146 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



year, after taking off a crop, will produce a heavy coat of 

 weeds, which, if turned under, will be destroyed and the land 

 benefited. But, some say, we do not like to have our land lie 

 exposed to a hot sun three or four months. Then sow on a crop 

 of rye immediately ; it will cost but little. A good deal of seed 

 scatters when you gather the grain, in many instances ; so that 

 less than one-half a bushel will be enough seed for an acre, 

 and the feed in the fall more than pays the cost of seed and 

 ploughing. You will have a green crop of rye to turn in as 

 manure in the spring, worth, according to my experience, five 

 or six loads of manure to the acre. I would say, then, to 

 brother farmers, Turn over your stubble land, where you intend 

 to cultivate next year, as soon as possible, and scatter on a 

 little seed, and you will see a marked change in the land. It 

 will produce a heavier crop of corn, or rye, or oats, with the 

 same manure, and* you will receive some indirect benefits in 

 many ways, some of which I will name : — 



1. You will thoroughly pulverize the land, so that you will 

 save more in fitting your land for a crop, and in first hoeing, 

 than all it cost you the year before. 



2. You will destroy the seeds of all noxious weeds by turn- 

 ing them under before they ripen. 



3. You will be very apt to plough deeper. The team, having 

 become thoroughly rested since you finished your spring work, 

 will take hold with a " will; " and if the plough goes into the 

 old "hard pan" which has been formed in years back they will 

 not stop, but turn up two or three inches of it, and so give the 

 roots a chance to run down, which I have found to be of great 

 benefit the past dry summer. 



Sunderland, October 10, 1854. 



WORCESTER WEST. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



As to the best mode of adding to the quantity and quality 

 of manure, we arc of the opinion thai barn cellars arc the most 

 proper place. Your committee, having had some experience, 

 speak with confidence upon the subject. We would, therefore, 



