360 BOARD OF AGEICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



us in 1903 the heaviest crop we have ever obtained, the 

 average per acre for the entire area for that year amounting 

 to 8,104 pounds. The average yield for the entire period, 

 1893 to 1903 inclusive, has amounted to almost exactly 

 6,600 pounds per acre. The average cost of the manure or 

 fertilizer applied to this land annually amounts to about $12 

 per acre ; the annual cost of securing the crop to a little 

 over $8 ; the annual profit on the crop to about $20 per 

 acre. The figures given, which are verified by the most 

 accurate records, make it sufficiently evident that land of 

 the right character devoted to the production of hay may 

 be made exceedingly profitable. It appears to me evident 

 that the 9 acres under discussion must have an actual value 

 to an intelligent farmer of at least $350 per acre. The 

 average profit, whatever we may hold concerning the value 

 of the land, amounts to more than five per cent annual 

 return on the figure which has been named. 



The facts which have been cited make it perfectly evident 

 that the })Ossibilities of the hay crop are vastly beyond the 

 actual results obtained I)y the average farmer. It may be 

 objected that the land of the college farm at Amherst is es- 

 pecially adapted to grass ; that it is better than the average 

 land of the State. Both of these statements are undoubtedly 

 true ; but, on the other hand, the value of the hay crop in 

 Amherst is lower than in the average town of the State, and 

 the chances for profit on the crop in most sections must 

 under intelligent management be nearly equal to the chances 

 for profit in Amherst ; for the crops to which reference has 

 been made have not been produced by extravagant use of 

 manure or fertilizer, nor under any system of management 

 not practicable for the average farmer of the State. The 

 average mowings of the State are sadly neglected. Their 

 owners practise, at least, as if they expected " out of nothing 

 to get something." Every season whenever rainfall is defi- 

 cient and the weather hot we read in the crop reports that 

 "grass in the old mowings is suffering, and w^ill be a very 

 short crop." These old mowings are neglected mowings. 

 They have not been manured or fertilized, or they have not been 

 recently reseeded ; and it is unreasonable to expect they will 

 give good crops, unless the conditions are unusuallj^ favorable. 



