127 



sufficient to have bought the laud a few years ago, and which, in many 

 parts of the County, would now buy land equally as good, and in 

 some much better. 



Mr. llug^lcs supposed, at the time of planting in the spring, that 

 he had an acre of land, and entered it for a premium accordingly. 

 Subsequent measure, however, proved that there was but 133 rods. 

 I visited the field several times, and, as the land was strong and well 

 manured, the corn grew rapidly and threw up a large quantity of 

 suckers, which, as he states, were cut to let in the sun, of which 

 there was some need, as the field was a perfect swamp. The practice 

 of cutting the suckers is objected to by some cultivators, as injurious 

 to the crop. In this case the suckers and top stalks were both cut, 

 whether to its injury or benefit is not known ; one thing, however, is 

 certain, there was an extraordinary large crop. The field by 

 measurement contained 133 rods, from which there were harvested 

 147 baskets of corn on the ear. On the 27th of October, I went to 

 Mr. Ruggles's place, and helped him shell two baskets of ears of the 

 corn, and found it to yield 42 1-2 quarts of shelled corn, or 97 19-32 

 bushels on the 133 rods. As there has been dispute about so large 

 a crop of corn being raised in our County, I have been very particu- 

 lar about the measure, although I had no doubt of Mr. Ruggies's 

 honesty in the statement, yet, to satisfy myself as well as the public, 

 I measured the corn, which was put up in a regular bin, and found 

 tiiat there were 22G cubic feet of cars, which — according to my 

 figuring, and allowing 2747.70 cubic inches to the heaped bushel, 

 which, I believe, is the standard, being 597.28 inches more than 

 a level bushel — would give 142 baskets of ears; and, as it would 

 pack much closer in a large bin than in baskets, I think there could 

 have been no mistake about the measure or quantity. I should have 

 stated that the cobs from the two baskets of ears weighed but 15 1-2 

 lbs. The great superiority of this kind of corn consists in the extra 

 (i[uantity which a basket of ears will yield, being in this case 21 1-4 

 quarts; and, should it prove to contain as much nutriment as the 

 yellow kind, it will be a valuable acquisition to the farmer. 



The corn field of Mr. Dow I also examined and surveyed, as my 

 certificate will show. It was indeed an uncommon field to look at ; 

 and the result proved that it was equal to the promise. The soil was 

 naturally rather moist, and originally very rocky, and many rocks 

 are now in the land, large enough to occupy the space of several 



