(A.) 



REPORT ON THE FARM OF SAMUEL B. TOWNSEND. 



To the American Institute. 



Your commitlce, appointed to examine field crops, respectfully 

 report, 



That they have visited the farm of S. B. Townsend, of Astoria, 

 and examined his standing crops. 



They inspected a field of Virginia white flint wheat, consisting of 

 fifteen acres, nine of which were orchard. Wheat is generally deem- 

 ed to be a poor crop on Long Island. This wheat was sown the last 

 of September, on oats fallow ; the ground was ploughed twice. After 

 the oats came off, harrowed four times, manured with forty-five 

 bushels of poudretle, from the New- York Poudrette Company. The 

 soil is of a dark-colored loam, a litlk sand ; there was a yield of 

 thirty bushels per acre. 



The oats were Scotch imperial, procured from Dr. Field, and 

 yielded forty bushels per acre ; there were twenty-two acres, and 

 presented a rich and beautiful appearance standing. 



There were ten acres of corn, which yielded sixty bushels per acre 

 of shelled corn. The corn crop on the Island was generally a poor 

 one, owing to its being an unfavorable season. This field was planted 

 in hills, three feet apart one way, and three and an half the other. It 

 was hoed but once, but a cultivator was kept going through it, until 

 the corn was too large for the passage of a horse. It was manured 

 with a compost of peat, hog manure, scrapings of the barn-yard, * 

 poudrette, and charcoal. 



There were twelve acres of potatoes, which yielded only two-thirds 

 of a crop, say two hundred bushels per acre. They were excellently 



