FARMS. 151 



raise every tiling towards the support of his family, which he 

 can raise without actual loss. Possibly in some one year wheat 

 may fail ; but in four years out of five success may be considered 

 certain. The flour may not be as white as that from the West, 

 but it is as sweet, and it is the farmer's own. By comparing 

 the returns from Norfolk county with those from the State of 

 New York, we find that the average crop here is full as large as 

 there. We read of yields of seven, ten, twelve, twenty bushels 

 per acre, and in unusual cases of forty bushels. With us the 

 yield is rarely less than twenty, and in one instance it has gone 

 as high as thirty-two. Mr. L. Clapp, of Stoughton, has averaged 

 twenty-two bushels of spring wheat for four years. Capt. 

 Mason, of Medway, has averaged twenty bushels for ten years. 

 T. Clarke, Esq., of Walpole, has this season raised excellent 

 wheat at the rate of twenty-five bushels to the acre. We 

 think he might have had five more if he had seeded higher. 

 Of course every farmer must judge of the necessary amount 

 of seed from the character and condition of his land. Perhaps 

 the average will be from five to six pecks. We have heard of 

 several good yields in the lower part of the county, the details 

 of which have not yet reached us. 



Barley is not extensively raised in this county. A few good 

 crops have come to our knowledge. It is considered by some 

 a very profitable crop for hogs, and its straw brings more than 

 half the price of English hay. Barley is also highly esteemed 

 as fodder, when cut at the right season. It is a powerful feeder 

 and requires a warm, strong soil, well manured, with a previ- 

 ous hoed crop, and kept clean. Rank, green manure should 

 be cautiously used, for it tends to cause the barley to run to 

 straw, and increases its liability to rust. From two to three 

 bushels of seed must be sown early in the spring. The crop 

 must be gathered in good season, because if delayed, it loses 

 by shelling out. 



Our grass crop was large and good, though seriously injured 

 by rain during the latter part of the hay-making season. It is 

 gratifying to observe in every direction, improvements in the 

 culture of grass fields, especially these two ; first, the reclaim- 

 ing and seeding of meadows ; second, the breaking up and 



