SOIL ANALYSIS. 449 



SOIL ANALYSIS. 



From an Address before the Hampshire, Franklin 

 and Hampden Society, Oct. 11th, 1853. 



BY WILLIAM S. KING. 



We are all agreed that farming ought to pay, whether it does 

 or not ; and further, that it may be made to pay. The ques- 

 tion now is, how it may be made to pay? I answer: By rais- 

 ing maximum crops, at the minimum of cost to the owner and 

 to his soil. 



The agricultural statistics of Rhode Island, (which State, as 

 I have remarked, is the only one whose agricultural statistics 

 are complete and reliable,) show that the largest yield of carrots 

 in the State, in the year 1850, (a bad year for root crops, by 

 the way, because of the drought,) was one thousand bushels to 

 the acre ; while the average yield was four hundred bushels, 

 and the least, amounted to seventy-five bushels, all told. Of 

 onions, the largest croj) was six hundred bushels ; the average, 

 four hundred ; and the smallest, one hundred bushels, to the 

 acre. Of Indian corn, the largest yield per acre was one hun- 

 dred bushels ; the average, thirty and a half bushels ; and the 

 least, six. Of rye, the largest crop grown on an acre was forty 

 bushels ; the average was twelve and three-quarters ; and the 

 smallest was — what think ye ? — just three bushels ! 



Now, gentlemen, though we can easily see that it will well 

 pay to gather these maximum crops, if economically produced, 

 we can scarcely believe that they more than make the two ends 

 of the year meet, who raise but the average ; while how the 

 wolf is kept from the door of those who persist in getting such 

 crops as six bushels of corn, or three bushels of rye, passes our 

 comprehension. Three bushels of rye ! Six bushels of corn ! 

 Why, they will scarce suffice to feed the mice, that " most do 

 congregate " in the granaries of such thriftless farmers. 



We are, of course, aware that all soils are not able to grow 

 one hundred bushels of corn to the acre, and other crops in 

 proportion. But they are very poor specimens of land that 

 will not, with good tillage, yield more than the averages above 

 stated. Indeed, so far is it, in most instances, from being the 

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