164 MODES OF RESEARCH IN GENETICS 



Sussex cow : ^ "a cow not of either of the highest 

 improved Enghsh breeds — long horns or short 

 horns ; but of the proper old Sussex breed." The 

 following record is of her production in five suc- 

 cessive years beginning in 1805. I have tran- 

 sposed quarts to pounds by the use of the factor 

 given above : 



First year 

 Second year 

 Third year 

 Fourth year 

 Fifth year 



Weeks in 

 Milk 



48 



42| 



48 



Lbs. of 

 Milk 



10,580.2 

 8,894.6 



12,366.8 

 9,070.9 



11,543.4 



Lbs. of 

 Butter 



540 

 450 

 675 

 466 

 594 



Facts of the same sort are at hand for crops. 

 Justin Ely, Esq., of West Springfield, Mass., in 

 1816, raised 50 bushels of wheat to the acre. Colo- 

 nel James Valentine, of Hopkinton, raised 128 

 bushels of "Indian corn" to the acre. Payson Wil- 

 liams, Esq., of Fitchburg, raised 614 bushels of pota- 

 toes to the acre, and James Whitton, Esq., of Lee, 

 raised 85 bushels of oats to the acre. The average 

 yield of oats to-day is approximately 36 bushels to 

 the acre. The Maine Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, in its tests of the best commercial varie- 

 ties of oats procurable in this country and Europe, 



^ Massachusetts Agricultural Repository and Journal, Vol. IV, 

 No. 4. Cf. also New England Farmer, Vol. Ill, p. 305, 1825. 



