PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 171 



that amount, been expended in pulverizing the soil, we believe 

 his crop would have been heavier, more evenly ripened, and 

 therefore threshed cleaner. One leading cause of so many fail- 

 ures in attempts to raise wheat, we think, may be neglect of 

 working the land sufficiently. In fields newly cleared from the 

 forest, the soil is always porous, and those fields yield abundantly. 

 Continual cropping produces compactness in the soil ; therefore, 

 in preparing an old field for wheat, we should reduce it, as near 

 as practicable, to the state of forest soil. No manure need be 

 admitted into the process in a field which produced, the prece- 

 ding year, as did Mr. W's., more than a hundred bushels of 

 Indian corn to the acre. 



Six claims were entered for the best crop of Indian corn on 

 an acre of land. One was withdrawn because the field, sup- 

 posed to contain an acre, proved less in measurement. It is due 

 to that applicant, Mr. Drake, the superintendent of East Bridge- 

 water Almshouse, to state that, according to appearance from the 

 road, he had one of the largest crops noticed in the county. 

 Another claim was withdrawn late in the season, on account of 

 injury to the crop from a great rain. 



Four fields were examined, and the product of one square rod 

 in each, weighed, with the following results : — In the field of 

 Nathan Whitman, of East Bridgewater, the product of a rod 

 weighed 49| lbs., making 105f| bushels to the acre ; in that of 

 Paul Hathaway, of Middleborough, 42 lbs. making 89f| bushels 

 to the acre; George W. Wood, of Middleborough, 41| lbs., 

 making 89 T 5 r bushels to the acre ; Dexter Pratt, of East Bridge- 

 water, 37 lbs., making 78f4 bushels to the acre. 



Messrs. W. and H. cultivated their corn chiefly with horses. 

 Mr. W. hoed not at all, and spent less than twenty hours in pull- 

 ing up weeds. In this instance the success of the course has been 

 entirely satisfactory, but a reasonable doubt may be entertained 

 whether it should be recommended in general practice. In 

 smooth fields, free of perennial weeds and stones, the hoe may be 

 dispensed with ; but, in fields filled with the roots of what is 

 called dog-grass, as many now are, every available instrument 

 seems important in eradicating them. Mr. H., two years in 

 succession, has obtained very fine crops of corn, with very little 



