156 Extracts from the Journals. [Ju^y* 



harvesting is done with a cradle. Corn is generally planted by 

 the tenth day of May, on sod land ; most of the manure is put 

 upon this crop. The corn is planted in hills three feet apart each 

 way; from four to six kernels in a hill, and no thinning out is 

 practised. Sulphate of lime, or ashes is put on the corn as soon 

 as it comes up. Two effectual hoeings are given to it, and a cul- 

 tivator with steel teeth, is run twice each way of the field between 

 the rows, to prepare it for the hoe. Corn plows and cast iron 

 cultivator teeth are entirely discarded. 



At the proper time, the stalks are cut up at the surface of the 

 ground, and put into small stooks, and when the corn is husked, 

 the stalks are drawn up at once into the barn, without being 

 again set up. In this way they are kept in good condition, and 

 labor saved. 



Oats or barley are sown the next spring, on this corn stubble. 

 Of each of these grains, three bushels of seed is put upon an acre. 

 As soon as the grain is up, sulphate of lime is sown. These 

 grains are also sown on sod land. The reason of this is, I cannot 

 command the manual labor necessary to cultivate one-fifth of my 

 land in corn, and secure it at the proper season. The rotation of 

 crops I attempt to pursue, is — first, corn, second, oats or barley, 

 third, wheat on the oat or barley stubble, fourth, clover and herds- 

 grass pasture — the seed sown on the wheat — fifth, meadow. But 

 inasmuch as certain portions of my farm are not suited to raising 

 wheat, and as I cannot command the force necessary to cultivate 

 the proportion of corn, I am compelled to modify; but I come as 

 near to this rotation as I can. 



The usual time of sowing barley is as soon as the ground is 

 settled — commonly by the 26th of April. The oats are sowed 

 later, generally early in May. 



The yield of the crops for this year has already been given, and 

 I think I am safe in saying, that the average of one year with 

 another, upon the system of rotation before given, comes up to 

 that of this year. The pasture will sustain two cows upon an 

 acre, and the hay will generally yield two tons to the acre. 



13. This interrogatory has been so far anticipated, that it is 

 only necessary to add, that sometimes manure that is not conve- 

 nient to draw in the spring, is put upon the corn stubble and upon 

 wheat. 



14. This interrogatory has been anticipated, in part. My rea- 

 sons for applying my manure to corn,- are, that I have better 

 means of destroying the seeds of weeds, and from the belief that 

 .corn is the best crop to take up that part of the manure that the 

 first crop can use, and that the manure is thus prepared for the 

 crops that follow. Experiments that I have made, go to show 

 that, coarse manure benefits the second crop as much as it does 



