PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 353 



There has been 488 bushels of potatoes raised, at a cost of 

 twenty-seven cents per bushel. I have suffered very little by 

 the rot. I plant early — early seed, — manure highly, and dig 

 early. 



This crop is cultivated almost wholly with the horse. I 

 cover with a bush, and when the potatoes are up, run the culti- 

 vator close enough to cover the tops and weeds ; do the same 

 again if possible, and finish with the hoe. I have raised forty- 

 four bushels of winter wheat, at a cost of eighty-five cents per 

 bushel ; this crop was put in after potatoes, with grass seed — 

 the grass was a very great damage to the crop. 



Ninety-three bushels of winter wheat and rye, mixed, have 

 been raised, at a cost of sixty-seven and a half cents per bushel. 

 This crop was raised on very poor land ; got in about the 1st 

 of September, with a light dressing of compost manure. 



Oats and white beans have cost their market value. 



There have been about 700 bushels of fruit raised, mostly 

 apples, at a cost of six and a half cents per bushel. I have 238 

 fruit trees in all, the most of them set or grafted with my own 

 hands. During the warm weather in .January, I wash or soap 

 the trees as near the top as possible, with a whitewash brush ; 

 the after-rains wash the soap down and kill the insects. The 

 trunks are scraped in the spring, and pruned just before the 

 blossom buds open, and again in August. The ground is kept 

 dry round the trees, and compost applied over the whole 

 ground, late in the fall of every other year. This crop can 

 scarcely be estimated too highly as food for man or beast. 



My cattle have each, once a day in the winter, about a 

 bushel of cut straw or stalks, moistened and mixed with one or 

 two quarts of cob meal or shorts, or have carrots or turnips. 

 They thrive well on either; and 1 consider it equal to an in- 

 surance on their lives. 



It will be seen that a living has been received from the farm 

 for the family, and a balance for education and the pursuits of 

 happiness. 



MiDDLEBOROuGH, Sept. 9, 1851. 

 45 



