YIELD OF WINTER WHEAT— CORN. 567 



twenty by thirty feet, with a wing sixteen by thirty-two feet, 

 and is situated on an elevation overlooking the lake. 



I have cleared seventy acres, about half of which is seeded 

 to timothy and clover, and is used for pasture and meadow. 

 The other half of the land I have cultivated is cleared of stumps 

 and planted and sowed in about equal proportions alternate 

 years. Formerly Winter wheat did well here, yielding twenty- 

 five to thirty-five bushels to the acre, but of late it has been 

 Winter killed to such an extent that it is not considered a safe 

 crop. During the fifteen years that I have harvested in this 

 place, my crops have been slightly damaged four times ; once 

 by hail, once by grasshoppers, and twice by drouth. The 

 lightest yield, damaged by hail, was twelve bushels, by grass- 

 hoppers, twenty bushels, by drouth eighteen and nineteen 

 bushels, respectively, in 1878 and 1879. Had the grasshopper 

 not troubled me the yield would probably have been thirty 

 bushels, and for the years 1878 and 1879 it promised, at least, 

 thirty-five. With the drouth for 1878 it was twenty bushels 

 No, 3, for 1879 it was eighteen bushels of No. 1 to the acre, at 

 machine measure. 



CORN. 



The average yield for the fifteen years I have farmed here, 

 has been twenty-two and a half bushels, by weight ; all 

 except last year's crop, which was badly blighted and 

 weighed only fifty-five pounds to the bushel. The soil is 

 black, sandy loam, with clay subsoil. Early in the Fall I plow 

 deep, and sow one and a half bushels to the acre as soon as 

 the ground is dry enough to mellow up good, generally about 

 the last of March or the first of April. I plow in the Fall for 

 corn also. The first week in May I mark it both ways with a 

 double-shovel plow four feet apart each way, and plant five to 

 six kernels in a hill, of the Dent varieties. I find that one 

 hundred bushels of ears to the acre is an average crop, but I 

 have raised one hundred and sixty bushels to the acre, in fav- 

 orable seasons. When the corn is about coming up, I give it a 

 thorough harrowing, and when it is up so that I can follow the 



