352 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 



1 have made no account of fuel, for the premises afford an 

 abundance of birch, alders and refuse wood, that pays well for 

 collecting. The cultivation of crops, the manufacture of com- 

 post manure, &c., are all charged the market price of day labor, 

 that they may not appear low in consequence of cheaper labor 

 by the season. 1377 loads of compost made in the above 

 named four years, cost 20 cents per load. My yards and barn 

 cellar, are kept well supplied with mud, shoveled out the year 

 before. 



Much pains are taken to save all the liquids made on the 

 premises. My compost heaps are made by first placing a layer 

 of mud, then about one-third as much barn manure, and so 

 on, alternately, with the addition of salt, ashes, burnt oyster 

 shells, salt ley, &c., and wet over with water. After fermenta- 

 tion takes place, it is shoveled over and used as wanted. It is 

 always applied on top of the ground, prepared for crops, and 

 kept there as much as possible. 



Since I entered for this premium, I have raised 488 bushels 

 of corn, at a cost of twenty-one cents per bushel. Sward land 

 is taken for this crop. I plough seven or eight inches deep, 

 when the ground is as dry as possible. Spread from forty to 

 sixty loads of compost on the acre ; harrow, brush and hoard 

 over, till all is fine and smooth ; plant three and a half feet 

 apart, each way. Five or six corns are dropped in the hill, six 

 inches apart ; one quart of fine compost is spread on the corn, 

 and covered lightly. The cultivator is used one week and the 

 hoe the next, until the corn shades the ground sufficiently to 

 keep the weeds down, and the ground loose ; in this way, 

 myself and two boys have hoed one acre in two hours. 



I select my seed corn in the field, about the 10th of Septem- 

 ber ; ears that are then ripe, close to the ground, and on small 

 .stalks. 



There has been about fifty-one tons of English hay raised on 

 •my farm, the last four years, at a cost of a fraction over four 

 dollars per ton. My hay and pasture crops have nearly doubled 

 since 1848. My reclaimed meadows are kept in tolerably good 

 condition. By spreading one load of manure every fall, over a 

 large surface, and three or four loads of gravel on the manure, 

 the old turf decomposes and enriches the land. 



