72 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



ton of hay to the acre, gave me tliis year, under this manage- 

 ment, three tons of excellent Timothy to the acre. 



I have top-dressed a greal of run out grass land ; but not 

 with the advantage which I anticipated. Heavy lands unques- 

 tionably need stirring now and then ; and light lands require 

 frequent incorporation of manure. 



Grain. — Corn and barley are the grains which I raise in any 

 considerable quantity ; on gravelly soils, a little rye, as much 

 for the straw as for the grain. I raise corn because it is the 

 best crop I can take from land which I propose to lay down to 

 grass. I think grass follows it better than it does any of the 

 root crops, potatoes included. I believe, moreover, that corn 

 well cultivated is a profitable crop ; and that corn fodder 

 properly cured and properly fed to cattle will amply repay the 

 cost of cultivation. Manure is spread upon the surface of my 

 corn land and harrowed in ; and a little super-phosphate of 

 lime or ashes, the former placed in the hill, and the latter 

 applied at the first hoeing, generally gives abundant crops. 



The field appropriated to corn this year contains about four- 

 teen acres. It is rather low, and intersected by a small brook. 

 On one side of this brook the land is clayey and heavy ; on the 

 other it is a mixture of sandy and clayey loam, strong and 

 warm, in some places presentingthe appearance of having been 

 washed from the surrounding ledges by heavy floods, and all 

 interspersed with small shallow deposits of decayed vegetable 

 matter. Last year this field yielded a very small crop of hay — 

 not more than half a ton to the acre. Its surface was broken 

 by boulders, and by a knoll covered with red cedars, bushes, 

 and stones. In September of last year it was thoroughly 

 cleared of stones and trees ; new ditches were dug ; an elevated 

 spot of about three-quarters of an acre, very springy, was 

 drained with tiles ; and the whole field was ploughed eight 

 inches in depth. Prom a deposit of muck in one corner of the 

 field, five hundred loads were drawn tmd deposited at proper 

 distances from each other, in heaps of about one hundred loads 

 each. Late in the autumn twenty casks of lime were mixed with 

 each heap. A hundred loads of barnyard manure were drawn 

 into the field during the winter. In the spring the compost of 

 muck and lime was spread evenly upon the land, and harrowed 

 in with Geddcs' harrow, heavily weighted. The land w\is then 



