26 ON FARMS. 



ments of the produce of their farms and the modes of cultivation, 

 are subjoined, and show a very liberal return in crops. 



The farm of Mr, Chase consists of a variety of soil of good 

 quality, a part of it being hilly, and a part wet meadow land. 

 As a whole, it presented that improved aspect which is the 

 natural result of a long course of industry and good husbandry. 

 The quantity of products given in his statement, is large in 

 proportion to the amount of labor employed, yet there were no 

 indications of neglect in any of the operations of the farm. His 

 product of Indian corn, two hundred and forty-nine bushels on 

 four acres, which produced also twenty-five bushels of potatoes 

 and forty bushels of turnips, is large, considering that the sea- 

 son was not favorable to Indian corn. He considers that the 

 application of ashes to his corn at the second hoeing, was bene- 

 ficial to the crop, and in this opinion we believe he is sustained 

 by the experience of farmers generally. His crop of eleven 

 hundred twenty-eight bushels of potatoes, on four acres, — a hill, 

 steep enough to deter many farmers from attempting to plough 

 it, must also be considered a very good one for the season. 

 Mr. Chase thinks he has improved a hilly pasture, by ploughing 

 horizontal furrows round the hill, in the manner recommended by 

 Rev. G. B. Perry, in the Transactions of the Society for 1830. 

 Indeed he see.ms to have done precisely what good husbandry 

 dictated, in ditching and draining land that was too wet, and in 

 retaining the moisture on that which was too dry. The result 

 of his experiment in regard to cutting stalks, viz. that the pro- 

 duce was greater and the corn riper, where the stalks were cut, 

 though late, than where they were left uncut ; is at variance 

 with the opinion of many judicious cultivators, that corn is in- 

 jured by cutting the stalks ; but this is a question not conclu- 

 sively settled, and cannot be by a single trial ; but only by a 

 succession and variety of carefully conducted experiments. The 

 Committee do not concur with Mr. Chase in thinking a crop of 

 wheat, VERY uncertain, but believe, that if the seed is properly 

 prepared, sown early, on a congenial soil, well dressed with lime 

 or ashes, it will in most years well repay cultivation, and that the 

 farmers of Essex will practise a wise economy, in endeavoring 



