92 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



to Holliston, between the highway and the Milford Branch of 

 the Boston & Albany Raih'oad. The soil is a gravelly loam, 

 and although in sod for several years, and having been liber- 

 ally top-dressed, yet the grass had become bound out, and 

 the field, through diminished crops, scarcely worth mowing, 

 showed that tillage was required. 



After being ploughed in May, the field received ninety 

 loads of dung. The dung was of high quality, being pure 

 cow-dung, slightly dusted with dirt, and from grain-fed and 

 carefully-attended cattle, and taken from a cellar with a 

 water-tight bottom. As our horse-cart body is five feet long, 

 three and a half feet wide, and fourteen inches deep, and was 

 carried as full as was possible at each trip, the field received 

 20 cubic feet X 90 loads = 1,800 cubic feet -^- 128 feet z= 

 14 cords, or 5.2 cords per acre. 



The corn planted was a very fine eight-rowed variety, small 

 in diameter, but long ; the grain good-sized, bright yellow, 

 hard and compact, with a small cob. A portion of this seed, 

 presented us by Mr. S. B. Bird, of Framingham, it seems to 

 us can scarcely be excelled. The field was planted May 20, 

 and the corn came up in due time, and looked finely through- 

 out the season of growth, showing less fodder and a greater 

 maturity over the chemical fertilized field above described. 

 The field received the amount of labor as given below, the 

 labor rates being calculated on the same basis as before : — 



* As a matter of convenience, a part of this field was topped at irregular times, as the cows 

 required fodder. We therefore assume the labor of stooking as being the same per acre as 

 with the fertilized field. Harvesting is also estimated the same as with the other crop. 



