ESSEX SOCIETY. 35 



Thaer, the celebrated German writer on agriculture, goes 

 into some curious calculations to deduce the produce in straw 

 from that of the grain. He says, that the proportion of grain 

 to straw varies 



In rj^e, from 38 to 42 in 100. In wheat, from 48 to 52 in 100. 

 In barley " 62 " 64 " " In oats, •' 60 "■ 62 " " 



It will be seen on examining the statement of Mr. Brown, 

 and calculating the results, that his crop gave grain 52 to straw 

 100. and Mr. Tapley's gave grain 51 to straw 100. 



Indian Corn. Adino Page's statement shows not so large a 

 product, to be sure, as has been frequently presented by claim- 

 ants in former years ; but when we consider the nature of the 

 soil, and the drought of the season, at the very time that corn 

 crops are most injured by the want of rain, we think his exper- 

 iment quite as valuable as any that has preceded it. The land 

 on which this crop of Indian corn was raised, is on the north- 

 western margin of a somewhat extensive plain, which is a 

 prairie in miniature, bounded on the north, west, and south- 

 west, by hills, composed of a stone form -tion which is a vari- 

 ety of sienite, possessing some peculiar characteristics, not 

 however such as are particularly interestuig in an agricultural 

 view, further than is necessary to explain the peculiar nature of 

 the soil and subsoil of this region. The rock is composed of 

 felspar, quartz and hornblend, much the largest part of it 

 being a greenish felspar, which contains a large percentage of 

 potash. This rock, wherever it has been for ages exposed to 

 atmospheric influences, has become extensively disintegrated 

 and crumbled into a coarse rough gravel, and forms the subsoil 

 of the land under consideration. This subsoil is a complete 

 filter, through which the water which falls in rain on this plain, 

 and on the hill sides around it, percolates, is filtered, and be- 

 comes purified in a much higher degree than spring water gen- 

 erally found in other places. This plain, we have said, is a 

 prairie in miniature. It was formerly the bottom of a lake. 

 And this corn field was on the margin, where the alluvial 

 deposit is shallow, and so constituted as to drain off" all the 

 water that falls upon it. On this naturally barren soil — on 

 land which, if suffered again to become exhausted, would not 



