106 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



is rather short, that each speaker shall be limited to ten min- 

 utes or thereabouts. 



Mr. . I merely rise to say, that, two years ago, I 



planted fourteen acres of corn, — seven acres of it high 

 ground, and light, sandy soil, with porous ground under- 

 neath ; the rest was heavy, stiff soil. On the heavy, stiff 

 soil, the corn was very smutty. I never saw smut more 

 abundant than it was on that field. On the light land, not 

 five rods from that, there was no smut at all. The smut 

 question having come up here, I thought this fact might be 

 an interesting one to knoAV. I do not know any thing about 

 smut : only I know that experience occurred to me. 



Dr. Wakefield. We have had a wonderful exhibition 

 of corn here, and we have had the report of a committee 

 awarding certain premiums. Now, I want to know what 

 practical lessons we are going to draw from them. I would 

 like to know, for instance, these facts in regard to the corn 

 that obtained the first premium, — what the seed was, how 

 it was cultivated, how it was manured. It seems to me 

 that, in order for us to get the most practical benefit, these 

 points must be stated at some time by the individuals who 

 have exhibited the specimens and raised them, or, if they 

 are not here to do that, we must obtain them from the report 

 of the secretary. If any exhibiter is here, it seems to me 

 he ought to tell us how his corn was cultivated, what the 

 seed was, when it was planted, how long it took to grow, 

 and how it was manured : these are the points we want to 

 know in order to derive the most practical benefit, and that 

 is what we are here for. We are here, as practical farmers, 

 in order to learn the best results from these experiments. 

 The societies have offered liberal premiums, and we want to 

 draw the best conclusions we can from them. Now, can we 

 get this information from the gentlemen who are here, or 

 must we wait until we get the report of the secretary ? 



Capt. Moore. In answer to what the gentleman has 

 said, I will say simply this, that the Board of Agriculture 

 had nothing whatever to do with the offer of those premi- 

 ums. The conditions, if there were any, were prescribed by 

 the parties who furnished the money : the Board had no 

 control over that matter. I agree with the gentleman in his 

 views precisely, that the award of those premiums is not 



