26 [Senate 



pounds each. To produce such enormously large roots, they should 

 be cultivated in drills, from two to three feet apart, and the plants 

 thinned to ten or twelve inches in the rows. It is generally conceded, 

 however, that moderate sized roots contain more saccharine matter in 

 proportion to their bulk, than extra large roots, and that twenty tons, 

 or about seven hundred bushels, is a very profitable crop for an acre 

 of land, and would be amply sufficient to feed ten cows for three or 

 four months of the year. A gentleman of great experience, in Con- 

 necticut, computes the product of one-fourth of an acre of good land, 

 at eight tons, which he says will support a cow for a whole year. 

 He allows five tons to feed on for nine months, and the other three 

 tons to be sold, and the proceeds to be applied to the purchase of 

 other food, to be given from the time the roots fail in the spring, until 

 new ones are produced. " 



In the agricultural department, we consider the following articles 

 as entitled to especial distinction: Two bushels of white flint wheat, 

 from R. L. Pell, of Pelham, which averaged sixty-two pounds each, 

 and yielded at the rate of seventy-eight bushels to the acre; also, from 

 the same gentlemen, one bushel of rye, sixty pounds; one bushel of 

 oats, forty-four pounds; one bushel of buckwheat, and forty ears of 

 fine yellow corn. From W. J. Townsend, of Astoria, L. I., one 

 bushel of white Virginia wheat, weight, sixty-one pounds; also, forty 

 ears of fine corn. From Isaac Briant, Springfield, N. J , one bushel 

 of oats, weight, forty-three and a half pounds. From J. Jones, 

 Hurlgate, one bushel of barley. From Nathan Coleman, Poughkeep- 

 sie, N. Y.J one bushel of white flint wheat, weight, sixty-four pounds, 

 which he says is a fair sample of the third crop, from the same seed, 

 and that he has this season garnered over two hundred bushels, wdiich 

 do not contain a foul seed. From E. Morton, Elizabethtown,N. J., 

 thirteen ears of white corn, propagated thirteen years without change 

 of seed. From David Johnson, Flatbush, L. I., seventeen ears of 

 thick cob corn, one ear of native corn, and eight stalks of Egyptian 

 corn. From S. Van Valkenburgh, Harlem, N. Y., forty ears of 

 yellow corn. From G. Chestmerman, Harlem, N. Y., forty ears of 

 fine white corn. From Tunis Bell, Piermont, N. Y., six ears of white 

 corn, averaging sixteen inches in length. From N. WyckofF, Jr., 

 Bushwick, forty ears of fine white corn. From J. Q. Underbill, Se- 

 canus, N. J., fifteen ears of early white mammoth corn. From H. 

 Delafield, Hurlgate, by W. Armstrong, gardener, seventeen ears of 

 fine white corn. From W. Richardson, Staten Island, fourteen ears 

 of Virginia flint corn, very fine. From G. W. McClean, New-York, 

 four extraordinarily fine ears of southern corn. Several other sam- 

 ples of good southern corn were exhibited by different individuals. 



In the northern and eastern states, a stubborn prejudice prevails 

 against the introduction of seed corn from the south. The falacy of 

 this bias is placed in a strong light by the following incidents: 



Several fine lots of Virginia corn were exhibited, raised from south- 

 ern seed, which, after being placed in a light sandy soil in the States 

 of New-York and New-Jersey, proved very productive, and the stalks 

 before gathering, stood from twelve to fourteen feet high. Do not 



