STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 281 



prise in undertaking and carrying out the culture, as it proved, 

 of a very hard piece of land. 



It was not until the evening of the 30th of May last that I 

 first saw your generous offer of a premium to boys under 18 

 years of age, for the cultivation of one acre of corn or carrots. 

 I resolved at once to try one acre of corn, providing my father 

 would consent to furnish me with land, team, tools, &:c. On 

 making application he agreed that I might make the trial, but 

 thouglit me rather too young to persevere in the undertaking, my 

 age being at the commencement of the job only 11 years and 10 

 months. However, I took the ox team, a yoke of 6 years old 

 and a yoke of 3 years old, and one of Anson Titus' No. 9 pointer 

 plows, and a boy to drive, and commenced my job on the morning 

 of Saturday, the 31st of May. The condition of the soil at the 

 commencement of the cultivation, was a three year clover lay, 

 very hard and stony. It is what my father calls gravelly loam, 

 but I thought it was very coarse gravel when I was plowing it, 

 as I found a great many small cobble stone, which was very 

 annoying to my undertaking. There was no manure applied pre- 

 vious to plowing of it. The manner of plowing, as I have said 

 before, was with two yoke of cattle or steers, boy to drive, and 

 with one of Anson Titus' No. 9 double or pointer plows, from six 

 to seven inches deep. I then rolled it on the furrow before har- 

 rowing it, then harrowed three times in a place. I then took my 

 father's drill, one of Tracy's grain drills, arranged for drilling 

 corn, and drilled it on the 3d day of June. It appeared above 

 ground on the 11th, making eight days from the time of drilling. 

 The number of kernels in each hill or discharge was from four to 

 six. The number of stalks designed to be left in each hill or dis- 

 charge was from three to ibur, but as it was a prevailing coni]>laint 

 the past season of the failure of seed corn, not coming good, I 

 was unable to regulate the number of stalks in each hill. Ihe 

 variety of corn is the whit<' Hint, a sample of which I will exhi- 

 jjit at the winter meeting of the New-York State Agricultural 

 Society. The anuumt of seed drilled was 12 (juarts. 'J1u' (quan- 

 tity and (juality of manure put upon the crop was 9 bushels of a 

 compound of lien manure, ashei, plaster and salt, at the rate of 

 one-third each of ashes, j)laster, hen manure, and a half bushel 

 of salt; aj)])lied a handful on each hill, as soon as U]). My corn 



