48 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I think that the per cent, of income realized is not known to a farmer in 

 town, but little capital being invested in farming operations, because of the 

 uncertainty of the market. 



Hired labor can be profitably employed, when it happens that grain, grass 

 8eed and hay can be sold at a fair, or moderate rate. 



New lands are generally sown first to wheat, oats, or planted to corn. Oats 

 are sown the second year after wheat, and wheat after corn, oats after oats. 

 The third year oats or buckwheat is generally sown and seeded to grass. 

 Lands which have been broken up, or plowed, are generally proceeded with in 

 the same manner when not first planted to corn, beans, or root crops. 



The average yield of hay is about one ton per acre. 



The increase of the hay crop has been very good in the last five years, both 

 from plowing up of fields and pastures, and clearing new lands. Swamps are 

 not cleared in this vicinity. 



To sow clover and herds grass seed on new land, would be the best prepara- 

 tion for a good hay crop. Any land in this vicinity, however poor, may be 

 made to produce good crops of grass, by being well plowed and cropped for 

 two years, and seeded to clover. Buckwheat is the best to seed with, by far. 



Laiids are generally, and always should be, seeded in the spring, and sown 

 with other grain, or at the same time, and harrowed — from the 10th of May 

 to the 20th of June. When sown with buckwheat, the grass is shaded, and 

 the ground is more moist, and all the seed grows, and gets well rooted before 

 harvest. Seed — ton pounds of clover, two quarts of herds grass seed, mixed. 



It is useless to top-dress lands with manure in this section, so it has proved, 

 on a small scale ; plaster is said to do well on certain lands. 



The cost of horses to the as;e of five years, is about ten dollars a year. Three 

 years old colts are worth from fifty to one hundred dollars; four years old, 

 sixty to one hundred and twenty-five dollars ; and five years old, from eighty 

 to one hundred and fifty dollars. 



Neat cattle could be raised to the same ages at an expense of five dollars per 

 head per year ; and average value here is about fifteen dollars for three years 

 old, twenty dollars for four years old, and twenty-five dollars for five years 

 old. Tliis is a low estimate, but the prices here are variable and uncertain. 



The cost of clearing land, seeding and housing an acre on " new land," 

 of either corn, wheat, barley, rye, oats, peas and buckwheat, is about nine- 

 teen dollars. For plowed ground, where we break up the sward and turn in 

 the grass, without manure, is about eleven dollars per acre. New land — 

 wheat, average crop, twenty-five to thirty bushels; price, one dollar and fifty 

 cents to two dollars. Corn, forty bushels to the acre ; price, one dollar and 

 fifty cents, to two dollars. Barley, twenty-five bushels to the acre ; price, one 

 dollar. Rye, thirty bushels to the acre; price, one dollar and twenty five 

 cents. Oats, SJventy-five bushels to the acre ; price, forty cents. Peas, twenty 

 bushels to the acre ; price, two dollars. Buckwheat, forty bushels to the 

 acre ; price, fifty cents. 



Wheat on the plow, as mentioned above, will produce an average of twenty 



