20 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. James B- Hill of Patten, raised 36 bushels of ^heat on one 

 acre of land plougbed in the spring and well manured. 



For the oat crop, Mr. Frje plouglis in a crop of grass in June or 

 July and lets it lay in furrow until the following spring, then har- 

 rows it with a heavy harrow, but does not cross plough. 



Mr. Waters ploughs in a crop of grass in June or July, and cross 

 ploughs in the fall. Land cultivated in this manner will yield from 

 forty to fifty bushels of oats to the acre." 



Mr. Dill mentioned the case of a farmer in Rangely, named Tooth- 

 ' aker, who raised 1,400 bushels of grain, and 221 tons of hay, which 

 paid him a profit of $1,200. He also called attention to the fact 

 once before mentioned by him, of a piece of ground which was 

 cropped with oats five years successively, the yield increasing from 

 year to year from twenty to forty bushels to the acre. 



Mr, Hammatt said we might mistake if we were guided by such 

 statistics. He knew a man to raise fifteen successive crops of 

 oats, but it would be hard to tell what was raised the last time. 

 He ploughed in his stubble and used no manure. Towards the end 

 the yield was not worth harvesting, and the land was ruined for 

 grass. The idea that the productiveness of land thus treated in- 

 creased instead of deteriorated, he believed was contrary to all ex- 

 perience. If it were true, farming could be carried on with very 

 little labor or expense. 



Mr. Dill said he called attention to this subject for the purpose of 

 eliciting discussion. The ideas of Mr. H. were mainly in accord- 

 ance with his own. 



In case of the land above referred to, it was weedy and bushy, 

 and he had no doubt that culture improved it. He had known of 

 other places where, because the land was not properly subdued, 

 people supposed it was ruined, when it was only not properly tilled, 



Mr. Cushman said that oats were a very exhausting crop, and it 

 was a fact generally understood, that grass will not catch after re- 

 peated cropping with oats. The plan was a ruinous one. 



Mr. Davis of North Somerset agreed with the speakers on this 

 point. He had known instances in his vicinity, where farmers had 

 raised oats a few years, obtaining fair crops, but the land when 

 seeded down would not catch, and all attempts to redeem it had 

 been only partially successful. Oats should only be sowed on new 



