122 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



■week in August or first week in September is the best time to 

 sow. I mowed the above acre six years, then ploughed and 

 sowed on the sod. I think this is the better way to sow. If we 

 wait for the corn to come off it makes it late for wheat sowing. 

 I sow my grass seed on the wheat land in the spring. If it is • 

 sown with the wheat it gets the start of the wheat in the spring 

 and chokes it. I wash and lime or ash my seed wheat, thinking 

 it necessary to prevent any tendency to smut, which tendency 

 may possibly be produced by using manure composed partly of 

 chaff of smutty grain. If we sow smut, we reap smut. 



Statement of S. R. Damon. 



WHEAT. 



The crop on this land in 1865 was corn and potatoes ; in 

 1866 it was corn. The dressing used for both these crops was 

 stable manure, twenty-five loads to the acre. Soil, yellow loam. 

 I ploughed once, May 3, seven inches deep ; cultivated and har- 

 rowed three times ; applied twenty loads of manure spread 

 broadcast after ploughing. I sowed. May 9, two and one-half 

 bushels. Cradled the last week in August ; stooked in the field 

 till dry. Straw, 34 cwt. The land on which my wheat grew 

 measures one acre, five rods, forty feet. 



Cost of ploughing, &c., . . . . . . |8 00 



of manure, . . . . . . . 30 00 



of cultivating and harvesting, ♦. . . . 21 00 



$59 00 

 Weight of crop as certified by Wm. Baker, Nov. 6th, 2,093 lbs. 



Statement of Joseph Goodrich, 



CORN. 



In 1865 and 1866, the crops on this land were grass ; no 

 dressing used. Soil, clayey loam. Ploughed first, September, 

 1866, from six to eight inches deep ; cross-ploughed the follow- 

 ing spring ; harrowed and furrowed one way. Applied fifteen 

 loads of manure spread and ploughed in ; also, two hundred 

 and fifty weight of superphosphate applied to the hill, and about 

 the same of plaster. Planted, May 6th, six quarts seed, called 



