29 massachusetts horticultural society. 



Statement of E. C. Lewis. 



Taunton, Mass., Sept. 19, 1896. 

 John G. Barker, Esq. : 



Dear Sir : In reply to your inquiry in regard to the crops Ave 

 grow, mode of cultivation, etc., I would say that the farm con- 

 sists of fifty acres of cleared land; namely, ten acres of river 

 meadow with clay subsoil, nearly all of which has been mowed 

 twice this season, and forty acres of upland sandy loam soil with 

 part clay subsoil and part coarse sand or gravelly subsoil. 



Thirty acres are down to English grass, which has been cut 

 twice this season. 



We use Canada hard-wood ashes for our grass land, applying 

 at the rate of one ton per acre each year in the fall months, and 

 one hundred pounds of nitrate of soda per acre in the spring. 



When we re-seed or seed down we use about five hundred pounds 

 of ground bone per acre in addition to ashes. We keep a small 

 herd of Jerseys, consisting of seven cows and one bull, which are 

 fed during the summer months, from April to the end of October, 

 on rye, oats, and peas ; oats and vetches, or tares, sweet corn 

 fodder, etc., of which we usually take two or three crops from 

 the same land, five or six acres of land being used for that pur- 

 pose, and some of the fodder being cured for winter use. 



We have about five acres of land planted to roots and vege- 

 tables, consisting of one acre of mangolds and sugar beets, the 

 land for which was manured with stable manure at the rate of 

 eight cords per acre and eight hundred pounds of Armour's 

 Soluble Fertilizer, all applied broadcast and worked in thoroughly 

 with a wheel harrow, after which we used a Thomas smoothing 

 harrow and then rolled down the laud with a light roller. The 

 seed was planted in rows two feet apart, at the rate of about six 

 pounds per acre. We commenced cultivating as soon as the beets 

 got up two inches, and thinned them when six inches high with a 

 common hoe, leaving them from twelve to fifteen inches apart. 

 We estimate the crop as it now stands at from forty to forty-five 

 tons on the acre. 



The remainder of the five acres of land is planted to potatoes, 

 squashes, and about one hundred other varieties of vegetables, 

 nearly all of which are planted so as to use a pony and cultivator 



