104 MAINE STATE SOCIETY. 



term culllvalion, as used above, may be so extended as to include 

 the preservation and application of manures, it is safe to say that the 

 whole agricultural productions of the State would be doubled on the 

 acres now in cultivation, in five years ; for besides the loss — waste 

 it may be termed — by shallow ploughing, half tilling, and "slip- 

 shod" cultivation in general, there is an annual loss of more than 

 one-half of the manure made by the stock on the farms in this State. 

 A few farmers do better ; they may do much more than this on a 

 general average. To remedy these evils we would urge upon those 

 farmers, who, from superior advantages or other causes, occupy the 

 front rank in the advancing force, to communicate to their fellows in 

 arms the result of their success by detailing the manoeuvers which 

 have led them to it. And further, we w'ill venture so far "out of 

 the record," as to suggest to the Trustees to offer premiums for 

 essays on the best methods of preserving the manures made on the 

 farm — the essays to be detailed descriptions of the fixtures, conven- 

 ience and practice of the applicants for the premiums. 



Manuring to increase the corn crop above sixty or seventy bushels 

 to the acre, (except on very porous soils, in which manure is soon 

 lost,) is often attended by the loss of the following grain crops or 

 grass from the same cause. Could the average.be brought up to 60 

 bushels per acre, it is believed it would nearly, if not quite, double 

 the amount of corn raised in the State, in good seasons. To bring 

 the average per acre to the most profitable point, and to a level near 

 that point, is the object to be aimed at ; then, the number of acres 

 may be extended. An increase of crops will give an increase of 

 stock, and an increase of stock an increase of manure, and an increase 

 of manure an increase of crops. Repeated revclutions of the same 

 kind are needed to place Maine, as an agricultural State, in the 

 position which she is adapted, by her natural advantages to occupy. 



Darius Egrbes, Chairman. 



Indian Corn. 



John C. Clement of Kenduskeag, obtained the first premium on 

 Indian corn ; grown on a dark colored, sandy and gravelly soil, with 

 porojis subsoil ; in corn the year previous ; plowed ten inches deep ; 



