190 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Threshing', . . / . . 

 Land rent, ..... 



Value of 52 bushels wheat, at $1.50, 

 " straw, .... 



Balance in favor of the crop, .... $54 75 



Actual cost of raising the crop, sixty-four cents per bushel. 



I will also present you with a statement of what may be con- 

 sidered by those looking for great results, rather unimportant 

 intelligence. Yet, in comparison with the actual profits of the 

 crop, as by the table furnished in the society's report for 1851, 

 from several of the greatest wheat growing States, it will be 

 noticed that this accidental crop, if the term be admissablc; 

 gave a larger actual return of profits than the average results 

 from those States. 



The acre of ground upon which the crop of wheat was raised 

 in 1852, and for which I was awarded the society's premium, 

 was soon after harvest, prepared for a crop of turnip.-?, by 

 ploughing under the stubble, and harrowing in a top-dressing 

 of fine manure, and then sowed with turnip seed. These were 

 soon up and presented a promising appearance ; but soon the 

 wheat, which was unavoidably scattered in harvesting the crop, 

 began to show itself, and claiming precedence of right, very 

 soon overspread the ground, and so shaded the turnips that a 

 very small crop of them was obtained. Last spring, the wheat 

 (thus buried) looked so promising, I was induced to stimulate 

 its growth by applying a top-dressing of two hundred pounds 

 of plaster mixed with two barrels of ashes, and await the re- 

 sult. It was harvested in July. The yield was twenty-two 

 bushels of clean grain, weighing sixty pounds per bushel. The 

 avails of this crop follow : — 



22 bushels of wheat, at $1.50, . . .$33 00 



Straw, . . . . . . . . 5 00 



$38 00 



Cost of plaster and^ashcs, . . . . $2 00 

 " harvest and threshing, . . . 5 00 



