No. 112.] 381 



Cutting Grain before fully ripe. 



" Now, the advantage of cutting it while the straw is yet par- 

 tially green, appears to be univei-sally understood, and very gene- 

 rally practiced. Then the hilling of corn, at the last hoeing, a 

 practice by which the roots were buried in a position unnaturally 

 remote from the genial influence of the sun, and by which the 

 water falling in rain, and intended for the benefit of the growing 

 plant, was turned off into the farrows, and sent to swell the 

 amount in some neighboring stream, was nearly universal : now 

 it is nearly obsolete. A change scarcely less important and no 

 less general, has taken place in the mode of harvesting this crop. 

 In the old fashioned mode, at that time chiefly practiced, the 

 ^iops^ were ^cut' and cured, the ears, after having become 

 ' dead ripe,' plucked and saved, and the residue of the plant 

 left standing where it grew. By the adoption of the more econo- 

 mical mode of cutting up at the root, while the stalk is yet green, 

 a better quality of grain is secured, and a saving of fodder effected, 

 at least equal in value to a crop of hay on the same ground. 



Improvement in quality of Plants. 



" In the variety and quality of the plants we cultivate, there has 

 also been, in almost every department, very decided improvement. 

 For example, the general introduction of a single variety of po 

 tato, the "Moore" potato of this region, or " Peach blow '' of 

 New-England, has gained for the potatoes of Clinton county, a 

 reputation in tlie Boston and New-York markets, which insures 

 the ready sale of all which our farmers can raise, at the very 

 kighest jirices. It has been estimated that the sum of not less 

 than half a million dollars has been received by the farmers of 

 this county, for the single article of potatoes within the past 

 three years, a result, unquestionably, in great measure at least, 

 of the dissemination of this im])roved variety. 



Improved Fruits. 



" In the department of fruits, there has also been a very striking 

 advance. The liberal premiums which, f;om time to time, have 

 been offered by this Society, to promote the exhibition of fruit at 

 our fairs, the planting of orchards, tlie nursery propagation of 



