164 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Cost of Crop. 



20 cords of manure, ........ $90 00 



One-half removed by crop, . . . . . . 45 00 



Cost of ploughing and preparing land, . . . . 10 00 



" seed and planting, 20 00 



" cultivating, 10 00 



The yield was at the rate of 472 bushels to the acre. 



PLYMOUTH. 



Statement of James Howard. 



Beets. — The laud on which my beets grew measures 50 

 square rods, and is a low, stiff, gravelly loam ; it was in corn 

 in 1873, manured with stable-manure, at the rate of four cords 

 to the acre, with a small quantity of bone and ashes in the 

 hills ; in potatoes in 1874, manured nearly the same as in the 

 previous year ; ploughed once in April, 1875, six inches deep, 

 smoothed down with cultivator and rakes, and one pound of 

 lonof red mans^old seed sowed with a machine ; cultivated 

 twice with a horse, and hoed three times; harvested the last 

 of October. Product; 23,160 pounds, or 386 bushels of 

 beets, being at the rate of 1,235^| bushels per acre, and tops 

 worth, perhaps, $3, which is much less than they would have 

 been worth but for the early frost, which injured them as food 

 for stock (for which I think them quite valuable when 

 uninjured), and also checked the growth of the roots pre- 

 maturely. Weeds have grown with unusual rapidity the pas,t 

 season, and the cost of cultivation has been thereby increased. 

 I think beets should be planted as early as the season and the 

 condition of the land will permit. The manure applied this 

 year consisted of 1| cords of barn-manure, 166 pounds of low- 

 grade German potash, 140 pounds of Davis's phosphate and six 

 bushels of hen-manure. 



Cost of Crop. 



Ploughing, etc., $2 00 



Manure, 20 75 



Seed and planting, 1 75 



Cultivation, . . 12 00 



Harvesting, ......... 7 50 



Total, $44 00 



