No. G. 



Letter of John Jones, of Gum Bush. 



173 



purchased 20 tons of plaster. At first I got 

 but poor return even for my lime, I suppose 

 for want of vegetable matter, but when my 

 clover had grown so as to make a swarth or 

 lay for turning under, my crops began to in- 

 crease even beyond my expectation. The 

 crops for the year 1844, which closed with 

 my late wheat crop, were all got out and 

 sold by the 25th of July, 1845, producing 

 the following results: 



Oat crop litrht — not many sown — 



crop soldYor $209— rental share $104 50 



Corn tillage large — 97 acres, in- 

 cluding an orchard of 4 acres, 

 not well tilled, produced 8,000 

 bushels — rental share, 1,500 

 bushels, at 40 cents, 600 00 



The wheat crop amounted to 2,820 

 bushels, exclusive of brock or 

 Takings — the rental "share one 

 half, or say 1,410 bushels, at 90 

 cents, 1269 00 



1973 50 

 This was grown on two fields, one 

 of which of 97 acres, a clo- 

 ver lay well turned under, pro- 

 duced 1872 bushels, exclusive of 

 brock, which would have made 

 this field amount to over 20 bush- 

 els to the acre. 

 Add 64 busliels of brock, at 90 cts. 



per bushel, 57 60 



$2031 10 



The other field of- wheat contained about 

 60 acres. The product of this field was 948 

 bushels, exclusive of rakings; or had they 

 been included, the yield would have exceed- 

 ed sixteen bushels to the acre. This field 

 had been hard cropped, for the wheat follow- 

 ed corn, which corn had lollowed wheat 

 Btubble of the year previous, without ma- 

 nure or clover. Indeed this field had pro- 

 duced nine crops in twelve years, with but 

 little manure at any time, it being farthest 

 from tlie farm-yard, and my plan is never to 

 haul manure to the far side of the farm, 

 whilst I have poor land near by. The prin- 

 cipal help this field has had was 40 bushels 

 of lime to the acre, put on in 1838, and two 

 crops of clover turned under, and on a part 

 of the field a crop of oats was turned under 

 that had been injured by the hail storm of 

 1840. 



. The rental value of these three crops of 

 oats, corn and wheat, may then be set down 

 at ■'&2031 10, the usage of this part of the 

 country being one half of the grain for rent. 

 In the upper Hundreds, near the manufac- 

 tories, an additional amount in money would i 



be obtained for the privileges of dairy, poul- 

 try' ^SS^^ "^c. 



The rental value, as above set forth, you 

 will perceive at a glance, now pays an inte- 

 rest of six per cent, on a capital of $33,850. 

 The original cost of the farm, or investment 

 was, as you will also perceive, $4,100 ; and 

 that a credit. I will leave you, gentlemen, 

 to calculate the yearly dividends on the in- 

 vestment. 



The cost of the 40 bushels of lime having 

 long since been reimbursed by the increased 

 crops previous to this year, the amount of 

 which has just been set forth, I have some 

 profits or proceeds from this farm in the way 

 of raising stock, dairy, &lc., some of which 

 is exhibited this day, and has been every 

 year, but one or two since the existence of 

 this Society, the value of some of which I 

 find by turning to some memorandums. I 

 will give you one entire leaf 



May 11th, 1844.— Mrs. Jones has this 

 week made and printed 48 lbs. of butter. 

 The trouble is the want of a near cash mar- 

 ket. Our part of the country being strictly 

 agricultural, there are but few others than 

 producers to consume our butter, even in 

 our little villages; consequently it will not 

 command ten cents per pound cash, we being 

 too remote from market — more than twenty- 

 five miles from the manufacturing and con- 

 suming district of our county, where on the 

 first of the month butter brought twenty-five 

 cents cash in the market. 



The stock from which this butter was 

 made, consists of eight cows, all natives of 

 Delaware, calved and raised by myself, on 

 Wheatland. I give their ages and names, 

 accordinsf to seniority: 



No. l,^B!ack Maria, calved May Sth, 1838, 

 — last.calfi January 2nd, 1844. 



No. 2, Yellow Flower, calved June 10th, 

 1S36,— last calf, June Sth, 1843. 



No. 3, Sun Flower, calved April 22nd, 

 1839,— last calf, March 16th, 1843. 



No. 4, Cora, calved June 28th, 1839,— 

 last calf, April 19th, 1842. 



No. 5, Cauliflower, calved May 26th, 1840, 

 —last calf, March 29th, 1843. 



No. 6, May Flower, calved May Sth, 1841, 

 —last calf. May 9th, 1843. 



No. 7, BloEsom, calved June 19th, 1841, — 

 last calf, February 4th, 1844. 



No. 8, Cherry, cahed June 23rd, 1842,— 

 last calf, April 17tli, 1844. 



Making 6 lbs. each per week, at an aver- 

 age of 44 weeks, four days each from calv- 

 ing. These cows had been well wintered 

 and just turned out on a splendid field of 

 clover. 



I find one other memorandum that should 

 have preceded the above; but here it is: 



