64 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



received in tlie spring a dressing of manure or compost com- 

 posed of muck and night-soil, two-thirds of the former to one- 

 third of the latter, thirty-two loads of thirty bushels each to 

 the acre being spread and ploughed in, from four to five inches in 

 depth. The ground was rowed one way, the rows being three 

 and a half feet apart and the hills a little less than two and a 

 half feet apart, giving thirty-five hills to the square rod. This 

 piece yielded 128^| bushels per acre, and the corn was very 

 sound and nice. 



Mr. Coburn's corn was raised on land similar to Mr. Sawyer's, 

 but we think not quite as moist. This field had been planted 

 with corn the previous year, and received a compost of stable 

 manure and loam at the rate of three and a quarter cords per 

 acre. This season seventeen loads per acre, in the proportion 

 of two-thirds stable manure and one-third night-soil, were 

 spread and ploughed in about seven inches deep. The ground 

 was then furrowed and manured in the hill with night-soil at 

 the rate of one and a quarter cords per acre. The rows were 

 about three and a half feet apart, and we found twenty-nine 

 hills to the square rod. The cultivation was thorough and the 

 crop looked well. The yield was one hundred and five and five- 

 eighths bushels per acre. 



Mr. Hodgman's corn was raised on very different soil from 

 the other. It was a sandy loam, and in many places the ledge 

 which seemed to underlie the ground came to the surface. This 

 land, which had been pasture, was planted the previous year, 

 and manured at the rate of eighteen loads per acre. This year 

 it has received ten loads to the half acre, or twenty loads per 

 acre. We do not learn that Mr. Hodgman uses any manure 

 but that made upon his farm. He mixes loam freely with the 

 droppings of his cattle and keeps his hogs at work as composters, 

 and the result is a large and valuable pile of manure at small 

 cost. His corn suffered much from drought, but still yielded 

 at the rate of 74|3 bushels per acre — a result speaking very 

 favorably for the thorough cultivation bestowed upon it. 

 Although feeling that we must award premiums as given, yet 

 we feel that Mr. Hodgman deserves special commendation for 

 the results he secured, and we hope that our farmer friends 

 may take courage by his example and never despair of good 

 crops, though they labor upon more rugged soil than some in 



