130 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



upon the West for corn and wheat is entirely wrong. We 

 ought to raise our own wheat Avherever we have land 

 adapted to it. I know that all land is not adapted to it; 

 but there is more land adapted to it than we think. I know ■ 

 you do not have mills to grind it as we do. 



Mr. Gushing. Do you advocate letting the stover and 

 cobs go off the farm when you raise corn? 



Mr. HuiMPHREY. I sell but very little. I would sell it if 

 I had an opportunity, and buy the Stockbridge fertilizer. 



Mr. Gushing. I consider that those are the very ingre- 

 dients we want on the farm to make corn grow again. I 

 raise a little corn every year. I should differ with the gen- 

 tleman in regard to raising corn on sward-land. Last spring, 

 I turned over a piece of sward-land, where the grass had 

 been killed by the dry weather, put on a little manure, and 

 put a compost of ashes and hen-manure in the hill ; and, 

 dlthough the land was not ploughed until the 10th or 15th 

 of June, I raised seventy or eighty bushels to the acre. I 

 cart' my stalks irito the barnyard, drive my teams over them, 

 crush them, and make them soft, and, by the time cold 

 weather sets in, I have a compost-heap that will be worth 

 carting out the next spring. All the slops from the house 

 are conducted to the barnyard, and the drainage from the 

 yard flows on to a meadow below. I don't think it is good 

 economy to allow the corn-butts, &c., to remain in the field 

 to check the plough. I think the best plan is to turn all the 

 stover that the cattle won't eat into manure for next year. 

 It used to be a saying with my father, that a corn-cob that 

 came out of the hog-pen with a little excrement clinging to 

 it would raise a good hill of corn. They call this modern 

 farming ; but the old farmers had some of these ideas that 

 we have now. I think the old people should have a little 

 credit for the lessons we are getting now. 



Mr. HuiNiPHREY. I want to be understood fairly about 

 my corn. I should have had, probably, seventy-five bushels 

 to the acre, which I usually get ; but the drought took a 

 portion of it, the grasshoppers took a portion, and the squir- 

 rels came in and took a portion j so that my crop was much 

 reduced. 



Question. I would like to inquire as to your method of 

 harvesting. 



