EXACT AND EXPERIMENTAL AGRICULTURE. 87 



or spread ; and buried by the plough or scattered on the surface 

 and barely covered with a harrow. 



So hkewise in regard to your crops : — you can as well ascer- 

 tain on a quarter of an acre as on a quarter of a hundred, 

 whether your soil will bear wheat or not, or by the application of 

 lime or soaper's waste may or may not be made to bear it ; 

 whether the autumn or the spring wheat is best for you ; whether 

 your corn or potato crops were better planted in hills or in drills, 

 and at what distances ; whether your grass seed may better be 

 sown in the fall or the spring, by itself or with other crops ; and 

 whether after a fair trial of the expense and value of the produce 

 you would find it for your advantage to cultivate for the feeding 

 of your stock large quantities of vegetables such as potatoes, car- 

 rots, or turnips ; or to confine yourself to Indian corn and grass. 

 These experiments would lead, if carefully conducted, to most 

 valuable results, and for all practical purposes are as much with- 

 in the power of the farmer in moderate as the farmer in affluent 

 circumstances. 



Next in regard to your domestic animals, do not be offended 

 if I ask you, how many of you can tell me, how much hay and 

 provender it requires ordinarily to keep a horse ? how much a 

 yoke of medium sized oxen, worked or not worked ? how much 

 a common milch cow ? how much your yearling and two year 

 old heifers and steers ? and how near their labor, their produce, 

 or their growth comes towards defraying their cost ? These ani- 

 mals are kept at great expense beyond a question. The keep- 

 ing of them a part of the year is not necessary for their labor to 

 all of you, nor for their manure to some of you, who can procure 

 this article in abundance either from the sea shore or from the 

 neighboring livery stables. These then are most important 

 points, which can only be decided by actual experiment ; and 

 such experiments require nothing more than a little trouble or 

 attention, in measuring their food for a certain time. Very few 

 of you would I believe be able to answer these questions with 

 any thing like certainty. The amount of hay, for example, re- 

 quired for wintering a cow is estimated by different individuals 

 at from one and a quarter tons to two tons and a quarter. 



