402 [Senate 



ed to our climate and soil. Had he received the premium, it would, 

 as it were, have stamped the China corn with the approbation of the 

 Society; it would have been tantamount to a recommendation of this 

 variety of corn to the farmers of our county; many of them would 

 thereby have been induced to cultivate it, to their great injury; as 

 from repeated experiments, it is deemed to be quite unsuited to our 

 short summers, however admirably it may succeed in some particular 

 situations, with a favorable season. With regard to oats, " I am not 

 so positive that we were correct. We had not time carefully to com- 

 pare the respective certificates, and supposed the nett profit as sum- 

 med up on each paper was substantially correct. The principle that 

 governed me, and I believe my colleagues, was the decidedly supe- 

 rior sample offered by Mr. Holmes. Believing them the most profit- 

 able kind that can be cultivated in this section of country, we, to 

 bring them prominently to the notice of our fellow farmers, awarded 

 him the first premium. Mr. McDonald's sample was fair, but Mr. 

 Russell's, though a great yield per acre, certainly were of a quality 

 so inferior that they could not be recommended for cultivation. Per- 

 haps, considering the so much greater production per acre, our de- 

 cision may have been wrong;, but those who examined the respective 

 samples, will scarcely disagree with us." 



Neither quantity, nor quality, per se, should have governed the 

 committee. The premium was for the best — which we utilitarian far- 

 mers all know, means the most profitable — acre of oats, corn, &c. 

 Which acre would bring the most money into the farmer^s pocket — 

 that is the question. If Mr. Russell, or Mr. McDonald, can proba- 

 bly in market sell the yield of his acre for more cash than |Mr. 

 Holmes, (after deducting the fair expense of cultivation in each case) 

 then was he entitled to the first premium. This is the true ground — 

 nor would Mr. H., or any other intelligent friend of the Society, ask 

 for a premium on any other. And whether, placed solely upon this 

 ground, the awards in the above cases would have been varied, we 

 do not presume to say. 



l MR. holmes' account OF HIS CROP OF CORN SOWN BROADCAST. 



On the 5th day of May last, I sowed broadcast, and harrowed in, 

 twelve quarts of corn on helf an acre and eleven rods of ground, 

 without any manuring; and it was not touched again until the 22d 

 of vScptember, w^hen I cut it and set it up on the ground, in the same 

 way that I did the corn which I planted in hills; and on October 5, 

 husked from it 46 bushels of ears, (i. e. nearly 91 per acre.) I have 

 got a much larger amount of fodder than from any piece of the same 

 size which I have planted, and I have no hesitation in saying, even 

 in this time of low prices, that the stalks will more than pay for all 

 the labor of raising it. The soil was gravel, and was planted with 

 corn last year. Henry Holmes, 



The nett profit of the above, must have exceeded the rate of $23 , - 

 00 per acre, and helps to demonstrate the uselessness of hilling corn. 



