134 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



may well be mowed for hay two or three times in the course 

 of the summer ; and this piece of husbandry is recommended 

 for farmers whose lands are mostly dry or unsuitable for 

 grass. 



The quantity of seed to be sown on an acre should vary 

 according to the soil, the time of sowing, and the purposes 

 for which it is intended. If it be sowed in the latter part of 

 August, or beginning of September, and is intended to re- 

 main for a seed crop, the quantity should vary from thirty- 

 two to forty-eight quarts, according to the goodness of soil. 

 Later sowing requires more seed, and in some cases two 

 bushels to an acre will not be too great a quantiiy. Ban- 

 nister's Husbandry says, ' When this grain is sown for sheep 

 feed, it is proper to allow three bushels to the acre, for where 

 the blade, haulm, or stalks form the primary object, a much 

 larger proportion of seed is requisite than when the crop is 

 meant for harvesting.' 



Mr, Adams Knight, of Newbury, Massachusetts, received 

 a premium of twenty dollars, from the Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural societjr, for a crop of rye, obtained as follows : 



' The soil is a gravelly loam, rather dry than otherwise. 

 The land was planted with corn in the spring of 1S31, and 

 manured in the hills with about six cords of manure to the 

 acre, of common quality. In the month of August follow- 

 ing, said acre was sowed with three pecks of seed, and hoed 

 in the usual manner. In the month of August of the present 

 year [1832] the rye was reaped and threshed, and found to 

 measure forty-five bushels and five-eighths of a bushel. 

 There is standing on said acre of land seventy-five apple- 

 trees, from two to six inches through at the root."^ 



The same year Mr. Gideon Foster, of Charlestown, Mas- 

 sachusetts, obtained thirty-eight and one-sixteenth bushels 

 of rye from one acre, as follows: 



' The land is bordering on, and near the mouth of Mystic 

 river. The soil is principally a black loam, with clay bot- 

 tom. In 1831 it was planted with potatoes, with a moderate 

 supply of manure, and yielded an ordinary crop. The pota- 

 toes were lemoved the last week in September, the land well 

 ploughed and harrowed in the usual way, with one and a 

 half bushels of seed to the acre. I owe my success princi- 

 pally to the use of night manure, and to that in consequence 

 of its being well prepared by age, and thoroughly mixed with 



* N. E. Farmer, vol. xi. p. 238. 



