86 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



[It is stated that 130H bushels of corn were raised on this 

 acre. No statement is made in regard to the manner of meas- 

 uring the corn, but from Mr. Hale's well-known character it is 

 presumed that he would not have allowed such a statement to 

 be published without having had the corn on the whole acre 

 accurately weighed, or otherwise accurately measured, and that, 

 too, after it had become dry and good merchantable corn. This 

 is obviously the true and only method of arriving at a result 

 which could justify the statement of so extraordinary a yield, 

 without any allusion to the method of measurement. 



Too much care cannot be taken to state the exact mode of 

 arriving at the aggregate yield, especially when so large a crop 

 is reported. And again, if the whole was weighed, which is, 

 perhaps, the most reliable method, it should have been stated 

 when it was done, whether as soon as taken from the field and 

 husked, or afterwards, since most varieties of corn, shrink 

 from ten to twenty-five per cent., under ordinary circumstances, 

 between the time of gathering and the first of January. In the 

 Agriculture of Massachusetts for 1853, page 148, it was suggested 

 that " a proper regard to truth, and justice to other parts of the 

 State, should induce committees to require the utmost strict- 

 ness in measurement ; and to prevent any discouragement, that 

 the societies should offer such premiums as will compensate for 

 any amount of time which may be required." An experiment 

 made by the late J. E. Howard, and reported in the above 

 named volume, page 150, shows, so far as it goes, that the 

 " smutty white," or " Whitman corn," shrinks more in weight 

 than the yellow varieties, the former having shrunk at the rate 

 of seven pounds per bushel, the latter at the rate of three, only, 

 between the 10th of January and the 21st of April. 



It must be obvious that unless great care is taken in measur- 

 ing accurately all crops like the one stated above, the statements 

 are not only useless, but positively injurious, since they mislead, 

 and at the same time throw great discredit upon well meant 

 efforts to advance the cause of practical agriculture. 



By the returns of the Statistics of Industry, made during 

 the past year, it appears that there are 89,773 acres of Indian 

 corn raised in the State, or 2,244,325 bushels, valued at 

 $2,722,208.— Ed.] 



