194 HAMPSHIRE, FRANKLIN, AND 



Grain Crops, 

 There was awarded to Silas Robinson, of Woithing- 



ton, for a wheat crop, a gratuity of, . . . $5 00 



George Dickinson, of Hadley, for rye crop, do,, . 3 GO 

 Christopher and Austin Wright, Northampton, oat, 



wheat and rye crops, . . . . • . 20 00 



Silas Rohinsoii's Statement. 



I enter for premium a crop of spring wheat. The crop covered 

 one and one quarter of an acre of land, which had been 

 in grass several years and become sward-bound, and was 

 managed as follows : — In the autumn of 1848, I turned over 

 the sward and let it lie till the next spring, when I harrowed 

 the surface thoroughly without disturbing the surface, and 

 planted it without any manure, partly with Merino and partly 

 with Carter potatoes, and gathered in the fall 125 bushels of 

 the former, and 75 bushels of the latter. After digging the 

 potatoes, I ploughed the land and let it lie till the next spring. 



I then (1850) spread over the land 37 cart loads of coarse barn- 

 yard manure and ploughed it in ; put in the hills eleven loads 

 of compost manure, and planted it with corn and beans, and in 

 the autumn gathered 60 bushels of corn to the acre and seven 

 bushels of beans. After harvest, I again ploughed the land. 



The 30th of April last, I sowed the land with 1^ bushels of 

 clean Black Sea wheat to the acre, without any manure what- 

 ever. The seed was soaked in common brine and rolled in 

 fine slacked \\me. The crop was harvested August 23d, and 

 threshed and measured 371 bushels. 



I have been on this farm six years, and have raised wheat 

 every year, and this is the smallest crop but one that I have 

 gathered. I have been induced to offer this for a premium, in 

 the hope of stimulating other farmers to cultivate the wheat 

 crop, believing that it is for their interest to raise their bread, 

 rather than pay others to do it for them. Several of my neigh- 

 bors have for a number of years cultivated this crop with nearly 

 the same success as myself 



WORTHINGTOX. Oct. 13, 1851. 



