160 



MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Expenses : — 

 20 loads of manure, . 

 30 bushels of lime and 2 of salt, 

 Ploughing, hauling manure, &g., . 

 Spreading manure and harrowing. 

 Planting and seed. 

 Hoeing and cultivating, 

 Cutting and stacking, . 

 Carting and husking, . 

 Interest on land, 



Net gain, 



Sunderland, November 15, 1853. 



11 75 



$45 05 



Statement of R. T. Wheelock. 



The acre, on which my crop of Indian corn was raised, is part 

 of a field of three and three-fourths acres, in Amherst. This field 

 is a hard, stiff, loamy soil, resting on a subsoil of gravel, with 

 a sprinkling of cobble-stones. It has been pastured. About 

 six years previous to my laying it down to pasture, it had been 

 apparently exhausted, by cropping, of every article of food, 

 capable of nourishing plants. In 1841-2, 1 attempted to culti- 

 vate this lot, and the result was nearly a total failure. So 

 lifeless was the soil, after turning it with the plough, that 

 neither sunshine, rain, nor good cultivation, seemed to pulver- 

 ize it, or to render it capable of sustaining a poor crop. Two 

 methods of procedure suggested themselves to my mind ; either 

 to manure liberally and continue to cultivate, or to stock it 

 down to pasture for a few years. The latter course, I adopted. 

 I sowed it with rye and stocked it down. The seed took re- 

 markably well, and, judging from the appearance of the pas- 

 ture, from year to year, I thought it gave unmistakable signs 

 of improvement. Last spring, I concluded to make one more 

 trial. About the first of May, I commenced ploughing it from 

 six to seven inches deep ; and, to my surj^rise, I found a thick, 

 rich, heavy turf. On working this, it pulverized immediately 

 after coming in contact with the atmosphere. I harrowed the 

 land twice, manured in the hill, at the rate of eight loads to 



