364 PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 



Benjamin HoharVs Statement. 

 I entered my claim for a premium on one acre of wheat, and 

 the snbsoiling of one half of the same. I ploughed the ground 

 the 15th of April, and at the same time subsoiled one half of it. 

 On the 9th of May I spread on twenty-five ox-loads of good 

 compost manure and ploughed it in ; on the 15th of the same 

 month, and after harrowing it, sowed two bushels of wheat, 

 which I call golden straw wheat, and which I raised the year 

 before, and harrowed the same in on the 16th of May, after 

 which I sowed grass seed and bushed it over. The ground 

 was a good loamy soil, a young orchard, on which last year I 

 planted potatoes. 



I reaped the wheat on the 21st of August, let it stand ten 

 days in shooks in the field, then housed it, and on the 9th of 

 September threshed it out with a horse machine. The wheat 

 on each half acre was kept by itself, and the result was, on the 

 half acre not subsoiled, twelve bushels and twenty-two quarts; 

 on the half subsoiled, eleven bushels and twenty-six quarts; 

 making a difference in favor of that not subsoiled, of over three 

 fourths of a bushel ; and twenty-four and one half bushels in 

 all of good clean wheat. There was no rust or blast on the 

 wheat whatever; the heads were long and well-filled. In re- 

 spect to the subsoiled part, I was surprised at the result, for the 

 half acre subsoiled was much the stoutest straw and promised 

 the greatest yield ; but I attribute the difference to the blow- 

 ing down of the wheat, which was repeatedly injured in this 

 way ; the stoutest straw, the subsoiled part, did not rise so 

 well as that which was not subsoiled, and a considerable part 

 of it did not fill so well. It is probable that when land is un- 

 der very good cultivation, that the difference of the subsoiled 

 part over that which is not, will not be so great in the same 

 field as in land not cultivated so high. My experience has 

 convinced me that snbsoiling is of great advantage especially in 

 rather thin lands and hard and stiff soils. 



I sowed two bushels to the acre ; I used to sow two and one 

 half to three bushels to the acre. I think three bushels too 



