202 [Senate 



The quality of the soil where the Ruta Bagas grew is chiefly sandy 

 loam. The previous crop was oats without manure. After the oats 

 were harvested, the ground was plowed in the fall, but not having any 

 manure left, we had to wait till spring. It was then well manured 

 with fresh unfermented dung from the yard, plowed twice and well 

 harrowed after each plowing. Before the last harrowing, we sowed 

 one and a half bushels of plaster to the acre. On the 11th of June 

 drew the ground into ridges twenty-seven inches apart, and on the 

 12th sowed the seed by hand at the rate of four pounds to the acre. 

 The seed was from Mr. Skirvine, of Liverpool, England, and the 

 kind, his improved purple top. On the 5th of July went between 

 the rows with a cultivator, and on the 11th and 12th July, hoed the 

 plants out, leaving them from eight to ten inches apart. They were 

 hoed once more by hand, and the cultivator was worked through them 

 twice more. They were harvested the second week in November. 

 One acre was measured off, and the produce was 18 tons, 2 cwt. 2h 

 lbs., or 724 bus. 2-| lbs., reckoning 50 lbs. to the bushel. 



Value of crop per acre, 724 bus. 2| lbs. at 6cts $43.44 



Expenses of do , 19 . 75 



Profit, $23.69 



CHAS. B. MEEK. 



Canandaigua, December 24:y 1844. 



MR. Johnson's statement. 



The following statement by Benjamin P. Johnson of Rome, will 

 be read with much interest, as it strikingly exhibits the advantages- 

 of the subsoil plow, in preparing the ground for crops, especially 

 those requiring depth of soil. 



The subscriber raised, the past season, from half an acre of ground, 

 upwards of four hundred bushels of ruta bagas. The soil was a 

 sandy loam. The ground was planted with potatoes the previous 

 season. Last spring a few loads of manure were spread previous to 

 plowing. The land was plowed about six inches deep, and the sub- 

 soil plow followed, and stirred up the soil about six inches deeper. 

 The effect of the subsoil plow was very apparent. In a portion of 

 the field, beets and carrots were cultivated, and finer and larger varie- 

 ties have seldom been seen. The ruta bagas were very fine, and had 

 the season been favorable, the yield would probably have equalled a 

 thousand bushels per acre. The exact amount in the half acre, as 

 near as it could be ascertained, all having been measured but a por- 

 tion estimated at fifteen bushels which had been been fed out pre- 

 vious to the gathering of the crop, was 425 bushels. 



The subscriber, not having had his crop measured by the town com- 

 mittee, does not present it for a premium, but makes the statement 

 more especially to call the attention of the farmers to' the subsoil 



