128 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



weighing 45 lbs. to the basketful, making 8,190 lbs., which, at 

 85 lbs. to the bushel, gives 96|| bushels. One basketful, kept 

 till December 1, weighed 411^ lbs., and yielded 34 lbs. shelled 

 corn, being, at that rate, 5,541-^- lbs., or 98|| bushels per acre. 

 The same corn, kept till January 1 following, and being then 

 very dry, weighed 32|- lbs., giving, as the merchantable product 

 of an acre, 94|| bushels of corn and 2^ tons of stover. Ex- 

 penses : Ploughing and harrowing, $7.50 ; manure, 150 ; seed 

 and planting, $6 ; cultivation, $1 ; harvesting, 17 ; total, $77.50. 

 Value of crop, $163. 12|. Profit, 185.62. 



1869. Spencer Leonard, of Bridgewater. One acre of sandy 

 loam, inclining to clay ; in grass, without manure, in 1867 and 

 1868; thirty loads of manure, of thirty bushels each, ploughed 

 in May 12, 1869, from seven to eight inches deep ; the ground 

 thoroughly harrowed and furrowed ; planted. May 14, in hills 

 three feet five inches apart one way, and about half that distance 

 the other, putting four kernels of smutty white corn in each 

 hill ; hoed four times with horse-hoe and twice with hand-hoe ; 

 the stalks cut and fed to stock in September, and the corn har- 

 vested in the latter part of October. Product, as computed 

 from an average rod harvested by the supervisor, 108|| bushels 

 of corn and four tons of stover. Expenses : Ploughing and 

 harrowing, |5 ; manure, $55 ; seed and planting, $4.50 ; culti- 

 vation, $10 ; harvesting, $15 ; total, $89.50. Mr. Leonard says, 

 in his statement : " A small portion of my corn land was 

 ploughed in the autumn of 1868. Tliis portion was manured 

 like the rest, in May, 1869, and ploughed only about four inches 

 deep. There was no perceptible difference in the corn on these 

 different portions. Some slight injury was done by the wire- 

 worms early in the season, and later, on the higher and dryer 

 portions, by the white-worm. Otherwise it has made a very 

 even and regular growth, and ripened well. The manure used 

 was from my barn cellar, about one-fourth of it being soil, and 

 the remainder the droppings from my cattle and horses, worked 

 over and enriched by three swine. A small handful of hen- 

 manure mixed with soil was put in each hill. The corn crop 

 appears to be a paying one, notwithstanding the statement of 

 Mr. Pratt and others that corn raising in Plymouth County 

 doesn't pay." 



Albert Thomas, of Middleborough. One acre of dark, sandy 



