178 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



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on the same land the same year ; but I never put a second 

 crop or a third crop on to land without giving it something, 

 and usually some special fertilizer. I think it is robbery, 

 and a fmud upon the plant, to attempt to raise it upon 

 the residuum left from the crop of the previous year or of one 

 earlier in the season. Wheat requires fine tilth and plenty 

 of fertilizers. I use a great deal of plaster (a gypsum) on 

 almost every thing. I find it excellent for pastures, and for 

 rye and wheat. There is nothing that will make clover 

 grow so well. 



Question. How much plaster to the acre ? 



Mr. Grinnell. I suppose that two hundred pounds is as 

 good as more. 



Question. I would like to inquire if an acre of land in 

 a state of fertility sufficient to produce thirty bushels of 

 wheat would not be in a condition to produce certainly three 

 tons of good English hay worth, at the present price, about 

 twenty-five dollars a ton, with a less amount of labor than 

 would be required to produce the wheat and get it to 

 market ; making a sure crop for us, that is always in demand 

 in the good old Bay State. 



Mr. Grinnell. In answer to that, I would say that I am 

 not supposing that you put all your land into grass. I 

 am supposing that you have a rotation, or, if not rotation, 

 at least a change of crops. A piece of land that would 

 produce thirty bushels of wheat to the acre would produce 

 three tons to the acre of grass ; but then, you could not put 

 all your land into grass. 



Mr. . No, sir ; but if we have a sufficient number 



of crops to rotate at the present time, and crops that are 

 certainly adapted to our soil, especially in Plymouth County, 

 would it be wise for us to go into a crop where there is 

 uncertainty? 



Mr. Grinnell. Did you ever try it? 



Mr. . I have never tried it, from the fact that I never 



had a neighbor or friend who has had success in wheat-grow- 

 ing, and from the fact that there are so many crops which we 

 can produce that are adapted to this soil and climate. I 

 have never felt confidence enough to embark in an enter- 

 prise about the success of which there was any doubt. 



Mr. Grinnell. Your president, Mr. Lane, thinks that 



