REPORTS ON CROPS. 285 



The next year I follow with corn by plowing the ground, then 

 spread 20 to 25 cart loads of manure, plow again and use as 

 much more well rotted manure in the hills, rows 3| feet 

 apart, hills 3 feet ; hoe twice, three times if I can get time. 

 As soon as tlie corn gets glazed quite too hard to boil I cut 

 it up and stack it, and husk as soon as it will do. For a 

 number of years past I have averaged 50 bushels of shelled 

 corn per acre. The next year I follow with oats or barley 

 and lay it down to grass. I have generally got fi;om 25 to 40 

 bushels to the acre. 



I have not generally planted more than an acre of each 

 crop per year. My principal crop is grass raised on land that 

 I do not plow at all, by' top dressing it in the fall with about 

 20 cart loads of manure per acre about once in two or three 

 years. 



What rye is raised in town is raised on land newly cleared. 

 The brush are burnt off; no other preparation is necessary; 

 the rye is sowed and harrowed in. 



E. C. Holmes, West Winsted, Winchester. 



Wheat, barley, onions, tobacco, broom corn, I think are 

 not raised at all, or not to any extent in this town that I know 

 of. Wheat and tobacco a few years since were raised to some 

 extent, but for some reason they are abandoned or nearly so. 

 The facts are, this town is not a grain growing town, the 

 soil, climate, and situation or make of the land are not such 

 as to make the raising of grain to any considerable amount 

 profitable. Grass is, and will be more, the main crop in this 

 section, and until farmers can make or procure, in some way, 

 manure sufficient for their grass ground and some to spare, 

 they cannot afford to plough only so far as is necessary to im- 

 prove the soil for raising grass. So far as my experience goes 

 manure used as top dressing where land is tolerably smooth 

 or does not need leveling, is much more profitable in improv- 

 ing the soil or increasing the grass crop, than when applied 

 to crops, considering the extra labor necessary in raising 

 grain or tobacco, and the tendency in these crops to consume 



