ROOT CROPS AND VEGETABLES. 191 



It will be seen that these two crops arc very nearly equal, 

 there being a diirerence of only five hundred and ninety-five 

 pounds to the acre, or about twelve bushels. It seemed to the 

 couiniittee that the question of economy in the cultivation was, 

 therefore, the most prominent one to settle. And as the calcu- 

 lation shows that Hanson Ordway excelled in this point, they 

 consider him entitled to the premium. 



They are unanimous, also, that Mr. Huntington would be 

 entitled to a gratuity, were any allowed, for the care and skill 

 with which he managed his crop. 



Statement of S. A. Merrill. 



Cabbages. — I submit the following statement of a cabbage 

 crop that I raised this season. Last fall I selected an acre of 

 old, worn-out grass-field, from which I had about one ton of hay 

 to the acre, turned it over last fall, ploughing eight inches deep. 

 Early in spring spread four cords of green barn manure to the 

 acre, and cross-ploughed four inches deep ; then opened my 

 drills three feet apart, putting one barn shovelful of compost 

 manure to each hill, — the hills being three feet apart, — and 

 covering it about one inch deep ; then dropping in my seed and 

 covering it one-half an inch deep. The second week in May I 

 hoed and thinned the plants to two in a hill. About this time 

 I also scattered on each hill a small qnantity of plaster, to 

 prevent the cabbage-bug from destroying the plants when small. 

 About the second hoeing, thinned to one plant in the hill. 

 About the middle of August I commenced gathering them for 

 the market, receiving for the first gatherings ten dollars per 

 hundred, and less as the season advanced. My whole crop 

 brought from seven to ten, and averaged eight dollars per 

 hundred. I gathered thirty-five hundred cabbages from this 

 acre, averaging from twenty to thirty pounds each, when ready 

 for market, — some weighing from forty to sixty pounds, with 

 stump and leaves on. 



VALUE OF CROP. 



3,500 cabbages at §8 per hundred, .... $280 00 



COST OF CROP. 



Breaking up land, $4 00 



4 cords of green manure, . . . . 20 00 



