NORFOLK SOCIETY. 435 



nure were spread on it and ploughed in, not with a view of 

 much benefiting the bean crop, but to prepare the land to 

 receive grass seed in the fall. 



On the 1st of June, nothing having been done to the land 

 after ploughing, the beans were planted in rows, two feet 

 apart, about eight beans in a hill, the hills twenty inches apart 

 in the rows. The only after cultivation bestowed on them 

 was one hoeing. They were harvested the first of September, 

 and when threshed measured seven bushels and four quarts. 

 They were of the variety called marrowfats. I think that if 

 one-third more beans had been planted in each hill, the crop 

 would have been one-fourth greater. 



The value of the crop is . - ^14 00 



The cost, " " 9 75 



Profit, ^4 25 



Dover, Oct. 20, 1852. 



Report of the Trustees on the Culture of "Wheat. 



The subjoined statement is thought, by the Trustees, to be 

 worthy of particular attention. It affords conclusive proof that 

 wheat may be grown in Norfolk County, with as much profit 

 as in more fertile sections of the country ; and ought, thereforie, 

 to be held in more favorable regard as an article of culture in 

 this vicinity. 



We learn, from an authentic source, that the average crop of 

 wheat in Massachusetts, for a period of ten years — from 1840 

 to 1850 — was 18 bushels per acre ; the average cost of culti- 

 vation, including interest on the value of the land, ^18 per 

 acre ; and the average net profit on the cost of cultivation, 

 $11 12 per acre. 



In the instance here represented, we have a crop of 40 bushels 

 per acre, yielding, at the given prices for grain and straw, 

 (which do not seem unreasonably high,) a net profit of $31 07 

 per acre. The cost of cultivation was $73 21 per acre, which, 

 it will be seen, is much above the average cost. The value of 

 the land, however, is as much above the average price of tillage 



