MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 171 



Manure, $ 5 00 



Labor, 11 00 



$17 50 

 Value of the crop at ten dollars per ton, 6960 pounds, 



$34 80, leaving a profit of |17 30, equal to $138 40 per 



acre. 



AsHBY, December 22d, 1849. 



Ebenezer Richardson'' s Statement. 



In September, 1848, I ploughed deep and turned liM, four 

 acres of ground. In the spring following, I harrowed well, 

 and carted on fifty loads of manure to the acre, and laid it in 

 heaps of as equal size, and at as equal distances apart as I could. 

 I then set an experienced hand spreading the manure, directing 

 him to spare no pains to spread it over all the ground alike. I 

 then started the plough after him, being careful to plough deep 

 enough to cover the manure, and not disturb the old sod. I 

 then furrowed lightly, endeavoring not to exceed three feet apart, 

 each way. The average distance of the furrows, I think, fell 

 a little short of three feet. About the middle of May I planted 

 with corn, putting six or seven seeds in the hill. When the 

 corn was large enough, I ploughed it with two furrows in the 

 row each way, running the plough as close to the corn as I 

 could, without injury to it. At the second hoeing, which was 

 after the 20th of June, I ploughed and hoed in the same man- 

 ner as before, turning the farrow from the corn, and thinned it 

 out to four stalks in a hill. I have never seen a field o( corn 

 come up and grow so evenly since I was large enough to work 

 in the field, which I have done for forty years in succession, 

 with but one exception. 



Soon after the second hoeing, it nearly, or quite covered the 

 ground, so that I thought it would injure rather than benefit it, 

 to plough and hoe again. It grew and ripened finely, and in 

 November was harvested. To ascertain the yield, I measured 

 a square rod, which I found would average twenty-seven hills. 



