No. 4. 



Great Crop of Corn. 



115 



tion in tlie pursuit of this brancli of agricul- 

 ture. Tiie committee will be niucii mis- 

 taken, indeed, if this day's display does not 

 assist very materially, to create so laudable 

 a rivalry. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 

 PLOUGHING. 



The committee having witnessed flie per-, 

 formanco of the competitors tor the Plough- 

 ing Match, after carefully viewing the ground 

 and taking into consideration the respective 

 merits of the different operations, as directed 

 by the requisitions laid down for the r guide, 

 take great pleasure in saying that the per- 

 formance was highly creditable to each in- 

 dividual engaged, and that the merits of all 

 concerned were worthy of great praise and 

 commendation. Under these circumstances 

 they are fully aware of the delicacy of per- 

 forming the duty necessarily devolving upon 

 them, namely, of awarding the premiums. 

 But upon mature reflection, they are unani- 

 mously of opinion that the plough of J. B. 

 Moore, No. 8, letter A., of Wilmington, 

 Del., Charles Carter, ploughman, is entitled 

 to the first, and tiiose of Prouty & Mears, 

 to the second premium. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Great Crop ot'Corn. 



We, the undersigned, two of the commit- 

 tee appointed by the Chester and Delaware 

 County Agricultural Society on Crops, do 

 report, that we have this day viewed the 

 cornfield of Paschall Morris, Allerton Farm, 

 near Westchester; that we have calculated 

 the field to contain over ten acres, and that 

 the average yield on the whole field is a 

 kundred and one bushels and three pecks to 

 the acre. The corn was planted in hills, 

 four and a half by four feet apart, each way, 

 four grains generally in a hill. The corn 

 was cut up and put into shocks containing 

 six hills each way. Several of these shocks 

 were taken down from different parts of the 

 field, being an average in size, as far as we 

 were able to perceive, and upon being husk- 

 ed, yielded nearly three bushels and a peck! 

 of ears each. An average one was shelled | 

 in our presence, and yielded one bushel and 

 a half and a pint of shelled corn. 



Each shock having occupied 648 square 

 feet of ground, which being divided into the 

 number of square feet in an acre, will give 

 the number of shocks in an acre : this multi- 

 plied by the amount in each shock, will give 

 the result as above stated. 



A portion of this field yielded seven half 

 bushels of ears to the shock, which will give 

 an amount of over one hundred and ten 

 bushels to the acre. The committee will 



further take occasion to observe, that the 

 whole field was remarkably clean and free 

 from weeds, and the soil appeared to be in a 

 mellow and friable condition. 



There being no other crop brought to the 

 notice of the committee, it becomes their 

 duty to award to Paschall Morris the premi- 

 um oflcred by the Society, to which they 

 consider he is fairly entitled. 



o- J John Worth, Jr. 



Signed T ,> ' 



^ James Painter. 



J llh mo. 3, 1845. 



The Society requiring, in case of an award 

 of premium for crops, the details of culture, 

 &c., it may be stated that the field was an 

 old green grass sod, not having been ploughed 

 for probably twenty years. Seven years ago 

 it was limed on the surface at the rate of 

 fifty bushels to the acre, since which it has 

 been regularly pastured. It was broken up 

 last spring with the Prouty plough, to the 

 average depth of about seven inches, har- 

 rov.ed over with the common harrow, and 

 marked out for planting as stated in the re- 

 port. The planting was done between the 

 first and fifth of the Fifth month, six grains 

 being dropped into each hill, and afterwards 

 thinned out to four. 



When the corn was up two or three 

 inches, each hill received a sprinkle of plas- 

 ter ; no other manure was applied. The after 

 culture was done with the common corn- 

 harrow, and one going over with the shovel- 

 plough and the hand-hoe, where the weeds 

 in the hill were too near the corn to be 

 reached by the harrow. Much of the merit 

 of this crop, its freedom from weeds, and con- 

 tinued growth and vigor from the start, are 

 attributable to the deep ploughing and use 

 of the Prouty plough. This plough, by its 

 peculiar mode of operation, breaking the tex- 

 ture of the sod at the same time that it lifts 

 it up and throws it over, pulverizes and 

 crumbles to a certain extent the furrow slice, 

 and by opening it into seams or cracks, ad- 

 mits a passage for the sun and air to the par- 

 ticles of soil, meliorating them, and prepar- 

 ing for the reception of the crop ; and when 

 the harrow is afterwards used, the whole is 

 reduced to a finely pulverized state, highly 

 favourable to the action of the atmosphere, 

 and the absorption of its gases, and affording 

 no harbour for weeds, in the shape of hard 

 and impenetrable clods of earth, not uncom- 

 mon alter the use of many other ploughs. 



This field, when the ploughing was fin- 

 ished, owing to the open and pulverized ap- 

 pearance of the sod, and the interstices be- 

 tween the furrows being all filled up, allow- 

 ing no grass or weeds to be seen, resembled 

 one already harrowed, and continued mellow 

 through the season- Paschai-l Morris. 



