74 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



or forty-five bushels. This he ploughs in, as lie thinks, eight 

 inches deep, (probably it is six ;) he plants a proper amount of 

 corn about tliree and one-half feet apart each way. He culti- 

 vates and hoes as usual, but not keeping any memoranda, he is 

 luiable to say exactly how much labor was bestowed on the 

 piece, having forgotten whether the hands worked whole days, 

 or only parts, at that time. "When the crop is nearly ready to 

 harvest, with a neighbor he paces off a square rod, as nearly as 

 they can, for an average ; the corn is picked, shelled, spread on 

 a garret floor for a week, till he calls it dry, (though from that 

 time till it is merchantable it will shrink fifteen per cent.,) 

 measured up, and the product of the whole field calculated 

 from it. Then with the assistance of " the boys," he estimates 

 as near as he can, the amount of labor expended, and so makes 

 to the " Committee on Grain Crops," a statement of a very 

 large crop at a very small cost. And this is called an experi- 

 ment, and claims a premium. This occurs every year in almost 

 every society in the Commonwealth. Of how little value is 

 such an experiment ; and yet, is it not common ? is it not a fair 

 specimen of the experiments and opinions of farmers gener- 

 ally ? How few there are who can state with any precision the 

 cost of any crop, or animal ; the value of their milk ; the 

 quantity required to make a pound of butter or of cheese ; the 

 value of the skimmed milk for calves or pigs ; the comparative, 

 much less the positive value of different grains, roots and 

 fodder for milk, flesh or wool, separately or together ? Does it 

 seem an undeniable proposition that one knowing these facts 

 accurately, or approximating to them in his examinations, 

 must, other things being equal, farm to a better advantage tlian 

 one who without special attention pursues the course his father 

 took, or varies from that only on some uncertain guess ? 



What a great advantage to have in one's barn a platform 

 scale, on which hay, grain and stock might be weighed ! What 

 a decided advantage a farmer, who was feeding stock, would have 

 in being able from time to time to weigh his cattle, and by weigh- 

 ing and measuring what they ate, to know how they gained the 

 fastest, and when it was time to sell ! It would be very satisfactory 

 to weigh one's grain when selling or sending to mill. Then a 

 convenient arrangement for weighing milk, is most desirable ; 

 a change of food frequently making a very decided change 



