[ 82 ] 



Account of an uncommonly fertile soil in Lancaster Coun- 

 ty, and on trimming hedges, by Caleb Kirk> of Dela- 

 ware. 



Read September 1816. 

 Brandy twine % 8th 6mo. 1816. 

 Esteemed Friend y 



I lately returned from a journey, in which I had occasion to 

 pass though six counties, three of Maryland, and three 

 of Pennsylvania, on which rout the bad appearance of the 

 wheat crop had claimed my sympathy with the farmer, 

 on seeing the unpromising prospect (I suppose from the 

 Hessian fly and frosty spring,) But calling on a friend in 

 the lower part of Lancaster county, and the conversation 

 turning on the subject of the unfavourable prospect, he 

 invited me to walk out and see his wheat field ; 1 did 

 so, and I was gratified with a prospect of at least thirty 

 bushels to the acre, and as the contrast was so great from 

 the last farm I had passed, which would not yield one 

 bushel to the acre on a great part thereof, (some spots 

 better,) and as my friend A. Slay maker's crop looked so 

 handsome, I was led to enquire as to his manuring, &c. He 

 informed me that he had never put a load of manure on 

 that part of his farm since his residence on it thirty-six 

 years ; neither had he ever missed a crop in that length 

 of time, and had one year obtained 401 1-2 bushels off 

 of ten acres and a half. I was induced, from his relation 

 of the fact of its continued fertility, (having been settled 



