102 TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 



who manages the Company's farms liere, declares he never beheld 

 in so short a time after sowing, so weighty a crop. It was my 

 intention to have ascertained the weiglit at two months; but on 

 account of drizzling rains, which would have added to the weight, 

 I postponed it until the 9th of April ; when the crop was dry: 

 and in presence of Doctor Baildon, Mr. Breame, and some 

 others, a square rod was accurately marked out — the produce of 

 which weighed exactly 200 pounds avoirdupoise ; this is at the 

 rate of 32,000 pounds, or 14^ tons of tine green fodder per acre. 

 This, in the short period of 64 days from sowing the seed, is a 

 large produce ; although probably not so much as it may weigh 

 when farther advanced. It is my intention to ascertain the weight 

 of the produce of this crop of green fodder, at three and at four 

 months growth, conceiving that such trials might lead to useful 

 deductions. 



In order to form a comparison with the produce of grass land 

 at the present time (and immediately after the most favourable 

 rains since my arrival in 1808) I marked out a square rod on the 

 lawn in front of the Plantation-house, which is as good as most 

 of the best pastures, and had the grass mowed — the produce 

 weighed only 12j pounds — or at the rate of 2000 pounds, or less 

 than one ton per acre. Consequently one acre of green fodder 

 corn in Q^ days from the seed, is equal to the produce of 14 acres 

 of the best pastures.* But this is not all — a crop of green fodder 

 may be secured almost at any season ; whereas, it sometimes 

 happens, in the months of November and December, our driest 

 and hottest season, that one hundred acres of pasture lands would 

 not yield a» single ton of grass. Compare also the short time 

 required, for a beast to take his full feed of green corn, with the 



* Colonel Broughton's Experiment at Long Wood, in November 1810, yielded 16jtons 

 per acre. See Section XIII. 



