No. 63.] 325 



ved in previous crops, yet sufficient to affect the result in this expe- 

 riment, I sowed on the opposite side of the potatoe oats, another 

 strip, with the common variety, of the same dimensions and using the 

 same amount of seed. At harvest, the products from the two strips 

 of the common variety were united — and this combined product and 

 that of the other variety, carefully mowed away by themselves. Sub- 

 sequently, they were threshed and the two products of grain sepa- 

 rately weighed. The result was, that one-half the combined products 

 of the common oats, compared with the product of the potatoe oats, 

 as four hundred and twenty-three to three hundred and four, or near- 

 ly as four and one-fifth to three. Another circumstance of some im- 

 portance which should be mentioned, is that my potatoe oats were 

 all very smutty^ while the other kind was not. And as I observed 

 that every field of potatoe oats in the neighborhood, which I saw, 

 was also smutty, I concluded that this difficulty is common to this 

 kind of oats. But this kind of oats may not be smutty every season, 

 and hence so great a comparative loss might not in every instance be 

 realized. The above experiment, is nevertheless decisive. I had of 

 the Potatoe variety in three different fields. In all, the relative pro- 

 portion of smutty to perfect heads, was the same — which I ascertain- 

 ed by cotmt to be as one to four — deducting this from the difference 

 shown in the experiment, a balance still remains of 4V3, that is to 

 say, if every smutty head had been a fertile one, the latter variety 

 would still have fallen short, by one bushel in every ten produced by 

 the other kind. So that he who sow^s the new variety, must expect 

 to lose one in every ten, or three in every thirty, or five in every fifty 

 bushels of his whole crop; which, taken from the nett profit, makes 

 a difference certainly worth regarding; and he may, and more probably 

 will realize the full amount of 1} in every 4t or of 12 in every 42 

 bushels lost — which is precisely the rate of loss I have sustained by 

 this means in the present crop. The whole loss being 103| bushels, 



and amounting in value to $36 17 



Adding to this I a low estimate for the loss sustained by rea- 

 son of the kind and condition of the sward, we have a still 

 greater amount of some 1223- bushels, amounting in value 

 to 42 SI 



The assumed loss from both sources, my own mismanage- 

 ment, and that of my yuredecessor, being 78 98 



which compared with $19.18, the nett profit realized is certainly no 

 very trifling sum. 



It may to some appear singular that I have been thus minute in de- 

 tailing the circumstances of this apparently unsuccessful crop. My 

 only object has been to draw the attention of others to the principles 

 involved; and although it is not quite so agreeable to expose one's 

 own errors and mistakes as to give an account of our more success- 

 ful efforts; yet from a conviction that far greater practical benefit is 

 often derived from an intelligent review of unsuccessful operations 

 and their results, than of those which are attended with greater suc- 

 cess, I could not well forbear to make the exposition. 



