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202 WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



possible with the common plough, twenty-three cart loads of 

 stable manure spread as evenly as possible upon the whole, 

 (one-half acre) and ploughed under ; the ground was subse- 

 quently harrowed, and again ploughed, and the seed sowed at 

 the rate of one pound to the acre. 



Upon both of these pieces, all the work, save weeding and 

 harvesting, was done by myself personally. I know the land 

 to have been well prepared, and upon the smallest piece, to have 

 been in a much better condition than in either of the two pre- 

 ceding years, during which, it had produced the same crop, and 

 from which, a larger crop had been harvested than was yielded 

 the present year. The one-quarter acre first inspected by your 

 committee, yielded one hundred and three bushels, the other 

 piece, of one-half acre, (part of which I have entered) but two 

 hundred and forty-three bushels and twenty-six pounds. 



This light yield is accounted for, only by the miserably bad 

 quality of the seed used by me. It was purchased by me, as 

 '■'■ fresh and genuine.'''' It proved to be neither. Early in the 

 vegetation of the crop, the whole of each field bore the appear- 

 ance of a field of ruta bagas. At a distance, scarcely anything 

 else could be seen, and it was the subject of remark in the 

 neighborhood, till they were cut out at the time of weeding. 



There is no probability of mistake in the matter, for the 

 machine was never used to sow a ruta baga seed designedly, 

 since I bought it from the manufacturers. I have alluded to 

 this, in the hope that by my experience, others may learn 

 how little dependence can be , placed in the representations of 

 seedsmen. The loss this year, in this immediate neighborhood 

 from bad seed, purchased in each instance, from professed seeds- 

 men, may be fairly estimated at not less than one hundred 

 dollars. 



Upon a portion of this larger piece, and also upon a part 

 of an adjoining one, I had sowed buckwheat the last year. 

 The committee, I doubt not, perceived the unfavorable appear- 

 ance of the crop upon that portion which had borne this grain 

 the previous year. At an earlier period of the season, the differ- 

 ence was as perceptible /as a fresh furrow would have been, and 

 that too, at quite a distance. What caused it ? The land orig- 



