•SECRETARY'S REPORt. gfj 



FKOM W. R. FLINT. 



"Indian corn is more extensively cultivated in Anson than any other 

 '■crop, and is largely on the increase. It is decidedly the best of the 

 cultivated crops, not having made a failure but once in twenty-five 

 years, and then not a total failure. This was in 1851. The average 

 .yield in this town may be forty-five bushels per acre." 



Some of tlie estimates of avera2;c vield as above given, are 

 believed to be too large. It may be near the fact as to average 

 on the best farms, but it is seriously doubted whether the pro- 

 duction of all the farms in any of our towns will average more 

 than forty bushels to the acre, and probably fall short of it. 

 From the best inforniation at hand, the average throughout the 

 State is nearly as follows: viz., Indian corn, thirty to thirty-five 

 bushels to the acre ; wheat ten to twelve bushels ; oats thirty to 

 thirty-five bushels; barley twenty to thirty bushels; rye ten to 

 twenty bushels ; potntoes one hundred and fifty to two hundred 

 t)ushels. 



One correspondent, writing somewhat more in detail than 

 most, says : 



" The average yield of Indian corn, I think, would fall a little short 

 of forty bushels per acre ; wheat would not exceed fifteen bushels ; 

 oats are not much raised here, but the yield, on good ground, would 

 be not far from twenty-five bushels— average, about twenty bushels ; 

 barley, about fifteen bushels-; buckvvheat about the same as barley, 

 though it will do well on poorer land, and sowed later than any other 

 crop, say last of June. This article, dreaded by some farmers, on ac- 

 count of getting the seed into the ground and mixing with next j^ear's 

 crop, does not impoverish the soil; but leaves it in a light and mellow 

 condition for the next crop, and if of the same grain, it will usually 

 yield more the longer it is used. Old pastures, I think, might be sub"- 

 dued by this grain, sowed, say, two years, and then sowed to grass; 

 as it is a great subduer of the sod, on account of the heavy shade. It 

 is not bad to seed wdth, because it comes off" in good season, and leaves 

 the ground in good state to forward the young grass, the stubble not 

 being in the way, as with oats. 



Peas, sowed alone, yield about ten bushels; beans, Avith corn, about 

 five bushels ; with us they are not raised alone. It would be difficult to 

 say whether this average is increasing or diminishing, except as it is 

 affected by the seasons being favorable or otherwise. 



