty miles of that city.

The natural adaptability of our soil and climate to the
growth of the apple is shown in the fact that the most
desirable varieties have had their origin in this State. The
Hubbardston, Baldwin and Roxbury Russet are all natives
of Massachusetts, and with a limited number of Gravenstein
and Rhode Island Greening are all the varieties needed for
an orchard, however extensive. As nearly as can be ascer-
tained, more than four-fifths of all the apples exported are
Baldwins, and this, like most fruits, does best near the place
of its origin. In some portions of Maine and the Western
States, while fully appreciating its many good qualities,
they have been obliged to discontinue its cultivation, owing
to the ft'cquent loss of the trees during winter. With us
it is as hardy as the oak, a strong, vigorous grower, comes
early into bearing, and produces abundantly its bright red
fruit of good quality, and is excelled in its keeping quality
only by the Roxbury Russet.

A mistake most farmers make who grow apples to any
extent is in growing too many varieties. With the whole-
sale dealers a few well-known kinds will sell in large quan-
tities at the highest prices, while a limited quantity having
only a local name and reputation will remain unsold or be
disposed of at reduced rates.

The land best adapted to apple culture is not the most
desirable for ordinary farm products. The rocky hillsides,
if not too rough for cultivation, are more desirable than the
lower and more level surfaces, the inclination exposing
more surface to the light and air, and the fruit being less
liable to injury from late frosts in spring, while the rocky
formation below the surface furnishes constantly food for

FRUIT AS A FARM PRODUCT. 415

the trees, and the feeding fibrous roots will be found cling-
ing to their sides. No crop will make a larger return in
proportion to the expense for fertilizers than the apple ;
it is a biennial crop, the trees taking each alternate year a
season of rest. If the land is kept under cultivation, very
little outlay for fertilizers will be required to produce fruit
of the best quality. In the early years of an orchard, before
the trees come into bearing, annual crops may be grown
that will pay the cost of cultivation and the fertilizers re-
quired, or, what will prove more profitable, in most places
any or all of the small fruits may be grown.

If the apple trees are set thirty-five or forty feet apart,
rows of peach trees may be set both ways between, making
about three times as many of the latter as of the former.
It is true the peach has failed in this State almost invariably
for the last four years, but it is a crop too valuable, when it
is considered how quickly and easily it is grown, to be given
up. There is little doubt that the failure of the peach in
recent years is owing to the diseased and enfeebled condi-
tion of the trees, rather than to any changed condition of
soil or climate. So general is disease among the trees, that
it is not unusual to see young trees of one year's growth in
the nursery rows blighted with the yellows. While grow-
ers will gladly welcome any aid from the Experiment Sta-
tion or elsewhere in the effort to restore health and vigor to
the trees already under cultivation, it is an open question
whether a more direct remedy does not lie in an effort to
get a hardier class of trees through seedling varieties. One
grower the past season has competed at every exhibition of
the Massachusetts Horticultural Society when prizes were
offered for peaches, and at each exhibition showing several
dishes, and with one exception they have been seedling
fruit. He has a large number of trees of the kinds generally
grown which have produced no fruit, while his seedling trees
have produced fruit some of which in size and quality com-
pared favorably with our most popular, well-known vari-
eties.

Some twenty years ago there was general alarm among
the farmers at the failure of the potato crop for several
successive years ; the loss amounted to thousands of dollars

416 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

in this State, but by the introduction of seedling varieties
the difficulty was overcome, and there has been little or no
complaint in recent years. May we not hope that a second
Bresee will give us an Early Rose peach through which the
trees may be restored to their pristine vigor, and that we
may again grow annually this most productive, most deli-
cious and most valuable fruit.

If peach trees, grape vines, or currant bushes are set
with the young apple trees they should produce a paying
crop the third year ; if blackberries or raspberries, the sec-
ond year, and if strawberries, the first year. When the
apple trees have grown so as to shade the ground, a light
ploughing in the spring, followed by the occasional use of
the harrow or cultivator, will aflbrd all the necessary culti-
vation.

First-class market fruit cannot be grown for any consid-
erable time if a close-matted grass turf is allowed to covei
the ground above the roots of the trees, unless in exception-
ally favorable locations receiving the .wash from buildings,
yards or highways. The best success and most profitable
results can be secured only when the orchard receives the
same intelligent care given to other crops in the cultivation
of the ground, in the care of the trees, in their protection
from injurious insects, and in gathering and marketing the
fruit.

All the advantages of location and adaptability of soil
and climate claimed for the apple may be urged with equal
force for the cultivation of the pear. Nowhere is the pear
grown with greater ease, with more certainty of a crop, or
in greater perfection, than in this State. The past year the
pear crop has been unusually large, yet it has never been
disposed of more easily or more satisfactorily to both grow-
ers and dealers. Besides the demand for home trade, Maine,
portions of Canada, New York and Philadelphia have drawn
upon the Boston market for a partial supply of this fruit.
The establishment of cold-storage houses has materially aided
in marketing this fruit, by extending the time when some of
the best varieties may be had in condition for the table from
two weeks to six or eight weeks. The Bosc, the Sheldon
and the Seckel, early October varieties, may be had in per-

FRUIT AS A FAEM PRODUCT. 417

fection as a dessert with the Thanksgiving dinner. The later
varieties, should the supply exceed the demand, might safely
be shipped to foreign markets. The pear, under ordinary
conditions, produces an annual crop, and requires higher
cultivation than the apple to produce the best quality of
fruit. The most successful growers for market do not culti-
vate more than six or seven kinds, and of these at least one-
half are the Bartlett and Anjou varieties. As four pear trees
can be properly grown upon the space usually allotted to
one apple tree, both the product and the profit in the earlier
years of the orchard will be greater with the pear than the
apple ; but later, as the apple trees approach their full
growth, the results will be changed, unless the location prove
exceptionally favorable for the pear, aided by careful culti-
vation and liberal fertilization. None of our fruits are so
free from insect pests as the pear ; but many orchards have
suffered more or less from pear blight, which made its ap-
pearance in this vicinity about ten years ago, after a lapse of
some twenty-five years during which the orchards had been
free from this disease. In some localities the loss has been
quite severe, though as a whole slight compared with its
ravages in the orchards in some of the Western States.

Massachusetts has been considered about the northern
limit where the grape could be successfully grown in the
open air ; and, notwithstanding many failures in the attempts
to grow the hybrid crosses of the foreign with our native
varieties, grape culture has increased more within the last
ten years, especially among farmers, than any other variety
of fruit, and the increase has been largely in the northern
portion of the State. In some of the towns on the New
Hampshire border the farmers, selecting elevated locations
with a light, warm soil and southern aspect, have found the
grape crop their most profitable farm product. In the larger
vineyards the Concord still continues to be largely grown ;
but the Worden and IVIoore's Early, supposed to be seed-
lings from the Concord, and fully equalling if not excelling
it in quality, and ripening from one to two weeks earlier,
are coming every year into more general cultivation.

The profitable growing of the small fruits by the farmers
must depend much upon location. They require more hand

418 BOAKD OF AGEICULTUEE.

labor in their cultivation and in preparing the crop for mar-
ket ; but if near any of the cities or large towns affording a
ready market, they may be made an important item on the
farmer's balance sheet at the close of the year.

When a number of individuals, either as a firm or an
incorporated body, propose to go into any manufacturing
enterpeise, their first inquiries are, what are the facilities
for producing the goods which they propose to make, what
are the advantages of location as regards the raw material
and markets for the product, what the probable demand and
supply, what may reasonably be expected as profit. Tried
by these tests, the cultivation of fruit deserves the careful
consideration of the farmers of Massachusetts. With many
advantages of soil and climate for producing the fruits that
enter most largely into general consumption ; with every
advantagre of location as reg-ards both the home demand and
foreign markets ; with thousands of acres of cheap and at
present unproductive laud admirably adapted to the culti-
vation of fruit ; with a demand for home consumption con-
stantly increasing, and a foreign market yet in its infancy
but susceptible of indefinite extension, — there would seem to
be no reason why fruit should not become one of the leading
agricultural products of the State.

FOURTH ANNUAL REPORT

DIRECTOR OF THE STATE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT
STATION AT AMHERST^ MASS.

REPORT.

To the Honorable Board of Control.

Gentlemen: — The past year has been one of marked
activity in the history of the Station. The additional appropri-
ation granted by the Legislature of 1886, for finishing and
fitting up the chemical laboratory, has rendered it possible to
finish the building, according to the design adopted by the
Board, and to provide it with a gas machine, a heating appa-
ratus, and such general appliances as are indispensable to meet
the purpose for which it has been erected.

A new building has been added to those already existing for
experiments in stock feeding. The structure is of wood ; chip-
boarded outside and sheathed inside ;. fifty-six feet long, twenty-
six feet wide, with posts twelve feet high. It is well lighted
and ventilated, and contains six separate stalls for cows and
two for horses.

The building for feeding experiments with pigs and sheep
has been removed to a more convenient locality for the work
carried on under its roof. This change in its position has ren-
dered more compact the entire arrangements for keeping the
various kinds of farm live-stock for feeding experiments, and
will prove ultimately good economy in various directions.

A covered passage, seven feet wide and thirty feet long, has
been built to connect the feed room and its scales for weiohinj;
the daily fodder rations, by rails, with the stalls occupied
by the animals on trial. The building, originally intended for
heating apparatus and engine, has been enlarged nine feet in
length and twelve feet in width, to serve in the near future for
the management of the milk-setting apparatus.

422 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The dwelling-house occupied by the farmer, as well as the
principal barn and the sheds, have been kept in good repair.
Ko alterations of any consequence have been made iu these
buildings. The contemplated changes are confined to the barn ;
they are of no particular importance as far as expenses are con-
cerned, and may be attended to whenever circumstances render
it advisable.

The entire expenses, arising from the increase and the
improvement of farm buildings, have been paid from the
regular annuaMncome of the Station.

The work in the field has been on a more extensive scale
than in any preceding year, for new lands have been added to
those occupied during the past. The grounds assigned to the
Station at the beginning of its existence consisted of two fields
situated at some distance from each other. One field, about
three acres in size, which had been used for a series of years
for experiments with fruit, was returned three years ago
to the College. The other, which comprises an area of 17.72
acres, has remained ever since under the control of the Sta-
tion. Upon these grounds are located all buildings and experi-
mental fields described in this and in the three preceding annual
reports.

The new lands added during the past season, in consequence
of an agreement between the Board of Trustees of the State
A<yricultural College and the Board of Control of the State
Ao'ricultural Experiment Station, consist of twenty acres of
unimproved grass land and of about ten acres of wood-land.
The entire field is a part of the western slope of a prominent
and extended elevation, covered with a dense natural forest
growth. The wood-land assigned to the Station stretches along
the western termination of the grove ; it reaches to the crest of
the hill, and has been secured to enable the control of the water-
shed towards the adjoining lower grounds. Three thousand and
ei<yht hundred feet of drain tiles have been laid to improve the
growth on the lowlands. Twelve acres of the old grass land
have been turned over to renovate the soil during the coming
season by drill cultivation of suitable crops. It is proposed,
subsequently, to turn the more elevated portion of these lands
to account for experiments with fruit trees, and to raise upon

EXPERIMENT STATION. 423

the remainder, according to particular location, either general
farm crops, or utilize them as permanent meadows.

The area occupied by field experiments upon the old grounds
has been considerably enlarged. The number of separate fields
has been increased ; their outlines have been established
with a view to permanency, wherever the soil has attained a
desirable uniformity as far as its state of cultivation, as well as
the condition and character of its latent resources of plant food
are concerned. To secure the latter condition as soon as
practicable, one and the same mixture of manurial matter —
ground bones and muriate of potash — has been used since the
establishment of the Station, whenever a general good state of
fertilization was needed in the interest of success. Four
distinct fields, each more than once acre in size, have been thus
far set oflF to serve, if necessary, for years, for some definite
line of observations. The experimental work carried on in
the barn, the field and the laboratory during the past year is
described in the subsequent pages under the following head-
ings : —

1. Experiments with milch cows to ascertain the feeding value of
corn stover as a substitute for English hay, and that of corn ensilage
as compared with beet roots.

2. Analyses of fodder articles with reference to their nutritive
value, accompanied by a short exposition of the leading principles-
recognized as the basis for determining the comparative feeding value
of our fodder articles in a rational system of stock feeding.

3. Analyses of some prominent feed stuffs, with reference to the
fertilizing constituents they contain.

4. On the best condition of fodder corn for the silo.

5. Fodder corn raised on underdrained and exhausted lands, partly
manured with one single article of plant food, partly without the use
of any manurial matter.

6. Influence of fertilizers on the quantity and the quality of some
prominent crops, — corn and four grasses.

7. Experiments with some prominent fodder crops to furnish a
continuous supply of green fodder for dairy stock, — oats, vetch,
serradella and Southern pea vines.

8. Experiments with potatoes.

9. Miscellaneous field experiments.

10. Fertilizers and fertilizer analyses; miscellaneous analyses.

11. Well water anal^'ses.

12. Meteorolosical observations.

424 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

It may be noticed from the above statement that some of the
reported experiments are continuations of inquiries inaugurated
in previous years, while others are the natural outgrowths of
preceding investigations ; some open new lines of observation.

Considerable attention has been devoted during the past
year to constructing buildings, providing a better outfit for
the chemical laboratory and for the stock-feeding department.
The new year cannot otherwise but materially benefit from the
change. The periodical publications of the Station have not
been as numerous during the preceding year, on account of
temporary interruptions in the work in consequence of delays
caused by the erection of new buildings and the remodelling of
old ones. The interest in the bulletins and annual reports has
been steadily increasing throughout all parts of the State and
elsewhere. The printing of bulletins has been increased from
three thousand five hundred in 1885, to five thousand copies
each in 1886. The second annual report is entirely out of
print, and but few of the first and third reports are still at our
disposal. None of the bulletins, Nos. 1 to 16, are on hand;
the same is the case with No. 20 of the last year. The publi-
cation will be resumed at an early date.

The support received from all parties connected with the
work of the Station has been very satisfactory.

Permit me to thank you sincerely for the hearty encourage-
ment and the kind support I have enjoyed in carrying on the
work assigned to me.

Yours very respectfully,

C. A. GOESSMANN,

Director of the Slate Agricultural Experiment Station.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 425

FEEDING EXPEEIMENTS.

C. A. GOESSMANN.

1. Experiments with Milch Cows.

The feeding experiments described within a few subsequent
pages were chiefly instituted for the purpose of studying the
feeding value of dried corn fodder (stover) as a substitute for
English hay, and of beet roots as compared with corn ensilage.
The observations made in this connection extended over a
period of nearly eight months, — November, 1885, to July,
1886.

Two cows, crosses of native stock and Ayrshires, and both
from six to seven years old, served for the trial. They were in
the same milking period, four weeks after calving, at the
beginning of the experiments. The changes in diet, whenever
decided upon, were made gradual, to prevent any serious dis-
turbance in the general condition of the animal on trial. As a
rule, from four to five or more days were allowed to pass by, in
case of a change of food, before a record of the daily yield of
milk was made for the purpose of comparing the eflTect of
different fodder rations.

The valuation of the various fodder articles consumed is
based on our local market prices, per ton, at the time of their
use: Good English hay, $15; corn meal, $23; wheat bran,
$20; dry corn fodder (stover), $5; corn ensilage, $2.75;
Lane's Improved Sugar Beet, $5.

The daily diet of both cows consisted at the beginning of the
experiments of three and one-quarter pounds of corn meal, an
equal weight of wheat bran and all the hay they Avould eat.

426 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The actual amount of hay consumed, in each case, was ascer-
tained by weighing out daily a liberal supply of it and deducting
subsequently the hay left over. The same fodder mixture, as
far as quality and quantity are concerned, was also used for
some time as daily feed at the close of the experiment.
This course was adopted for the purpose of ascertaining the
natural shrinkage in daily yield of milk during the time
engaged by the experiments (from seven to eight months). It
amounted, as may be noticed in the subsequent detailed record,
to nearly 50 per cent, of the original yield of milk.

The above- stated combination of fodder articles was adopted
as the basis of our investigation, mainly for the reason that it
had been used with satisfactory results in some of our earlier
feeding experiments, and not on the assumption of its being the
best possible combination of fodder articles for milch cows.

The value of a fodder for dairy purposes may be stated from
two distinctly diflerent standpoints, — namely, with reference to
its influence on the temporary yield of milk, and the general
condition of the animals which consume it ; and in regard to its
lirst cost, i. e,, its phj'siological and commercial value.

The market price of our fodder articles depends on the
supply and demand in the general .market ; its determination is
beyond the control of the individual farmer. The market price
of hay of the same quality may vary widely in different years
and in different localities ; its feeding value remains materially
the same, under corresponding circumstances, year after year.

The market value and actual feeding effect of one and the
same article do not necessarily correspond with each other ; in
fact, they rarely coincide.

The market value may be stated for each locality by one
definite number. The feeding effect of one and the same sub-
stance, simple or compound, varies under different . circum-
stances, and depends in a controlling degree on its judicious
use. Sugar fed without any suitable admixture has no feeding
value ; it is worthless as the sole food of an animal. Properly
supplemented, — as, for instance, in the sweet corn, — its nutri-
tive value is very great. Bread has a high feeding value for
man ; a cat fed exclusively with bread dies, after some weeks,
with the symptoms of starvation.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 427

As no single plant or part of plants has been found to supply
economically and efficiently to any considerable extent the
wants of our various kinds of farm stock, it becomes a matter
of first importance to learn how to supplement our leading farm
crops, to meet the divers wants of each kind. To secure the
highest feeding value of each article of fodder is most desirable
in the interest of good economy. The judicious selection of
ingredients for a suitable and remunerative diet for our dairy
stock obliges us, therefore, to study the value of the fodder
articles at our disposal from both standpoints.

The chemical analyses of the various articles used in the
combination of fodder in our case are stated in some succeed-
ing pages, to show their character and their respective quality.
To ascertain the chemical composition of a fodder ration in
connection with an otherwise carefully managed feeding experi-
ment, enables us to recognize, with more certainty, the causes
of the varying feeding eifects of one and the same fodder article,
when fed in different combinations. It furnishes also a most
valuable guide in the selection of suitable commercial feed stuffs
from known sources to supplement economically our home-
raised fodder crops. Practical experience in feeding stock has
so far advanced, that it seems to need no further argument to
accept it as a matter of fact, that the efficiency of a fodder
ration in the dairy does not depend on the mere presence of
more or less of certain prominent fodder articles, but on the
presence of a proper quantity and a certain relative proportion
of some prominent constituents of plants, which are known to
be essential for a successful support of life and the special
functions of the dairy cow.

Investigations into the relations which the various prominent
constituents of plants bear to the support of animal life, have
rendered it advisable to classify them in this connection into
three groups, — mineral constituents, and nitrogenous and non-
nitrogenous organic constituents. For details regarding this
matter I have to refer to previous publications of the Station.
Numerous and extensive practical feeding experiments, with
most of our prominent fodder articles in various conditions,
and with all kinds of farm live stock, have introduced the
practice of reporting together with analysis of the chemist, the

428 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

results of careful feeding experiments, as far as the various
fodder articles have proved digestible, and were thus qualified
for the support of the life and the functions of the particular
kind of animal on trial. In stating the amount of the digesti-
ble portion of the fodder consumed in a feeding experiment, it
has also proved useful for comparing different fodder rations,
etc., to make known by a distinct record the relative propor-
tion which has been noticed to exist between the amount of
nitrorjenous constituents and the non-nitrogenous organic
constituents. This relation is expressed by the name of
"Nutritive Ratio." An examination of the subsequent short
description of our feeding experiments will show, for instance,
that the corn meal we fed contained one part of digestible
nitrogenous matter, to 8.76 parts of digestible non-nitrogenous
organic matter, making the customary allowance for the higher
physiological value of the fat as compared with that of starch,
sugar, etc. (2.5 times higher). The "Nutritive Ratio" of
the corn meal is subsequently stated as follows, — 1 : 8.76. Our
different combinations of fodder articles, to constitute the daily
diet during different feeding periods, vary as far as their nutri-
tive ratios are concerned from 1 : 6.7 to 1 : 10.17. The closer
relation (1 : 6.7) was obtained by an exceptionally large amount
of roots, with hay and wheat bran without corn meal ; and the
wider relation (I : 10.17), by feeding a liberal amount of corn
ensilage with hay and corn meal without bran. A closer rela-
tion of nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous digestible constituents
of an otherwise suitable fodder mixture is considered more nec-
essary for growing animals and dairy cows, than for full-grown
animals and moderately worked horses and oxen. German
investigators recommend for dairy cows a diet which confor'ms
to a nutritive ratio of 1 : 5.4. Arrangements will be made
during the coming winter season to repeat our feeding experi-
ments with essentially the same coarse fodder articles, but
modified by a suitable increase and addition of concentrated
feed stuffs to secure daily diet of a closer nutritive ratio, than
has been used on the present occasion.

An examination of the subsequent tabulated statement of the
results of our experiments shows, among other interesting facts,
the marked influence of the feeding of dried corn fodder and of

EXPERIMENT STATION. 429

corn ensilage as a substitute for a part of the English hay, on
the cost of the production of milk. Not less striking is the
beneficial influence of a moderate amount of roots, as a substi-
tute for a part of the hay, on the quality of milk. A numeri-
cal expression of the influence of the yield of milk in case of
difi"erent cows, as well as at difierent milking periods of the
same cow under the same system of feeding, on the cost of its
production, may not be without some interest, when entering
upon a serious discussion of the question, What kind of cows
ought to be removed from our dairy stock in the interest of
good economy?

430

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Record of Daisy.

Feed Consumed

(LBS.)

PER DAT.

1 ii-^-S

2

1 ^

■3

a

0

s

FEEDING
PERIODS,

1

a
d

•o
1
o

i

o
o

K

Amount of dry
(■table matter
tained in tlie
fodder cons
(in pounds).

a!

^ Si

a

n O. .
■C it

pa

0)

1885.

Nov. 20 to Dec. 7,

3.25

3.25

-

20.00

-

-

24.06

16.3

1.48

8.2

910

Dec. 19 to 29,

3.25

3.25

8.00

10.00

-

-

21.64

15.4

1.45

7.9

395

1886.

i

Jan. 3 to 22,

3.25

3.25

12.00

5.00

-

-

20.44

14.2

1.44

7.72

8.50

Feb. 1 to 17,

3.25

3.25

-

15.00

-

27.00

23 91

14.2

1.68

7.1

845

" 20 to 28,

3.25

-

-

15.00

-

27.00

21.06

13.2

1.60

6.9

850

Mar. 1 to 8,

3.25

-

-

15.00

-

40.00

1 23.18

13.3

1.74

6.7

873

" 12 to 22, ,

3.25

325

-

15.00

-

27.00

23.89

14.2

1.68

7.1

860

'• 25 to Apr.l3,

3.25

3.25

-

14.60

20 63

-

23.73

12.8

1.85

8.14

870

Apr. 18 to May 6,

3.25

3 25

-

10.00

29.71

-

21.51

11.0

1.91

8.15

865

May 20 to 31, .

-

3.25

-

500

41.75

-

16.83

9.2

1.83

10.17

830

June 4 to 14,

3.25

-

-

5.00

4136

_

16.76

89

188

8.29

855

" 26 to July 4,

3.25

3 25

-

20.00

-

24.04

8.4

2.86

8.2

840

Record of Mollie.

Feed Con.^umed

(I.BS.)

pee DAT.

Amount of dry veg-
etable matter con-
tained in the daily
fodder consumed
(in pounds).

0

o- .
£^

,,,•0
II

St.

•3 o*

m 0. .
■a ^

6

1

*t-
3

IZi

■5

a

a
■<
0

'3

FEEDING
PERIODS.

1

.e

03
a

c

5

u

•a

0

0

X

bo

c
Ed

i
« 0

1885.

Nov. 20 to Dec. 7,

3.25

3 25

-

20.00

-

-

24.06

12.62

1.93

8.2

882

Dec. 19 to 29, .

3.25

3.25

8.00

10 00

-

-

21.64

11.86

1.82

7.9

885

1886.

Jan. 3 to 22,

3 25

3.25

13.35

5.00

-

-

21.75

13.87

1.56

7.87

845

Feb. 1 to 17, .

3.25

3.25

-

15.00

-

27.00

I 23.91

1116

2.14

7.1

868

" 17 to 28, .

3.25

-

-

15.00

_

27.00

21.06

13 2

1.60

6.9

910

Mar. Ito 8, .

3.25

-

-

15.00

-

40.00

23.18

10.06

2.19

6.7

895

" 12 to 22, .

3.25

3.25

-

15.00

-

27.00

23.89

11.1

2.15

7.1

906

" 25toApr.l3,

3.25

3.25

-

14.20

22.27

-

23.74

11.2

2.12

8.17

921

Apr. 18 to May 6,

3.25

3.25

-

10.00

29.82

-

21.58

10.6

2.04

8.15

899

May 20 to 31,

-

3.25

-

6.00

36.83

-

16.64

8.9

1.87

0.09

850

June 4 to 14,

3.25

-

-

5.00

40.63

-

16.59

9.1

1.82

8.25

852

" 26 to July 4,

3.25

3.25

-

20 00

-

-

24.04

8.6

2.80

8.2

830

EXPERIMENT STATION.

431

Cost of Feed jjer Quart of
(Daisy.)

Milk.

9 J'

Q

£rs

"■6 ' -o o

c

^•o

^

.-^

^ =

.^r, 1 OCl,

o

™_o

2 °

o

2 2

2

^ .

13

II

fCrnM
iug Peril

during

^1

S u

o •-■

o ^

u

t8l

FEEDINa

>>?

"5 s

c 5

ounto
eddur

ounto
iumed

■X c

1'

£3

ta sm

PERIODS.

5 3

Oil

O 3

i-

<! S

o "C

«- 3

III

g^

CJ o

E£ 1 2 c

g-o

Js

S2

O V .^

73 «^

e a

< 3

"5 S

^ 3

"P. a

!>ID3 =

pa

■S 3 o

o~

■^ o

i: o 1 ^ o o

.£: o

E-

^-a*.

^^

^-■=

o 2

1^

^"

>!i'S

1 Qts.

e<a.

Z6«-

Lbs.

Lb8.

Lbs.

Lbs^

Lbs.

Genu.

Nov. 20 to Dec. 7,

292.5

16.3

58.50

58 58

-

360.00

-

-

$.X96

1.35

Dec. 19 to 29^

169-0

15.4

35.75

35,75

88 00

110,00

-

-

1,81

1.07

Jan. 3 to 22,

283.5

14.2

65.00

65-00

240.00

100.00

-

-

2.75

0.97

Feb. 1 to 17,

241.5

14.2

55.25

55.25

-

255.00

-

459.06

4.25

1.76

" 20 to 28,

118.5

13,2

29.25

-

-

135.00

-

243.00

1,91

1.61

Mar. 1 to 8,

106,5

13.3

26.00

-

-

120.00

-

320.00

1.96

184

■" 12 to 22,

156.5

14.2

35.75

35.75

-

165.00

-

297,00

2.75

1.76

" 23 to Apr. 13,

256.2

12 8

65.00

65 00

-

292.00

412,50

-

4.12

1.61

Apr. 18 to May 6,

209.5

11.6

61.75

«1.76

-

190.00

564.50

-

3,49

1.67

May 20 to 31,

112.7

9.2

-

39.00

-

60.00

501.00

-

1.55

1.:.7

June 4 to 14,

98.0

8.9

35.75

-

-

55.00

455.00

'

1.36

l.r9

" 26 to July 4,

75.5

8.4

29.25

29.25

-

180.00

-

-

1.99

2.64

432

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Cost of Feed j)er Quart of Milk.

(MOLLIE.)

o a)

O

2-d

rt-o

m '*

B

a>-i

2t3

S-

t(^

S °

=2 o

■c.S

O

a o

O o

-M 2,

2

"3

:5 V

15

«.2

%i

« M_:

in

•6

o c

g?

o a>

o^

•a ■-
o U.I

So-2

FEEDIiV^G

^^

— .2

"a j;

c 3

« a

= 3

*j 3

C 3

few.

:"S(^

PERIODS.

OtJ

i

O 0)

° 9
_ C.2

O 3

« 3

o'2

si

« a

d.2«2

br3.-

213

o-S"

>a

,°o

o;j

= OP-i

oo

oo

>ai o

H

<

H

H

Eh

F-

H

H

h"

<3

Qts.

Q(s.

Lbs.

Lbs.

X?.s.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Cents.

Nov. 20 to Dec. 7,

227.5

12.6

58.50

58.50

-

360.00

-

-

$3.96

1.74

Dec. 19 to 29,

130.5

11.9

35.75

35.75

88.00

110.00

-

-

1.81

1.39

Jan. 3 to 22,

277.5

13.9

65.00

65.00

271.00

100.00

-

-

2.82

1.02

Feb. 1 to 17,

189.8

11.2

55.25

55.25

-

255.00

-

459 00

4.25

2.24

" -20 to 28,

96.0

10.6

29.25

-

-

135 00

-

243.00

1.91

1.99

Mar. 1 to 8,

84.5

10.6

26.00

-

-

120.00

-

320.00

1.96

2.32

" 12 to 22,

122.0

11.1

35.75

35.75

-

165.00

-

297.00

2.75

2.25

" 25 to Apr. 13.

223.5

11.2

65.00

65.00

-

284.00

445.50

-

4.11

1.84

Apr. 18 to May 6,

190.3

10.0

61.75

61.75

-

190 00

566.50

-

3.49

1.83

May 20 to 31,

107.0

8.9

-

39.00

-

60.00

442.00

-

1.47

1.37

June 4 to 14,

100.5

9.1

35.75

-

-

55.00

447.00

-

1.35

1.33

" 26 to JuJy 4,

77.0

8.6

29.25

29.25

-

180.00

-

-

1.99

2.51

Analyses of Milk.
(Daisy.)

•- o
!2!

1

<

>>

C3
IS

r-4
0)

a

3

3

1-5

Water,

87.56

87.65

88.08

86.18

86.62

86.78

85.81

85.97

87.02

87.10

86.75

87.59

Solids,

12.44

12 35

11.92

13 82

13.38

13.22

14.19

14.03

12.98

12.90

13.25

12.41

Fat (in solids), .

3.28

3.56

2 29

4.58

4.30

4.30

4.54

4.93

4.05

4.20

4.62

3 79

(MOLLIE.)

\a

to to

ai

s

■*

oo

as

-*

ai

s

52

1-1 o

00 jJ

.a

x>

ci

P.

^

>>

03

c

Z

a

»^

Ui

iu

■s

S

<

a

a

1^1

i-s

Water,

87.16

87.35

87.67

86..35

87.04

87.06

86.61

86.33

8730

87.25

86.50

87.26

Solids,

12.84

12.65

12.33

13.65

12.96

13.94

13.39

13.67

12.70

12.75

1350

12.74

Fat (in solids), .

3.82

3.59

3.73

4.28

3.74

4.75

4.03

4.51

3.96

4.24

4.36

3 68

EXPERIMENT STATION.

433

Analyses of the Different Articles of Feed Consumed
during the above experiments.

HAY.

[From Experiment Station, 18S5.]

6

2 o

s —

Constituents (in
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Per cent, of Di-
gestibility of
Constituents.

1

a

«

>•

3

A

Moisture at 100° C,

Dry Matter, ....

8.30
91.70

100.00

6.12

30.19

2.55

9.75

51.39

166.00
1,83410

350.20
23.46

111.15

647.51

58
46

57

63

\

Analysis of Dry Matter.
Crude Ash, ....
» Cellulose,

" Fat, ....
" Protein (Nitrogenous
Matter), .
Non-nitrogenous Extract Mat-
ter

2,000.00

122.40

603.80

51.00

195.00

102.78

100.00

2,000.00

1,132.32

-

J

The hay consisted largely of Herd's-grass {Phleum pratense)
and Red-top [Agrostis vulgaris), with a fair admixture of clover.

CORN FODDER.

[From the Experiment Station, 1885.]

a

8
« .

a o

c 5

i a

Constituents (in
lbs.) in a ton of
2,C00 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Per cent, of Di-
gestibility of
Constituents.

o
■■s

a
>
3

Mositure at 100° C,

15.40

308.00

_

_

}

Dry Matter, ....

84.60

1,692.00

-

-

100.00

2,000.00

_

_

Analysis of Dry Mutter.
Crude Ash, ....

4.22

84.40

" Cellulose, .

20.93

418.60

301.39

72

y^^.

" Fat, ....

2.63

52.60

39.45

75

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

9.17

183.40

133.88

73

Non-nitrogenous Extract Mat-

ter,

63.05

1,261.00

844 87

67

100.00

2,000.00

1,319.59

The above corn fodder was raised under the same conditions,
as far as the soil and the fertilizers used are concerned, as the
corn for the silos.

434

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

CORN ENSILAGE.

[From the Silos of the Experiment Station.]

i

c a

Constituents (in
lbs.) in a ton
of 2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Per' cent, of Di-
gestibility of
Constituents.

6

05

a
fe5

Moisture at U0°C.,

Dry Matter, ....

77.48
22.62

1,. 549 60

450.40

274.68

52.42
114.17
876.63

72
75

73

67

1

Analysis of Dry Mailer.
Crude Ash, ....
" Cellulose,

" Fat, ....
" Protein (Nitrogenous
Matter), .
Non-nitrogenous Extract Mat-
ter,

100.00

4.19

19.08

3.49

7.82

65.42

2,000.00

83.80

381.60

69.80

156.40

1,308.40

1

CO
1

100.00

2,000.00

1,317.90

-

.

The above analysis represents the mean composition of the
ensilage obtained from the silos described iu a previous bul-
letin. The contents of the silos were fed in direct succession,
beginning with the silo which had been filled slowly. The
corn had been about six months in the silo when the feeding
of the ensilage commenced.

CORN MEAL.

[Amherst Mill, 1885.]

a

o

c c

1 ^

— o

1 **-<

2 ° «

6

U

2 « j3

S) 2

"3 >. g

a

a o

tuen
in

000

nt.

blllt

titu

>

§ 1 o

ble i

2,000

er ce
gest
Cons

3

l£

O

Ph

^

^2!

Moisture at 100° C,

12.62

252.40

_

_

1

Dry Matter, ....

87.38

1,747.60

lOO.Oi)

2,000.00

Analysis of Dry Malter.

Crude Ash, ....

1.56

31.20

—

-

«o

" Cellulose,

2.66

63.20

18.09

34

" Fat

4.27

85.40

64.90

76

" Protein (Nitrogenous

tH

Matter),

11.43

228.60

194.31

85

Non-nitrogenous Extract Mat-

ter,

80.08
100.00

1,601.60

1,506.60

94

2,000.00

1,782.80

-

)

'i he average composition of the corn meal during the experi-
ments.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

435

WHEAT BRAN.

[Amherst Mill, 1885.]
81.93 per cent, passed through Mesh 144 to the square inch.

a

o

ts (In
a ton
bs.

J. o

S e

of Dl-
y of
euts.

1

S c

Sao

« «! S

a 3

2 '" S

= -2 -U

>■

onsti
lbs.)
of 2,

ound
blei

2,000

S 'S c

s •

s

0H

O

Ph

^

'A

Moisture at 100° C, .

12.05

241.00

_

_

1

Dry Matter, ....

87.95
100 00

1,759.00

1

2,000.00

Anylasis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash, ....

6.64

132.80

-

-

t--.

" Cellulose,

11.49

229.80

45.96

20

^S

," Fat, ....

4.75

95.00

76.00

80

" Protein (Nitrogenous

I-H

Matter),

17.86

357.20

314.34

88

1

Non-nitrogenous Extract Mat-

ter,

59.26

1,185.20

948.16

80

100.00

2,000.00

1,384.46

-

J

The average composition of the wheat bran during the ex-
periments.

LANE'S IMPROVED SUGAR BEET.
[From Experiment Staiion, 188.5.]

i

^ c

~ o

3° 2

6

d

S, £

Oh

« o

uen
in s
lbs.

« « i

c 3 S

>

c 5

onstil
lbs.)

2,000

ound
ble i

2,000

2 5

M

3

^

C .

^

h

'A

Moisture at 100° C, .

83.57

1,671.4

_

_

\

Dry Matter, ....

16.43

100.00

328.6

2,000.0

1

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash, ....

3.57

71.4

—

-

to

" Cellulose,

5.27

105.4

105.4

100

1°^

" Fat

.83

16.6

16.6

100

" Protein (Nitrogenous

I-l

Matter), .

17.44

348.8

261.6

75

Non-nitrogenous Extract Mat-

ter,

72.89
100.00

1,457.8

1,384.9

95

2,000.0

1,768.5

-

J

436

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Summary of Amount of Digestible Matter contained in the previously
described Feeding Periods.

PERIODS.

Total Amount of Food
Consumed (in lbs.)
during the Entire
Period.

Total Amount of Dry
Matter Consumed (in
lbs.) during the En-
tire Period.

Digestible Portion of
Dry Matter (in lbs.)
Consumed during the
Entire Period.*

Amount of Digestible
Matter Consumed
per Day (in lbs.).

o

«

o
>

s

I., Dais}' and Mollie, .

477.00

433.00

267.40

14.86

1: 8.2

11., » " " .

269.50

238.03

158.40

14.40

1: 7.9

III., Daisy,

470.00

408.71

276.10

13.81

1: 7.77

III., Mollie,

501.00

434.94

293.20

14.66

1: 7.87

IV., Daisy and Mollie,

824.60

406.40

275.80

16.22

1: 7.1

v., " " " .

407 25

189.50

123.20

13.69

1: 6.9

VI., " " " .

466.00

185.40

124.60

15.58

1: 6.7

VII., " " " .

533.50

262.80

178.30

16.21

1: 7.1

VIII., Daisy, .

834.50

474.63

303.00

15.15

1: 8.14

VIII., Mollie, .

859.50

474 73

303.70

15.19

1: 8.17

IX., Daisy,

878.00

408.63

267.20

14.06

1: 8.15

IX., Mollie,

880.00

410.08

268.20

14.12

1: 8.15

X., Daisy, .

600.00

201.93

135.90

11.33

1:10.17

X., Mollie, .

541.00

199.64

133.90

11.15

1 :10.09

XL, Daisy,

545.75

184.35

118.70

10.79

1: 8.29

XI., Mollie,

537.75

182.54

117.40

10.67

1: 8.25

XII , Daisy and Mollie,

238.50

216.40

136.00

15.11

1: 8.0

* The salines contained in these crops are not included.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

437

I. PERIOD (18 Days).
Daisy and Mollie.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Jfatter.

DiGESTI

BLE PORTIOS.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non- nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Us.

Lbs.

lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Shorts, ....

58.5

51.5

1.2

2.0

8.1

24.4

Meal, ....

58.5

51.4

.5

1.7

5.0

38.7

Hay, ....

360.

330.1

57 8

3.9

17.2

106.9

477.0

433.0

59.5

7.6

30.3

170.0

Nutritive, ratio, 1 : 8.2.

Amount of drj- matter consumed per day, in Ib.s.,
Quarts of milk produced per day.

Daisy. Mollie.

24.06 24.06

16.25 12.62

II. PERIOD (11 Days).

Daisy and Mollie.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Jlatter.

Digestible Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non- nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Shorts

35.75

31.44

.7

1.2

4.9

14.9

Meal

35.75

31.27

2.8

1.0

3.1

23.5

Hay

110.00

100.87

17.7

1.2

5.6

32.7

Corn, ....

88.00
269.50

74.45
238.03

11.2

1.5

5.0

31.4

32.4

4.9

18.6

102.5

Nutritive ratio, 1 : 7.9.

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs..
Quarts of milk produced per day,

Daisy. Mollie

21.63 21.63
15.36 11.86

438

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

III. PERIOD (20 Days).
Daisy.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

DioBSTiBLB Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non- nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Meal, ....

65.00

66.80

.5

1.8

5.6

42.8

Shorts, ....

65.00

57.17

1.3

2.2

9.0

27.1

Hay

100.00

• 91.70

16.0

1.1

5.1

29.7

Corn, ....

240.00

203.04

30.6

4.0

13.6

.85.8

470.00

408.71

48.40

9.1

33 2

185.4

Mollie.

Meal, ....

65.00

56.80

.5

1.8

5.5

42.8

Shorts, ....

65.00

57.17

1.3

2.2

9.0

27.1

Hay, ....

100.00

91.70

16.0

1.1

5.1

29.7

Corn, ....

271.00

229.27

34.5

4.5

15.3

96.8

501.00

434.94

52.3

9.6

34.9

196.4

Nutritive ratio,

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs..
Quarts of milk produced per day.

Daisy. MolUe.

1:7.72 1:7.87

20.43 21.74

14.17 13.8

EXPERIMENT STATION.

439

IV. PERIOD (17 Days).
Daisy and Mollie.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

Digestible roKTiON.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbt.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Meal, ....

55.25

48.60

.4

1.6

4.7

36.6

Shorts, ....

55.25

48.59

1.1

1.8

7.6

23.0

Hay, ....

255.00

233.84

40.9

2.7

13.0

75.7

Roots, ....

459.00
824.50

75.41
406.4

4.0

.6

9.9

52.2

46.4

6.7

35.2

187.5

Nutritive ratio, 1 : 7.1.

Daisy. Mollie.

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs., . . 23.90 23.90

Quarts of milk produced per day, 14 2 11.16

V. PERIOD (9 Days).
Mollie a?ul Daisy.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

Digestible Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Shorts

29 25

25.73

.6

1.0

4.0

12.2

Hay

135.00

123.80

21.7

1.5

6.9

40.1

Roots, ....

243.00

39.92

2.1

.3

5.2

27.6

407.25

189.5

24.4

2.8

161

79.9

Nutritive ratio, 1 : 6.9.

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs..
Quarts of milk produced per day,

Daisy. Mollie

21.05 210)

10.61 13.16

440

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

VI. PERIOD (8 Days).
Dauy and Mo Hie,

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

Digestible Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Hay, ....

120.00

110.04

19.3

1.3

6.1

35.6

Shorts, ....

26 00

22.87

.5

.9

3.6

10.8

Roots, ....

320.00

62..')8

2.8

.4

6.9

36.4

466.00

185.44

22.6

2.6

16.6

82.8

Nutritive ratio, 1 : 6.7.

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs.,
Quarts of milk produced per day,

Daisy. Mollie.

23.17 23.17

13.31 10.56

VII. PERIOD (11 Days).
DaUy and Mollie.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

DiGESTiBLK Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Meal, ....

35.75

31.24

.28

1.0

3.0

23.5

Hay, ....

165.00

151.31

26.5

1.8

8.4

49.0

Shorts, ....

35.75

31.44

.7

1.2

4.9

14.9

Roots, ....

297.C0
633.50

48.80
262.8

2.57

.4

6.4

33.8

30.0

4.4

22.7

121.2

Nutritive ratio, 1 : 7.1.

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs..
Quarts of milk produced per day.

Daisy. Mollie.

23.89 23.89

14.22 11.09

EXPERIMENT STATION.

441

VIII. PERIOD (20 Days).
Daisy.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

Digestible Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogon-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Meal

65.00

56.»0

.5

1.8

b.b

42.8

Shorts, ....

65.00

57.17

1.3

2.2

9.0

27.1

Hay, . . . .

292.00

267.76

46.9

3.1

14.9

86.7

Ensilage,

412.50
834.50

92.90
474.63

12.8

2.4

5.3

40.7

61.5

9.5

34.7

197.3

Mollie.

Meal, ....

65.00

66.80

.5

1.8

5.5

42.8

Shorts, ....

65.00

57.17

1.3

2.2

9.0

27.1

Hay, ....

284.00

260.43

45.6

3.1

14.5

84.3

Ensilage,

445.50

100.33

13.8

2.6

5.7

44.0

859.50

474.73

61.2

9.7

34.7

198.1

Nutritive ratio,

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs.,
Quarts of milk produced per day,

IX. PERIOD (19 Days).
Daisy.

Daisy.

1:8.14

23.73

12.8

Mollie.
1:8.17
23.73
11.2

Total
Amount.

Dry

Matter.

Digestible Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

rat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

LbB.

Meal

61.75

53.96

.5

1.7

5.3

40.5

Shorts, ....

61.75

54.31

1.2

2.1

8.5

25.7

Hay, ....

190.00

174.23

30.5

2.0

9.7

56.4

Ensilage, .

564.30
878.00

126.13
408.63

17.3

3.3

7.2

55.3

49.5

9.1

30.7

177.9

442

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Mollie.

Total
Amount.

Dry

Matter.

Digestible Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Meal

61.75

53.96

.5

1.7

5.3

40.5

Shorts, ....

61.75

54.31

1.2

2.1

8.5

25.7

Hay

190.00

174.23

30.5

2.0

9.7

56.4

Ensilage,

566.50

880.00

127.58
410.08

17.5

3.3

7.3
30.8

56.0

49.7

9.1

178.6

Nutritive ratio,

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs..
Quarts of milk produced per day,

X. PERIOD (12 Days).

Daisy.

Daisy.

1:8.15
21.51
11.0

Mollie.

1:8.15
21.58
10.6

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

Digest

BLE Portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Meal, ....

39.00

34.08

.3

1.1

3.3

25.7

Hay, ....

60.00

55.02

9.6

.6

3.1

17.8

Ensilage,

501.00

112.83

15.5

3.0

6.4

49.5

6<-0.00

201.93

25.4

4.7

12.8

93.0

Mollie.

Meal, ....

39.00

34.08

.3

1.1

3.3

25.7

Hay

60.00

55.02

9.6

.6

3.1

17.8

Ensilage,

442.00
541.00

110.54
199.64

15.1

2.9

6.3

48.1

25.0

4.6

12.7

91.6

Nutritive ratio,

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs..
Quarts of milk produced per day.

Daisy.

1: 10.17
16.82
9.2

Mollie.

1 : 10.09
16.63
8.9

EXPERIMENT STATION.

443

XI. PERIOD (11 Days).
Daisi/.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

Digestible portion.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non-nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lbs.

Lbs.

Lba.

Lba.

Lba.

Lba.

Shorts, ....

Zb.lb

31.44

.7

1.2

4.9

15.9

Hay

55.00

50.44.

8.8

.6

2.8

16.3

Ensilage,

455.00
545.75

102.47

14.1

2.7

5.8

44.9

184.35

23.6

4.5

13.5

77.1

Mollie.

Shorts, ....

35 75

31.44

.7

1.2

4.9

15.9

Hay, ....

55.00

50.44

8.8

.6

2.8

16.3

Ensilage,

447.00

100.66

13.8

2.6

5.7

44.1

537.75

182.54

23.3

4.4

13.4

76.3

Nutritive ratio,

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs.,
Quarts of milk produced per day, . . . .

Daisy. Mollie.

1 : 8.29 1 : 8.25

16.76 16.59

8.9 9.1

XII. PERIOD (9 Days).

Daisy and Mollie.

Total
Amount.

Dry
Matter.

Digestible roRTioN.

Cellu-
lose.

Fat.

Protein.

Non- nitrogen-
ous Extract
Matter.

Lba.

Lba.

Lba.

Lba.

Lbs. 1 Lba.

Meal, ....

29.25

26.56

2.3

.8

2.5

19.2

Shorts, ....

29.25

25.73

.6

1.0

4.0

12.2

Hay

180.00

165.06

28.9

1.9
3.7

9.2

53.4

238.50

216.4

31.8

15.7

84.8

Nutritive ratio, 1 :8.

Amount of dry matter consumed per day, in lbs..
Quantity of milk produced jjer day, .

Daisy.

Mollie.

24.04

24.04

8.4

8.6

444

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Milk and Creamery Reco7xl from November 17, 1883,
to Ax)ril 30, 1886.

Quarts of

Spaces of

Price

Am't received

Milk

Cream

allowed

from

Produced.

from Milk.

per Space.

Creamery.

1S8.>.

Novembei- 17 to 30,

764

348

4 cts.

$13.92

December 1 to 31,

8G2

409

4 "

16.36

1886.

January 1 to 31, .

785

355

4 "

14.20

February 1 to 28, .

695

324

4 "

12.96

March 1 to 31,

772

339

4 "

13.56

April 1 to 30,

688

257

4 "

10.28

4,566

2,032

-

$81.28

November, 1885. 6.38 spaces of cream made 1 lb. butter, equal to 25.52

cents per pound
December, " 6.50 spaces of cream made 1 lb. butter, equal to 26 cents

per pound.
January, 1886. 6.54 spaces of cream made 1 lb. butter, equal to 26.16

cents per pound.
February, " 6.65 spaces of cream made 1 lb. butter, equal to 26.60

cents per pound.
March, " 6.34 spaces of cream made 1 lb. butter, equal to 25.36

cents per pound.
April, " 6.13 spaces of cream made 1 lb. butter, equal to 24.52

cents per pound.

MILK ANALYSIS.

[Samples sent on for Examination.]

1

2

3

4

Specific gravity,

1.0375

1.032

1.0329

1.0296

Temperature, C, .

19.0

20.°

17.5°

.23°

Solids, .

10.25 per ct.

13.67 per ct.

14.37 per ct.

15.36 perct.

Fat,.

.42 "

4.15 "

4.87 "

5.44 "

Solids not fat, .

9.83 "

9.52 "

9.50 "

9.92 "

These samples are from the vicinity of Amherst. No. 1 is
skim milk.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 445

2. Fodder and Fodder Analyses.

The application of an intelligently devised system of
chemical tests, for the pnrpose of ascertaining the amount
and the relative proportions of the essential proximate con-
stituents of our fodder articles, has rendered valuable ser-
vices to practical agriculture. The chemical analysis of
plants during their successive stages of growth has shown
marked alterations in their composition, as far as the absolute
amount of vegetable matter, as well as the relative inopor-
tion of the essential plant-constituents, are concerned. It
has rendered not less conspicuous the important influence
which the soil in its varying state of fertility exerts on the
quantity and the quality of the growth raised upon it. The
lessons derived from this source of information have stimu-
lated inquiries concerning the safest modes of manuring, of
cultivating and of harvesting our different farm crops with
the prospect of securing the most satisfactory returns under
existing circumstances.

A better knowledge regarding the particular quality of
the various articles of fodder at our disposal improves our
chances of supplementing them judiciously and thus econom-
ically, for ditferent kinds of farm live-stock, as well as for
different conditions and functions of the same kind. It fur-
nishes, also, a safer basis for the explanation of the results
obtained in actual feeding experiments. To study the
nutritive value or feeding effect of any of our fodder articles
by actual feeding experiments, without learning, as far as
practicable, something more definite regarding its peculiar
quality or composition, deprives the results obtained largely
of their general interest, for they are secured under ill-
defined circumstances. The chemical analysis of an article
of fodder is for these reasons considered the first step
required to render an intelligent interpretation of the results
in feeding trials possible. Actual feeding experiments have
shown that tJiree groups of 2:>Iajii constiiue7its, namely, nitro-
genous, non-nitrogenous and mineral constituents, are needed
to successfully sustain animal life. No one or two of them,
alone, can support it for any length of time. In case the
food does not contain digestible non-nitrogenous substances,

446 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

the fat and a portion of the muscles of the animal on trial
will be consumed in the support of respiration before its
life terminates. In case digestible nitrogenous constituents
are excluded from the diet, the formation of new blood and
flesh from the food consumed ceases ; for the animal system,
according to our present state of information, is not capable
of producing its principal constituents from anything else
than the nitrogenous constituents of the plants.

Herbivorous animals receive these substances directly
from the plants ; carnivorous animals indirectly, by feeding
on herbivorous animals. We feed, at present, our farm-
stock too frequently, without a due consideration of the gen-
eral natural law of nutrition ; to deal out our fodder crops
only with mere reference to name, instead of making
ourselves more familiar with their composition and their
particular quality, deprives us even of the chance of draw-
ing an intelligent conclusion from our present system of
feeding.

To compound the animal diet with reference to the par-
ticular organization of the animal, its age and its functions,
is of no more importance than to select the fodder sub-
stances with reference to its special wants, as far as the
absolute and relative quantity of the three essential groups
of food constituents are concerned.

The peculiar character of our home-raised fodder articles
is apt to conceal their special deficiency for the various pur-
poses they are used for in general farm management. They
all contain the three essential food constituents, yet in
widely varying proportions ; and they ought, therefore, to
be supplemented in different directions to secure their full
economical value. To resort to more or less of the same
fodder article to meet the special wants, may meet the case
as far as an efficient support of the animal is concerned, yet
it can only in exceptional cases be considered good economy.

To satisfy the craving of the stomach and to feed a nutri-
tious food are both requirements of a healthy animal diet,
which, each in its own way, may be complied with. The
commercial fodder substances — as oil-cakes, mill refuse
brans, and our steadily-increasing supply of refuse materials
from breweries, starch works, glucose factories, etc. — are

EXPERIMENT STATION. 447

admirably fitted to supplement our farm resources for stock
feeding ; they can serve in regard to animal growth and
support, in a similar way as the commercial fertilizers in
the growth of our farm crops, by supplementing our home
manurial resources. To feed an excess of food materials, as
roots, potatoes, etc., which contain a large proportion of
non-nitrogenous matter, as starch, sugar, digestible cellular
substance, etc., means direct waste, for they are ejected by
the animal, and do not even materially benefit the manure
heap. In case of an excessive consumption of nitrogenous
constituents, — as oil-cakes, brans, gluten meal, etc., — a part
of the expense is saved in an increased value of the manure
obtained, yet scarcely enough to recommend that practice
bej'ond merely exceptional cases. The aim, therefore, of
an economical stock-feeding must be to compound our
various fodder materials in such a manner that the largest
quantity of each of the three above-stated groups of fodder
substances, which the animal is capable of assimilating,
should be contained in its daily diet to meet the purpose for
which it is kept.

To compound the fodder rations of our farm stock, with
reference to the special wants of each class of them, is an
essential requirement for a satisfactory performance of their
functions ; to supply these wants in an economical way con-
trols the financial success of the industry. From these and
similar considerations it will be apparent that the develop-
ment of a more rational, and thus more economical, system
of feeding farm live-stock requires the following kind of
information : —

First. How much of each of the three essential groups
of food-constituents is conluinod in the fodder we feed?

Second. How much of each of these essential food-con-
stituents is digestible under existing circumstances, and
is thus directly available to the particular animal on trial?

Third. How much of each of the three essential food-
constituents does each kind of animal require to secure the
best results ?

More than twenty-five years have passed by since these
questions have seriously engaged the attention of skilful
experimenters. Sufficient valuable information has been

448 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

secured in the course of time to encourage the use of the
adopted methods of observation, and to impart to many of
the conclusions arrived at, a just claim for a serious consid-
eration on the part of practical agriculturalists. The fact
that much needs still to be learned to meet the reasonable
expectations of those engaged in the development of a more
economical sj'stera of feeding farm live-stock cannot be con-
sidered a valid reason why we should not make an intelligent
use of what we have learned.

The chemical analysis of a fodder article is carried on
with a view to determine the quantity of each group of its
constituents, which is considered an essential ingredient of
a complete food for the support of animal life. Our modes
of analyzing articles of fodder are practically the same,
wherever this work is carried out intelligently. The results
obtained are, therefore, applicable for the determining of a
comparative value wherever the identity of the material can
be established.

The actual results of the analysis are usually reported
under the following headings : —

1. Amount of moisture lost at 110° C, or 230° F., and
amount of dry matter left behind.

2. Amount of mineral matter left behind after a careful
incineration of the material.

3. Amount of organic nitrogenous matter, commonly
called crude protein.

4. Amount of non-nitrogenous organic matter, exclusive
of fat and of coarse cellulose substances.

The entire mass which any fodder substance leaves behind
after being heated at one hundred and ten degrees, Centi-
grade thermometer, is called dry matter. An increase in
dry substance in case of any plant or part of plant at the
same stage of growth, indicates usually a higher feeding
value. To satisfy the cravings of the animal, a certain
quantity or bulk of coarse, dry matter becomes an impor-
tant consideration in making up the fodder rations for differ-
ent classes of animals. In raising young stock for fattening
purposes, a liberal supply is also desirable, to effect a
proper distension of the digestive organs, to make them
good feeders hereafter.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 449

Nitrogenous substances, or protein matter, refer to several
groups of nitrogen-containing compounds, of plants in par-
ticular, as albumin, fibrin, legumin, casein, etc., which are
essential for the formation of blood and tissues. Those con-
tained in animal matter, as meat refuse, are frequently con-
sidered of a higher value than those in many plants.

Non-nitrogenous substances include, in particular, starch,
sugars, organic acids, gums, fats and the digestible portion
of the cellular matter of the fodder. These substances are
readily transformed within the digestive organs into soluble
compounds of a similar chemical character, and are thus
assumed to serve an identical physiological purpose. As
mor6 recent investigations have shown a superior physiologi-
cal value of fat, — one of the non-nitrogenous constitutents, —
two and one-half times as much as starch, sugar, and other
representatives of that group, its amount is separately re-
corded. The same course, for similar reasons, has of late
been adopted with reference to certain forms of nitrogenous
organic constituents of fodder articles.

Fatty substances include all the various natural fats of the
plant. Most plants contain more than was assumed at an
earlier stage of inquiry. As the fat is separated by means
of ether, the statements in the analyses do not exactly ex-
press the amount of fatty matter alone, but include more or
less resinous substances, wax, etc., which are largely soluble
in ether, and of a similar highly carbonaceous character. The
fat of the fodder seems to serve, in case of judicious fodder
rations, mainly to increase the stock of fat in the animal
which consumes the fodder.

Wherever the article has been tested bv actual feedinsr ex-
periment under skilful observation, the amount of each essen-
tial group of food constituents which has been shown to be
digestible is reported in connection with the chemical analy-
sis, under the heading Digestible Portion, per hundred weight
or per ton. The higher or lower degree of digestibility of a
fodder article exerts a decided influence on its nutritive value.
Different stages of growth affect the rates of digestibility of
the various plant constituents. The same feature is noticed
in regard to different parts of plants, as well as in case of
different kinds of animals.

450 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

More than two hundred fodder articles have thus far been
studied under varying circumstances, and most of our cur-
rent kinds of fodders have been tested in Europe and else-
where, in numerous well-conducted feeding experiments with
a suitable selection of different kinds of farm live-stock.
This fact imparts to many of the results recorded a sufficient
importance to recommend them as a basis of new feeding
trials, with feed stuffs raised in our climate, or obtained in
our home industries.

The last, but not least important, column of the statement
of the chemical analysis — quite frequently found in the gen-
eral record of a fodder for a practical agricultural purpose —
is that of " Nutritive Ratio." These words are used to ex-
press the numerical relation of its digestible nitrogenous sub-
stances taken as one, as compared with the sum of its digest-
ible non-nitwgenous organic substances, fat included. The
information derived from that statement is very important ;
for it means to express the summary of results secured by
actual feeding trials under specified conditions, and with the
aid of the best-endorsed chemical modes to account for the
constituents of the food before and after it has served for the
support of the animal on trial.

Experience has shown that different kinds of animals, as
well as the same kind at diff'erent ages and for different func-
tions, require a different proportion of the essential groups
of food constituents to produce in each case the best results.
A statement of the nutritive ratio of a fodder article — other-
wise well adapted as an ingredient of a daily diet in the case
under consideration — indicates the direction in which the
material has to be supplemented to economize to a full extent
its various constituents.

Practical trials with milch cows have demonstrated that
they require for the highest production of a good milk and
the maintenance of a healthy live weight, the most nutritions
food we are in the habit of giving to full-grown farm animals.
Careful examinations into the composition of an efficient
diet for milch cows have shown that it contains one part of
digestible nitroofenous matter to from five to five and a half
parts of digestible non-nitrogenous organic matter. A due
consideration of these facts renders it but natural that a

EXPERIMENT STATION. 451

good corn ensilage, which has a nutritive ratio of from 1 to
10 to 1 to 12, needs a liberal addition of substances like oil-
cakes, wheat bran, gluten meal, etc., which have a nutritive
ratio of 1 to from 2.5 to 4, to secure its full value as an
ingredient of a daily diet in the dairy ; or that good hay
shows less the beneficial etfects of an addition of these valua-
ble waste products than that of an inferior quality. The
nutritive ratio of hay may vary from 1 to 5.5 to from 1 to
9 or more.

The value of an article of fodder may be stated from two
different standpoints, — that is, with reference to its cost in
the local market, and with reference to its nutritive feedino:
value. The market price may be expressed by a definite
sum for each locality ; it depends on demand and supply
in the market, and it is beyond the control of the indi-
vidual f^irmer. The nutritive value, or commonly called
food value, of the article cannot be expressed by a definite
sum ; it varies with a more or less judicious application, and
depends also, to a considerable degree, on its adaptation
under varying circumstances. To secure the most satis-
factory returns from feeding our home-raised fodder crops
is as important a question as that of raising them in an
economical manner. The great progress which has been
made during the past ten or twelve years in regard to the
proper mode of feeding plants ought to serve as an encour-
agement to undertake the task of inquiring more systemati-
cally into the proper mode of feeding our ftirm live-stock in
the most profitable way.

452

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

CHICAGO GLUTEN MEAL.
[Bought at Springfield, Mass., 1886.]

a

2 °

i 1

Constituents (in
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Per cent, of Di-
gestibility of
Constituents.

a

Moisture at 100° C,

8,95

179.00

1

Dry Matter, ....

91.05

1,821.00

-

-

1
1

100.00

•2,000.00

_

_

1

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash, ....

.76

15.20

_

_

O

o

" Cellulose,

1.58

31.60

10.74

34

y^

" Fat, ....

7.51

150.20

114.15

76

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

30.81

616.20

523.77

85

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter, ....

59.34

1,186.80

1,115.59

94

100.00

2,000.00

1,764.25

-

)

WHEAT BRAN.

[From a Mill in Amherst, 1886.]

%

i

.S o
~- c

i o

a = i

6

to c

ents
a to
s.

S 2

. of
lity
tueu

H .:= ^

a -a -^

>

a o
5 P.

onsti
lbs.)
2,000

ound
blei

2,000

er ce

gest
Con

3

CU

u

^

=-'

^

Moisture at 100° C,

10.00

200.00

_

_

1

Dry Matter, ....

90.00

1,800.00

-

-

100.00

2,000.00

_

-

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash

6.11

122.20

-

-

00

" Cellulose,

7.60

152.00

30.40

20

J- CO

" Fat, ....

6.08

121.60

97.28

80

^

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

18.63

372.60

327.89

88

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter, ....

61.58

1,231.60

985.28

80

100.00

2,000.00

1,440.85

-

J

EXPERIMENT STATION.

453

WHEAT MIDDLINGS.

[Sent on from Bolton, Mass.]

a

.5 o

, Cm

■■3 °

a = ^

d

o

« o

S) s.

■s ^g

tuen
in a
lbs

M a ~

1 S i

>

C s

= -7 8

■o ■" o

S= c

:t2

ons
lbs
2,0

O S IN

3

s,

«

^

^

Moisture at 100° C,

10.55

211.00

&D

be

Dry Matter, ....

89.45

1,789.00

,8^

100.00

2,000.00

'S

Analysis of Dry Matter.

^

ci

Crude Ash, ....

2.49

49.80

t^

>^

" Cellulose,

1.40

28.00

J3

^

" Fat, ....

4.26

85.20

O)

a>

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

19.21

384.20

fl

Non-nitrogenous Extract

S .

Matter, ....

72.64

1,452.80

^ :«

*3 O

o *^

100.00

2,000.00

;^

:?;

The compositioa is very fiiir, and its mechanical condition was not
less satisfactory.

WHEAT MIDDLINGS.

[Sent from Barre, Mass.]

1 1 _ V-

1 *»

' <M

a £ °

5 ° ^

o

U „ 5

2 o

uent
in at
lbs.

5 : s

S 2

onstl
lbs.)
2,000

■o " o
g 3 (N

" M c .

3

f-

'-'

-

^

»5

Moisture at 100^ C,

9.85

197.00

bo

530

Dry Matter, ....

90.15

1,803.00

'B

^

.®

.«>

100.00

2,000.00

"rt

"rt

Analysis of Dry Matter.

rt

Crude Ash, ....

2.53

50.60

>>

>>

" Cellulose, .

2.75

55.00

•^

•^

" Fat

3.19

63.80

5

" Protein (Nitrogenous

_a

c

Matter), .

17.23 344.60

a

i

Non-nitrogenous Extract

s

»

Matter, ....

74.30 1,486 00

0) CO

*J o

^ a>

100.00 2,000.00

^

^

This material contains less fat and nitrogenous matter than the pre-
vious one, yet not less than samples from the same mill may show at
different times.

454

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

RYE BRAN.

[From Amherst Mill, 1886.]

i

« .

to c

S o

c 2
g §

Constituents (In
lbs.) In a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble In a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Per cent, of Di-
gestibility of
Constituents.

d

OS

V

>

Moisture at 100° C,

Dry Matter, ....

A^ialysis qf Dry Mailer.

Crude A.sh, .

" Cellulose, .

" Fat

" Protein (Nitrogenous
Matter), .
Non-nitrogenous Extract

MaUer, ....

8 18
91.82

100.00

3.43
3.46
8.03

16.52

73.66

100.00

163.60
1,836.40

2,000.00

68.60
69.20
60.60

330.40

1,471.20

2,000.00

6.23
34.85

218.06

1,096.04

1,. 355.18

9.0
57.5

66.0

74.5

r-l

-

)

The material has a fair composition. Recent observations by careful
observers seem to indicate that it ought not to take the place of wheat
bran in the dairy.

HOMINY MEAL.

[Sent on from Berlin, Mass.]

51.64 per cent, passed through Mesh 144 to square inch.

i

2 2
= 2

O o

Constituents (in
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digest-
ible in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

5 ° ^

S 5

6

OS

K
a
>

'3

Moisture at 100° C,

Dry Matter, ....

Analysis of Dry Mailer.

Crude Ash, ....

" Cellulose, .

« Fat, ....

Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter, ....

10.70
89.30

100.00

2.82

3.69

10.88

11.88

70.73

100.00

214.00
1,786.00

2,000.00

56.40

73.80

217.60

237.60

1,414.60

2,000.00

25.09
165.38

201.96

1,329.72

1,722.15

34
76

85

94

to

-

)

The composition is that of a good article of its kind.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

455

CORN COB MEAL (Corn and Cob).
[Collected at a mill near Amherst, Mass., 1886.]

Moisture at 100° C,
Dry Matter,

rer cent.

9.45

90..55

100.00

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Percent.

Crude Ash,

1.64

" Cellulose,

6.32

" Fat,

5.19

" Protein (N

trogenous Matter), . . .

9.85

Non- nitrogenous Extract Matter, ....

77.00

100.00

The composition of this article depends somewhat on the
relative weight of cob and kernels ; the former may vary from
14 to 18 per cent, in current varieties. See article *' On dif-
ferent varieties of corn, etc." (Secretary's Report of Massa-
chusetts State Board of Agriculture, 1879-80, pages 222 to
254.)

YELLOW SWEET CORN.

[Raised on the fields of the Experiment Station, 1885.]

Ears from fire to seven inches in length, having eight rows
of kernels. Weight of an average ear, 70.16 grammes ; weight
of kernels, 57.40 grammes, or 81.8 per cent. ; weight of cob,
12.76 grammes, or 18.2 per cent. Average weight of a ker-
nel, 0.232 grammes.

Per cent

Moisture at 100° C, .

10.90

Dry Matter,

89.10

100.00

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Per cent.

Crude Ash,

2.16

" Cellulose,

.

2.58

" Fat,

4.25

" Protein (Nitrogenous Matter), ....

12.61

Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter,

78.40

100.00

The article is somewhat deficient in fat, as compared with
*' Blue Mexican " or Crosby's.

456

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

"SELF-HUSKING" CORN.

[Experiment Station, 1885.]

Ears eight rows, eight to ten inches long. Kernels of a
reddish or brownish red color. Weight of an average ear,
142.7 grammes; consisting of 88.08 per cent, kernels, and
11.92 per cent. cob. Average weight of a single kernel, .37
srramraes.

Moisture at 100" C,
Dry Matter,

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash,

" Cellulose, ....

" Fat,

" Protein (Nitrogenous Matter),
Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter,

Per cent.
12.10

87.90
100.00

Per cent.

1.74

2.52

5.44

12.47

77.83

100.00

SWEET APPLE POMACE.

[Sent on for examination from Prescott, Mass., 1885.]

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 77.87

Dry Matter, 22.13

100.00
Analysis of Dry Matter.

Per cent.

Crude Ash, 1.96

" Cellulose, 8.82

" Fat, 3.16

" Protein (Nitrogenous Matter), 6.70

Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter, 79.36

.100.00

CORN REFUSE FROM STARCH FACTORY.

[Sent on from New Bedford, Mass.]

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 57.04

Dry Matter, • 42.96

100.00
Analysis of Dry Matter.

Per cent.

Crude Ash, 0.90

" Cellulose, 7.54

" Fat, 10.17

" Protein (Nitrogenous Matter), 22.4*1

Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter, 58.98

100.00

EXPERIMENT STATION. 457

The above-named material, which furnished the sample sent
on for examination, had been bought at a corn-starch factory
at Long Island, N. Y., for feeding cattle. Forty tons had
been loaded at New Bedford, at $8 per ton of forty bushels.
Some doubts had been expressed in regard to its fitness as a
feed tor milch cows.

The sample we received was apparently in a fair state of
preservation, and consisted mainly of a soft, yellowish-white
mass, interspersed with coarse fragments of the skin of the
corn. The entire mass, in an air-dried state, was quite soft and
friable, and of a peculiar vegetable, yet not offensive odor.

The composition of the vegetable matter contained in the
article is that of a valuable ingredient for the compounding of
a suitable diet for various kinds of farm live-stock, and in some
respects similar to that of the refuse grain from breweries. The
main objectionable feature of the fresh factory refuse consists
in the presence of a large amount of moisture, and its liability
to suffer a rapid and serious deterioration in^consequence of a
careless keeping, in particular during the warmer seasons of
the year. Two modes of treatment for the preservation of
fodder articles like the one here under discussion suggest
themselves in this connection, — the silo system and the drying
apparatus. The above-described corn-starch factory refuse, in
its dried state, could command a price from $16 to $18 per ton
in our markets.

The fitness of this class of refuse material from glucose and
starch factories, as well as from brewers' grains, as an ingredi-
ent of a daily fodder ration for all kinds of farm live-stock,
the dairy cow included, is quite generally conceded, provided
they are in a fair state of preservation. Excessive and exclu-
sive feeding of many fodder articles is an objectionable prac-
tice ; this applies as much to corn ensilage, roots and apples, as
to the waste products of the factories above enumerated.

All fodder articles of a perishable character deserve the
serious attention of farmers, for they are apt to become objec-
tionable sooner or later, if carelessly kept. In an advanced
state of fermentation they are decidedly objectionable, for vari-
ous reasons ; they may become even poisonous in consequence
of their liability to turn into hot-beds of a dangerous, parasitic

458 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

growth. Musty corn meal, oil cakes, etc., are known to have
been the direct cause of the death of cows.

« THE CONCENTRATED FEED."

[Sent on by Soath Deerfield Farmers'^Club, South Deerfield, Mass.]
97.52 per cent, passed through Mesh 144 to the square inch.

Per cent.

10.65
14.48
9.31
4.30
13.90
47.36

Moisture at 100° C, .

Crude Ash,

". Cellulose, ....
Crude Fat, ....

" Protein (Nitrogenous Matter),
Non-nitroo;enous Extract Matter,

100.00

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Per cent.

Crude Ash, 16.21

» Cellulose, 10.42

" Fat 4.81

" Protein (Nitrogenous Matter), 15.56

Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter, 53.00

100.00

The material was received in a bag marked "The Concen-
trated Feed Company, Boston, Mass." A circular, from the
agent at South Deerfield, contained a statement of an analysis
of the article, which, as far as essential points are concerned,
does not materially diflTer from our own, above reported.

The material was of a good, mechanical condition, and con-
sisted evidently of a mixture of several ingredients : among
them was noticeable common salt. An actual test showed the
presence of 7.4 per cent, of chlorine, which indicates the
presence of from 11 to 12 per cent, of common salt. On
inquiry it was learned^that " The Concentrated Feed " sold at
$8 per one hundred weight, — a most remarkable price for an
article of fodder without any stated guaranty of its various in-
gredients, nor any statement of its rate of digestibility under
some specific conditions. The selling price of the article
seems to be based largely on the merits of the invention of the
compound. It would be no difficult task to compound from
our most reputed concentrated feed-stuffs, even without a lib-

EXPERIMENT STATION. 459

eral addition of common salt, an article which would conform
to the composition claimed by the manufacturer of " The Con-
centrated Feed," and at the same time could be sold with a
good compensation to the agent, even in remote localities, at a
less price per ton than " The Concentrated Feed " sells for per
five hundred pounds.

From remarks in previous pages it must be apparent that
a mere analysis of a fodder article, without any further reliable
information concerning its source and its special character,
is no safe basis for a decision regarding its particular value
for feeding purposes. The practice of buying compound feed-
stuffs in the general market, without a sufficient actual knowl-
edge regarding the kind or the character of their varied ingredi-
ents, ought to be decidedly discouraged ; for the farmer who
pursues that course leaves his best interests to mere chance.
To feed commercial compound feed-stuffs without some more
positive knowledge of the articles which constitute them can
impart but little useful information for future operation beyond
the lesson to be less credulous hereafter.

3. ANALYSES OF FEED-STUFFS WITH REFERENCE TO THE
FERTILIZING CONSTITUENTS THEY CONTAIN.

The composition of the various articles of food used in farm
practice exerts a decided influence on the manurial value of
the animal excretions resulting from their use in the diet of
different kinds of farm live-stock. The more potash, phos-
phoric acid, and in particular nitrogen, a fodder ingredient
contains, the more valuable will be, under otherwise corre-
sponding circumstances, the manurial residue left behind, after
it has served its purpose as a constituent of the food consmned.

As the financial success in most farm managements depends
in a considerable degree on the amount, the character and the
cost of the manurial refuse material secured in connection with
the special farm industry carried on, it needs no further argu-
ment to prove that the relations which exist between the com-
position of the fodder and the value of the manure resulting,
deserves the careful consideration of the farmer, when devis-

460 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

ing an efficient and at the same time an economical diet for his
live stock.

The question whether one or the other fodder mixture will
prove ultimately, under otherwise corresponding circumstances,
the cheapest one, can only be answered intelligently when
both the original cost of the feed consumed and the value of the
manurial residue subsequently obtained are duly considered.

The close relation, which quite necessarily exists in most
farm managements between the system of cultivating the lands
and the keeping of farm live-stock for farm work, for the dairy
and for the supply of food for the general market, imparts to
the barn-yard manure a special if not a controlling importance
as a valuable manurial resource. The barn-yard manure ought
to remain in a judicious system of mixed farming, — not only the
main reliance of the farmer for plant food, but also the cheap-
est manure at his disposal. The objections raised at times
against a liberal use of barn-yard manure ought not to rest on
its higher cost of production, when compared with other manu-
rial substances in our market. The name "barn-yard manure"
is, however, too frequently used without any particular dis-
crimination with reference to all kinds of manurial refuse ob-
tained in connection with stock feeding and stock raising,
which are frequently of widely differing composition. To ap-
proximate even fairly the comparative value of two samples
obtained on different farms remains a hopeless task, as long as
a more definite information regarding the following points is
wanting : —

1. The character of the fodder consumed.

2. The kind, the age and the function of the animal which
served for its production.

3. The nature and the quantity of the material which served
for the absorption of the animal excretions.

4. The care bestowed upon collecting and preserving the
entire liquid and solid excretions.

Assuming for our present purpose, in both instances, iden-
tical conditions, as far as the kind of animal, the mode of col-
lecting and the care of keeping the manuare are concerned, it
will be apparent that the relative value of the two kinds of barn-
yard manure stand essentially in a direct relation to the amount

EXPERIMENT STATION.

461

of nitrogen, potash, phosphoric acid, etc., which was contained
in the feed consumed.

The following analyses of fodder articles are obtained at the
laboratory of the Station, from fair samples which came under
our observation.

A series of similar analyses of fodder crops, based mainly
on the average analyses of E. Wolff, are published in the
Annual Eeport of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board
of Agriculture for 1885, page 146.

I. CORN COBS.

[Average result of four current varieties of corn raised in Hampden and Hampshire

counties, Mass.]

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C 10.00

Nitrogen in organic matter (17 cents per

Crude ash, .

Silica,

Ferric oxide,

Calcium oxide, .

Magnesium oxide,

Potassium oxide (4^ cents per pound).

Sodium oxide,

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound),

l^ound).

0.54
1.03
0.20
0.01
0.03
0.06
0.68
0.04
0.08

Valuation per 2,000 lbs.,

52

2. CORN MEAL.

[From mill at Amherst, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C,

Nitrogen in organic matter (17 cents per

Crude ash, .

Silica,

Ferric oxide.

Calcium oxide, .

Magnesium oxide.

Potassium oxide (4 J cents per pound),

Sodium oxide,

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound) ,

pound),

Per cent.

10.00
1.86
1.50
0.005
0.015
0.027
0.197
0.45
0.064
0.77

Valuation per 2,000 lbs..

$7 62

462 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

3. VILMORIN (Sugar Beet). 4. GLOBE MANGOLD.

Pounds pef

t Hundred.

3

4

Moisture at 100° C, .

85.99

88.27

Dry matter,

14.01

11.73

Nitrogen (17 cents per pound),

.29

.30

Crude ash,

.62

.94

Potassium oxide (4| cents per pound),

.18

.44

Sodium oxide,

.18

.30

Calcium oxide,

.06

.03

Magnesium oxide, ....

.04

.04

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound).

.03

.02

Ferric oxide,

.01

.003

Insoluble matter, ....

.10

.09

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., .

$1 18

$1 43

Relalive Percentage of Soluble Essential Constituents in One Hundred Parts

0/ Ash (3-4).

3

4

Potassium oxide,

36.648

53.156

Sodium oxide,

35.795

35.764

Calcium oxide, . . '

11.932

3.366

Magnesium oxide,

7.103

4.488

Phosphoric acid,

6.534

2 805

Ferric oxide,

1.988

0.421

100.000

100.000

EXPERIMENT STATION.

463

WHOLE APPLES.
5. Rhode Island Greenings. 6. Sweet Apples.

PODSOS PER HUNDSBD.

Moisture at 100° C, ....

Dry matter,

Nitrogen (17 cents per pound),

Crude ash,

Potassium oxide (4J cents per pound).
Sodium oxide, . .

Calcium oxide,

Magnesium oxide, ....
Ferric oxide, .....
Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound).
Insoluble matter, ....
Valuation per 2,000 lbs., .

APPLE POMACES.
7. Rhode Island Greenings. 8. Baldwin Apple.

PonsDS PER Hundred.

7

8

Moisture at 100° C,

78.220

82.780

Dry matter,

21.780

17.200

Nitrogen (17 cents per pound).

.2-41

.213

Crude ash,

.237

.306

Potassium oxide (4 J cents per pound).

.119

.150

Sodium oxide,

.032

.020

Calcium oxide,

.042

.032

Magnesium oxide, ....

.027

.028

Ferric oxide,

' .008

.008

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound).

.017

.018

Insoluble matter, ....

.009

.008

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., .

$0 92

$0 87

The composition of the apples which served for the above
analyses of pomaces has been described in the Third Annual
Report of the E.xperiment Station, pages 86, 87.

464

150ARD OF AGRICULTURE.

9. WHEAT MEAL.

[From a mill in Amherst, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C,

Nitrogen iu oi'ganic matter (17 cents per pound),

Crude ash,

Magnesium oxide, ....

Calcium oxide,

Potassium oxide (4| cents ^jer pound),
Sodium oxide, .....
Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound).

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., .

Per cent.

9.83
2.21
1.22
0.05
0.17
0.5'i
1.06
0.57

$8 75

10. WHEAT MIDDLINGS.
[From a mill in Amherst, Mass.]

Moisture at 100" C,

Nitrogen in organic matter (17 cents jjer pound).

Crude ash,

Magnesium oxide, ....
Potassium oxide (4| cents per pound).

Calcium oxide,

Sodium oxide,

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound).

Valuation per 2,000 lbs

Per cent

9.18
2.G3
2.30
0.21
0.63
0.20
0.11
0.95

$10 63

11, 12. WHEAT BRAN.
[From a mill in Amherst, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C, .

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound),

Magnesium oxide.

Sodium oxide, .

Potassium oxide (4J cents

Nitrogen in organic matter

Insoluble matter.

Valuation per 2,000 lbs.,

per pound), .
(17 cents per pound).

Per cent.

11

13

11.45

9.40

3.05

3.12

0.90

0.91

0.09

0.16

1.49

1.42

2.82

3.08

0.11

0.15

. f 14 52

$15 42

The above analyses refer to the quality of bran fed of late
at the Station.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

465

13. PROVENDER.

Moisture at 100= C, .

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound),

Magnesium oxide, ....

Calcium oxide,

Sodium oxide,

Potassium oxide (4^ cents per pound).
Nitrogen in organic matter (17 cents per
Insoluble matter, ....

Per cent.

10.48
0.78
0.05
0.18
0.22
0.37
2.10
0.29

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., $8 40

The above provender consisted of 100 lbs. of wheat bran,
125 lbs. of oats and 450 lbs. of corn-meal.

14. GLUTEN MEAL.

[Bought at Springfield, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C

Nitrogen in organic matter (17 cents per
Crude ash, ......

Calcium oxide,

Magnesium oxide, ....
Potassium oxide (4^ cents per pound),
Sulphuric acid, .....
Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound).

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., .

pound) ,

Per cent.

9.00

.5.44

0.70

0.058

0.034

0.06

0.021

0.45

$19 05

466 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE.

FIELD EXPEEIMENTS.

[Field A.]

1. Fodder Corn raised upon underdrained and exhausted
Lands, partly Fertilized with Single Articles of
Plant Food, partly without the use of any Manurial
Matter.

In the first Annual Report of the Station has been described
the underdraining of a piece of land, one and one-tenth of an
acre in size, subdivided into eleven plats. The field was to
serve for an examination into the actions of various manurial
substances on the growth of corn, and the influence on the
character of the drainage water discharged from the drains,
under a different treatment of the soil. It had been used for
several years previous to the establishment of the Experiment
Station in 1882 as a meadow for the production of hay. Dur-
ing the spring of 1883 it was planted with corn (Longfellow
variety), for fodder corn, without the use of any fertilizer,
The same course of planting and cultivation was carried out
during 1884 (changing from the Longfellow to the Clark variety
of corn) for the purpose of exhausting the soil, as far as prac-
ticable, for the cultivation of corn with any prospect of remu-
nerative returns.

The corn crop raised in 1884 upon these eleven plats of
unmanured land left no doubt about their exhausted condition,
as far as a further successful cultivation of corn was concerned ;
for the entire yield of corn fodder from this piece of land, one
and one-tenth of an acre in size, amounted to 5,040 pounds,
with a moisture of thirty per cent.

These results encouraged the beginning of a special inquiry
into the chemical and physical condition of our soil, as far as
its relation to the production of the corn crop is concerned, as
well as into its particular poiver to retain, in a higher or lower
degree, various articles of plant food; i. e., its qualification to
prevent their passage into the drainage water.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

467

With these ends in view, the following course was decided
upon, and carried out during the succeeding season (1885).

The entire field (A) was prepared. May 12, in a similar man-
ner for the planting of corn as in preceding years (see Second
Annual Report, page 81).

Plat No. 0,

Plat No. 1,
Plat No. 2,

Plat No. 3,

Plat No. 4,

Plat No. 5,

Plat No. 6,

Plat No. 7,

Plat No. 8,

Plat No. 9,

Plat No. 10,

Thrown out of the experiment,
r Twenty-five pounds of sodium nitrate (=to
\ 4 lbs. of nitrogen)

Nothing.
( Thirty jDounds of dried blood (= to 4 lbs. of
\ nitrogen).

Nothing.
/Twenty-five pounds of ammonium sulphate
\ (= to 5 lbs. of nitrogen).

Nothing.
/Fifty pounds of dissolved bone-black (=r: 8.5
\ lbs. of available phosphoric acid).

Nothing.
r Twenty-five pounds of muriate of potash
V (=1 from 12 to 13 lbs. potassium oxide).

48^ pounds potash-magnesia sulphate (z=. to
12-13 lbs. potassium oxide).

{

The growth on the entire field was cut September 5, and the
product of each plat stacked by itself in the field for drying ;
it was housed October 10, with the following results : —

Amount of Dry

Corn Fodder

Obtained.

Fertilizer Applied.

No. 1,

2,
3,
4,

6,

6,

7,

8,

9,

10,

480 lbs.

310 "

350 "

300 "

360 "

280 '•

250 "

945 "

845 "

25 lbs. of sodium nitrate (= 4 lbs. of nitro-
gen).

Nothing.

30 lbs. of dried blood {:=. 4 lbs. of nitrogen).

Nothing.

25 lbs. of ammonium sulphate (=. 5 lbs.
nitrogen).

Fallow.

50 lbs. of dissolved bone-black (= 8.5 lbs.
available phosphoric acid).

Nothing.
'25 lbs. of muriate of potash (= from 12 to

13 ll)s. potassium oxide).
'48^ lbs. potash-magnesia sulphate (::rfrom
12 to 13 lbs. of potassium oxide).

468 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Comparing these results with those obtained in the previous
year, where the produce of the various plats was practically
of a corresponding weight (458 lbs. each), it was noticed
that the application of potash compounds a'one, muriate of
potash leading (see Plats No. 9 and 10), had exerted a marked
eifect on the quantity and the quality of the corn fodder raised,
increasing the previous annual yield not less than one hun-
dred per cent, above that of the preceding year (1884).

The amount of corn fodder raised on Plat No. 1, which
received nitrate of soda, had exceeded but slightly (22 lbs.)
that of the. previous season ; while the application of blood,
ammonium sulphate and phosphoric acid had not prevented a
considerable falling oflf. The yield of corn fodder of fertilized
and unfertilized plats was practically the same in most in-
stances.

In sight of these facts, it seemed but justifiable to conclude
that a deficiency of the soil in available potash had controlled,
in our case, more than that of any other essential article of
plant food, — the final yield of the crop.

As the cultivation of grasses and fodder corn affects the
manurial resources of the soil in a similar direction by ab-
stracting approximately one part of phosphoric acid to four
parts of potash, it is but a natural result that a soil which
originally did not contain much more of available potash than
of available phosphoric acid must become unproductive before
the latter is exhausted. In case circumstances necessitate a
direct succession of these two crops, it is well to remember
that fact, and to provide against a failure by applying to the
soil liberally, in particular, potash compounds in some form or
other. Muriate of potash deserves recommendation.

To verify the above conclusion, the experiment was contin-
ued during the past season (1886), with the sole modifica-
tion of increasing on each fertilized plat the particular fer-
tilizing ingredients to twice the amount used in the preceding
year.

The plats were thoroughly plowed and harrowed May 15,
1886. The fertilizers were sown broadcast in each case, and
slightly harrowed in before planting the corn, in rows. May 21
and 22 (Clark's variety). The rows were three feet three
inches apart. The seeds were dropped from twelve to fourteen

EXPERIMENT STATION.

469

inches apart and six to eight kernels in a place. The young
plants appeared uniformly and healthy looking in all plats
June 1. They turned, however, into a pale green color by
June 28, with the exception of those on Plats 9 and 10. The
latter were still of a dark green color September 11, when
the entire crop was cut and stooked in the field. The corn
growing on Plats 1 to 8 inclusive had reached at the end of
the season a height of from two to four feet, and showed only
here and there a partially filled ear ; it was badly dried up
and unhealthy looking when cut. The plants grown upon
Plats 9 and 10 had reached a height of from five to eight feet ;
the stalks and leaves were still succulent when cut, and the
ears pretty well formed throughout the plats, but small, and
the kernels scarcely beginning to glaze.

The weight of the corn fodder raised upon each plat was
ascertained October 23, when the crop was housed. The sub-
sequent tabulated statement contains the results of the ex-
periments. The weights of the corn fodder are stated with
reference to the same state of moisture (from 45 to 50 per
cent.) as in the preceding year, to allow a comparison of the
results.

PLAT.

Amount of Dry

Corn Fodder

Obtained.

Fertilizer Applied.

No. 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9,

10,

430 lbs.
250 "
310 "
250 "
280 "

255 "
195 "

840 »

895 "

rsO lbs. of sodium nitrate (z= 7-8 lbs. of
\ nitrogen).

Nothing.
reO lbs. of dried blood (= 7-8 lbs. of nitro-
\ gen).

Nothing.
^50 lbs. of ammonia sulphate (=z 10 lbs. of
\ nitrogen).

Fallow.
flOO lbs. of di.ssolved bone-black (= 17 lbs.
\ available phosphoric acid).

Nothing.
rSO lbs. of muriate of potash (=: 25 lbs. of
\ potassium oxide).

^97 lbs. of potash-magnesia sulphate (z= 25
\ lbs. of potassium oxide).

These results, compared with those of the previous year, show
still a falling off in yield in all plats, notwithstanding a decided

470 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

increase of the various single manurial substances applied on
Plats 1,3,5,7,9 and 10. The yield of the fertilized Plats 1,
3, 5, 7 during the last season (1886) is less than that of the
unfertilized plats in 1885. The good service of potash com-
pounds in our case is still remarkable.

The experiment will be continued, with some modifications,
durinof the coming season.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 471

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472 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

2. Fodder Corn and Corn Ensilage.

The last annual report on the work of the Experiment Sta-
tion contains upon pages 52 and 53 a record of observations
concerning the gradual increase of vegetable matter in the
fodder corn during its successive stages of growth. A series
of tests carried out with plants taken from our fields had
demonstrated the fact that the vegetable matter in the variety
of corn on trial (Clark) had increased from fifty to one
hundred per cent, in actual weight, between the time of the
first appearance of the tassel and the beginning of the glazing
of the kernels. It was found that the same variety of corn,
raised under fairly corresponding circumstances, as far as the
general character of the soil and the mode of cultivation are
concerned, contained in one hundred weight parts at the time
of the first appearance of the tassel from twelve to fifteen
weight parts of dry vegetable matter, and from eighty-five to
eighty-eight parts of water ; whilst at the time of the beginning
of the glazins: of the kernels the former was noticed to vary
from twenty-three to twenty-eight weight parts, and the water
from seventy-seven to seventy-two. These results of our
investigation left no doubt about the fact that our green
fodder corn at the time of the beginning of the glazing of
the kernels contained nearly twice as much vegetable matter
per ton weight of corn as at the time of the appearance of the
tassels.

This feature in the change of the composition of the fodder
corn during its growth is not an exceptional one ; similar
changes are noticed in all our farm plants. Our observations
in this direction were reported for the purpose of furnishing
some more definite numerical values for the consideration of
our practical farmers. As long as the vital energy of an
annual plant is still essentially spent in the increase of its size,
as a rule but a comparatively small amount of valuable organic
compounds, as starch, sugar, etc., accumulates within its cellu-
lar tissue. The comparative feeding value of the same kind
of fodder plants, or any particular part of such plants, is not to
be measured by its size, but by the quantity of valuable organic
nitrogenous and non-nitrogenous constituents stored up in its
cellular system. The larger or smaller amount of dry vegeta-

EXPERIMENT STATION. 473

ble matter left behind from a given weight of samples of the
same kind of a fodder plant of a corresponding stage of growth
indicates in the majority of cases their respective higher or
lower economical value for feeding purposes. Agricultural
chemists, for this reason, usually begin their examination of
fodder plants with a test for the determination of the amount
of dry vegetable matter left behind, when carefully brought to
a constant weight at a temperature not exceeding 110° C.

The taller varieties of corn are not necessarily the more
valuable kinds for the production of fodder ; on the contrary,
it would be more judicious, on general principles, to doubt
their superior fitness for that purpose until otherwise proved.
This statement applies, in particular, to some varieties re-
cently transferred to our section of the country ; for they seem
to require an exceptionally rich soil to yield the best results
they are represented to be capable of producing. Raised in a
soil of moderate resources of plant food, little of the latter
can be left over, after the production of their tall stocks and
bulky leaves, to assist in the formation of valuable organic
compounds, as sugar, starch, fat, nitrogenous matter, etc., to
enrich the entire plant. The same mode of reasoning applies
to the raising of exceptionally largo sized roots, potatoes, etc. ;
they are usually but partly matured, and thus of a watery,
indifferent taste.

The general character of the climate and the physical and
chemical condition of the soil control the local adaptation of a
plant for successful cultivation. Extremes of season and one-
sided modes of manuring are apt to modify the growth of a
plant and thereby alter its composition. To learn how to
check an inherent tendency of a plant to a rank growth, in the
interest of a fairer chance for a complete maturity of the final
crop, is most desirable information to secure ; for success in
that direction insures not unfrequently a superior pecuniary re-
turn. A careful study of the special characteristics of the
plant on trial under the influence of existing local resources of
the soil and of the prevailing local features of the weather dur-
ing the growing season alone, can furnish a safe guide for the
attainment of the desired end.

The determination of the relative feeding value of different
samples of the same kind of plants raised under different cir-

474 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

cumstances is always carried out with plants of a correspond-
ing stage of growth. Progress in the growth of plants alters
their composition in regard to the quantity of vegetable matter
which they contain in a given weight ; it also changes very ma-
terially the absolute and relative proportion of their essential
food constituents, i. e. their nutritive value.

The amount of vegetable matter in a given weight of green
fodder corn cut at the beginning of the glazing of the kernels
is known to be not only nearly twice as large as compared with
that contained in an equal weight of green fodder corn cut when
just showing the tassels, it is also known to be pound for
pound more nutritious, for it contains more starch, more
sugar, more of valuable nitrogenous matter, etc.

Considering the previously stated views correct, we filled
our silos during last autumn with fodder corn, which had just
reached the point where the kernels began to glaze over,
expecting to secure an ensilage of superior feeding value. The
results of our experiments in that direction have been very
satisfactory, and may be summed up as follows : —

1. The course adopted for the production of corn fodder
for the silo secures the largest amount of valuable matter
which a given area of land planted with fodder corn can pro-
duce under corresponding circumstances, as far as land and
season are concerned.

2. The ensilage of a more matured fodder corn has a higher
feeding value, pound for pound, than that cut at an earlier stage
of growth.

3. The more matured fodder corn, on account of a harder
texture, is less crushed by close packing, and consequently
better resists the peculiar influences which tend to deteriorate
and ultimately destroy the contents of the silo.

As a more detailed description of the products of our silo
may not be without some interest to our readers at this
period of the season, we publish below the essential part of
our results, beginning with an abstract from our late annual
report, which relates briefly the course pursued in filling the
silo.

The corn fodder^ when cut for the silo, September 3 and 4,
began to acquire a slightly yellowish tint along the outside of
the field, yet was still green and succulent in the interior parts ;

EXPERBIENT STATION. 475

the kernels were soft, their contents somewhat milky, and their
outside just beginning to glaze.

Corn Ensilage. — Two silos of the same size, five by four-
teen feet, inside measure, and eleven feet deep, were used for
the experiment. In both instances the corn was cut into
pieces from one and one-quarter to one and one-half inches in
size ; they were, however, filled in a different way.

Silo No. 1 was loosely filled, September 4, to about two-
thirds of its height, and the mass merely levelled without tread-
ing down. It was left in this condition without covering
until September 7, at 8 o'clock a. m. At this time it had
settled from eighteen to twenty-four inches ; the odor of acetic
acid became slightly perceptible, and the pieces of cornstalk,
although sweet to the taste, showed an acid reaction to the
test-paper (litmus).

Sept. 7, 8 A.M. Temperature at 12 inches depth, 147°, 145°, 147° F.

" 8, 8 A.M. " " 12 " " 141°, 145°, 145° F.

" 8, 8 A.M. " " 24 " " 136.5° F.

" 8, 8 A.M. " " 30 " '• 114° F.

" 8, 8 A.M. " " 36 " " 107° F.

As the temperature remained practically at a standstill, the
filling in of more fresh-cut corn was resumed, and the silo
completely yet loosely filled, September 8. A maximum reg-
istering thermometer was buried in the mass at a depth of two
feet from the surface, and light boards loosely laid over the
top.

Sept. 10, 8 A.M. Temperature at 12 inches depth, 129°, 127° F.

The mass had now settled eighteen inches.

Sept. 11, 8 A.M. Temperature at 12 inches depth, 127°, 129°, 131° F
» 12, 8 A.M. " " 12 " » 122°, 132° F.

The mass had settled from twenty-four to thirty inches.
The temperature remained practically the same ; the mass was
carefully covered with tarred paper and tight-fitting boards,
and subsequently, on September 12, pressed down with twenty-
five barrels of sand. This silo contained about eight tons of
green corn fodder.

476 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The temperature observations above recorded were made in
different parts of the silo ; they show that it is quite difficult
to secure a desirable uniform temperature within the mass in
all parts of the silo, at the same depth and at the same time.

Silo No. 2 was filled to a depth of from eight to nine feet,
as fast as the cut corn could be supplied and tramped down.
As soon as the amount of corn assigned for that silo (9.5 tons)
was filled in, the surface was carefully covered with tarred
paper and tight-fitting boards, in the same manner as in case
of the first silo, and at once pressed down with twenty-five
barrels of sand. A maximum registering thermometer was
safely buried at a depth of about two feet in the mass, to
record the highest temperature which the latter would reach
during the time of keeping the silo closed.

The silo had been closed about six months when opened.
The highest temperature recorded by the thermometer buried
at a depth of two feet below the surface of the ensilage, after
closing the silo, was 116.5° F.

A layer of eighteen inches in thickness on the top, and from
six to eight inches along the sides, was of dark color and unfit
for fodder. It was removed until no mould could be noticed
on the leaves and stem parts ; the ears of the corn were best
preserved. The main bulk of the ensilage was of a brownish
yellow color, and showed a decided acid reaction to the test-
paper. The odor was at first that of organic matter slowly
disintegrating under the exclusion of air, but changed soon
after the opening of the silo into that of acetic acid (vinegar).
The free organic acids contained in one hundred weight parts-
of the fresh ensilage (directly after the opening of the silo)
required 1.309 parts of sodium hydroxide for their neutraliza-
tion, which is equal to 1.96 per cent, of acetic acid. The same
quantity of fresh ensilage contained 0.0374 parts of actual am-
monia. No starch could be detected in the stems and leaves,,
whilst an abundance of it was found in the ears..

EXPERIMENT STATION.

477

CORN ENSILAGE.

[Taken from Silo No. 1, March 23, 1886.]

a

c

a 2
= H

i S

Constituents (In
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Per cent, of Di-
ge8til)ility of
' Constituents.

6

"S

K

9
25

Moisture at 100° C,

Dry Matter, ....

Analysis of Dry Matter.
Crude Ash, ....
" Cellulose,

" Fat, ....

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter),

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter, ....

78.05
21.95

100.00

3.16

20.48

3.84

7.37

65.15

1,561.00

439.00

2,000.00

63.20

409.60

76.80

147.40

1,303.00

294.91

57.60
107.60
873.01

72
75

73

67

! (>i

100.00

2,000.00

1,333.12

-

.

Silo No. 2 was opened seven months after being filled. A
layer about six inches in thickness had to be removed from the
top and the sides of the contents of the silo to reach an accept-
able fodder for cows. The highest temperature registered by
the thermometer since its introduction into the silo at a depth
of two feet at the time of closing was 97.8° F.

CORN ENSILAGE.
[Taken from Silo No. 2, April 25, 1886.]

Percentage Com-
position.

Constituents (in"
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds ' Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

1 V<

6

"S

>

'u

o
"A

Moisture at 100° C,

76.90

1,538.00

_

_

Dry Matter, ....

23.10

462.00

-

-

100.00

2,000.00

_

Analysis oj Dry Matter.
Crude Ash, ....

5.22

104.40

-*

" Cellulose,

17.67

353.40

254.45

72

o

" Fat, ....

3.15

63.00

47.25

75

" Protein (Nitrogenous
Matter), .

8.27

165.40

120.74

73

y-\

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter,

65.69

1,313.80

880.25

67

100.00

2,000.00

1,302.69

-

-

478 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The main body of the ensilage was in fine condition, of a
yellowish green color, somewhat lighter than in silo No. 1. It
had a slightly acid smell and taste. To neutralize the free
organic acids contained in one hundred weight parts of fresh
ensilage, collected at the opening of the silo, required 1.130
parts of sodium hydroxide, which is equal to 1.95 per cent, of
acetic acid. The amount of ensilage contained 0.027 parts of
actual ammonia.

A comparison of these observations with those made in con-
nection with the contents of No. 1 shows that in our case the
direct filling and closing of the silo produced the best results.
The contents of the silo filled at once with cut corn-fodder,
and subsequently carefully closed up, had sufi*ered less serious
alteration in various directions than those that had passed
through a previous heating process, in consequence of a longer
exposure to atmosphoric agencies. The records of the ther-
mometers, the chemical anal3'sis of the enselage from both silos,
and the g-eneral character of both kinds of ensilao^e confirm our
above conclusion. Adding to these statements the circum-
stance that our cows decidedly preferred the ensilage from silo
No. 2, we feel that we can recommend the course pursued in
filling that silo. As the free acids, acetic and lactic, in a corn
ensilage, however carefully prepared, steadily increase after the
opening of the silo, as long as unchanged saccharine and
amylaceous constituents (sugar and starch) are present, it is
very important that the access of air should be limited as far
as practicable. The decision in regard to the best size of the
silo should be largely controlled by the possible rate of con-
sumption. The feeding value of the contents of the most
carefully packed silo is apt to be most seriously impaired in
consequence of a subsequent prolonged exposure to the air.
Three to four weeks' exposure altered the character of our ensi-
lage seriously, as far as its acidity was concerned. The degree
of the change depends, under corresponding circumstances,
largely on the surrounding temperature. It is far less during
the winter months than in April or May.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

479

Analyses of Corn and Cob before and after their Treatment

in a Silo.

[1. Corn and cob; cured naturally in the field. 2. Whole corn and cob; from silo.
3. Cut corn and cob; from silo.]

Per Cent.

1

2

3

Moisture at 100° C,

Dry Matter,

10.71
89.29

25.50
74.50

50.27
49.73

Analysis of Dry Mailer.

Crude Ash,

" Cellulose,

" Fat,

" Protein (Nitrogenous INIatter),
Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter,

100.00

2.16

5.39

5.27

12.18

75.00

100.00

1.43

8.32

8.66

10.56

71.03

100.00

1.35
8.50
7.84-
6.63
75.68

100.00

100.00

100.00

The material which served for the above analyses was sent
on for that purpose during the month of September, 1886, with
the following statement : The different samples were taken from
the same lot of corn eleven months ago. The crop was cut
when the ears began to glaze. No. 1, whole ears, was re-
moved from the stalks and dried in the usual way on the
ground ; No. 2, whole ears, was buried at the same time in
the silo about six feet below the surface of the cut material,
which consisted of the cut stalks and cut ears ; No. 3 consisted
of pieces of cut ears of corn taken from the main bulk of corn
ensilage at the same time when sample No. 2 was removed for
an examination, about eleven months after the filling of that
silo. The samples were collected for the purpose of ascertain-
ing the character and the degree of change which the ear of
the corn undergoes by converting it into ensilage, either whole
or when cut into pieces. A comparison of the analytical
results shows, what might be expected, that cut ears of corn
are liable to suffer a more serious alteration in their composi-
tion than whole ears.

480

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Analyses of Rowen.

[1. Sun-dried in the field. 2. After being in a silo eleven months.]

Feb Cekt.

1

2

Moisture at 100° C

19.71

18.44

Di-y Matter, ■. .

80.29

81.56

100.00

100.00

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash

8.99

8.76

" Cellulose,

29.43

27.93

" Fat, . ;

4.96

6.98

" Protein (Nitrogenous Matter), ....

14.70

12.34

Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter,

41.92

4399

100.00

100.00

These analyses point in the same direction as the previous
ones. The reduction of nitrogenous matter as compared with
that of the non-nitrogenous extract matter is most noticeable ;
yet this circumstance does not represent the entire loss in
orofanic matter. The decrease in crude cellulose and the in-
crease in crude fat both confirm that statement. To state with
more exactness the loss of organic matter in cases like those
under consideration, requires a more definite knowledge re-
garding the amount of dry matter contained in the fresh rowen,
and of the average moisture of the various layers of rowen in
the silo. None of our ordinary modes of preserving fodder is
without the liability of losses ; it remains in most instances a
matter of degree, depending quite largely on circumstances
beyond the control of the farmer. Succulent plants are most
likely to suffer seriously in the ordinary drying process, and it
is for this reason that the silo system deserves, in particular,
a careful consideration for the efficient preservation of these
crops.

EXPERIMENT STATION

481

ENSILAGE MADE FROM APPLE POMACE.

[Amherst Mill.]

Moisture at 100° C,
Dry Matter,

Analysis of Dry Matter.
Crude Ash,

*' Cellulose,

" Fat,

" Protein (Niti'ogenous Matter),
Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter,

I'er cent.

85.33
14.67

4.21

22.18

7.36

8.22

58.03

100.00

The pomace which served for the preparation of the apple
ensilage was taken from a cider-mill near Amherst towards
the close of October, 1885, and consisted of the clear press
refuse of a mixture of different kinds of apples.

Two casks, of a capacity of from fifty to sixty gallons each,
were used for the experiment. They were painted inside with
a black tar varnish to render them air and water tight. The
pomace was stamped down solid, and subsequently covered
with tar paper, which was held down by a layer of sand sev-
eral inches in thickness, and some large stones. The casks,
thus filled, were kept in a corner of the barn floor until May
17, 1886, when they were opened to examine their contents.
The material was found throughout apparently as fresh as
when put up ; neither mouldy, rotten, or even discolored on
its surface. It had a pleasant fruit-like acid odor and taste,
and contained but traces of ammonia compounds. One hun-
dred parts of the fresh apple ensilage required 0.744 parts of
sodium hydroxide for the neutralization of its free organic
acids, which prove thus to be less than in either kind of corn
ensilage. The ensilage of apple pomace is highly relished
by cows and swine, and is, if not superior, at least equal,
pound for pound, in feeding value to the apple pomace, which
served for its production. The nitrogenous constituents had
increased at the expense of the saccharine constituents ; the
latter had been destroyed at a higher rate by fermentation than
the former.

482 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

3. Influence or Fertilizers on the Quantity and the
Quality or some Prominent Fodder Crops.

[Field B.]

The land selected for the experiment had been used, for sev-
eral years previous, for the production of hay. At the begin-
ning of the season of 1883 it had been ploughed and planted
with corn, without the addition of any fertilizer. The soil con-
sisted of a good sandy loam, and was, in consequence of its
previous treatment, in a suitably impoverished condition to
respond to the application of fertilizers.

The entire field, consisting at that time of one and one-tenth
of an acre, was subdivided into plats, each one-tenth of an acre
in size. Every alternate plat was fertilized at the rate of six
hundred pounds of ground, rendered bones, and two hundred
pounds of muriate of potash, per acre. The fertilizer was
applied a few days before seeding, and slightly harrowed
under.

The experiment in 1884 comprised four standard grasses,
i. e.. Orchard grass (^Dactylis glotnerata) , Meadow fescue (^Fes-
tuca pratense) , Timothy {Phleum pratense) and Redtop {Agro-
tis vulgaris) , besides two Millets, Hungarian grass (Panicum
Germanicum) and Pearl millet (^Penicillaria spicata), and one
variety of corn, Clark. (See sketch of Field B, 1884-1885.)

The plats Nos. 11, 13, 15, 19 and 21 were fertilized ; and
Nos. 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20 received no manurial matter of
any description.

In the case of the grasses and millets, each plat was again
subdivided into two, and each half seeded down with one dis-
tinct kind of grass seed as follows : —

„,.,-,,/. ,.,. j^ /Orchard Grass Cnorth side),

Plat 11 (fertilized), •S ,, , x. , ./\

v. Meadow Fescue (south side).

Plat 12 (unfertilized), .... /O'-^hard Grass (north side),

V Meadow Fescue (south side).

Plat 13 (fertilized), T Hungarian Grass (north side),

^ I. Pearl Millet (south side).

oi . , J / r .-I- i\ / Huncrarian Grass (north side),

Plat 14 (unfertilized), . . . . < " ^ , -"

V Pearl Millet (south side).

EXPERIMENT STATION. 483

Plat 15 (fertilized), . . . / Timotlw (north side),

\. Redtop (south side).

Plat 16 (unfertilized), . . . /Timothy (north side),

V, Red top (south side).

Plat 17 (fertilized), Cora (Clark).

Plat 18 (unfertilized), .... Corn (Clark).

Plat 19 (fertilized), Corn (Clark).

Plat 20 (unfertilized), .... Corn (Clark).
Plat -21 (fertilized), Corn ((Mark).

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS WITH CORN.

Analysis of Oreen Fodder Com.

i Plat 17. Plat IS.

(Fertilized.) i (Unfertilized.)

July 2.3. At the beginning PI°5«t»^«^^ 1^0° C., . 87.62 85.15

of Blooming, \ Dry Vegetable Matter, I 12.38 14.85

r Moisture at 100" C, . 72.27 78.77
Sept 1. Kernels in Milk, <

1^ Di-y Vegetable Matter, 27.73 21.23

Fertilized Plats, J, of an acre each, . / ^^^^^ 1^, 4,340 lbs. | Total yield,
' \ Plat 19, 3,096 lbs. / 7,436 lbs.

Unfertilized Plats, J, of an acre each, . ( ^^^' l^. 2,460 lbs. |Total yield.
^^ \ Plat 20, 2,556 lbs. / 5,016 lbs.

Yield of Fertilized Plats, per acre, 37,180 lbs.

Yield of Unfertilized Plats, per aci-e, 25,080 '•

Diflferenee in yield, 12,100 lbs.

Composition of Dry Vegetable Matter in Corn Fodder {fertilized).

Crude Ash, . . 3.16 parts.

Crude Cellulose, . . 24 32 ''

Crude Fat, 2.89 "

Crude Protein, . 9.64 "

Non-nitrogenous Extract Matter, .... . 59.99

During the year 1885, plats Nos. 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21
served again, as in previous years, for the cultivation of corn.
The crop raised upon the fertilized phits Nos. 17, 19 and 21
was used in part for ensilage ; that obtained from the unferti-
lized plats Nos. 18 and 20 was sold as dry fodder corn ; both
crops were cut at the same time to compare results.

484 BOARD OF AGRICULTURK.

The entire crop upon all plats was cut Sept. 4, 1885. The
dry corn fodder secured from the fertilized plats averaged 5^
tons per acre, and that from the unfertilized plats in this con-
nection yielded S^V tons for the same area. The fertilized
plat No. 13 produced 1,870 pounds of dried millet, or 18,700
pounds (9^ tons) per acre ; and the unfertilized plat No. 14
(for three succeeding years without manure) produced 1,050
pounds of air-dried crops, or 10,500 pounds (5\ tons) for a
corresponding area.

The plats 11, 12, 15 and 16 (Field B), which had been seeded
down broadcast, during the month of September, 1884, with
several varieties of grasses for the purpose of studying their
individual nutritive character at difl'erent successive stages of
growth, became soon infested with all kinds of plants. As this
circumstance could not otherwise than quite seriously interfere
with our object, it was thought best to replough these plats and
to seed down again each variety of grass, in drills, 'i'he culti-
vation of grasses in drills, two feet apart, was adopted with
much success June 22, 1885. A frequent use of the cultivator,
aided by the hoe and the weeding by hand, has enabled us to
secure a suitable material for examination during last summer,
1886.

No material changes have been made of late in the general
arrangement and mode of treatment of the plats in Field B,
beyond the addition of an area of forty-three feet in length and
of a corresponding width of the existing plats on the west end of
each individual plat. This addition makes the present length
of these plats 175 feet; they are each 33 feet wide (see sketch
of Field B in 1886). The same varieties of grasses and of
corn (Clark) were cultivated. The latter was also planted, in
place of two varieties of millets during the preceding year, in
plats 13 and 14. The corn was planted, as in previous years,
in drills three feet three inches apart; the seed was dropped,
from six to eight in a place, at a distance of from twelve to
fourteen inches apart, May 17, 1886. Plats 13, 17, 19 and 21
were fertilized with ground bones and potash, as in preceding
years, while plats 14, 18 and 20 received no manurial matter of
any description. The growth of the corn on fertilized and un-
fertilized plats presented throughout the season a similar appear-
ance, as has been noticed and described on previous occasions,

EXPERIMENT STATION. 485

with the exception of the fertilized plat 13 and the unfertilized
plat 14, which yielded a larger return than any other of the plats
under a corresponding treatment. These two plats had been
changed from the cultivation of corn in 1883 to that of millet
in 1884 and 1885. They were evidently left in a better condi-
tion for the raisins: of fodder corn in 1886 than the remaining
plats which had been used for the production of fodder corn,
without any interruption since 1883.

The corn on all plats was cut September 9 and 10, when the
kernels began to glaze. The produce of the fertilized plats
13, 17, 19 and 21 was turned into corn ensilage, and that of
the unfertilized plats 14, 18 and 20 was stooked in the field
until October 12, when it was housed in common with the dried
fodder corn obtained from the under-drained plats of Field A,
described in the previous pages.

Amount of Green Fodder Corn obtained on Fertilized Plats per Acre.
Plat 13. Green fodder corn for silo, 35,410 lbs., or 17.75 tons.
Plat 17. " " " 27,310 " 13.65 "

Plat 19. " " " 28,290 " 14.15 "

Amount of Dry Fodder Corn obtained on Unfertilized Plats x>er Acre.
Plat 14. Dry fodder corn, 6,200 lbs., or o. I tons.
Plat 18. " " 4,500 " 2.25 "

Plat 20. " " 3,000 " 1.5 "

The grasses upon plats 11, 12, 15 and 16 looked well in the
spring. The difference in their general appearance, between
the fertilized plat 11 and the unfertilized plat 16, and the un-
fertilized plat 12 and the fertilized plat 15, was less marked
than in the case of the corn ; it became, however, quite striking
as the season advanced. The growth upon the fertilized plats
was in each case denser, taller and of a deeper color at the time
of cutting for hay than for rowen. The Orchard grass was in
bloom from four to five days earlier (June 7) than the Meadow
Fescue (June 12). The Timothy (Herd's grass) bloomed
June 28, about one week earlier than the Redtop, July 5. The
grasses on plats 11 and 12 were cut July 5, and those on plats
15 and 16 July 11.

The fertilized plat 11 yielded 560 lbs. of hay (Orchard and Fescue).
The unfertilized plat 12 yielded 510 lbs. of hay (Orchard and Fescue).
The fertilized plat 15 yielded 690 lbs. of hay (Timothy and Redtop).
The unfertilized plat 16 yielded 55(» lbs. of hay (Timothy and Redtop).

486 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

From this statement it will be noticed that —

Plat 11 yielded hay at the rate of 2.1 tons per acre.
Plat 12 " " " " 1.9

Plat If) " " " " 2.59 "

Plat 16 " " " " 2.0G "

The result is remarkable, considering that the rows of grass
were two feet apart, leaving thus one-half of the area of the
land unoccupied by the crop. The second growth (rowen)
was not less satisfactory than the first ; it was cut September
13 and 14.

The fertilized plat 11 yielded 225 lbs. of rowen (Orchard and Fescue).
The unfertilized plat 12 yielded 185 lbs. of rowen (Orchard and Fescue).
The fertilized plat 15 yielded 230 lbs. of rowen (Timothy and Redtop).
The unfertilized plat 16 yielded 175 lbs. of rowen (Timothy and Redtop).

It may be seen irom this that —

Plat 11 yielded rowen at the rate of .84 tons per acre.
Plat 12 " " " " .69 "

Plat 15 " " " " .86 "

Plat 16 " " " '• .65 "

The cultivation of grasses in drills renders a satisfactory har-
vesting of the crop quite troublesome, on account of the liability
of a large admixture of soil in the dried crop under ordinary
modes of management.

Samples of the various kinds of grasses on trial have been
collected at successive stages of their growth to ascertain their
respective relative nutritive value. The results of these
analytical-chemical investigations will be published as soon as
the work has sufiiciently advanced to admit of an intelligent
presentation.

EXPERLMENT STATION.

487

CO
00

M

S

ORCHARD GRASS.

5IEADOW FESCUE.

ORCHARD G R A .S S .

MEADOW FESCDE.

1' I M 0 T II V

T 1 M 0 T H Y

a

o

The dotted line indicates the addition made to the original area of one-tenth of one
acre In each plat during the fall of 1885.

488 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

4. Experiments with the Cultivation of Fodder Crops to
FURNISH A Continuous Supply of Suitable Green Fod-
der FOR Dairy Stock during the Summer Season.

[Field C]

The experiment was planned chiefly for the purpose of ascer-
taining the area required for the cultivation of each of the follow-
ing crops, oats, vetch, serradella and Southern cow-pea, when
serving in the stated succession as green fodder for the support
of a definite number of milch cows, from the beginning of July: to
the middle of September. These crops, which have been already
described more or less in detail in previous reports, were noticed
to attain upon our grounds a suitable state of growth for feeding
purposes at such succeeding periods of the season as promised
to meet the requirements of the object in view. The feeding of
each crop began when it had reached the stage of blooming, and
it was discontinued when it approached its maturity. Some
coarse, dry fodder, consisting mainly of hay of oats cut the
previous year, was fed with the green fodder, to regulate its
action on the digestive organs.

The practice of raising a greater variety of valuable crops,
like those previously stated, for green fodder deserves the
serious consideration of farmers engaged in the dairy business ;
for it secures a liberal supply of healthy, nutritious fodder at a
time when hay becomes scarce and costly, and when it would
be still a wasteful practice to feed an imperfectly matured green
fodder-corn. The frequently limited area of land fit for a re-
munerative production of grasses, and the not less recognized
exhausted condition of a large proportion of natural pastures,
makes it but judicious to consider seriously the means which
promise not only to increase, but also to cheapen, the products
of the dairy. A liberal introduction of reputed fodder crops
into farm operations has everywhere in various directions pro-
moted the success of agricultural industry. The field assigned
for the raising of oats, vetch and Southern cow-peas was 240
feet long and 90 feet wide ; it was divided into three equal
parts, each 30 feet wide and 240 feet long. The serradella
covered an area 85 feet long and 56 feet wide. The soil

EXPERIMENT STATION.

489

consisted of a good loam, and was in a fair state of cultivation.
The fertilizers used consisted of six hundred pounds of fine-
ground bones and one hundred and fifty pounds of muriate of
potash per acre. The ditferent crops were cultivated in drills
three feet three inches apart; they proved, without exception,
a success.

Oats. — The variety raised in this connection was secured in
our vicinity. Its particular name is somewhat uncertain ; it
grows quite tall, and forms thickly-leaved stems ; the grain
is of a good average size and weight. The oats were sown
May 3 ; the young plants appeared May 12 ; they began to
bloom July 5. The feeding of the green oats commenced that
day, and was continued for about two weeks, until July 20,
when the plants turned yellowish. Forty pounds were fed per
day to each cow.

Composition of Oreen Fodder Oats.

1886.

July 5.

July 12.

July 20.

Moisture at 100° C,

Dry Matter,

Per cent.

78.61
21.39

Per cent.
. 71.18

28.82

Per cent.

G6.04
33.96

The composition of our variety of oats at the time of feeding
may be inferred from the following analysis of a sample raised
on the same ground in 1885 and published in the last annual
report ; —

490

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

HAY OF OATS.

[From Plats of Station, cut while in Mills, July 9, 1885.]

c
_o

<a H
II

i i

i ^

Constituents (in
lbs.) In a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

6

a

j^

(D
>

3

?!

Moisture at 100^ C,

Dry Matter, ....

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash, ....

" Cellulose,
" Fat, ....
" Protein (Nitrogenous
Matter), .
Non-nitrogenous Extract
Matter

9.55
90.45

100.00

6.08

34.32

2.69

10.89

46.02

191.00
1,809.00

2,000.00

121.60

686.40

53.80

217.80

920.40

24.75
124.15
920.40

46

57
100

100.00

2,000.00

1,069 30

-

J

Vetch (Vicia sativa) . — The seed was imported to secure the
same variety of vetch which had been tried here in previous
years. It was sown May 14, and made its first appearance
May 19. The growth was kept clean by frequent use of the
cultivator. The latter was first used May 24, when the young
plants had reached a height of two inches. The first signs of
blooming were noticed July 6. The feeding of the green crop
commenced July 20, and was continued until August 2.
Twenty-five pounds were used in the daily diet per head. A
second crop was cut September 13. The vetch yields a large
and valuable growth, yet seems best adapted for green fodder
when raised as a mi.Kcd crop with oats, barley or rye Clear
green vetch is not as much relished at the beginning by dairy
cows as the mixed crop.

Composition of Oreen Vetch.
[July 19, 1886.]

Moisture at 100^
Dry Matter,

C,

Per cent.

82.97
17.03

The subsequent copies of two analyses of vetch raised on our
own grounds in previous years may convey some more definite
idea regarding the composition of this reputed fodder crop : —

EXPERIMENT STATION.

491

VETCH (Hay).

(ViCIA SATIVA ; VaIUETY, AnGUSTIFOLIA.)

[I. Collected from Experimental Plats, Aug. 1.3, 18S3, in bloom.]
I.

Percentage Com-
position.

Constituents (in
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble In a ton of
2.000 lbs.

5°i

*: ■- 2
c 3 ^

>

Moisture at 100° C,

8.3n

167.00

'

Dry Matter, ....

91.65

1,833.00

-

-

100.00

2,000.00

-

-

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash, ....

7.97

159.40

_

_ i

£.'

" Cellulose, .

30.68

613.60

331.34

54 I

}^

" Fat, ....

2.30

46.00

27.60

60 1

_

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

15.76

315.20

239.55

76

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter, ....

43.29

865.80

562.77

65

100.00

2,000.00

1,161.26

-

)

VETCH (Hay).

[II. Collected from Experimental Plats, Sept. 3, 1883, when fully matured.]

II.

i
li

Constituents (in
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Per cent, of Di-
gestibility of
Constituents.

6
a

>

1

s

Moisture at 100° C,

9.45

189.00

•

Dry Matter, ....

90.55

1,811.00

-

-

100.00

2,000.00

-

-

Analysis of Dry Mailer.

Crude Ash, ....

8.50

170.00

_

_

o

Cellulose, .

30.05

601.00

270.45

45

\^

" Fat

2.69

53.80

32.28

60

^

" Protein (Nitrogenous
Matter), .

14.42

288.40

204 76

71

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter, ....

44.34
100.00

886.80
2,000.00

487.74

55

995.23

i

}

492

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Serradella (Oruithopus sativus, Brot.). — The special agri-
cultural value of this plant has been pointed out in a previous
report. The successful cultivation upon the fields of the Sta-
tion in preceding years encouraged its trial as a green fodder
in connection with the experiment under discussion. The seed
was planted May 12 ; the young plants showed themselves
May 20; they commenced blooming July 13. The feeding of
green serradella began August 3 and was discontinued the 24th
of that month. At first twenty-five pounds, and subsequently
from thirty to thirty-five pounds, formed part of the daily diet
of each cow on trial. The green serradella is highly relished
by the dairy cows, and has evidently a very beneficial influence
on the yield of milk.

Comiwsilion of Oreen Serradella.
[August 4, 1886.]

Moisture at 100° C,
Dry Matter,

Per cent.
84.60
15.40

The subsequent two analyses of samples raised here in pre-
vious years are republished in this connection to show the
general character of this valuable fodder plant.

SERRADELLA (Hat).

(Ornithopus sativus, Brot.)

[I. Obtained from plats of the Station when blooming, Aug. 14, 1883.]

I.

Percentage Com-
position.

Constituents (in
lbs ) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

B 3 '-S

fell

04

6

>

3

Moisture at lOO'^ C,

7.20

144.00

'

~ N

Dry Matter, ....

92.80

1,856.00

-

100.00

2,000.00

_

- ,

Analysis of Dry Mailer.
Crude Ash, ....

5.87

117.40

_

_

1

1 tM

" Cellulose,

" Fat, ....

24.37
2.37

487.40
47.40

28.44

60

[5

" Protein (Nitrogenous

—'

Matter), .

17.85

357.00

224.91

63

Non-nitrogenous Extract

^

Matter, ....

49.54

990.80

990.80

100 j

1

100.00

2,000.00

1,244.15

-

J

EXPERIMENT STATION.

493

SERRADELLA (Hay).
[II. From plats of Station, collected Sept. 3, 1883, when fully matured.]

II.

Percentage ('om-
position.

Constituents (In
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

"5 xS

lis

o m C
I, S o

6

«

«

s

3

is

Moisture at 100° C,

8.70

174.00

1

Dry Matter, ....

91.30

1,826.00

-

-

100.00

2,000.00

-

~ 1

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash, ....

6.46

129.20

-

_

Cellulose, .

25.14

502.80

236.32

47

J.O

'• Fat, ....

2.91

58.20

29.10

50

,-

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

15.26

305.20

183.12

60

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter, ....

50.23

1,004.60

693.17

69

100.00

2,000.00

1,141.71

-

J

Southern Cow-pea (Dolichos?) ; variety, Whippoorwill Pea.
— The seeds were obtained of J. Wolfenden, provision dealer,
in Newbern, N. C, who kindly furnished us with seeds in pre-
vious years. The general characteristics of this valuable South-
ern fodder-plant have been pointed out in the Second Annual
Report of the Experiment Station, 1884, pages 91-93. The
seed was sown May 14 ; the young plants were first noticed
May 25 ; they made slow progress until July 15, when they
began to develop more rapidly ; they reached, August 14, a
height of from one and one-half to two feet, and formed a dense
growth of deep green vines. The green cow-pea was fed from
the 24th of August to the 15th of September, 1886, beginning
with 24 pounds per day and increasing gradually the amount
to 40 pounds in the daily diet. Several cows served in the ex-
periments ; the daily fodder rations per head were compounded
in the following manner ; —

Composition of Oree?i Coio-2)ea.
[August 24, 1886.]

Moisture at 100° C,
Dry Matter,

I'cr cent.

83.00
17.00

494

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

COW-PEA (Hay).
(Variety : Whippoorwill.)

[From Experimental Plats of Station; collected Aug. 1, 1883.]

Percentage Com-
position.

Constituents (in
lbs.) in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Pounds Digesti-
ble in a ton of
2,000 lbs.

Per cent, of Di-
gestibility of
Constituents.

Nutritive Katlo.

Moisture at 100° C,

9.65

193.00

Dry Matter, ....

90.35

1,807.00

_

i

100.00

2,000.00

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash, ....

10.46

209.20

_

_

t>

" Cellulose, .

22.86

447.20

210.18

47

j-rj;

" Fat, ....

3.87

77.40

45.67

59

r-*

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

16.95

339.00

203.40

60

Non-nitrogeuous Extract
Matter, ....

46.36

927.20

639.77

69 1

100.00

2,000.00

1,099.02

- L

The feeding of green cow-pea ceased on account of limited
supply. The vines grow until late in the season ; they stand
our autumn weather extremely well.

Feed in Pounds per Day.

18S6.

June 24

July 6 1 July 21

Aug. 4 Aug. 2-5 Sept. 27

to

to

to

to to to

July 5.

July 20.

Aug. 3.

Aug. 24. Sept. 26. ' Oct. 14.

Corn Meal, ....

3.25

3.25 3.25

3.25 3.25

3.25

Wheat Bran,

3.25

3.25 3.25

3.25 3.25

3.25

English Hay,

20.00

-

-

_ 1

8.00

Hay of Oats (1885),

-

10.00

10.00

10.00

10.00

-

Green Oats,

-

40.00

-

-

-

-

Green Vetch,

_

-

25.00

-

-

-

Green Serradella,

-

-

35.00

-

-

Green Cow-pea, .

-

— ""

30.00

40.00

As our supply of hay of oats (1885) gave out at the be-
ginning of September, a small amount of English hay was sub-
stitutdd. The feeding of green fodder crops with an addition
of a coarse, dry fodder has a good effect on the general con-

EXPERIMENT STATION.

495

dition of the animal. Hay of oats is best chopped for that pur-
pose. A temporary increase of bran, oilcakes, gluten meal
and fodder articles of a similar composition instead of corn
meal suggests itself in this connection as an improvement on
our daily fodder rations during a first trial.

Taking our mode of cultivation into consideration, it seems
advisable to cultivate for the supply of one cov*^, for the period
of time above stated, an area of from 5,000 to 5,500 square feet
of oats, and from 7,000 to 7,500 square feet each of vetch, ser-
radella and cow-pea. In case oats and vetch are to be raised
as a mixed crop, 12,000 square feet might be the limit. The
oats mature too rapidly to answer for more than two weeks as a
green fodder.

The field (C) turned to account for the purpose described
above is in a first-class condition for the cultivation of winter
grains, as far as time of seeding, clean cultivation and special
accumulation of plant food is concerned. Vetch, serradella
and cow-pea belong to the valuable family of Leguminosce ;
they, like the clover, enrich the soil in the interest of grain
crops. A variety of wheat occupies at present the area.

An analysis of the hay of oats used in our feeding experi-
ment has been stated on a previous page ; that of English hay
follows here : —

HAY.

[From Station Fields, 1885.]

,

1 "w

a

^ c

53 O

5=i

_2

o

« 2

S) 1

<M . a

a

2 2.

tuen
In a

lbs.

G « 1

cSS

>

Cbns
lbs.
2,00

oun

ble
2,00

"1 §

3

t*

Ph

c.

»

Moisture at 100= C,

8.30

166.00

_

_ 1

1

Dry Matter, ....

91.70

1,834.00

-

-

1

100.00

2,000.00

_

_

Analysis of Dry Matter.

Crude Ash, ....

6.12

122 40

-

-

>o

" Cellulose, .

30.19

603.80

350.20

58

" Fat, ....

2.55

51.00

23.46

46

" Protein (Nitrogenous

Matter), .

9.75

195.no

111.15

57

Non-nitrogenous Extract

Matter, ....

51.39

1,027.80

647.51

C3

100.00

2,000.00

1,132.32

- 1

d

496 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

5. Experiments with Potatoes.
Var. : Beauty of Hebron.

The experiments carried on in this connection are at present
conducted for the following purpose : —

Firsts To study the special effect, if any, of muriate of
potash and of sulphate of potash on the quantity and quality
of potatoes raised by their aid as the principal potash source of
plant food.

Second, To ascertain the effect of planting whole potatoes
and half potatoes, on the yield of the crop.

Third, To inquire into the causes of the production of
scabby potatoes.

The first two objects of inquiry have received attention
since 1884 ; the last-mentioned one has been added to our task
during the past year, at the special request of the Franklin
Harvest Club. The same piece of land has been used from the
beginning of our field work (1884), as far as the first and second
lines of observation are concerned ; whilst a separate field was
chosen for studying the behavior of ^^ scabby potatoes" as
" seed potatoes." As a short description of the course pursued
in previous years cannot fail to assist in a due appreciation of
the results of the past season, a few essential circumstances are
in this connection republished from previous annual reports.

A. — Experiments with High-grade German Potash Salts and
Ground Bones as Fertilizers.

1884. — Three plats, each one-fifth of an acre in size, were'
chosen for the experiment. The land had been for years in
grass, and contained quite a number of old apple trees. The
majority of the latter were removed, and the turf thoroughly
broken up before manuring, during the spring of 1884.

Plat 1 (west end) received one hundred and twenty pounds
of ground rendered bones and thirty pounds of muriate of pot-
ash (equal to from tWenty-six to twenty-seven pounds of phos-
phoric acid, four to four and one-half pounds of nitrogen, and
fifteen to sixteen pounds of potassium oxide).

Plat 2 received no manure of any kind.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

497

Plat 3 (east end) received one hundred and twenty pounds
of ground rendered bones, and fifty-eight pounds of double sul-
phate of potash and magnesia (equal to from twenty-six to
twenty-seven pounds of phosphoric acid, four to four and one-
half pounds of nitrogen, fifteen to sixteen pounds of potassium
oxide, and five to six pounds of magnesium oxide).

The fertilizers were applied broadcast, and harrowed under
before planting. The potatoes were planted in rows, three
feet apart and fourteen inches distant in the drills, during the
first week in May, 1884. The crop was kept clean from weeds
by a timely use of the cultivator.

As an additional feature of the experiment, one-half of each
plat was planted with medium-sized whole potatoes ; the other
with half potatoes obtained from a similar size.

The vinesjproduced by whole potatoes showed a more vigor-
ous growth during the main part of the season than those by
part of a potato. The entire . field looked promising until
towards the middle of August, when with the appearance of the
blight the life of the stems and leaves prematurely terminated.

The crop was harvested on the 9th and 10th of September.
(See results farther on.)

Ajialijses of Potatoes (18S4).
One hundred parts of air-dried fresh potatoes contained : —

From riat 1.

1

From Plat 2. From Plat 8.

Dry Vegetable Matter, ....
Water,

19.39

80.61

23.30

76.70

21.52
78.48

lOU.OO

100.00

100.00

A well-matured potato contains on an average, approximately,
twenty-five per cent, of solid matter. The unmatured potatoes
were evidently more advanced in growth, whilst those manured
with muriate of potash were least advanced in that direction.

The latter, on the other hand, had the smoothest skins, and
were almost entirely free from scab, which seriously disfigured
those from Plats 2 and 3.

498 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

1885. — The arrangement of the field, the mode of manuring,
and the variety of the potatoes raised was the same as in the
preceding season. The same three plats served for the experi-
ment, each one-fifth of an acre in size ; the potatoes were
planted April 27. Plat No. 1 received, as fertilizer, thirty-
pounds of muriate of potash and one hundred and thirty pounds
of steamed fine-ground bones ; Plat No, 2 received no fertilizer ;
Plat No. 3 was fertilized with fifty-eight pounds of potash-
magnesia sulphate and one hundred and twenty pounds of
fine ground bones. The rows were three feet three inches
apart, and the seed potatoes dropped from eighteen to twenty-
four inches in the row. One-half of each plat was planted with
medium-sized whole potatoes ; one-half with half a potato in a
spot. The seed potatoes used had been carefully selected from
our own crop raised during the preceding season on the same
plats.

The young crop was hoed June 9. The difference in the
plats was quite marked July 24; plat (No. 1) with muriate
of potash had the largest foliage and looked darker green
than the remainder; that with potash sulphate (No. 3) looked
next best. A blight on the leaves, which showed itself during
the first week of August, prematurely terminated the experi-
ment ; the vines upon all plats died soon after. The crop was
harvested August 2^. (See results farther on.)

The potatoes from all the 2)lats suffered severely from scab.

As the increase of vegetable matter in the young plant indi-
cates the progress of their growth, it was decided to determine,
from time to time, the actual amount of vegetable matter in a
given weight of the more advanced tubers, by carefully expel-
ling the water present, at a temperature of from 100° to 110° C.

A well-matured potato contains, as has been stated before,
on an average twenty-five per cent, of solid matter.

The subsequent statements are the results of our examina-
tion.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

499

Determination of Solids in Potatoes.
-July 24.

From Plat
No. 1.

From Plat
No. 2.

From riiit
No. 3.

Moisture at 100^ C, ....
Solids

81.44
18.56

79.49

20.51

79.39

20.01

100 00

100.00

lOO.UO

August 5.

Moisture at 100° C.
Solids, .

August 27.

Moisture at 100- C

Solids,

79.85
20.15

80.60
19.40

80.61
19.39

100.00

100.00

100.00

The exceptionally large proportion of small potatoes obtained
in particular from Plats Nos. 2 and 3, as well a8 the low per-
centage of solids in the potatoes tested, prove the premature
termination of a healthful condition of the entire crop. The
normal growth of the tubers came apparently to a standstill
soon after the first examination for solids had been made
(July 24, etc.). The results seemed to indicate a connection
between " blight" and "scab"; and left scarcely any doubt
about the circumstance, that either the one or the other, or both
jointly, had contributed directly or indirectly towards the partial
failure of the crop for the two succeeding seasons.

It was decided, in sight of these facts, to continue the experi-
ments in 1886 upon the same field, with some modifications, to
ascertain, if possible, whether the main influence regarding the
results in our past observation had to be ascribed to atmospheric
asencies, or to the condition of the soil and to the fertilizer
applied or to the quality of the seed potato used.

500 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

1886, — The same field was used. The land Avas well pre-
pared by plowing and harrowing April 27, and subsequently
fertilized the same as in previous years. Plat 1 received broad-
cast, as before, a mixture of muriate of potash and fine-ground
bones. Plat 2 received, as before, no fertilizer of any de-
scription. Plat 3 was again manured broadcast, with sulphate
of potash and fine-ground bones. The change, regarding the
character of the fertilizer applied, consisted in using nearly
twice the amount of potash salts, muriate of potash and sulphate
of potash for the same area in case of Plats 1 and 3. The in-
crease in potash compounds was made to test their efficacy as
a preventative of scab. A second important change from our
previous practice consisted in securing first quality seed
potatoes, — in particular, //-ee from scab. The same variety —
Beauty of Hebron — was obtained for that purpose from Ver-
mont ; it was as fair an article as could be desired. The system
of planting and cultivating was the same as in previous years.
The potatoes were planted upon all plats May 5, 1886 ; each plat
had fourteen rows, with hills three feet apart in each direction.
The young plants appeared evenly ; the vines coming from
whole potatoes, however, soon became heavier and taller than
those coming from half potatoes, a peculiarity in their growth
which remained noticeable during the entire season. All the
vines were in full blossom July 6 ; they began to turn yellowish
and to dry up July 30. The crop on the entire field was dried
up August 8. This change seemed to appear most marked first
on the vines from whole-seed potatoes. The entire crop was
hai vested August 28.

The experiment of the past season has been a serious failure,
as far as the quality of the potatoes raised on any of the three
plats is concerned. The entire crop, with scarcely any excep-
tion, was badly disfigured by scab ; the potatoes were unfit for
family use, and had to be sold at a low price for stock feeding.

Neither a liberal use of our own mixture of commercial manu-
rial substances, rich in potash compounds, nor the selection of
a fair quality of seed potatoes fi'om another source, has affected
our results as compared with those of the previous season. The
successful raising of a superior potato from scabby seed pota-
toes upon another field of the Experiment Station, which will
be described farther on in these pages, shows that the atmos-

EXPERIMENT STATION.

501

pheric peculiarities of the last summer season cannot have
caused the above-reported failure. In sight of these circum-
stances it seems but natural to incline to the conclusion that
some peculiar condition of the soil upon the lands occupied by
this experiment has to be considered as the real seat of our
trouble. The work will be continued until a more positive
proof can be offered.

The subsequent tabular statement regarding certain features
of the potato crop raised for three successive years upon the
three experimental plats here under discussion are not without
interest when considered in connection with the preceding
remarks.

IS84.

Plat I.

SEED POTATO.

Fertilizer Applied.

Yield of Potatoes upon One-fifth
of an Acre, in Pounds.

J.arije.

Small.

Total.

Whole Potato,

1 120 lbs. ground bones (
> and oU lbs. muriate <

1,085

460

1,545

One-half a Potato, .

J of potash. {

1,140

335

1,485

2,225

795

3,030

Plat II.

Whole Potato,
One-half a Potato,

Not fertilized.

Large.

830

850

1,G80

Small.

280
250

Total.

1,110
1,100

530 1 2,210

Plat 111.

Large.

Small.

Total.

Whole Potato,

^ 120 lbs. of bones and (

1,120

342

1,462

One-half a Potato, .

\ 58 lbs. potash-niag-<^
J nesia sulphate. \

930

105

1,035

2,050

447

2,497

502

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

1883.

Plat I.

SEED POTATO.

Fertilizer Applied.

Yield of Potatoes upon One-filth
of an Acre, in Pounds.

I^arge.

Small.

Total.

Whole Potato,

1 120 lbs. ground bones f

705

355

1,060

•- ^

> and 30 lbs. muriate <

One-half a Potato, .

J of potash. l_

695

270

965

1,400

625

2,025

Plat II.

Large.

Small.

Total.

Whole Potato,

I Not fertilized. \

335

350

685

One-half a Potato, .

J I

255

270

625

590

620

1,210

Plat III.

Whole Potato,
One-half a Potato,

120 lbs. of bones and
58 lbs. potash-mag-
nesia sulphate

Large.

Small.

605

490

540

580

1,145

1,070

Total.

1,095
1,120
2,215

1S86.

Plat I.

SEED POTATO.

Fertilizer Applied.

Yield of Potatoes upon One- fifth
of an Acre, in Pounds.

Large.

Small.

Total.

Whole Potato,
One-half a Potato, .

\ 100 lbs. ground bones (
> and 50 lbs. muriate <
J of potash. [

410
431

592

188

1,002
620

841

780

1,622

EXPERIMENT STATION.

Plat II.

503

SEED POTATO. j Fertilizer Applied.

Whole Potato,
One-lialf a Potato,

Not fertilized.

Yield of Potatoes upon One-flftli
of an Acre, in Pounds.

Large.

Small.

Total.

321

398

719

353

194

545

674

592

1,264

Whole Potato,
One-half a Potato,

Plat III.

100 lbs. ground bones
and 96 lbs. potash-
magnesia sulphate.

Large.

Small.

lAl

503 .

658

315

1,405

818

Total.

1,250

974

2,224

A careful study of the above tables leads to the following
conclusions : —

1. Medium-sized whole potatoes give better results than
half potatoes obtained from tubers of a corresponding size.

2. Disregarding the results of the first year, when previously
existing liberal resources of plant food are apt to render the in-
fluence of an additional supply of manurial substances less
marked, it appears that the sulphate of potash produced better
results in our case than the muriate of potash.

3. The premature dying out of the vines, accompanied by
blight or scab, or both, must be considered a controlling cause
of the exceptionally large proportions of small potatoes.

B. — Observations with Scabby Potatoes.

These experiments were inaugurated during the past season
for the purpose of inquiring into the circumstances which con-
trol the development and the propagation of the "scab" on
potatoes.

The first year's work in this connection has been confined to
the task of observing the behavior of scabby potatoes as seed
potatoes, under some definite previous treatment. To prevent

504 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

a possible propagation of scab, by infected seed potatoes, to
the new crop, the following course was adopted : Thoroughly
scabby potatoes obtained from the previously-described experi-
mental plats were treated with sonae substances known to be
destructive to various forms of parasitic growth. This opera-
tion was carried out with the intention of destroying the propa-
gating power of adherent germs of an objectionable] character,
before planting the potatoes.

The field for the observation was distinctly separate from
other experimental plats for the cultivation of potatoes. It had
been used for many years previous for the raising of grass, and
had since been planted but once, — the preceding year, — with
corn. The land was prepared by ploughing and harrowing, in
the same way as other potato fields : it was fertilized broadcast
with the same amount of fertilizer per acre as Plat No. 3, in
1884 and 1885, in the above-described experiment ( A ) ;
namely, six hundred pounds of ground bones and two hundred
and ninety pounds of potash-magnesia sulphate.

The field was subdivided into five plats of equal size,
eighty feet long and fifty feet wide, and the potatoes subse-
quently planted in rows three feet three inches apart, with hills
three feet from each other in the rows. Three feet of space
was left unoccupied between the difierent plats. The scabby
seed potatoes selected for the trial were, as far as practical)le,
of a uniform medium size. Each lot was immersed in the
particular solution prepared for the different plats ; after being
kept there for twenty-four hours they were removed, and
directly planted without any other operation.

Plat No. 1 (north end of field). The seed potatoes used in
this case were smooth and healthy ; they were planted without
being subjected to any preparatory treatment. This course
was adopted to learn whether soil, fertilizer or atmospheric
agencies of the season would favor the appearance of the scab
in the crop.

Plat No. 2. The potatoes were allowed to remain for twenty-
four hours in a saturated solution of muriate of potash before
being planted.

Plat No. 3. A strong solution of hypochlorite of lime (bleach-
ing lime) was applied in a similar way for the preparation of
the seed potatoes as in Plat No. 2.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 505

Plat No. 4. A saturated solution of carbolic acid in water
served in this instance for the treatment of the seed potatoes.

Plat No. 5. The seed potatoes used in this plat were treated,
previous to planting, with a strong abstract by cold water of
" The Potato Protector" of John Butterworth &Co., Mansfield,
Mass. This material was sent to the Station, for an opinion
regarding its merits, at a time when active preparations were
under way to test by field experiments whether substances like
those above stated would prove efficient to prevent the propaga-
tion of "scab" by seed potatoes. The practice of treating
wheat and other seeds for similar purposes with solutions of
sulphate of copper, etc., is not uncommon in other localities.
As the " Potato Protector " proved to contain quite a noticeable
quantity of a powerful agent, hypochlorite of lime, it was
thought best to introduce the material into our experiment,
instead of offering a mere opinion regarding its merits. The
results of an examination into the composition of the " Potato
Protector" are published with some comments at the close of
this chapter.

The potatoes were planted in all plats on the same day,
May 7, 1886 ; the young vines appeared on Plats 1 and 5,
May 25, whilst on Plats 2, 3 and 4 they did not show themselves
before the 29th of May, and not as generally and evenly as on
Plats 1 and 5. This difference in growth could be noticed until
towards the close of June, when the vines on all plats looked
equally vigorous and thrifty. The vines on all the plats were,
at this stage, vigorously attacked by the potato bug, and were
protected against their destructive influence by a repeated
sprinkling with a solution of Paris green. They began to bloom
July 6. The vines on Plat 1 began first to turn yellow and to
dry up July 30 ; those on the remaining plats began to change
in a similar way August 8. The tops on all the vines were
pretty generally diied up August 18. The potatoes were har-
vested on the entire field August 30. The yield on all plats was
fair and the quality of the potatoes, almost without excep-
tion, excellent; this seemed to be most striking in regard to
those from Plats 2, 3 and 4, which had been in the beginning
of the season somewhat behind in growth. Hero and there
could be seen a potato with a small mark of scab ; a large pro-
portion were perfectly smooth and without any sign of it.

506 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

These results are recorded merely as those of a first experi-
ment. They are, however, not without some interest when
considered in connection with previous observations. The fact
that a scabby potato may produce, under certain circumstances,
a smooth and otherwise excellent potato must be accepted.
The recognition of this fact does not, however, entitle us to the
conclusion that it is a safe course to advi!^e planting scabby
potatoes with the expectation of raising a superior, healthy
potato, without awaiting the results of a repetition of the experi-
ment under modified circumstances. Good potatoes have been
raised before from seed potatoes suffering from scab without
any previous treatment similar to ours. Without any inten-
tion of anticipating the results of future observations, or to point
out with certainty the exact cause of the results, we feel in-
clined to consider a difference in the condition of the soil on our
old and new experimental potato plats, the real seat of our
troubles ; for the former yielded most inferior, scabby potatoes,
whilst the latter produced a most superior, smooth potato under
otherwise identical conditions as far as soil, mode of cultivation
and kind of fertilizer, upon land in close proximity, during the
same season.

Potato Protector.

The material consisted of a brownish mixture of organic
and earthy substances, which smelled strongly of hypochlorous
acid. It deflagrated violently at red heat, and left 35.40 per
cent, of crude ash, which contained 12.40 per cent, of chlorine,
14.15 per cent of calcium oxide and 0.11 per cent, of phos-
phoric acid, the rest being silicious matter.

A watery solution was dark-colored and smelled like a de-
coction of some herb, possibly the Bone-set {Eupatorium per-
foUatum). A solution of some whitish substances it contained
quickly decolorized an indigo solution.

From the above observation it appears that the substance is
a mixture of some herbaceous matter with hypochlorite of lime
(bleaching lime) as a prominent constituent.

The claim of the manufacturer is stated in the subsequent
copy of a circular sent on with the material for our exami-
nation : —

EXPERIMENT STATION. 507

To Farmers and Gardeners.

Gentlemen: — Permit me to call your attention to the remedy for the
Potato Bug scourge, called " The Potato Protector."

It is non-poisonous, cheap, easy of application, and eftective. It is
composed mostly of vegetable substances, which are warranted not to
poison man or beast. For twenty-five cents you can buy enough of it to
treat one bushel of seed, and it is warranted to be a cheaper protector for
the amount of land this seed will plant than a single application of Paris
Green would be, and ordinarily a second and third application of the poison
has to be made to protect the jjlants. But the method of applymg (he Pro-
tector is its strong point The strength of one package of the Protector is
transferred to five gallons of water, according to directions on each package ;
in this solution one bushel of seed potatoes, cut and ready to plant, is soaked
for one-half hour. The plants from seed thus treated will be so distasteful
to the bugs, both young and old, that they will not molest them, and the
flavor of the Protector, so distasteful to the bugs, is warranted not to be
perceptible in the potatoes. Thus by a single treatment, that may be done
at the rate of a bushel an hour, without expensive help, the same results
are secured at one-tenth the labor of applying Paris Green.

One season's trial will convince you that the Protector will keep the bugs
off. The inventor, Mr. John Butterworth, after six years' experimenting,
hit upon the Protector in 1884. That season it alone, of many others, stood
the test, and in 1885 its value was confirmed by treating alternate hills,
when the hills not treated were destroyed, and slugs and winged bugs
placed on tlie treated hills would not feed or remain there.

John Butterworth & Co.,

Mansfield, Mass.

Our experiraeut does not confirm the claim of the manufac-
turer, for potato bugs were as plenty on the vines of the
potatoes treated in the above-described manner by a solution
of "the Potato Protector" as on any other of our different
experimental potato plats. Aside from this fact, it is but an
act of justice to the manufacturer to state that he invited by
letter an actual investigation on our part into his claim.

We should not, however, advise the preparation of a mixture
of hypochlorite of lime, or bleaching lime, with herbaceous mat-
ter, if we did intend to turn the peculiarity of the former to
account, for in that case it soon suffers serious alterations in
its composition.

508 BOARD OF AGRICULTUKE.

6. Miscellaneous Field Experiments with Farm and
Garden Crops.

The field observations recorded under the above headinjr are
made, in the majority of cases, on a comparatively limited
scale. The supply of the seeds was, in many instances, quite
small ; some of them have been sent on by the United States
Department of Agriculture in Washington, D. C. The work
carried on in this connection has had, for obvious reasons, no
other aim than to study either the adaptation of some new field
crop to our climate, or to compare some new variety of a promi-
nent garden crop with those frequently raised in our section of
the State. The field set aside for these experiments was in a
good state of cultivation. Barnyard manure, supplemented by
commercial phosphates and potash compounds, had been used
in the past as manure ; no alteration was made in this respect
during the past season. The different crops were seeded down
in drills three feet three inches apart, and subsequently kept
clean by a frequent use of the cultivator.

1. Cleveland's Rural New Yorker Pea (Pisum). — The seed
was planted May 8 ; the young plants appeared May 17 ; they
bloomed June 14. The first crop was ready for table use July 1 .
The fully matured vines had from five to six well-filled pods.
Three rows forty feet long produced eight pounds of air-dried
vines and six and one-half pounds of air-dried peas.

2. Cleveland's Alaska Pea. — The seeds were planted May 8 ;
the young plants appeared May 19 ; they began to bloom June
14, and the first crop for table use was ready July 1. Each
matured vine had from five to six well-filled pods. Three rows
forty feet long yielded eight pounds of air-dried vines and six
pounds of air-dried peas.

3. Champion of England Pea. — The seed was planted May
8 ; the young plants made their appearance May 20 ; they
showed the first flowers June 28. The first crop for the table
was ready July 15 ; they ceased growing August 7. Three
rows forty feet long produced twenty-three pounds of air-dried
vines and three and one-half pounds of air-dried peas.

4. Marrowfat Peas. — The seeds were planted May 8 ; the
young plants appeared May 20 ; they showed their first blossoms
July 5, and the first crop was ready for table use July 17 ; the

EXPERIMENT STATION. 509

vines ceased growing and began dying out xVugust 7. Three
rows forty feet long yielded twenty-five pounds of air-dried
vines and three and one-half pounds of air-dried peas.

The weights of the vines and peas were taken on the same
day, three to four months after storing.

5. Cleveland's Improved Valentine Beans (Phaseolus) . — The
seeds were planted May 8 ; they appeared above ground May
22 and began blooming July 5 ; the beans reached their full
size and the pods turned yellow August 10. The air-dried vines
weighed twenty-six and one- half pounds ; the air-dried beans
twelve pounds.

G. Horse Bean ( Vicia faba). — Three varieties of this fodder
plant were raised during the past year with much succi ss. A
description of some varieties of this reputed fodder plant hab
been published in our previous report. Its adaptation to our
soil, as well as its special agricultural value for green manuring,
and for the production of a valuable bean for feeding purposes,
has been discussed in that connection. Our attention during
the past season was mainly directed towards the question,
"What proportion of the entire matured crop consists of straw
and empty pods, and what of beans? The results of this in-
quiry are stated below.

Small horse bean. The seeds were planted May 12 ; the
young plants appeared May 22 ; they began to bloom July 10,
when two and one-half feet high ; the first seeds formed August
13 ; the matured plants were cut and stooked September 13.
Three rows forty feet long produced twenty pounds of air-dried
straw and pods and twelve pounds of beans. The Jaeger bean,
apparently but another name for small horse bean, yielded from
the same area twenty pounds of air-dried straw and pods and
fourteen and one-half pounds of air-dried beans. A larger
variety of hor^e bean yielded, under similar circumstances, yet
upon a larger area, two hundred pounds of air-dried beans and
two hundred and seventy-five pounds of air-dried straw and
pods, or for every ten pounds of dry beans thirteen and one-
quarter pounds of dried straw and pods.

7. Lupine. — The white lupine (Lupinus albus) has been
raised successfully for several years upon the fields of the
Station. Its particular value as a green manure has been illus-
trated by experiment. During the last season two varieties

510 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

have been added to our experimental field for forage crops.
Three varieties, the white, the yellow and the blue, are fre-
quently cultivated by European agriculturalists. All are con-
sidered, more or less, a valuable addition to farm crops in
general. The yellow variety is generally considered the most
valuable of the three, for it is equally well fitted for green fod-
der or hay, or for green manure, and best adapted for a light,
sandy soil, where clover cannot be raised with success. The
seeds were planted May 12 ; the young plants were noticed
May 22 ; they began blooming when two and one-half feet high,
July 26 ; the seeds first formed August 7 ; the matured plants
were cut September 11. The blue lupine produced three and
one-half pounds of air-dried seeds to twelve and one-half pounds
of air-dried stems and pods ; the white and yellow varieties pro-
duced two pounds of air-dried seeds to twenty pounds of air-
dried stems and pods.

Besides the above observations, small trials have also been
made with the following seeds : —

Vicia villosa, \ ^^^ ^j^^^p pastures.

Sperguhim maximum, J

Sesame (Oil plant).

P yrelhruvi roseum.

Some varieties of corn: Pride of the North, from Minnesota; Browning
Corn, Springfield.

Some varieties of Texas grasses.

Alsike Clover.

Melilotus albus (Honey Lotus).

Lucerne (Alfalfa).

Some varieties of oats : Harris Oats, from Alabama, and White Victoria
Oats, from Russia.

Melon Barley, from Russia.

Some of the results obtained in this connection are of suffi-
cient interest to encourage further trials on a larger scale dur-
ing the coming season. The new seeds of the varieties of oats
and those of the new variety of barley especially are reserved
for that purpose.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 511

VALUATION OF FERTILIZERS, AND
FERTILIZER ANALYSES.

The valuation of a fertilizer is based on the average trade
value of the fertilizing elements specified by analysis. The
money value of the higher grades of agricultural chemicals and
of the higher-priced compound fertilizers, depends in the m;ijor-
ity of cases on the amount and the particular form of two or
three essential articles of plant food — «'. e., phosphoric acid,
nitrogen and potash — which they contain. The valuation which
usually accompanies the analyses of these goods informs the
consumer, as far as practicable, regarding the cash retail price
at which the several specified essential elements of plant food,
in an efficient form, have of late been offered in our large
markets.

The market value of low-priced materials used for manurial
purposes, as salt, ashes, various kinds of lime, barnyard
manure, factory refuse and waste materials of diiferent descrip-
tions, quite frequently does not stand in close relation to tlieir
chemical composition. Their cost varies in different localities.
Local facilities for cheap transportation and more or less advan-
tageous mechanical condition for a speedy action, exert, as a
rule, a decided influence on their selling price.

The wholesale market price of manurial substances is liable
to serious fluctuations ; for supply and demand exert here, as
well as in other branches of commercial industry, a controlling
influence on their temporary money value. As farmers have
only in exceptional instances a desirable chance to inform
themselves regarding the conditions which control the market
price, the assistance rendered in this direction by agricultural
chemists charged with the examination of commercial fertilizers

512 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

cannot otherwise but benetit, ultimately, both farmers and
manufacturers.

The market reports of centres of trade in New England, New
York and New Jersey, aside from consultations with leading
manufacturers of fertilizers, furnish us the necessary infor-
mation regarding the current trade value of fertilizing ingredi-
ents. The subsequent statement of cash values in the retail
trade is obtained by taking the average of the wholesale quo-
tations in New York and Boston during the six months preced-
ing March 1, 1886, and increasing them by 20 per cent., to
cover expenses for sales, credits, etc.

These trade values, except those for phosphoric acid, soluble
in ammonium citrate, were agreed upon by the Experiment
Stations of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Jersey for use
in their several States for the present season.

Trade Values of Fertilizing Ingredients in Raw
Materials and Chemicals.

Cents per Pound.

Nitrogen in ammonia salts, 18|

Nitrogen in nitrates, 18^

Nitrogen in dried and fine-ground fish, ...... 17

Organic nitrogen in guano and fine-ground blood and meat, . . 17

Organic nitrogen in cotton seed, linseed meal, and in castor pomace, 17

Organic nitrogen in fine-ground bone, 17

Organic nitrogen in fine medium bone, 1.5

Organic nitrogen in medium bone, 13

Organic nitrogen in coarse medium bone, . . . . . . 11

Organic nitrogen in coarse bone, horn shavings, hair, and fish scraps, 9

Phosphoric acid, soluble in water, 8

Phosphoric acid, soluble in ammonia citrate,* 7J

Phosphoric acid, insoluble in dry, fine-ground fish and in fine bone, 7

Phosphoric acid, insoluble in fine medium bone, .... 6

Phosphoi'ic acid, insoluble in medium bone, ..... 5

Phosphoric acid, insoluble in coarse medium bone, .... 4

Phosphoric acid, insoluble in coarse bone, ...... 3

Phosphoric acid, insoluble in fine-ground rock phosphate, . . 2

Potash as high grade sulphate, 51

Potash as kainite, 4^

Potash as muriate, 4}

* Dissolved from two grams of phospliate, unground, by 100 cc. neutral solution of
ammonia citrate, sp. gr. 1.09, in .30 minutes at Cm deg. C, with agitation once in five min-
utes, commonly called "reverted " or " backgone " phosphoric acid.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 513

The above trade values are the figures at which, on ]\Iarch 1,
1886, the respective ingredients could be bought at retail for
cash per pound in our leading markets in the raw materials,
which are the regular source of supply.

They also correspond to the average wholesale prices for the
six months ending March 1, plus 20 per cent in case of goods
for which we have wholesale quotations. The calculated values
obtained by the use of the above figures will lie found to agree
fairly with the reasonable retail prices in case of standard raw
materials, such as —

Sulphate of Ammonia, Dry Ground Fish,

Nitrate of Soda, Castor Pomace,

Muriate of Potash, Cotton Seed,

Sulphate of Potash, Bone,

Dried Blood, Azotin,
Plain Superphosphates.

Trade Values in Superphosphates, Special Manures and
Mixed Fertilizers of High Grade.

The organic nitrogen in these classes of goods are here
valued at the highest figures laid down in the trade values
of fertilizing ingredients in raw materials, namely, 17 cents
per pound ; it being assumed that the organic nitrogen is de-
rived from the best sources, as bone, blood, animal matter,
or other equally good forms, and not from leather, shoddy, hair
or any low-priced inferior form of vegetable matter, unless the
contrary is ascertained.

Insoluble phosphoric acid has been valued at 3 cents, it being
assumed, unless found otherwise, that it is from bone or a simi-
lar source, and not from rock phosphate. In this latter form
the insoluble phosphoric acid is worth but 2 cents per pound.
Potash is rated at 4^ cents per pound, if sufficient chlorine
is present in the fertilizer to combine with it to make
muriate.

If there is more potash present than will coml)ine with the
chlorine, then this excess of potash will be counted as sulphate.
To introduce large quantities of chlorides, common salt, etc.,
into fertilizers, claiming sulphate of potash as a constituent, is a
practice which, in our present state of information, will be con-

514 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

sidered of doubtful merit. The use of the highest trade vahies
is but justice to these articles in Avhich the costliest materials
are expected to be used.

In most cases the valuation of the ingredients in superphos-
phates and specials falls below the retail price of the goods.
The difference between the two figures represents the manufac-
turer's charges for converting raw materials into manufactured
articles. These charges are for grinding and mixing, bagging
or barrelling, storage and transportation, commission to agents
and dealers, long credits, interest on investment, bad debts,
and finally profits.

The prices stated in this report in connection with analyses
of commercial fertilizers refer to their cost per ton of 2,000 lbs.,
on board of car or boat near the factory or place of general dis-
tribution. To obtain the valuation of a fertilizer {i. e., the
money-worth of its fertilizing ingredients), we multiply the
pounds per ton of nitrogen, etc., by the trade value per pound.
We thus get the values per ton of the several ingredients,
and, adding them together, we obtain the total valuation per
ton.

The mechanical condition of any fertilizing material, simple
or compound, deserves the most serious consideration of farm-
ers, when articles of a similar chemical character are offered
for their choice. The degree of pulverization controls, almost
without e:?iception, under similar conditions, the rate of solu-
bility, and the more or less rapid diffusion of the different
articles of plant food throughout the soil.

The state of moisture exerts a no less important influence on
the pecuniary value, in case of one and the same kind of sub-
stance. Two samples of fish fertilizer, although equally pure,
may differ from 50 to 100 per cent, in commercial value, on
account of mere differences in moisture.

Crude stock for the manufacture of fertilizers and refuse ma-
terial of various descriptions sent to the Station for examination
are valued with reference to the market prices of their principal
constituents, taking into consideration at the same time their
general fitness for speedy action.

A large percentage of commercial fertilizing material consists
of refuse matter from various industries. The composition of
lliese substances depends on the mode of manufacture carried

EXPERIMENT STATION. 515

on. The rapid progress in our manufacturing industries is liable
to affect at any time, more or less seriously, the composition of
the refuse. A constant inquiry into the character of the agri-
cultural chemicals and of commercial manurial refuse sul)-
stances offered for sile cannot fail to secure confidence in their
composition, and to diminish financial disappointment in con-
sequence of their application. This Avork is carried on for
the purpose of aiding the firming community in a clear and
intelligent appreciation of the substances for manurial pur-
poses.

Consumers of commercial manurial substances do well to'
buy whenever practicable, on a guaranty of composition with
reference to their essential constituents, and to see to it that
the bill of sale recognizes that point of the bargain. Any mis-
take or misunderstanding in the transaction may be readily
adjusted, in that case, between the contending parties. The
responsibility of the dealer ends with furnishing an article
corresponding in its composition with the lowest stated quantity
of each specified essential constituent.

Connecticut Tobacco Stenii^.

[Sent on from South Deerfield, Mass.]

Per cent.

Moisture at 100^' C, 10.65

Phosphoric acid (.5 cents jier pound), 0.51

Potassium oxide (4 J cents per pound), 7.22

Calcium oxide, 3.39

Magnesium oxide, 1.12

Nitrogen (17 cents per pound), 2.65

Insoluble matter, 0.29

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., $U 66

The composition of the above sample corresponds well with
that noticed on previous occasions. (See First Annual Report,
page 103.)

The potash was almost entirely soluble in water at ordinary
temperature ; 6.85 parts of the entire amount present. The
same feature was noticed in regard to the Havana tobacco
stems.

516

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Havana Tohacco Stems.

[Sent on from South Deevfield, Mass.]

Moisture at 100'^ C, .

Phosphoric acid (5 cents per pound),

Potassium oxide {i\ cents per pound),

Calcium oxide,

Magnesium oxide, ....
Nitrogen (17 cents per pound).
Insoluble matter, ....

Valuation per 2,000 lbs.,

Per cent.

11.85
0 44
6 62
3.45
1.11
0.90
1.35

$8 83

The amount of nitrogen in this sample of tobacco stems
(Havana) is exceptionally low, about one-third of that found
in other samples offered for sale in our section of the Connect-
icut River valley. (See Second Annual Report, page 138.)
The difference in nitrogen causes the low valuation per ton, as
compared with that of the preceding analysis. The sample
was handed to us with the statement that it had been used
for imparting the odor of Havana tobacco to other varieties.
The odor had been removed apparently by a steaming process ;
for the mineral constituents, with the exception of the potas-
sium oxide, corresponded fairly with those in the material
described in our Second Annual Report. Farmers will do well
to be careful in buying the article without stated guarantee of
composition.

Hop

Refuse.

[Sent on for examination from Lawrence, Mass.]

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, .

.

80.98

Dry vegetable matter.

19.02

Nitrogen, .

0.98

Calcium oxide, .

0.27

Magnesium oxide,

0.10

Phosphoric acid,

0.20

Potassium oxide.

0.11.

Insoluble matter,

0.63

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., .

$3 62

This refuse from breweries differs from the one previously
described merely by a larger percentage of nitrogen it contains.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

517

Supplemented by some phosphoric acid and potash it may
serve in place of barnyard manure. The average barnyard
manure (partly rotten) is usually stated to contain 0.5 per cent,
of nitrogen, 0.26 per cent, of phosphoric acid and 0.6 per cent,
of potassium oxide.

llotteii JJrewers^ Grain.
[Sent on for examination from Lawrence, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C,
Dry vegetable matter
Nitrogen, .
Calcium oxide, .
Magnesium oxide.
Phosphoric acid.
Potassium oxide.
Insoluble matter,

Valuation per 2,000 lbs.,

Per cent.
78.77
21.23
0.72
0.26
0.15
0 43
0.04
0.59

$2 71

The general character of the above-mentioned substance
resembles that of barnyard manure. It contains more nitrogen
and phosphoric acid, and less potash than the average barnyard
manure. By increasing the latter ingredients to one-half a per
cent, a fair substitute for barnyard manure may be obtained.

Glucose Be/use (dry).

1

[Sent on for examination.]

Percent.

Moisture at 100^ C,

8.10

Dry vegetable mattei

,

91.80

Nitrogen, .

2.62

Phosphoric acid,

0.29

Magnesium oxide.

0.02

Calcium oxide, .

0.18

Sodium oxide, .

0.12

Potassium oxide,

0.15

Insolul)le matter.

0.07

Valuation per 2,000 1

bs., .

$9 33

This material consists mainly of the skins of corn ; it is evi-
dently the insoluble residual matter left behind after the con-
version of the starch into glucose syrup. The manurial value
of the article rests mainly on the amount of nitrogen it contains

518

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

in form of insoluble nitrogenous matter. To render it an
efficient manure requires, in the majority of cases, a liberal addi-
tion of phosphoric acid and potash.

DaiiKKjed Cotton Seed J]feaJ.

[Sent on from Greenfield, Mass.]

Moisture at 10u° C, .
Total phosphoric aci(
Potassium oxide,
Magnesium oxide.
Calcium oxide, .
Nitrogen, .
Insoluble matter.

Per cent.

9.90
1.26
1.21
0.56
0.22
3.73
0.20

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., |14 97

AiKih/sis of Hen Jfanxre.

[Sent on from Townsend, Mass.]

Moisture at 100- C

Phosphoric acid,

Calcium oxide,

Magnesium oxide, .......

Potassium oxide,

Nitrogen in organic matter,

Nitrogen in actual ammonia,

Insoluble matter, ...'....

Per cent.

8.35
2.02
2.22
0.68
9.94
1.85
0.-28
34.65

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., |10 55

The material was dry, and contained the usual mixture of
feathers, short pieces of coarse vegetable matter, earthy sub-
stances, etc., yet not in an extraordinary degree. The value of
the hen manure depends not less on the care which is bestowed
on its keeping than on the kind of food the fowls consume.
The excretion of birds, on accouut of their peculiar character,
undergoes a rapid change ; a large amount of ammonia is soon
formed, which reduces materially its manurial value, in case it
is allowed to escape. A liberal use of plaster, of kieserite or
of good loam is highly recommendable for the absorption of the
ammonia. The safest way to secure the fidl benefit of the drop-
pings is to gather them quite frequently, and to add directly
any of the previously-mentioned materials. A sandy soil is of
little use as an absorbent.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

519

Fresh lien Manure.

[Sent on from Townsend, Mass.]

Moisture at 100<^ C, ....
Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound),
Potassium oxide (4| cents per pound).

Calcium oxide,

Nitrogen, total (17 cents per pound),
Insoluble matter, sand, etc.,

J"er cent.

45.73
0.47
0.18
0.97
0.79

39.32

$3 42

Valuation per 2,000 lbs.,

This sample of fresh hen manure came from the same party
who sent on the dry sample. It was inferior in quality as
compared wdth the first material ; it contained for the same
amount of organic matter about twice as much worthless earthy
matter. In a dry state, corresponding with the first sample, 8
per cent, of moisture, it would be Avorth only one-half as much,
i. e., about $5 per ton.

Ashes of Clipstniif Railroad Ties.

[Sent on from Wiiltham, Mass.]

Moisture at 100'^ C, .
Calcium oxide, .
Magnesium oxide,
Potassium oxide.
Phosphoric acid.
Insoluble mineral matter,

. /

Per cent.

6.15
4.71
1.80
0.19
1.54
77.83

The material was of a dark brown color, and evidently not
the pure ash, for it contained 77.83 per cent, of worthless
earthy matter. The ash in the above-described state does not
pay carrying any considerable distance ; it is worth much less
than leached ashes.

Was/e IlemJock Tan ]iar1c Ashes,

[Sent on from Peahody, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C, .
Phosphoric acid.
Calcium oxide, .
Magnesium oxide, . . .
Potassium oxide,
Insoluble matter,

This ash, from a waste product of a tannery, has lost
percentage of its original potash.

Vtr cent.

4.87
0.13

37.26
2.98
2.10

24.33

a large

520

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Hard Pine Wood Ashes.

[Sent on from South Lincoln, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total insoluble matter,
Insoluble mineral matter.
Calcium oxide, .
Magnesium oxide,
Phosphoric acid,
I'otash, . . . ,

Per cent

0.75

29.90

23.74

24 95

8 39

2.24

10.16

This material shows an exceptionally high per cent, of
potash.

Canada Wood Ashes.

[I., II. Sent on from Concord, Mass. III., lY. Sent on from South Deerfield, Mass.]

I.

II.

III.

IV.

Moisture at 100° C, .

17.00

18.15

4.90

2.48

Potassium oxide, ....

4.28

4.80

7.42

6.53

Calcium oxide,

31.31

30.69

42.10

42.98

Magnesium oxide, ....

2.36

3.71

3.55

3.66

Phosphoric acid,

3.34

3 26

2.00

1.44

Insoluble matter,

15.50

17.35

7.12

4.87

These samples represent the extremes of composition noticed
in our section of the State. The use of Canada ashes has of
late steadily increased, and the cost gradually declined to 24 to
25 cents per bushel of forty-five to fifty pounds. These are
prices by the car-load at Amherst and in its vicinity.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

521

Wood Ashes.

[I. Sent on from South Framinsham, Mass. II. Sent on from West Tisbnry, Mass.
III., IV. Sent on from South Sudbury, Mass.]

I'ER

Lbnt.

I.

II.

III.

IV.

Moisture at 100° ('

5 10

17.63

17.43

11.76

Total phosphoric acid, ....

1.30

1.66

1.70

1.41

Magnesium oxide,

3.24

3.42

2.88

3.12

Calcium oxide,

39.07

34.54

29.87

32.81

Potassium oxide,

5.76

3.67

4.30

5.58

Insoluble matter (l)efore calcination),

9.20

11.08

18.38

16.57

Insoluble matter (after calcination),

7.68

8.86

15.48

13.26

The difference in moisture in the above analyses explains
somewhat the difference in potash.

Wood AsJies. (Two samples.)

[Sent on from South Deerfield Farmers' Club.]

I'oLKDs I'ER Hundred.

I.

n.

Moisture at lOO** C,

16.75

11.79

Phosphoric acid,

• 1.79

1.34

Calcium oxide,

32.28

34.62

Magnesium oxide,

3.48

4.02

Potassium oxide,

1.80

6.68

Insoluble matter,

16.55

9.50

The first article is evidently a partly leached wood ash.
The two samples differ mainly in regard to their relative amonnt
of potash. This difference expressed in money value amounts
to from 26 to 27 cents per hundred weight of ashes, allowing
5.5 cents per pound of potassium oxide in case of wood ash.

522

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Wood wishes.

[I., II. Sent on from Somerset, Mass. III. Sent on from Byfiekl, Mass.]

Pkr Cent.

I.

II.

III.

Moisture at 100^ C,

4.82

2.43

9.98

Phosphoric acid,

3.07

1.45

1.80

Calcium oxide, .......

34.42

45 09

33.51

Magnesium oxide,

4.09

2.64

3.54

Potassium oxide,

4.56

1.99

1.28

Insoluble matter (before calcination),

18.17

12.57

22.43

Insoluble matter (after calcination).

15.37

7.71

19.15

No8. II. and III. are evidently leached wood ashes.

Ashes of Cotton Seed Hulls.

[I. Sent on for examination from South Deerlield, Mass. II. Sent on from North

Amherst, Mass.]

I.

ir.

Moisture at 100^ C.

10.95

6.38

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound),

6.90

10.69

Calcium oxide,

5.76

13.34

Magnesium oxide,

9 15

Not de-
termined.

Potassium oxide (6^ cents per pound), .

25.34

24.16

Insoluble matter,

10.45

10.72

Valuation per 2,000 pounds, . . . .

$36 15

$39 41

There is evidently a considerable variation in the composi-
tion of this article. Direct communication from a well-informed

EXPERIMENT STATION.

523

Southern source accounts for this foct by stating that more or
less seeds are not unfrequently mixed with hulls when burned.
An article which represents a high money value, like the above
material, ought to be bought only on analysis.

Cotton Seed Hitll As/i.

[Sent on from Northampton, Mass.]

Per Cent.

I.

ir.

in.

IV.

Moisture at 100*^ C,

7.43

7.77

7.30

8.23

Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound),

5.2^1

9.68

9.69

11.19

Magnesium oxide,

10.11

U.4S

14.81

16.71

Calcium oxide,

6.71

18.42

12.23

12.43

Potassium oxide (5| cents per pound), .

25.76

17.34

19.15

24.91

Insoluble matter (before calcination).

12.36

11.30

10.88

7.34

Insoluble matter (after calcination),

12.18

6.34

8.86

5.18

Valuation per ton of 2,000 pounds, .

$36 78

$30 70

$32 58

$40 83

Cotton Seed IMJ Ash.

[Sent on for examination from Northampton, Masc]

Moisture at 100^' C, ...

Calcium oxide, .....
Magnesium oxide, ....
Phosphoric acid (6 cents per pound).
Potassium oxide (5,^ cents per pound).
Insoluble matter, ....

Per cent.

2.30
11.6.?
15.24
13,67
30.82
21.65

Valuation per 2,000 pounds, foO 30

The percentage of potash found in the above sample is ex-
ceptionally high. The same may be said of the phosphoric
acid.

524

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Muriate of Potash.

[I. Sent on from Nortbampton, Mass. II. Sent on from Williamsburg, Mass.
III. Sent on from South Deerfield, Mass.]

Pounds per Hundred.

I.

n.

HI.

Moisture at 100^ C, . . . .

1.02

2.00

4.05

Potassium oxide, .....

50.09

54.45

45.94

Sodium oxide,

9.94

Not de-

termined.

Magnesium oxide,

0.63

Not de-

terrained.

Valuation per 2,000 lbs..

$42 58

$46 28

$39 05

The large amount of moisture in the last sample explains
somewhat the lower percentage of potassium oxide. The prin-
cipal admixture of salines in this brand of potash compounds
consists of common salt, usually from 14 to 18 per cent.

Muriate of PotasJi.

[I. Sent on from Fall River, Mass. II. Sent on from Amherst, Mass.]

Moisture at 100" C,

Potassium oxide (4^ cents per pound), .

Sodium oxide,

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., ....

SulpJiate of Potash.

[Sent on for examination, Amherst, Mass.]

Moisture at 100 C, .

Potassium oxide (5| cents per pound).

Sodium oxide,

Sulphuric acid (5.| cents per pound).

Chlorine,

Insoluble matter, ....

rer cent.

0.80
47.86

1.68
45.06

0.66

0.60

Valuation per ton of 2,000 lbs.,

$52 65

EXPERIMENT STATION.

525

Douhh Manure Salt.

[Sent on from New York.]
[I. Crystallized double manure salt. II. Commercial double manure salt.]

ir.

Moisture at 100° C, .
Magnesium oxide, .
Calcium oxide, .
Sodium oxide, .
Potassium oxide (oj cents per
Sulphuric acid, .
Chlorine, ....
Insoluble matter,
Valuation per 2,000 lbs., .

pound).

11.58

10.81

3.16

22.40

39.89

0.14

0.26

$24 64

6.58

11.50

2.93

4.15

23.28

43.43

1.08

1.80

125 61

The first-named article consisted of large, clear, colorless
and well-developed crystals, which, in consequence of a loss of
water, turned gradually whitish on exposure to the air. The
second one consisted of a yellowish white powder, and repre-
sents the article for our markets. Both salines consist essen-
tially of sulphate of potash and sulphate of magnesia, and are
remarkably free from chloride (common salt, etc.).

Fif<h Waste.
[I. Sent on from Boston. II. Sent on from Gloucester. IK. Sent on from Marshfield.]

Per Cent.

I.

II.

III.

Moisture at 100^ C

7J.ll

8.62

40,35

Organic and volatile matter,

-

50.16

73.01

Ash,

'

-

49.84

26.99

Total phosphoric acid.

0.60

6.99

2.94

Soluble iDhosphoric acid, .

-

0.67

-

Reverted phosphoric acid.

-

2.90

1.06

Insoluble phosphoric acid.

-

3.42

1.8S

Nitrogen, ....

2 21

4.97

5.07

Insoluble matter,

-

0.74

0.17

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., .

$4 58

$23 75

$12 50

526

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The difference in the moisture and in the mechanical condi-
tion of the above-stated articles controls largely their market
value. Samples I. and III. consisted of large pieces of fish
meat with fatty matter ; the valuation is based in these cases
on that of coarse fish scrap. Sample II. corresponds well
with a fair specimen of fish guano.

Dried Fish.

[Sent on from North Hatfield, Mass.]

I*£R Cent.

I.

II.

III.

Moisture at 100° C,

8.07

9.10

9.43

Total phosphoric acid,

6.87

8.78

7.37

Soluble phosphoric acid (8 cents per pound) , .

0.58

0.48

0.51

Reverted phosphoric acid (J\ cents per pound) ,

2 34

4.08

3.07

Insoluble phosphoric acid (3 cents per pound),

2.95

4.22

3.79

Nitrogen (17 cents per ijound).

7.80

8.20

8.44

Insoluble matter,

3.86

3.00

1.30

Valuation per ton of 2,000 lbs.,

$32 71

$37 29

$36 39

Peruvian Guano.

[Sent on for examination, Taunton, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid,
Soluble phosphoric acid, .
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble i}hos])horic acid.
Potassium oxide.
Nitrogen (total).
Actual ammonia (equal to 5.43
Organic nitrogen.
Insoluble matter.

per cent, nitrogen)

I'er cent.

10.13
14.31
1.66
4.91
7.74
2.16
7.20
6.60
1.77
4.66

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., ....
Apparently an artificial product.

$42 62

EXPERIMENT STATION.

527

Fish and PotasJi.

[Sent on for examination from Medfield, Mass.]

Moisture at 100^ C

Total phosphoric acid,

Soluble i^hosphoric acid (8 cents per pound),
Reverted phosphoric acid (7| cents per pound),
Insoluble phosphoric acid (3 cents per pound).
Potassium oxide (4^ cents per pound), .
Nitrogen (17 cents per pound),
Insoluble matter,

Valuation per 2,000 lbs..

I'er cenl.

23.58
6.26
3.58
1.33
1.35
3.24
3.07
1.90

%-2\ 73

HigJi Grade. Sujjerphosjjhale.

[Sent on from Boston, Mass.]

Moisturd at 100" C, .
Total phosphoric acid, .
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Soluble ijhosphoric acid, .
Insoluble phosphoric acid,
Sulijhuric acid, .
Calcium oxide, .
Oxides of alumina and iron,
Magnesium oxide.
Insoluble matter.

I'er cent.

5.03

25.36

15.23

0.25

9.88

0.22

0.70

24.95

0.10

18.91

Valuation per ton of 2,000 lbs.,

129 18

German HigJi Grade Superj^hosphate.

[I. Sent on from New York City, N. Y., by a Boston manufacturer of fertilizers.
II. Sent on from Boston, Mass.]

I'onNDs PEK Hundred.

I.

ir.

Moisture at lOO^ C

15.24

7.50

Total phosphoric acid,

45.54

43.24

Soluble phosphoric acid,

41.56

36.62

Reverted phosphoric acid

3.58

5.67

Insoluble phosphoric acid,

0.40

0.95

Insoluble matter,

5.20

2.50

Valuation per 2,000 lbs.,

$78 47

$67 67

528

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The material serves for the manufacture of high grades of
"formula fertilizers." The amount of sulphuric acid present
in either sample did not exceed 3.5 per cent. This fact shows
that the product is obtained by a different process than our
ordinary superphosphates ; it is most likely the isolated soluble
portion of the latter evaporated after its separation from the
insoluble sulphate of lime, etc.

Flamingo Guano.

[Sent on from Worcester, Mass.]

Moisture at 100° C, .
Total phosphoric acid,
Soluble phosphoric acid, .
Reverted phosphoric acid.
Insoluble phosphoi'ic acid,
Potassium oxide,
Nitrogen, . . . .
Insoluble matter.

Per cent.

17.20
16.16
0.48
6.22
10.46
0.31
0.80
2.95

Valuation per 2,000 lbs..

$17 86

Dissolved Bonehlack.
[Sent on from South Deerfield, Mass.]

Moisture at 100 C, .
Total phosphoric acid.
Soluble phosphoric acid, .
Reverted phosphoric acid,
Insoluble phosphoric acid.
Insoluble matter,

Valuation per 2,000 lbs..

Per oent.

20.43

16.14

15.81

0.18

0.15

0.94

125 64

The article is a fair representative of its kind ; its moisture
is rather more than usual.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

529

Com.jpound Fertilizers.

[I. and II. Sent on from Methuen, Mass. III. Sent on from Gi-oton, Mass.
on from Lowell, Mass.]

IV. Sent

Per

Cent.

I.

11.

III.

IV.

Moisture at 100° C, .

9.03

17.24

23.00

10.40

Organic and volatile matter,

34.28

51.04

55.30

48.76

Ash,

65.72

48.96

44.70

51.24

Total phosphoric acid,

7.96

6.06

12.67

17.88

Soluble phosphoric acid, .

0.16

3.97

1.41

4.54

Reverted phosphoric acid, .

2.52

0.93

7.36

9.78

Insoluble phosphoric acid, .

5.28

1.16

3.90

3.56

Potassium oxide,

5.92

1.02

1.03

0.10

Nitrogen, ....

1.30

1.92

1.73

3.03

Insoluble and silicious matter.

4.16

22.36

3 70

1.88

Valuation per ton of 2,000 1I)S ,

$16 66

115 85

$22 42

$34 37

Compound Fertilizers .

[Sent on for examination from South Hadley Falls, Mass.]

Pkk Cent.

I.

II.

III.

Moisture at 100^ C,

5.24

8.08

12.45

Total phosphoric acid, .....

15.07

10.44

6.62

Soluble phosphoric acid,

0.29

2.88

0.58

Reverted phosphoric acid, ....

3.57

4.00

2.53

Insoluble phosphoric acid, ....

11.21

3.56

3.51

Nitrogen,

5.77

4.03

4.17

Potassium oxide,

-

7.64

6.45

Insoluble matter,

1.23

1.06

5.00

Valuation per ton of 2,00O lbs., ....

$32 17

$32 94

$26 50

530

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Compound Fertilizers — Concluded.

[IV. Sent on from Amesbury, Mass. V. Sent on from Newburyport, Mass.]

I'EK

Cbnt.

IV.

v;

Moisture at 100° C,

9.21

6.43

Total phosphoric acid,

21.10

20.89

Soluble phosphoric acid,

0.77

0.70

Reverted phosplioric acid, .....

7.82

7.07

Insoluble phosphoric acid,

12.51

13.12

Nitrogen, . .

8.03

2.75

Potassium oxide,

-

-

Insoluble matter,

1.02

2.27

Valuation per 2,000 lbs

$32 U

$30 73

Steamed Bone.

[I. Sent on from Monson (fine ground). II. Sent on from Worcester (contained
many coarse pieces) .]

Pkr Ckxt.

..

11.

Moisture at 100° C,

•

5.70

5.06

Organic and volatile matter,

40.68

33.68

Ash,

59.32

66.32

Total phosphoric acid,

21.99

26.17

Reverted phosphoric acid,

3.23

6.56

Insoluble phosphoric acid,

18.76

19.61

Nitrogen,

3.53

3.17

Insoluble matter, .......

2.10

2.61

Valuation per 2,000 lbs.,

$34 20

$33 77

EXPERIMENT STATION,

531

The differeuce in the mechanical condition of the steamed
bones causes the variation in the valuation of the phosphoric
acid and of the nitrogen. The first sample was of a good
average fineness ; the second consisted largely of coarse yet
porous pieces ; the phosphoric acid in the latter is valued at four
cents per pound, and the nitrogen thirteen cents, whilst five
and fifteen respectively are allowed in case of the former.

Ground Bone.

[I. Fine-ground bone sent on from Concord, Mass. II. Fine-ground bone compost
sent on from Concord, Mass.]

Pee Cent.

I.

II.

Moisture at 100° C, .

4.78

21.73

Organic and volatile matter,

25.48

38.76

Ash,

74.52

61.24

Total phosijhoric acid.

29.83

9.81

Reverted phosphoric acid,

9 22

0.88

Insoluble phosphoric acid,

20.61

8.93

Potassium oxide,

-

2.95

Nitrogen, ....

2.03

0.50

Insoluble matter.

0.30

8.00

Valuation per ton of 2,000 lbs.,

$34 39

$14 26

The above samples of rendered, ground bones, and of a bone
compost prepared from the former by mixing with wood ashes,
were sent on to ascertain the exact chanofes which the material
had suff'ered after a fevf months' keeping. The analyses show
less soluble phosphoric acid, and also less nitrogen for the same
amount of phosphoric acid in the bone compost, when compared
with the original bones.

The operation of composting bones with wood ashes
proved in the present case a decided loss, for more than one-
fourth of the original nitrogen had been lost in the form of am-
monia. A sample of the material, sent on for examination,

532 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

gave evidence of the gradual escape of ammonia wlien kept for
a few days in a well-closed bottle.

To derive benefit from composting bones with wood ashes
requires a careful protection of the mixture against the escape
of ammonia, which is invariably formed in the course of time.
The mixture ought to be covered at once w^th a layer of good
loam, from six to eight inches in thickness. In addition to
this, it -is well to scatter some gypsum (plaster) or ground
kieserite (crude sulphate of magnesia) over the entire compost
heap. The practice of mixing the ground bone with from
three to four times its bulk of good soil, moistening the mixture
thoroughly with liquid manure, and subsequently covering up
the entire mass in a similar way with earth and gypsum or
kieserite, also deserves recommendation.

Bone Soiijp.

[Sent on from Lynn, Mass.]

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 82.92

Dry matter, 17.08

Nitrogen, 1.26

Ash consticuents, 7.07

The liquid was obtained in rendering bones. Its ash con-
stituents consist mainly of common salt with a small percentage
of bone phosphate, and its agricultural value depends mainly on
the nitrogen present. Allowing fifteen cents per pound of that
element, one ton of the soup represents a value of $3.78. It
ought to be economized.

Dried Blood.

[Sent on for examination.]

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 11.99

Nitrogen (17 cents jDer pound), 13.55

Valuation per 2,000 lbs., ' . . $46 07

Ammonmm SuljjhcUe.

[Sent on from Amherst, Mass.]

Per cent.

Moisture at 100° C, 0 13

Nitrogen 20.88 per cent. ; equal to ammonia, 25.35

Sulphuric acid, . . . ^ . . . . . . . . 59.74

EXPERBIENT STATION,

533

Miscellaneous Analyses.

Examinations for Metallic Poisons.

Four samples of material have been sent for investigation.
Three examinations were made at the request of the Cattle
Commission of the State. The material sent consisted in these
cases of the stomach and some of the adjoining organs with
their contents, besides the liver, bile and bladder of three
cow\s. Two of these specimens came from Ashfield and one
from Enfield, Mass. In the first case — from Ashfield — there
was found a considerable quantity of copper, apparently due to
presence of fine scraps of brass among the contents of the
stomach ; in the others no metallic poison could be detected.
The fourth case came from Amherst, Mass. The material for
examination consisted of the stomachs, with contents, of
chickens. A considerable quantity of arsenic acid was proved
to be present.

Analyses of Maple Sap for Mineral Constituents.

[Sent on from Goshen, Mass. I. Sample from an old tree, sp. gr., l.Ol.j, at 23° C.
II, Sample from a young tree, sp. gr., 1.010, at 23° C.]

Parts fer Thousand.

I.

II.

Calcium oxide,

Magnesium oxide,

Silicic acid,

Chlorides of alkalies,

O.IU
0.067
0.029
0.180

0.108
0.075
0.026
0.200

The examination was made to ascertain the relative amount
of lime present in both saps. The difference is but slight, as
may be seen from the above analyses.

534

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Analyses of Well Water, sent on for Examination.

[Parts per Million.]

-Actual
Ammonia.

Albuminoid
Ammonia.

Chlorine.

.Solids at
100° C.

Solids
at red heat.

Hardness
(Clarlfs
degree) .

I., .

;

.32

.36

38.00

280.00

95.00

-

II., . .

.09

.14

18.50

140.00

80.00

4.03

III.,

.14

.25

9.00

Not deter-

mined.

-

IV.,

.04

.17

56.00

Not deter-

mined.

-

v., .

.12

.16

12.C0

.098

.038

-

VI.,

.05

.12

16.00

.126

.036

4.71

VII., .

.03

.08

8.00

.046

.034

2.47

VIII., .

.04

.06

5.00

.062

.044

4.03

IX.,

.12

.09

4.00

.134

.100

7.43

X., .

.04

.06

3.00

.136

.100

6.71

XI.,

.02

.08

5.00

.064

.039

-

XII.,

.014

.00

.06

-

-

2.90

XIIL,

.01

.08

76.00

.280

.082

5.65

XIV.,

.004

.064

13.00

.092

.062

2.73

XV.,

.006

.056

14.50

.100

.04

2.28

XVI.,

.04

.07

4.00

.082

.052

4.16

XVII.,

.02

.093

22.00

.164

.06

4.71

XVIII.,

-

.102

7.00

.104

.052

5.71

XIX.,

.04

.07

4.00

.082

.052

4.16

XX.,

.02

.093

22.00

.164

.06

4.71

XXI.,

-

■ .102

7.00

.104

.052

5.71

The above-stated results of analyses of drinking water are
obtained from samples sent on for that purpose from various
parts of the State. In most instances these requests are ac-
companied by a specified instruction regarding the object of
the party interested, — a circumstance which renders the task
of the chemist, comparatively speaking, an easy one.

EXPERIMENT STATION. 535

A satisfoctory supply of good drinking water on a farm de-
pends, in a controlling degree, on a judicious selection of the
location of the well designed for the use of the family and for
the live stock, and on the personal attention bestowed, from
time to time, on the condition of the latter and its surround-
ings. Good wells are liable to change for the worse at any
time, on account of circumstances too numerous to state in this
connection. To ascertain from time to time the exact condition
of the well which supplies the wants of the family and of the
live stock, is a task which no farmer can for any length of time
discard, without incurring a serious risk in health and pros-
perity. The subject receives quite frequently but little atten-
tion, on account of the fjict that the harmful qualities which an
apparently good water may contain are disguised beyond recog-
nition by the unaided senses. Certain delicate chemical tests,
aided at times by microscopical oliservations, are, in the major-
ity of cases, the only reliable means, in our present state of
scientific inquiry, by which desirable information regarding the
true character of a drinking water can be obtained.

These tests, it must be acknowledged, although of the great-
est importance from a general standpoint, have their limitations.
They readily indicate the presence of organic matters, but
s:ive no unfailinof decision regarding their origin, — whether
animal or vegetable, — leaving thus, quite frequently, the degree
of their harmfulness quite undecided. However, the chemical
analysis may be depended upon for all practical purposes, as
revealing the presence of objectionable qualities in the water.

The harmful substances found in drinking water are of two
classes, — mineral and organic. Few natural waters are entirely
free from mineral matters ; nearly all contain small quantities
of lime, soda, magnesia and iron, — substances which may be
considered harmless in that case. Larger quantities of these
elements, however, render the water objectionable for drinking,
and also more or less unfit for various applications, as washing
and cooking, feeding of steam apparatus, etc.

Foremost among the dangerous mineral substances which
have been found in drinking water is lead. Its presence is
usually due to the use of lead-pipes for conducting the water
from the well to the pump and elsewhere. Lead is a treacherous
and dangerous poison. Not a trace should be tolerated in

536 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

drinking Avater. Tlie use of lead pipes for conducting the
latter for any of the above-named purposes should be decidedly
discouraged.

The most frequent source of danger comes, evidentl}^ from
the presence of organic matter, indicating contamination by de-
caying animal and vegetable substances. Wells are not infre-
quently found polluted by the gases and liquids emanating
from sinks, privies, cesspools or barnyards, when apparent con-
ditions would seem to render it impossible.

Attention has already been called to this important matter in
a previous report ; for one of the first requirements of success
on a farm consists in an ample suppl}' of good water. Cities
and towns usually have their organizations for the supply of
water, and they exact certain guarantees regarding the quality
furnished for their use. The fiirmer, living as a rule more
isolated, is in this respect largely left to his own counsel.
Much has been written on this subject ; yet, as the necessity
for constant warning still remains, a restatement of certain
facts cannot fail to assist in keeping the subject here under
consideration prominently before all parties concerned. The
above-recorded analyses have been made according to Wanck-
lyn's process, familiar to chemists, and are directed toward
the indication of the presence of chlorine, free and albuminoid
ammonia, and the poisonous metals. (For a more detailed
description of this method see Water Analysis, by J. A.
Wancklyn and E. T. Chapman.)

The hardness was determined by Frankland's method. (See
Frankland's Water Analyses, page 29.)

The presence of chlorine indicates contamination from sinks,
privies or sewers, since it occurs abundantly in urinary secre-
tions ; but it may be derived from other and less harmful
sources, as saline waters, which the test fails to indicate. One
conclusion is, however, safe, — a water which contains no chlo-
rine is uncontaminated by sewerage. "Free" and " albumi-
noid " ammonia are forms in which organic matter is recognized.
Ammonia existing as such in water is termed " free." This
being expelled by distillation, the nitrogen-containing organic
matter remaining is reduced to ammonia by chemical agencies,
and this secondary product is called " albuminoid ammonia."

The per cent, of tottd solids is obtained l)y evaporating a

EXPERIMENT STATION. 537

known quantity of the sample to dryness and weighing the
residue.

Hardness, a rather arbitrary' term, signifies that quality of
water which prevents the ready formation of lather with soap.
It is usually due to the presence of salts of lime or magnesia,
which decompose the soap, forming new insoluble compounds.
As long as these reactions occur no lather will be formed, con-
sequently the quantity of a standard soap consumed before a
permanent lather is obtained indicates the amount of earthy
salts contained in the sample, or its relative degree of hard-
ness. Frankland's scale has been changed to Clark's, the
latter being a more popular one. Ten degrees of Frankland's
scale are equivalent to seven of Clark's.

Mr. Wancklyn's interpretation of the results of his mode of
investigation are as follows : —

1. Chlorine alone does not necessarily indicate the presence
of filthy water.

2. Free and albuminoid ammonia in water without chlorine
indicates a vegetable source of contamination.

3. More than five grains per gallon of chlorine, accompanied
by more than 0.08 parts per million of free ammonia and more
than one-tenth part per million of albuminoid ammonia, is a
clear indication that the water is contaminated with sewage,
decaying animal matter, urine, etc., and should be condemned.

4. Eight hundredths part per million of free ammonia
and one-tenth part per million of albuminoid ammonia render
a water very suspicious, even without much chlorine.

5. Albuminoid ammonia over 0.15 parts per million ought
to absolutely condemn the water which contains it.

6. The total solids found in the water should not exceed forty
grains per gallon.

An examination of the above results of analyses shows that
Nos. 4, 6 and 13 are of a suspicious character, and that Nos. 1,
2, 3, 5, 9 and 12 ought to be condemned.

Parties sending on water for an analysis ought to be very
careful to use clean vessels, clean stoppers, etc. The sample
should be sent on without delay after collecting. Oue gallon
is desirable for the analysis.

538 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

METEOROLOGY.

The meteorological observations during the year 1886 have
been carried out on the same general plan as was followed in
1885. The system is essentially the same as that recommended
to voluntary observers of the U. S. Signal Service. (See Third
Annual Report.) The relative humidity has, however, been ob-
tained only during the growing season ; it was found impracti-
cable with our present facilities to run the "wet bulb"
thermometer during the winter months. Our monthly records
of observations have ])een forwarded regularly at the earliest
possible date to the chief Signal Office during the entire year.

The importance of weather observations to the Station itself,
in connection with its field experiments, cannot be overesti-
mated. The summaries, as they appear from time to time in
our bulletins and annual reports, are not without some interest
to the farmers throug-hout the State. For the benefit of the
farmers in our vicinity a more complete system of flag signals
to indicate the expected changes in the weather will be intro-
duced durino^ the comino^ season.

The more conspicuous local meteorological phenomena of the
l)ast year (1886) consist in the early opening of the spring, the
even distribution of the rainfall throughout the o;rowino; season,
the absence of severe early or late frosts, and the abundant
rainfiill during the autumn months. Only once during the
summer, the first half of July, did the drought become of
sufficient severity to injure vegetation, and then but slightly.
The first important snowfall of the year occurred January 9
(seven inches). Good sleighing was noticeable only at inter-
vals throughout the remainder of the winter. The effect of two
"ice storms," so injurious to orchards and shade trees through-
out the central part of the State, was not felt here. The heavy
rainfall of February 10 to February 14 did no material damage.
The total snowfall for the months of January, February and
March was 23.0 inches; on April 3, 0.5 inches of snow fell;
from the 5th to the 7th occurred a rain and snow storm of con-

EXPERIMENT STATION.

539

siderable severity. The latest damaging frost was on April 30,
and the last of the season occurred ^fay 18, doing no material
harm. The season was, at the beginning of ^lay, judging
from the state of the vegetation, at least two weeks in advance
of the general average jear.

The following table gives the temperatures and rainfoU, ar-
ranged in fortnightly periods, for the spring and fall months : —

April, May, Stay, June, Aug.,

.Sept.,

Sept..

Oct.,

Last 15 * First 15 Last 16 First 15 Last 15

First 15

Last 15

First 16

Days.

Days. Days.

Days. Days.

Days.

Days.

Days.

Precipitation.

Average for 48 years, .

1.73 in.

2 06 in.

1.86 in.

1.81 in.

2.02 in.

1.46 in.

1.84 in.

1.89 in.

For 1885,

1.78 in.

1.01 in.

2.07 in.

1.61 in.

3.45 in.

0.69 in.

1.01 in.

1.68 in.

For 1886,

O.IO in.

2.73 in.

0.37 in.

0.88 in.

1.63 in.

0.51 in.

4.97 in.

0.10 in.

Temperature.

Average for 48 years, .

48.6°

57.0°

60.4° ; 64.9°

67.5°

64.3°

58.0°

62.4°

For 1885,

51.6°

46.9°

61.1° 60.7°

63.2°

59.9°

52.9°

49 1°

For 1886,

57.7°

55.7°

58.5° 61.8°

66.0°

62.9°

56.1°

52.2°

The first frost of the fall occurred September 2 ; Init little
damage was done. Other light frosts followed September 14,
21 and 22. The first killing frost came October 3 ; on the 17th
the ground was frozen to the depth of one inch, and the
minimum thermometer registered 17° F. The first snow of
the winter of 1886 and 1887 came November 13, amounting to
one inch; during December there was a fall of 16 inches,
making a total of 40.5 inches for the entire year.

The prevailing direction of the wind, as taken from the
monthly summaries, gives 29.2 per cent, from the northwest,
33.3 per cent, from the south, 20.9 per cent, from the north, 8.3
per cent, from the southwest, and 8.3 per cent, from the west.

Rain or snow fell in measurable quantities on 122 days. The
greatest number of such days in any one month was sixteen, in
December, and the fewest was six, in April.

The "clear" days, i. e., those on which the sky was less
than four-tenths overcast at each observation, numbered 104, of
which July had the greatest, thirteen ; and April the fewest, four.

540

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

The "cloudy days," or those on which the sky was more
than seven-tenths obscured at each observation, were eio-hty-
seven in number, of which January, March and December had
the greatest, eleven each ; and August fewest, two. The bal-
ance of the year, 174 days, was "fair," with the sky from four
to seven-tenths obscured at each observation.

The highest temperature recorded throughout the year was
95.0<=^, occurring July 6; and the lowest — 22.0°, January 13
and 14, giving as the absolute range of temperature for the
year 117.0°.

Miscellaneous Phenomena. — Dates.

Frost.

Snow.

Kain.

Thunder-
storms.

Solar
Halos.

Lunar
Halos.

January,

2, 14, 15, 16.

9, 18, 19, 24,
30.

4,5,18,19,21,
27, 28, 29, 30.

-

11, 13,
31.

20.

Februaiy,

1,15,17,18,
19.

21, 22, 25,
26.

11, 12, 13, 15,
19, 25, 26.

-

4,6.

18.

March, .

6, 7, 17, 18.

8, 9, 12, 19,
21,22.

13, 21, 27, 29.

-

-

-

April, .

2, 9, 30.

3.

5,6, 7,13,19,
24, 27.

-

-

-

May,

1, 18.

-

4, 5, 7, 8, 10,

11, 13, 15, 16,

20, 25.

20.

19.

-

June,

-

2,3,13,14,15,

16, 17, 23, 24,

25, 26.

25, 26.

1.

20.

July, .

-

-

10, 14, 15, 16,

17, 18, 21, 26,

27, 29.

18, 27,
29.

-

-

August,

-

-

1, 2, 5, 7, 14,
16, 30, 31.

.30.

-

September, .

2,14,21,22.

12, 13, 15, 16,

17, 19, 22, 23,

25, 26, 27, 28,

29.

17, 28.

"

October,

2, 3, 17, 22,
24.

-

14, 15, 17, 18,

26, 27, 28, 29,

30, 31.

-

-

-

November, .

5, 8, 9, 16,

26, 27, 28,
29.

13, 25.

6,7,10,12,13,
17, 18, 22, 23,

25, 30.

4,16.

-

December, .

10, 21, 23.

5, 7, 13, 15,

16, 17, 18,

23, 24, 25,

26, 27, 29,

30,31.

•

12, 13, 17, 18,
31.

4.

4, 10.

EXPERIMENT STATION.

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542

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

Record

Of the Average Temperature taken from Weather Records at Amherst,
Mass., for three consecutive months, during the summer and winter,
beginning with the year 1836.

December,

January

■, Fehruary.

June, July, a

August.

1836-37, .

25.396° F.

1837, .

69.130° F.

1837-38, .

26.386°

1838,

69.550°

1838-39, .

25.950°

1839,

70.180°

1839-40, . ■

20.626°

1840,

68.770°

1840-41, .

23.146°

1841,

69.230°

1841-42, .

28.616°

1842,

68.210°

1842-43, .

23.460°

1843,

67.950°

1843-44, .

21.320°

1844,

67.260°

1844-45, .

25.550°

1845,

70.120°

1845-46, .

22.140°

1846,

68.406°

1846-47, .

25.176°

1847,

68.806°

1847-48, .

28.966°

1848,

69.210°

1848-49, .

23.026°

1849,

69.210°

1849-50, .

27.570°

1850,

68.820°

1850-51, .

25.040°

1851,

66.640°

1851-52, .

21.620°

1852,

66.830°

1852-53, .

27.940°

1853,

67.846°

1853-54, .

23.670°

1854,

69.856°

1854-55, .

23.126°

1855,

67.146°

1855-56, .

20.820°

1856,

69.225°

1856-57, .

22.720° !

1857,

67.240°

1857-58, .

26.956°

1858,

67.930°

1858-59, .

24.746"

1859,

65.650°

1859-60, .

24.790°

1860,

66.540°

1860-61, .

24.510°

1861,

66.870°

1861-62, .

24.470°

1862,

66.490°

1862-63, .

27.640°

1863,

66.656°

1863-64, .

26.060°

1864,

69.336°

1864-65, .

21.810°

1865,

68.946°

1865-66, ,

25.676°

1866,

67.400°

1866-67, .

25.276°

1867, .

67.920-

1867-68, .

: 20.350°

1868,

69.700°

EXPERIMENT STATION.

Record of Temper a(u7-e, etc. — Concluded.

543

December,

January, February.

June

, July, August.

1868-69, .

26.290° F.

1869, .

1

, 66.890° F.

1869-70,

27.866°

1870,

71.700°

1870-7],

26.666°

1871,

67.810°

1871-72,

24.630°

1872,

70.790-"

1872-73,

21.350°

1873,

68.596° ■

1873-74,

27.286°

1874, .

66.306°

1874-75,

21.180°

1875,

68 026"

1875-76,

28.156=

1876,

71.780^

1876-77,

23.510°

1877,

70.080^

1877-78,

28.506°

1878,

68.896^

1878-79,

24.290°

1879,

68.150°

1879-80,

30.506°

1880,

69.286^

1

1880-81,

21.856°

1881,

67.966°

1881-82,

29.256°

1882,

69.866°

1882-83,

24.220°

1883,

68.840°

1883-84,

26.506°

1884,

' 68.960°

1884-85,

22.630°

1885,

66.740°

1885-86,

24.846°

1886,

66.100°

Summary
Of Average Temperature from 1S36 to 1862 {25 years) ,

December, January, February.

24.53 J F.

June, July, August.

68.26° F.

Summary

Of Average Temperature from 1862 to 1887 {25 years).

December, January, February.

25.21° F.

June, July, August.

68.530 F.

A careful stud}' of the above tables cannot fail to show that
the average temperature of the three leading months during
summer and winter seasons has not materially changed during
the last fifty years, — a fact not generally conceded.

C. A. GOESSMANN,

Director.

544

BOARD OF AGRICULTURE.

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INDEX TO SECEELiETS EEPOET.

Agricultural exhibitions, 332.

Agricultural societies, officers of, 329.

Agricultural societies, finances of, 325.

Alvord, H. E., on the dair}', 284.

Annual meeting of the State Board of Agriculture, 311.

Annual report of the Cattle Commissioners, 395.

Annual report of commercial fertilizers, 335.

Appleton, F. H., lecture by, on reclaiming land, 119.

Assignment of delegates, 317.

Bartlett, M. W., lecture by, on influence of agi'icultui-e on climate, 173.

Beef fattening for the New England market, lecture by Jos. A. Titus, 60.

Board of Agriculture, country meeting at Barre, 31.

Board of Agriculture and Cattle Commissioners, special meeting at
Barre, 3.

Bowditch, E. F., lecture by, on sheep husbandry, 150.

Bowker, W. H., lecture by, on homoeopathy in agriculture, 191.

Brooks, Ethan, lecture by, on progressive agriculture, 222.

Burnett, Edward, lecture by, on swine for the home market, 242.

Board of overseers, Agricultural College, their powers and duties de-
fined, 318.

Cattle Commissioners and Board of Agriculture, special meeting at

Barre, 3.
Cattle Commissioners, annual report, 395.
Commercial fertilizers, annual report, 335.
Cprn culture, lecture on, by J. H. Goddard, 268.
Corn, paper on, by Philander S. Sears, 407.
Country meeting of the Board at Barre, 31.

Delegates, assignments of, 317.
Discussion of the value of experiment stations, 94.
Discussion of specialties in farming, 104.

[515]

546 INDEX TO SECRETARY'S REPORT.

Evaporation, 179.

Experiments in potato culture, lecture by Edmund Hersey,H10.

Experiment stations, their value, 94.

Fairs to be held, 332.

Farming specialties, discussion of, 104.

Fattening beef, 60.

Finances of the societies, 325.

Fruit as a farm product, paper on, by E. W. Wood, 412.

Gleason, Hon. Chas. A., opening address at Barre, 33.
Goddard, J. H., lecture by, on corn culture, 268.

Hatch bill, approved of by State Board, 96.

Hersey, Edmund, lecture by, on experiments in potato culture, 110.

Hog cholera, 398.

Holstein cattle in America, lecture by Gerrit S. Miller, 37.

Homoeopathy in agriculture, lecture on, by W. H. Bowker, 191.

Horses, Percheron, 97.

Influence of agriculture on climate, lecture on, by M. W. Bartlett, 173.

Lynde, Dr. Jas. P., report on the Massachusetts Horticultural Society
for 1886, 402.

Meeting, annual. State Board of Agriculture, 311.

Miller, Gerrit S., lecture by, on Holstein cattle in America, 37.

Officers of the agricultural societies, 329.
Opening address, country meeting at Barre, 33.

Percheron horses, 97.

Potato culture, lecture on, by Edmund Hersey, 110.

Powers and duties of the board of overseers of the Agricultural College

defined, 318.
Progressive agriculture, lecture on, by Ethan Brooks, 222.

Reclaiming land, lecture on, by F. H. Appleton, 119.

Remarks of Henry W. Wilson at country meeting, 105.

Report on the Massachusetts Horticultural Society for 1886, by Dr.

Jas. P. Lynde, 402.
Resolutions of respect to the memory of Marshall P. Wilder, 316.
Resolutions passed by the State Board relative to the Hatch bill, 96.

Sears, Philander S., paper by, on corn, 407.

Sheep husbandry, lecture on, by E F. Bowditch of Framingham, 150.
Slade, Avery P., lecture by, on specialties in farming, 86.
Special meeting at Barre of Board of Agriculture and Cattle Commis-
sioners, 3.

INDEX TO SECRETAEY'S REPORT. 547

Specialties in farming, lecture on, by Avery P. Slade, 86.

State Board of Agriculture, annual meeting, 311.

State Board, resolutions passed relative to the Hatch bill, 96.

Stations, experiment, value of, 94.

Swine for the home market, lecture on, by Edward Burnett, 242.

The dairy, discussion of, by H. E. Alvord, 284.

Titus, Jos. A., lecture by, on beef fattening for the New England
mai'ket, 60.

Wilder, Marshall P., resolutions of respect to the memory of, 316.
Wilson, Henry W., remarks of, at country meeting, 105.
Wood, E. W., paper by, on fruit as a farm product, 412.

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