No. 6. 



Mount Airy Farm. 



189 



healthy, with the exception of the wet clayey 

 spot, which had not been rolled. It yielded 15 

 bushels to the acre, the quality very superior. 

 But the rye and wheat which I reaped, are 

 but a part of the result, for finer set timothy, 

 on the whole field of 13 acres, has seldom 

 been seen. 



SPRING CROPS. 



Sowed spring wheat with orchard grass, 

 about 4^ acres, on the 6th April. Reaped 

 22d July. Soil variable, from stiff clay to 

 isinglass, sandy ; a considerable portion of the 

 field underdrained, which but a short time 

 back was a sour rushy marsh. A finer patch 

 of wheat, in stalk and head, no one could de- 

 sire ; but the sudden dry and zoet, heat and 

 cold of the 5th to 8th July, blighted the hopes 

 of an abundant crop — the yield was better, 

 however, than most of the winter wheat iu 

 the neighbourhood ; with the young orchard 

 grass as finely set and promismg as could be 

 desired. The crop, 40 bushels, some of it 

 light and shrivelled. 



Spring barley, about 6 acres, sowed on the 

 16th April, principally on a light sandy soil, 

 mixed with mica. There are two hills which 

 rise in the field, their sides so bare that even 

 the weeds could not live in the burning sun, 

 on the sparkling isinglass rocks and flint 

 stones, which were left by the washing of 

 thaws and rains. The quantity of stone 

 taken from these parts in two ploughing?, is 

 immense. It was treated with about 40 bush- 

 els of lime to the acre, and the poorest parts 

 strongly manured. The crop was reaped 20th I 

 July, and produced 100 bushels good Penn- 

 sylvania barley. It is now in with timothy, 

 which looked as green at a distance, before 

 the snow, as an old pasture field. It will 

 wash no more, nor do I think that in the 

 deepest ploughings that may hereafter be 

 given, a bushel of small or large stone will 

 be found in the whole field. 



Planted 3| acres potatoes, 23d and 27th 

 April ; yield, 300 bushels good, and about 50 

 bushels refuse, or small ones. Ground well 

 limed, now in with rye and timothy. 



On the 7th May finished planting 5 acres 

 corn, in hills from 4| to 5 feet apart — large 

 ear, yellow flint, same as that for which I 

 received the premium in 1838. I call it 

 " Premium Corn." Soil, sandy, light, with 

 isinglass. In 1835, when I manured and 

 broke it up for potatoes, a more hopeless 

 piece of ground, in weed, soil, and condition, 

 could hardly be met with in an old farm. 

 Potatoes were followed by wheat and timo- 

 thy ; but the crops of grass after, were very 

 indifferent — it had only been stirred and 

 strengthened, but not subdued. The land 

 has had no manure since 1835, except on a 

 vein or ridge of gravel that runs across the 

 field, where clay, dug from a ditch in an ad- 

 joining field, was scattered, and cross-plough- 

 ed and harrowed in, which made the gravelly 

 part as good as the best of the field. If hills 

 4-| to 5 feet apart, containing almost uniform- 

 ly, 4 noble stalks, with monstrous large ears, 

 make a great crop, then this was one ; and 

 cannot be estimated at less than 75 bushels 

 to the acre — owing principally to good seed, 

 judicious planting, and suitable working. The 

 cleaning was done with the cultivator. 

 Ploughing corn in a light, dry soil, is death 

 and destruction to the roots of the plants, — 

 such practice can never be justified, but in 

 wet, cold soils, where ridging is necessary, 

 for warmth and draining. 



May 4th, planted 1^ acres of yellow-gored 

 corn in drills, 4^ feet apart, the grains 8 to 

 10 inches apart, worked altogether with the 

 cultivator. Produce, about 60 bushels to the 

 acre — whole yield, 75 bushels. This crop 

 was planted in a patch from which roots had 

 been taken the previous season ; the planting 

 was badly done in my absence, and the storm 

 of the night of the 23d July, prostrated it ; 

 otherwise 100 bushels to the acre might have 

 been gathered. The mode of planting by 

 drill, will, I trust, ere long become general. 

 The hill practice can only be justified where 

 the object is more to improve the land by 

 cross-ploughings, than to produce a good crop 

 of corn. 



^pril 24th, sowed 3-8 of an acre of carrots in drills 2 feet apart, 



gathered from 17th to 25lh Nov. i70 bushels, rate 720 bushels to the acre ] The two patches, 720 bushels, at SOlbs to 



Ton Cwt. qr. lb. 



May 2d, 



April 24th, sowei 

 Miy Sth, do. 

 ttlay 14 t 16, do. 



In all. 



The beets, carrots, and parsneps were 

 raised on what had been a timothy sod of 6 

 years' standing, ploughed up last fall — a more 

 troublesome patch for grass, weeds, and small 

 stones, has rarely been appropriated to such 

 culture ; yet all was overcome; so that when 

 the parsneps were gathered, on the .30th No- 

 vember last, the ground in appearance re- 



16 



1 20 



. acre ditto, 450 ditto, ' rate 516 ditto. | the bushel, 



1 1-4 do. susar parsnep 215 ditto, rate 860 ditto. The patch, 215 bushels, at SOlbs, - - * '? i „. 



1 do. mangel-wurzel 850 ditto, rate 850 ditto. Gathered Oct. 30th and 31st, al 641bs, - 24 5 2 24 



13-16 sugar beet 918 ditto, rate 773 ditto, do. Nov. 3d to 5th, at 64lbs, - 2° '* » ° 



3 11-16 of an acre, 2703 bushels. Beets and mangel-wurzel at 641b6, Carrots and Parsneps at SOlbs, give 71 7 2 22 



sembled more a lately-ploughed field, than 

 one from which a crop of roots had just been 

 taken. 



The manure used, was part stable and 

 part street dirt, and did not exceed in quanti- 

 ty what would have been requisite for a crop 

 of potatoes, but then it all told. The weeds 

 had little or none of it. The labour bestow- 



