222 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



to the best upland grown grain, although some of the former 

 had been sown so late in autumn that it did not show itself 

 until spring. The oats were largely sown upon lands after 

 the first ploughing, where the turf was too tough still to pul- 

 verize to any extent when harrowed. The surface was thus 

 very much broken up, and quite unsuited for a uniform growth. 

 The rye, at the time of cutting, stood between five to six feet 

 on a level, with specimens six and a half high and bearing 

 well filled heads, seven inches long. The oats were three and 

 a half feet on a level. A suggestion of Professor Henry 

 Mitchell of the United States Coast Survey, to send a collec- 

 tion of these crops to the Centennial Exhibition, where they 

 would compare well, in his opiniou, with those raised upon the 

 rich Western prairies, failed to be acted upon, on account of 

 some oversight in the packing of the samples. collected for that 

 purpose ; they did not leave Boston, being found in a damaged 

 condition. Responsible parties state that an acre of rye has 

 produced, on an average, thirty-four bushels of grain and five 

 thousand four hundred and fifty-tour pounds of straw ; one 

 acre of oats, on an average, forty bushels. The bushel of rye 

 sold at eighty cents, the bushel of oats at fifty cents ; the ton 

 of rye-straw and the ton of hay each at twenty dollars. The 

 gross receipts of the produce of one acre of rye, as above 

 specified, are as follows : — 



34 bushels of rye, at 80 cents per bushel, .... $27 20 

 5,454 pounds of rye-straw, at $20 per ton, 54 45 



Total $81 65 



The average cost of ploughing per acre has been ten dol- 

 lars, and for harrowing, five dollars. The "Holbrook Swivel" 

 plough is generally used, requiring two yoke of oxen for 

 working. Ditches two feet wide at the top and four feet 

 deep, have cost about seventy-five cents per rod. 



The late success has evidently stimulated the enterprise. 

 Over one hundred and fifty acres of the reclaimed marsh lands 

 have been ploughed during the past season by the following 

 parties : Thomas B. Williams of Boston ; Th. P. Ford, 

 Edward White, Stephen Henry, M. Goodhue and others of 

 Marshfield. About fifty acres of these were sown to rye 

 during the late autumn, and the balance will be largely sown 



