STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 93 



With this care, nature develops and matures the crop, and it 

 seeds but little attention till fit to harvest. 



I harvest my wheat soon after the color changes and while the 

 joints are green, bind immediately after the cradle, stook and 

 cap, and let the grain and straw cure in the field till they are fit 

 for the mow. There are several advantages in this method : 

 Firstly, it does not shell, and little or none of the grain is 

 w^asted; secondly, the straw is more palatable and nutritious to 

 stock; thirdly, the wheat is better in appearance, and affords 

 more and better flour. During the past season I left a portion of 

 a field, sowed with the same seed upon the same day, for ten 

 days, and the early and the latter harvesting were kept separate. 

 The difference in the two samples were so marked that an expe- 

 rienced miller, who regarded them as two kinds of grain, con- 

 sidered the early gathered grain worth a shilling a bushel more 

 than the other. The same management of other grains, as I 

 apply to wheat, will be equally successful. My average crop of 

 oats has been about fifty-five bushels, and of peas twenty-five 

 bushels per acre. 



I have labored under some disadvantages in the cultivation of 

 hops, from want of experience and defects of soil. Hops require 

 a deep loose soil, as the roots are large and if not enabled to 

 strike deep, they spread out laterally and are cut and broken by 

 the plow in cultivation, and the growth retarded or suspended. 

 To avoid these difficulties, where the soil is not naturally adapted 

 to their growth, the ground should be sub-soiled and enriched to 

 the depth of twenty inches. This preparation will take three 

 years. The ground may be cultivated in corn or potatoes during 

 the time, but no weeds should be allowed to form seeds. When 

 the ground is fitted, the roots should be prepared by an eyperi- 

 enccd planter, two joints to a root and two roots to a hill. The 

 hills should be seven feet apart. I make a hole with a round 

 stick sharpened, and set the roots six inches apart, cover four 

 inches with earth, and place a stake at each hill. The ground 

 should be kept carefully weeded about the hills, and the vines 

 appear in alxtut a month. The land during the season of plant- 

 ing should be cultivated in potatoes, as corn would shade the 

 plants too much, and there will be no hops worth poling. The 

 next season after i>lan(i]ig they ai'e to be }x>led, two poles to a 



