144 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Statement of B. N. Sawin. 



My experiment in raising Indian corn was made on one and 

 a half acres of land, the soil consisting of a sandy loam, which 

 had been improved as a mowing field for eight years, without 

 any manure or dressing, producing not more than one thousand 

 pounds of hay per acre. In November last I ploughed with a 

 Michigan plough eight inches deep. The eighteenth of May I 

 harrowed with cultivator harrow, and furrowed with a plough, 

 making the hills two feet ten inches apart each way. I took 

 six cords of unfermented manure from the barn cellar, applied 

 it all in the hill, and commenced planting. The corn was an 

 eight-rowed variety of yellow, and has been raised in this vicinity 

 for more than forty-seven years. I used one of C. H. Sawin's 

 corn-droppers, putting four or five kernels in a hill; a cultivator 

 was used between the rows, and hoed once lightly, leaving the 

 surface level. The top stalks were cut September 11th and 

 14th. The corn was harvested October 18th to 25th. The 

 committee selected two rods in different parts of the field, 

 which they considered a fair average of the field, which yielded 

 forty-seven pounds of shelled corn ; and allowing fifty-six pounds 

 to the bushel, gave one hundred and five-sevenths bushels, or 

 sixty-seven and one-seventh bushels per acre. 



The expense of the crop was as follows, viz. : — 



Interest on value of land at fifty cents per acre, and 

 taxes, ....... 



Harrowing and furrowing, .... 



Applying manure and planting, 



Six cords manure, ..... 



Sixteeen quarts seed, 



Crow line, ....... 



Cultivating one way and hoeing by boy, . 

 Pulling weeds by boy, ..... 



Cutting and binding stalks, .... 



Harvesting corn, ..... 



Total, $^57 32 



