PuUished by John B. Russell, at JVs. 52 JVorih Market Street, (at the Agricultural Ifarehouse) Thomas G. Fessenbek, Editor. 



VOL. VIII. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1830. 



No. 28. 



ORIGINAL COMSIUNICATIONS. 



^SSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURAL SOCI- 

 ETVr 



e Cjmmitiee on Grain and Vegetable Crops, and 

 raising Trees and Hedges, respectfully sub- 

 nil the folloioing 



nEPOilT. 



riie Coriiiuittoe regret that, after so gooil a sea- 

 1 as tlie lust was, for almost cverythiug, there 

 mill u It liavo been numerous claims from our 

 ustrious and skilful farmers, for t!ie twentyse- 

 i |iremiuras proposed by the Trustees under 



e beads of their list. A premium of twenty 

 thirty dollars may not, of itself, be a sufficient 

 ucemcnt for keeping so exact an account of 

 ps as the Trustees have deemed it proper to 

 uire, but our sjiirited and intelligent agricidtc- 

 s would do well to consider the influence of 

 iiiijili', the importance of n)aking constant ini- 

 VLiiitiit, and of comnumicuting all such infor- 

 tioii as may tend to the advancement of agri- 

 ture.- Detailed statements, us to crops, may 

 uish useful bints to others, and is us often done 

 an account of tlie/ai/((res of our experiments, 

 of their success. The Committee cannot but 

 ie that another year will bring forward more 

 iipolitors. 



riie only account presented to the Trustees this 

 ' of the greatest quantity of vegetables for 

 Iter consumption on the farm, &c," was fur- 

 led by a person of iutijlligencc and observation, 

 crops from his farm in Lynn. To this geutle- 

 0, the Committee recommend the payment of 



premium of $30. — He bats produced the usual 

 of of havuig raised on his I'arm the present 



* Total 368U 



More than two tons of Winter Squashes, — 

 A. large quantity of Cabbages — 

 \nd the summer supply of vegetables for two 

 families, and some sent to market, of which 

 no account was kept. The farm contains 

 about 63 acres. 

 The claimant would have made his comniuni- 

 ion more satisfactory and instructive, could ho 

 re stated the number of acres occupied by his 

 ps, and the expense of raising them, cither se- 

 •ately, or together. It would not have been 

 y difficult to have presented the aggregate cost, 

 ugh, where so many things were attempted, it 

 ;ht not have beeu easy to do it in detail. He 

 !rs one opinion, however, as a practical man, 

 ich, if it be correct, may serve to induce onr 

 mers generally, to raise more vegetables, as 

 nter food for their cattle, instead of feeding them 

 f the year, as we are now but too apt to do, 

 oily with dry hay and corn stalks. He says he 

 ' well convinced that, when the cost of seed. 



;' allowing S.') bushels of good potatoes to an acre, 

 is taken into the account, and the produce is at 

 I the rate of 200 bushels, which he thinks a large 

 I aTerage, that potatoes, cultivated in hills, according 

 ] to the ordinary mode, are the most expensive of any 

 \cf our vegetable crops. Carrots, Mangel Wurtzel, 

 and Ruta Baga, are raised, he says, at as little labor 

 , by the acre, and the ordinary diflTerence in the 

 amount of crops, will bring the cost of them to not 

 much more than half the amount per bushel." — 

 His carrots were sown from the 29th May to the 

 :;->th of June ; Mangel Wurtzel first week in June ; 

 Ruta Baga and common turnips middle of July ; 

 I'otatoes last of May to middle of June. — But re- 

 peated experiments, he says, have satisfied him 

 ;hat earlier planting, with all these articles except- 

 ing Mangel Wurtzel, would be more favorable to 

 an increased crop. His seeds were sown on ridges 

 formed by the turning of a back furrow, excepting 

 onions and potatoes, and at sufficient distance to 

 admit of ploughing between them ; so that after 

 the first weeding and thinning, if well done, the 

 principal labor is considered as over. The onion, 

 turnip and carrot seed were sown with a drill, 

 made by the Shakers and well known. Of manure, 

 tiierc was used from five to six cords to an acre, 

 vhether spread abroad, or put in the ridges, is not 

 s:ated, — and it was composed of stable dung, with 

 (1 good mixture of litter of mean hay and leaves, 

 the contents of the pig stye, some muscle bed, 

 sea weed, and whatever could be collected to form 

 « ^omjiost. T'lt soil wa^ gcabrally « '.datk anJ 

 friable loam of a good depth, resting in general 

 on hard clay or a gravelly pan, moist, and not 

 likely to suffer from drought. Most of the land 

 had beeu exhausted, and for a long time neglected. 

 Dec. 1829. 



Mr Waldo Cleveland of Williamsburg, in 

 the county of Hampshire, has sent to the Trustees 

 an account, duly certified, of his crop of Winter 

 Wheat, amounting to 34 bushels and seven quarts 

 an acre. It is the only claim for a premium on 

 this article, and on this account, mainly, have the 

 Committee concluded to recommend paying him 

 the premium of $20, — for they do not perceive 

 any particular merit, in this instance, as respects 

 either the skill used, or the useful instruction im- 

 parted. The crop exceeds the quantity limited 

 by the Trustees, and therefore they feel bound in 

 some measure to award the premium ; but they 

 wish it to be fully understood, that they do not 

 feel under any obligation to grant it, in any case, 

 where the crop is but an ordinary one, the mode 

 of culture .such as cannot be in common use, and 

 where but a single acre has been sown, as in the 

 present case. 



Mr Cleveland's statement is as follows: — 

 " Some time in the first part of October last, I 

 sowed a bushel of wheat on one acre of newly 

 burnt land, lying in Hatfield, and harrowed in the 

 seed without ploughing. The land was high, and 

 faced the east. I took no more charge, and per- 

 formed no more labor on this acre until harvest, 

 vrhich was about the middle of July. It yielded 

 thirtyfour bushels and seven quarts of good 

 wheat, a sample of which is herewith enclosed 

 to the Trustees." 



To Mr Tristram Little of Newbury, for his 

 crop of Winter Rye, of thirty bushels and one 

 peck, tlie Committee propose to give the premium 

 of $20. Here, again, it was the sole account given 

 in for this article, and fin- aught that appears, hut 

 a single acre was sown, as in the preceding case 

 of the Wheat. 



Mr Little's accouiit is, in the opinion of the 

 Committee, calculated to be useful, and they re- 

 commend that his letter be printed as part of this 

 Report. 



Dec. 1829. 



To the Trustees of the Massachusclts Agricultural 



Society — 



Gektlemen — 1 submit the following, as a state- 

 ment of a crop of Rye, which I have raised the 

 past season, it be'ugthe first that I have cultivated. 

 The soil on whicii it grew is a yellow loam, with- 

 1 out much grit, such as has generally been consid- 

 ered not good for growing the same. I was in- 

 duced to try it as a substitute for barley, that has 

 commonly b»en our crop iircceding grass ; but 

 that grain has for the last two or three years been 

 destroyed by a fly or insect that attacks it in its 

 early state, and poisons the same, and at harvest 

 time is founil in or near the lower joint, in the 

 straw, in a maggot state. We have reason to 

 think that the evil was imported in so:;ic barley 

 from Bremen,^or some port in the North of Eu- 

 rope, which ^yl.c^sown by our jieople some three 

 or four yearit.iiOci Jhat lias spread so surprlsifigly 

 as to discourage me from sowing it at present. 

 But to return to my rye statement. In the spring 

 of 1828, I planted one acre of Indian Corn, with 

 about three cords of manure put in the hole, and 

 had the common cultivation through the season. 

 On the 12th or 13th of September following, I 

 cut it up at the ground, and shocked it. In about 

 a month it was husked, and when dry, it was as 

 full on the cob, not pinched any more than if it 

 had stood till November. There was about 35 

 or 40 bushels. The same day that it was cut, I 

 split the hills, and sowed five jiecks of rye, and 

 harrowed it in. In April, 1829, I hauled about 50 or 

 60 hiisheh of sea coal ashes and citiders, that was 

 considered by most of our farmers as worthless, 

 as a manure, and spread it on about seven eighths 

 of the lot, the other one eighth was left without 

 any dressing. The thriftiness was so visible in 

 favor of the former that travellers observed the 

 difference. I, for my own part, think that the 

 small quantity of ashes doubled the crop. It was 

 reapeil about the first of August, and I finished 

 threshing it about a month after, and there was 

 thirty bushels and one peck of clean rye, besides 

 the light grain. 



Respectfully, yours. 



TRISTRAM LITTLE. 



Mwbury, JVov. 27, 1829. 



This may certify that I reaped, and assisted in 

 threshing and measuring the above crop of i-ye, 

 and the said statement I believe to be correct. 

 HENRY LITTLE. 



This may certify that I surveyed the piece of 

 land cultivated with rye, and there was one acre, 

 and no more. PIKE NOYES 



