36 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



sell for thirty dollars an acre, by deep ploughing, liberal manur- 

 ing, and clean culture, over eighty bushels of corn to the acre 

 has been obtained. And this, we think, is more encouraging 

 to farmers generally, than those experiments on the best soils 

 in the county, where have been raised one hundred bushels to 

 the acre. The tillage of this crop was entrusted chiefly to the 

 paupers of the establishment, it being on the Danvers alms- 

 house farm, and the corn was hilled more than the best man- 

 agement would justify. This was the only fault which those 

 of the Committee who saw the crop on the field, noticed. No 

 weeds were allowed to grow among this corn, which, therefore, 

 received the entire monopoly of the manure. 



Mixed Crop. The statement of P. P. Pillsbury, of Andover, of 

 a Mixed Crop of corn and beans, although it did not come exactly 

 within the list of premiums referred to this Committee,was deem- 

 ed of sufl[icient importance to merit their attention, and worthy a 

 gratuity from the Society. Mixed crops have not received that 

 attention from farmers of this county which they probably 

 deserve. The mixed crop of corn and potatoes, for which an 

 unclaimed premium has been offered, certainly promises to 

 reward well the experimenter. The potato rot, instead of dis- 

 couraging the trial, seems to us to ofl"er additional inducements 

 to crop our lands in this manner. At the price which potatoes 

 now command, should they not rot, the acre would with cer- 

 tainly prove much more productive of income than it would if 

 planted with corn alone. And if they should rot, the cultiva- 

 tor would not lose liis labor as when he cultivates potatoes, 

 which rot alone; for the corn would not be injured, but 

 most probably benefitted by the manure bequeathed it by its 

 dying partner in occupancy. 



By planting, as Washington did, the corn eight feet by two, 

 and the potatoes in the same manner in alternate rows, it will 

 be perceived that the same number of hills is obtained of each, 

 as would be of corn or potatoes alone, when planted four feet 

 apart each way. That more manure would be required or 

 profitably used for the double, than for the single crop, is doubt- 

 less true ; and that the soil is composed of elements, some of 

 which are consumed much less by the one vegetable than by 

 the other, is also a well established fact in agricultural philoso- 



