y
market gardeners or farmers, who do a little market gardening, as it is
the general conviction that ordinary farm-crops will not give a
compensating return for their application. Most market gardeners keep so
little stock that the manure made on the place is very inconsiderable.
Our dairy farmers either compost home-made manures with that from the
city, spread it on the land for corn in the spring, or rot it separate,
to use in the fall for wheat, on land that has been cropped with oats
the same year. The manure put on for potatoes is generally estimated to
enrich the land sufficient for it to produce one crop of winter grain,
and from five to seven crops of grass, when it is again plowed and
cultivated in rotation with, first, corn, second, potatoes or oats, and
is reseeded in autumn of the same year.

Fish and fish guano are largely used on land bordering the water, and
adjacent to the oil-works. The average price for guano in bulk at
oil-works is $12 per ton. The average price for fish on wharf is $1.50
per thousand, and it is estimated that, as a general average, 6,000 fish
make a ton of guano. The fish, when applied to corn, are placed two at
each hill, and plowed under at any time after the corn is large enough
to cultivate. Seaweed is highly prized by all who use it, and it will
produce a good crop of corn when spread thickly on the land previous to
plowing.

Very respectfully,

J. H. RUSHMORE.

Letter from John E. Backus.

NEWTOWN, Long Island, N.Y., March 2nd, 1876.

_Mr. G. H. Rushmore_:

DEAR SIR.--Some farmers and market-gardeners use more, and some less,
manure, according to crops to be raised. I use about 30 good two-horse
wagon-loads to the acre, to be applied in rows or broad-casted, as best
for certain crops. I prefer old horse-dung for most all purposes. Guano,
as a fertilizer, phosphate of bone and blood are very good; they act as
a stimulant on plants and vegetation, and are highly beneficial to some
vegetation--more valuable on poor soil than elsewhere, except to produce
a thrifty growth in plants, and to insure a large crop.

By giving you these few items they vary considerably on different parts
of the Island; judgment must be used in all cases and all business.
Hoping these few lines may be of some avail to Mr. Harris and yourself,

I remain, yours, etc.,

JOHN E. BACKUS.

MANURE IN PHILADELPHIA.

Letter from Joseph Heacock.

JENKINTOWN, Montgomery Co., P