198 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Day. I am aware that what was originally the old 

 town of Windsor has some of the finest land in the state of 

 Connecticut, and that there is some of the finest tobacco 

 soil there that there is in the United States, perhaps. I have 

 heard that there were large quantities of manure taken from 

 the city of New York and brought up to that town, at an ex- 

 pense of twenty dollars a cord. Mr. Allen has stated that 

 his tobacco land invariably produces good crops, and under 

 this system of heavy manuring, it must ; but I want to in- 

 quire more particularly what is the character of the outlots 

 around, and what is the effect upon their farms in the aggre- 

 gate ? 



Mr. Allen. Well, sir, the outlots are no worse than they 

 were when we began, and some of the farmers are bringing 

 them up, recuperating them ; they have the means to do it 

 with. The best tobacco growers, those who have made it their 

 business and been the most successful, are the best farmers 

 we have in the county, in all respects. You cannot name a 

 branch of their business that is not, as a general thing, well 

 attended to. There is once in a while a man who does not 

 do anything but raise tobacco, and has only four or five acres 

 of land ; but I am referring now to large agriculturists, who 

 have from one to two hundred acres. 



Mr. Day. The gentleman has stated that they gel large 

 crops of grass after tobacco. I want to know from Mr. Allen, 

 whether he gets as large crops of grass from that land with 

 the liigh manuring and culture that he gives to it, with the 

 inducements of a large crop of tolmcco, as he would if he put 

 it^nto corn or potatoes with the same amount of fertilization, 

 the same amount of pulverization, &c. 



Mr. Allen. I do not know what the result would be if it 

 was planted with corn instead of tobacco, but I do not see 

 how it could do any better, for the grass we cut is as heavy 

 as we can mow with the machine, and if corn would give us 

 any bigger grass, I don't see how we could cut it. I do not 

 believe that raising corn would leave the land in any better 

 condition for grass. In fact, I have found more difficulty in 

 getting almost any crop, including grass, to grow after corn 



