HAMPSHIRE SOCIETY. 261 



I now began to think of changing the crop, fearing it might 

 exhaust the land if continued in buckwheat. I next planted 

 broom-corn and potatoes, using five loads of compost manure 

 to the acre, in which I put one bushel of lime per load. From 

 eight acres of corn, I had six hundred bushels, seventy-five 

 bushels per acre. From ten acres of potatoes, twenty-five 

 hundred bushels, or two hundred and fifty bushels per acre. 

 The broom corn was six hundred pounds per acre. I have 

 continued with the above crops for twelve years, with good 

 success, with one exception. In 1843, I had ten acres of po- 

 tatoes. There came a heavy shower, and some five or six 

 loads of earth slid into the deep cut and flooded the land ; the 

 drain was soon cleared and the water off" in less than twenty- 

 four hours, but it spoiled the potatoes without doing any dam- 

 age to the corn, or other crops. In 1849, I planted forty acres 

 with potatoes, and had ten thousand bushels. I set a small 

 piece with tobacco four years in succession ; it grew well every 

 year. Last season I set two acres, which produced seventeen 

 hundred pounds per acre ,• this season I set fifteen acres, which 

 is better than the crop last season ; on the above fifteen acres, 

 I put six loads of compost and eight bushels of lime per acre. 



I now have given a history of reclaiming the land, with the 

 produce, except the buckwheat, which was fifteen to twenty 

 bushels per acre ; average, seven hundred bushels annually, 

 from forty acres. 



I will now give an account of the expense. 



The wood paid for clearing the land. 

 525 rods of drain, at 37| cts. per rod, - $195 00 

 160 " " at 40 " 



160 deep cut " at |2 " 



Ploughing, draining, &c., 40 acres, at $15 



per acre, - - _ _ 



Three years' interest before getting crops. 

 First cost of 50 acres, at $5 50 per acre, 



Total, ' ' - $1,669 00 



