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BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



great growth, and making a most beautiful kind of soil. 

 That, however, is a digression from the subject. 



Mr. Hart. After you have raised your two thousand 

 pounds to the acre in the manner you have described, what 

 do you get for it ? What does it cost and what do you get 

 for it ? What is the net result ? 



Dr. Riggs. I cannot tell you what it costs me to produce 

 an acre of tobacco. I ought to be a little abashed by it, too, 

 for I have not yet kept an accurate account of the labor, as I 

 should. I raise all the way from one acre to four. I have 

 increased my number of acres in tobacco every year, and ex- 

 pect to increase them this next year. I cannot tell the rela- 

 tive cost. The labor required is perhaps three times as much 

 as is necessary to raise a crop of corn, and hoe it twice. 



Question. Have you ever raised any tobacco on turf 

 land, turned over in the fall ? 



Dr. Riggs. I have raised it so, but I generally turn it in 

 the spring. I believe fully in the value of the fermentation 

 of the sod, not only for tobacco but for corn ; and I am led 

 to that belief by some experiments tried by a neighbor of mine 

 who is a pretty exact sort of a man. He told me tliat if a 

 man would plow his fields in the fall for nothing (and his 

 land is a medium clay loam), and charge him for it in the 

 spring, he would rather have it done in the spring. He gave 

 me his reasons, Avhich were these. A neighbor of his bought 

 a tract of ground and commenced plowing it in the fall. Ho 

 intended to plant it to corn, and plowed about half of it in 

 the fall, was taken sick, and died. The former owner 

 agreed to take it back (as the man had not paid for it entire- 

 ly), and did so. In the spring he went forward and plowed 

 the balance of this field, and after he had finished, he treated 

 the whole field' alike—put his manure on the surface, har- 

 rowed it, and put the field into corn ; and he says that as far 

 as any one could see the field, the difference between the por- 

 tions plowed in the spring and in the fall was plainly visible. 

 The explanation he gave Avas, that the fermentation after the 

 spring plowing produced such a warmth for the corn plant, 

 that it was favorable to its early growth, and it was not 



