66 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Statement of Edmund Smith. 



The piece of meadow wliicli I offer for premium, contains 

 about three acres, in Hadley. It is the centre of a lot of nine- 

 teen acres and a-half, wliich I bought in 1840, and which was 

 then worth five dollars per acre. There was some wood on the 

 north side — the south side was higher, and part had been 

 ploughed. In 18-12 I mowed the brush to see if I could make 

 a piece of swamp-mowing ; but it proved worthless, in conse- 

 quence of the water flowing from a large tract of swamp on the 

 north side. It was so wet, that nothing grew of any value. I 

 had cut a ditch, west of this piece of land, running north and 

 south across the lot, which took off some of the water. The 

 season was very dry in August, 1845, and I thought I would 

 try the experiment of ploughing. I dug the stumps and put 

 them into a fence — used a large plough, drawn by four yoke of 

 oxen, and had a man with a bog hoe to relieve the plough 

 whenever it clogged or stopped. We were eight days plough- 

 ing three acres, ten inches deep, beds four rods wide. The 

 furrows drained off the water into the ditch on the west side. 

 The next spring I sowed oats and hay seed, at the rate of eight 

 quarts of herds-grass, three pounds of clover, and four quarts of 

 redtop seed to the acre. The crop of oats was better than I 

 expected. The hay seed came up well. For four or five years 

 after it was seeded, I think there was at the rate of one and a 

 half tons of hay to the acre, worth six dollars per ton, standing. 

 The north land — about three-fourths of an acre — I ploughed and 

 planted in the summer of 1850, with potatoes and broomcorn, 

 manuring in the hill. The next spring I sowed oats and hay 

 seed — had a good crop of oats — the hay seed came up well. 

 I cut from this piece, the past two seasons, at the rate of two 

 tons of good hay to the acre, and have never manured it, except 

 in 1846, The remainder of the three acres I ploughed last 

 fall, about eight inches deep. It was planted in Maj^, and 

 manured in the hill with oyster shell lime and plaster. I think 

 the crop equal to fifty bushels or more of shelled corn to the 

 acre. The land, since it was first planted, has yielded a yearly 

 income of six dollars per acre ; but thp last two years the 

 income has been greater. 



