INDIAN CORN. 163 



basket of cars, and found that it had lost three pounds. We 

 then shelled the corn, and there were thirty-seven pounds of 

 corn and seven pounds of cobs — the latter having lost three 

 and three-fourths pounds, while the corn had gained three- 

 fourths of a pound. I have measured the land — one acre and 

 twenty-eight rods. At fifty-six pounds to the bushel, the yield 

 is one hundred and seventeen and six-tenths — a fraction over 

 one hundred bushels to the acre. The corn was the Plymouth 

 county, or smutty white. Mr. Sias says that last year, as the 

 land was very rough, with many fast rocks, and a part covered 

 with slate ledge, it was manured very lightly, and yielded a 

 very small crop ; or as Mr. S. expressed it, " We slighted the 

 corn, and the corn slighted us." 



This year we put on seven cords of manure, part from the 

 piggery, and part from the barn yard. The rows were about 

 three and a half feet apart, hills two and a half feet apart in 

 the rows. Before we had finished planting, our old manure 

 was gone, and on one-eighth of the field we put into the hills 

 manure green from the barn windows. On that part the corn 

 did not come up. We planted a second time, which greatly 

 reduced the yield, as, being later, it was more affected by the 

 dry weather, and did not fill out half as well as the rest. A 

 part of the field for several rods was a slate ledge, upon which 

 we carted several loads of loam to cover the corn with. This 

 portion was also much injured by the dry weather. Consider- 

 ing both of these things, and also that the dry season must 

 have had a bad effect upon the whole field, and that the whole 

 field was measured, and the whole corn in the field instead of 

 that from a single rod, and the calculations made from actual 

 weight, the crop must be regarded as an extraordinary one. 



The other field belonged to Mr. J. F. Twombly, and, as you 

 saw, is on the southerly side of Milton Hill. I did not see 

 the corn until after it was harvested. As it lay on the floor, it 

 appeared to me so large a crop that I offered to assist in meas- 

 uring it and the land. On the 25th of October we measured 

 the whole, except six or eight baskets that were in another 

 place, weighing one basket in every ten or fifteen. There were 

 two hundred and two baskets, which weighed, on an average, 

 thirty-eight and a half pounds, the basket we used being a 



