30 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



strong manure. Something too depends on the manner of cul- 

 tivation, after they are planted, and much depends on the land. 

 That which is mellow and porous, is by far better than that 

 which has a hard pan. 



North Danvers, Nov..22d, 1851. 



Grain Crops. 



There is, at the present time, no subject, which is, or ought 

 to be. more interesting to the farmers of Essex County, than 

 the cultivation of wheat and rye crops, which have been con- 

 sidered by so many cultivators of the soil here, so liable to 

 blight, as to be unworthy their labor and attention. But the 

 statements of claimants for the premiums now offered for the 

 best experiments on these grains, and others heretofore pub- 

 lished in the transactions of the Society, tend to show, if they 

 do not prove conclusively, that such notions are erroneous. If 

 the soil be well chosen, well pulverized, and well manured, a 

 good crop of winter rye, and we believe winter wheat also, can 

 be calculated on with as much certainty as other crops, on 

 which our cultivators place their chief reliance. 



It is certainly of great importance to the agricultural pros- 

 perity of this county, that the farmers should be able at least 

 to raise sufficient bread stuff for their own consumption. 

 Wheat has become an almost indispensable portion of the diet 

 of the people, who pay very seldom less, generally more, than 

 one dollar and fifty cents per bushel for the wheat, which in 

 the form of flour they purchase and consume. Now, if such 

 crops of wheat as have of late years rewarded the farmers of 

 Andover, Methuen, and West Newbiny, can be getierally ob- 

 tained, viz., 18, 22, 25, 28, and 35 bushels to the acre, under a 

 culture no more expensive than has been there practised, it 

 must be obvious that it promises to reward the cultivators, as 

 well as most crops on which they have hitherto placed their 

 chief dependence. It would seem that it is spring wheat 

 which has brought the culture of it into disrepute. It did so 

 to some extent, we learn, in Maine, where the culture of win" 



