No. 112.] 593 



was seeded with grass seeds, which took well, and produced 

 good pasture for two years ; during that time, with the straw I had 

 purchased and what I got from the land, with the stock I had, 

 as the straw Y>'as all taken to the barnyard, furnished me with a 

 sufficient quantity of manure for the land. It was plowed again 

 and planted, and produced a good crop. The next year it was 

 sowed with oats ; the crop was good. In the following sprin^it 

 was seeded with grass, and pastured two years. The land was 

 plowed again in May, and well fallowed with three or four plow- 

 ings, and sowed with wheat in the fore part of September; the 

 crop was excellent, it produced twenty-five bushels per acre, of 

 good wheat, the heaviest crop I ever knew in this section of coun- 

 try ; I have heard of crops that equalled or surpassed it, but not 

 with sufficient accuracy to convince me that it was so. 



I still pursue the same system, with the exception of only 

 manuring every alternate time it is plowed. The land is now 

 in a good state of cultivation, and produces almost as heavy 

 crops as kny in the State, and perhaps in any other State. 

 I have had people from Illinois call on me ; I have often asked 

 them if their crops of corn and oats surpassed mine, and they have 

 readily acknowledged they did not. One of my neighbors, that 

 helped to plant, hoe and husk part of my crop of corn this season, 

 went to Illinois this fall, and returned a few days since ; he in- 

 formed me that he saw no corn, since he left this place until he 

 returned, as good as mine. I omitted my rye crop, as it was not 

 all thrashed until yesterday ; one acre on the farm I live on pro- 

 duced thirty bushels, of the best quality ; one acre on hill farm, 

 twenty bushels; two acres on same adjoining, twenty -eight bushels. 



A Staten Island correspondent (in one of the Journals of the 

 Society), was peculiarly situated, within the reach of fish for ma- 

 nure ; and only shelled one load of his corn, and computed all 

 the other loads at the same rate, wliicli nii^ht or might not be 

 correct, as the loads might vary. In tlie next place he planted, 

 his corn only eighteen inches apart in the rows, which made con- 

 siderable difference. I recollect some years ago having fifty 

 bushels from three-(|uarters of an acre ; the rows were tliree feet 

 apart each way ; by making tlie rows only eighteen inches apart 



one way would greatly increase the crop. This was from land 

 [Aff. Tr. '53 J .\ j% 



