SECRETARY'S REPORT. 55 



SECOND DAY. 



Wednesday, Dec. 14. 



Morning Session. — The Board met at ten o'clock. In the 

 absence of the president, Dr. Loring was appointed chairman. 



On motion of Mr. Perkins, a committee of three was appointed 

 to consider the subject of the Agricultural College, and report 

 to-morrow morning, at ten o'clock. The chair announced as 

 that committee, Messrs. Perkins, Huntington, and Grout. 



THE CORN CROP. 



The first subject announced for discussion was the corn crop, 

 and Dr. Hartwell, of Southbridge, was called upon to open 

 the discussion. 



Dr. Hartwell. — I am entirely unprepared to make a speech 

 upon the subject, but I have some facts in relation to the man- 

 ner of planting corn, the preparation of the soil, and taking care 

 of the crop. 



No man can obtain a profitable crop of corn unless his soil is 

 well enriched. It is in vain to plant corn upon poor soil. The 

 ^old method of planting corn was to spread the manure, perhaps 

 to the extent of twenty cartloads to the acre, over a large sur- 

 face, and the farmer would usually obtain from twenty-five to 

 thirty bushels to the acre. The expense of ploughing and 

 cultivating an acre of corn, aside from putting on the manure, 

 with the price of labor at a dollar a day, would be $15. The 

 twenty loads of manure were worth to the farmer about $20. 

 There was an outlay of $35 ; so that the decision of the farmer 

 was, that there was no profit in raising corn. But if you will 

 put on forty loads to the acre, and take good care of the corn, 

 you may produce from sixty to seventy-five bushels an aci'e. 



The cost of plougliing and cultivating will then be $15 an 

 acre ; for it is no more work to cultivate an acre for seventy-five 

 bushels, than it is for twenty-five, and the cost of your manure 

 $40. I should charge one-half the manure to the corn, and the 

 other half to the succeeding crop, making tlie cost of your crop, 

 $35 ; and if you have a crop of seventy bushels, at $1 a 

 bushel, you have then a profit of $35 on that acre. The fodder 

 will pay, as a general thing, the expense of taking care of the 

 crop, after the last hoeing. The high-farming system there 

 shows a profit, and it is the only system which will pay with the 



