MARCH. 133 



dollars. Twenty bushels of these pears grew upon one tree, 

 making the product worth forty dollars. Now, we will 

 allow that tree a plot of ground just twenty feet square, or 

 four hundred square feet, which is all that a pear tree of any- 

 thing like modest pretensions would require. An acre, then, 

 would contain one hundred and eight and nine-tenths such 

 plots, and, of course, just that number of pear trees. The 

 product of these, at forty dollars per tree, is at the rate of 

 $4,356 per acre. 



"If anybody is disposed to criticise this method of esti- 

 mating, we shall fall back upon the example of the ' distin- 

 guished agriculturist,' who raised such unheard-of crops 

 of cabbages and potatoes, by the aid of some science and 

 'some' fertilizer. He produced one great cabbage that 

 weighed ever so many pounds — six, we believe ; it may have 

 been ten or fifteen. Now, that cabbage occupied a plot of 

 ground just two feet square, and, since there are 10,890 such 

 plots on an acre, of course his whole crop (one cabbage) was 

 at the rate of 10,890 great cabbages per acre. These, at ten 

 cents each, amount to $1,089 for an acre. Is not this per- 

 fectly plain reasoning ? 



" But the pear man is ahead. Let us try the potato patch. 

 One hill was dug which measured just six quarts of splendid 

 potatoes. With the hills three feet apart each way, we have 

 4,840 hills, or 876| bushels to the acre, which, at $1.25 per 

 bushel, is at the rate of $1,095.3 1^ per acre. And as there 

 were eight acres in the field, the crop was, of course, 7,010 

 bushels, or $8,762.50 ! — all produced by a few hundred 

 pounds of a special fertilizer. Bat from eight acres the pear 

 man would have realized $34,848. So he is still clearly 

 ahead." 



This reminds us of a statement made by a cultivator of 

 the strawberry, at the Pomological Meetings of the New 

 York State Fair at Elmira last October, which was, that he 

 had produced at the rate of 300 bushels of Burr's New Pine 

 to the acre. Upon inquiry how much land was planted to 

 confirm such a result, we asceitained that it was a bed some 

 twelve feet long and three feet wide, which, producing a cer- 



