58 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



can tell what it costs to make a yard of cloth or a pan* of shoes. 

 Who can tell Mr. Smith how much his corn may be injured 

 next year by being blown down? how much by frost? how 

 much by rust ? how many smutty ears he will have ? how much 

 the birds will destroy ? how much the worms will injure ? He 

 has escaped these evils this year, but they are evils which the 

 most careful and skilful cultivator cannot avert. We have the 

 general promise that " seed time and harvest shall not fail," but 

 an All-wise Being is teaching us by his providence that the 

 amount of the harvest is, in a measure, dependent upon causes 

 over which we can have no control. It is only by long- 

 continued observation that the farmer can calculate how much 

 his crop will be injured by frosts, storms, drought and worms, — 

 and of these he can only judge by the past. He knows not 

 what the future may be. Our impression is that the same 

 amount of labor and manure that has been applied by Mr. 

 Smith and Mr. Hill, the past season, and yielded eighty bushels 

 to the acre, would not have produced more than sixty bushels 

 of sound corn on an average for the last ten years. 



The price of corn this year is comparatively low, yet we 

 think tliis should not prevent those who live remote from 

 market from planting it, as when it is fed to cattle or swine it 

 yields a good return ; and those who have to rely upon the 

 manure made on the farm will find it one of the best crops to 

 keep up the fertility of the farm. 



Wm. R. Putnam, for the Committee. 



Statement of Jesse Smith. 



Corn. — The crop covered an acre. 



The crop on the land, in 1863, was grass, no manure being 

 used. 



Crop of 1864, corn — twenty loads of compost, half stable 

 manure and half loam, being used ; soil, generally loam. 



The field was ploughed lightly in the fall of 1864, and again 

 in spring of the present year, eight inches deep — harrowed well 

 and furrowed. Cost of ploughing, etc., $5. 



Twenty loads of manure were applied and spread. Value, 

 $30. 



Planted last of May, in hills three feet apart one way and four 

 the other, with eight quarts Canada improved corn. Cost, $2. 



