250 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



how to apply. His inventive genius may bring to his aid new 

 labor-saving machines. He will learn to do every thing in the 

 right time and in the right manner. Method and economy 

 should be his watchwords. Not entirely contented with his own 

 experience and experiments, he will strive to learn from his neigh- 

 bors*, agricultural papers and books. In a word, his endeavor 

 to raise large crops tends to make the farmer a student, chemist 

 and philosopher ; a learner from the great book of Nature, and 

 a shareholder in her bank stock — the surest and most reliable in 

 the world ! 



The competition for the Hampshire Society's premium on 

 crops, was greater this, than in any former year. The whole 

 number of crops entered was forty, viz. : two of carrots, two of 

 turnips, three of potatoes, four of oats, four of rye, seven of 

 wheat, seven of Indian corn, and eleven of broomcorn. The 

 statements of the successful competitors are annexed. 



Daniel Rice, Chairman. 



Statement of Albert Montague. 



The acre of land on which my corn grew, is a sandy loam. It 

 was in broomcorn last year, when it received a light coat of 

 manure on the surface. The broomcorn was light, not more 

 than six or seven hundred pounds to the acre. On the 27th of 

 May, I carted fifteen loads of coarse manure from my yard, and 

 ploughed it in. I ploughed seven inches deep, and the next 

 day I harrowed it fine, furrowed it with a small jDlough, and in 

 the furrows spread 150 lbs. of guano, and planted with Wood- 

 ward's planter. ]\Iy hills were three feet apart from centre to 

 centre, and the rows about three feet. I think there was no 

 hill missing on the acre. Some kernels of corn, which were left 

 a little distance from the main hill, produced five ears of corn, 

 viz. : three on the seed stalk, and two on the suckers. I hoed 

 three times, but the last time I did not use a horse, as the corn 

 was too large to allow it. I cut it the 24th of September, carted 

 and husked it the last of October. It was very dry when 

 husked. I counted the baskets, and, by shelling one of them, 

 I found 931 bushels of shelled corn, weighing 56 lbs. to the 

 bushel, and just about the same by measurement. I weighed 

 one stack of fodder, and by multiplication, I learn there were 



