210 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



interest on this outlay, with tlie annual wear and tear of fences, 

 to be equal to an annual tax of $10,000,000 on the farmers of 

 that State. 



Newburtport, October, 1857. 



INDIAN COEN. 



HAMPSHIRE. 



Statement of P. N. Richards. 



My crop of Indian corn was raised on 244 rods of heavy, 

 sandy loam, in Sunderland. In 1856, from a half acre of it, I 

 had a good crop of broomcorn, after having given it a good coat 

 of barnyard manure. The remainder produced rye, without 

 manure. On the first of May, 1857, I applied thirty one-horse 

 loads of yard and stable manure, — ploughed it under seven 

 inches deep, then spread on fifteen one-horse loads of compost, 

 and at the same time sowed broadcast and harrowed in twenty 

 bushels of ashes. On the twenty-third of May, I planted, with 

 Billing's Corn Planter, what is called Stebbins's twelve-rowed 

 corn. I put from six to eight kernels in the hill. The rows 

 were three feet apart and the hills three and a half feet. I put 

 in the hill, while planting, ashes at the rate of four bushels to 

 the acre. I hoed three times, using each time the common 

 cultivator, and made hills of moderate size. I thinned the 

 stalks, between the first and second hoeing, leaving only four in 

 a hill. I had ninety-six and one-fourth bushels of corn to the 

 acre. 



Value of crop : — 

 146;| bushels of shelled corn, at |1, 



5 tons of fodder at $6, 



Expenses : — 

 Manure, $56.75, applying it, $7.27, 

 Ploughing and harrowing, and seed, 

 Planting, hoeing and harvesting, . 

 Interest on land, valued at $200 per acre, 



$176 25 



106 02 



Net profit on 244 rods, . . . . $70 23 



