FORAGE CROPS IN NEW ENGLAND. 179 



wheat can be grown in Plymouth County. Suppose you 

 should try an acre. 



Mr. . It would cost more than it comes to. 



Question. In your opinion, does it follow, if you have 

 some good wheat4and in your county, that wheat can be 

 raised to advantage all over the State? 



Mr. Grinnell. I do not think there is such great diver- 

 sity of soil in different portions of this State, that you could 

 not find soil here upon which you could raise wheat, as well 

 as in Franklin County. I do not look for wheat-land as they 

 do, perhaps, in England, or in New York, where they raise 

 great crops. We can raise wheat on any good land which has 

 been well tilled and well manured. The best crops have been 

 raised on what has been called first-rate grassland, — often 

 where tobacco has been raised, and wheat followed. 



Mr. Sessions. What made me ask that question was, that 

 some years ago I tried to raise wheat, — tried it for several 

 years, — and was not successful. I thought I would use 

 land that was a little better than I used for my other crops, 

 so as to get some good wheat ; and it came out a failure. 



Mr. Grinnell. I think that much more might be grown 

 than is supposed. At any rate, I think it is well worth try- 

 ing. 



Mr. Sessions. An old man in the western part of the 

 State, in the county of Franklin, who had always raised 

 wheat, said to me at one time, that, in order to have a suc- 

 cessful crop of wheat, it ought to be sown upon land where 

 it would catch every breeze that came. I think the best 

 wheat that is grown in Franklin County is grown upon the 

 high lands in the towns of Heath, Rowe, and those hilly 

 towns where, perhaps, the land slopes to the south, and yet 

 it gets every breeze that comes from the north. That, per- 

 haps, may have had an effect. 



The Chaieman. A pertinent question has been asked 

 here, — what it cost to move those stones. I cannot tell you 

 that ; but here is my friend, the secretary, upon whom I 

 depend for all the statistics I want. Perhaps he can answer 

 that question ; and, after you get that out of him, you can 

 ask him about wheat ; for he has some facts in relation 

 to that matter which it is desirable should be presented at 

 this time. 



