2G6 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



be considered an ordinary yield ; and this, too, upon land 

 naturally very favorable to the crop. Five or six years are as 

 many as ought to be devoted to hoed crops. Then let wheat, 

 rye or oats follow with grass seeds. After remaining in grass, 

 say three years, it will be again in good condition for the plough. 

 Here is a nine years' course, viz. : five in broomcorn, or other 

 hoed crops ; one in rye and three in grass. Let us compare 

 it with nine years of broomcorn alone. I will suppose five 

 hundred fifty pounds to be an average yield, with six loads of 

 manure dropped in the hill. This, for nine years, will amount 

 to four thousand nine hundred fifty pounds ; which, at six cents 

 per pound, is two hundred ninety-seven dollars. Estimating 

 seed at fifty-five bushels per acre, we have, for nine years, four 

 hundred ninety-five bushels. This, at twenty-five cents, amounts 

 to one hundred twenty-three dollars seventy-five cents ; which, 

 added to the price of the brush, makes four hundred twenty 

 dollars seventy-five cents. Deduct, for tillage and interest, 

 twenty dollars a year for nine years, and we have as a result, 

 two hundred forty dollars seventy-five cents. Now, if we apply 

 fifty -four loads of manure in five years, instead of nine, we may 

 reasonably calculate upon an increase of at least two hundred 

 pounds per acre. Seven hundred and fifty pounds for five 

 years, amounts to three thousand seven hundred and fifty pounds. 

 This, at six cents, amounts to two hundred twenty-five dollars. 

 Estimating seed at seventy-five bushels, we have, for the five 

 years, three hundred seventy-five bushels, which, at twenty-five 

 •cents, would be ninety-three dollars twenty-five cents. This, 

 added to the price of the brush, as before, makes three hundred 

 eighteen dollars ninety-five cents. Deduct one hundred dollars 

 for tillage and interest, and there remains two hundred 

 eighteen dollars seventy-five cents; only twenty-two dollars 

 less than would be obtained by the other method, and which a 

 good crop of wheat or rye would of itself cover, leaving the 

 three years of grass as clear gain. Having thus given my views 

 in regard to a rotation of crops upon lands naturally favorable 

 to cultivation, it may be as well to speak of a kind, the very 

 opposite of this, viz. : those lands which, owing to their distance 

 from the homestead, their inaccessibility, or their unfriendliness 

 to cultivation, it is desirable to keep most of the time in grass. 



