No. 124.] 95 



immediately, without waiting for years to restore it to general pro- 

 ductiveness, vine crops, and by analogy, all other hill crops, where 

 the roots do not spread to any great cxient, wiih great promise of 

 ample remuneration. It may indeed be questionable, whether any 

 other method can be adopted by which a profitable crop can be ob- 

 tained from exhausted ground, in the same space of time, and with as 

 little outlay or expenditure. 



But the subject is not confined to exhausted fields, as shown in the 

 case of Mr. Jessup. Here was a meadow or grass field, the crop of 

 which was cut and gatheied without interfering with the vines, and 

 again the fruit ol the vines was gathered without interfering with the 

 use of the field for pasture, in due season. 



An acre contains 43,560 square feet of ground. Say that in the 

 case of squashes or pumpkins, a vine requires 50 feet in length, by 

 5 feet in width, to afford sufficient sun and air, and that each hill hf:s 

 two vines, the two vines thus occupying, in connection with the hill 

 itself, (which should contain about nine square feet,) 500 square 

 feetj and in round numbers would allow about 90 hills to the acre. 

 The vines will not commence to run before the grass ruatures, and is 

 cut and gathered. The quantity of ground which 90 hills of 9 square 

 feet each occupy, is about 810 feet. This is all that the grtiss has 

 been interfered with, or the quantity of grass surface diminished. 

 The vines should be trained to the south, to iavor the idea of greater 

 productiveness. Suppose now, that we allow 400 pounds, instead of 

 700 pounds for each hill, according: to Mr. Jessuj)'s experiment; then 

 We should have for the 90 hills, 36,000 pounds, or IS tons of squash- 

 es or pumpkins. The value of such a crop in the market of the city 

 of New York suppose $10 per ton, equal to $180 ])cr acre, or to the 

 cultivator as food for his stock, cannot be es'.imated Itrs than good 

 hay, cannot be fixed perhaps with any degree of certainty, but which, 

 it must be evident to any person, would be an item in the general 

 table of profits, of no trivial account, either in connection with a 

 crop of grass and pasture, or from fields that otherwise would produce 

 nothing. 



As already said, this mode of culture may be extended to many 

 other vines and hill products, besides squashes and pumpkins, and 

 perhaps there is no other method of securing so good a crop, the first 

 season, and any impoverished soil which promises equal advantages, 

 and as in the case of Mr. Jessup, a double crop. The cheese pumpkin 

 docs not vine as far as the squash, and therefore would allow of more 

 hills to the acre, and according to the above experiment it is more 

 productive. 



I submit the communications of Mr. Jessup and Mr. Sturges, with 

 the few brief remarks I have added, to the gentlemen of the club, for 

 the purpose that the subject may secure such consideration as in their 

 opinion it may merit, and especially whether grass fields are not 

 better adapted to the purpose of raising vines by this mode of cul- 

 ture, than ploughed fields. 



Very respectfully, 



FRANCIS PRICE. 



