56 



erroneous or not will probably prevent its taking a place 

 to much extent in any regular rotation. But there is a 

 place for it and one which it would be for the interest of 

 some of our farmers to let it occupy much oftener than 

 they do. That place is in subduing and renovating old pas- 

 tures, and we have known instances in which such lands, 

 from being almost worthless, have been brought into a 

 state of comparative productiveness and profit. The treat- 

 ment has been substantially this. The land is broken up 

 early in the summer and sowed at the usual time with 

 buckwheat and one or two hundred pounds of guano per 

 acre. The next year it is planted with potatoes and the 

 third year sowed with oats and grass seeds ; or the pota- 

 toes may be omitted and the oats and grass seeds follow 

 the buckwheat. By this treatment the crops will general- 

 ly pay for the labor and seeds, and at the end of the course 

 the land will be worth at least twice as much for pasture 

 as it was at the beginning. 



Of the exhibition of Indian corn it is hardly necessary 

 to say much. There were the usual varieties, and in their 

 usual excellence. This is a favorite crop with us, and de- 

 servedly so; though we incline to the opinion that we 

 sometimes give it undue preference. The experience of 

 the last two or three years should teach us that we are not 

 to rely upon it, unless we are willing to give to it special 

 attention. But in this way it becomes an expensive crop, 

 and should be made to give a return in proportion. On 

 many of our cold lands, especially those that are not well 

 drained, we think in the end it would be more profitable 

 to drop the corn crop and substitute in its place one less 

 expensive and more sure. Corn has two enemies with 

 us, either one of which in ordinary seasons is as much as 

 it can contend with. But when the two unite in more 

 than usual force, the effect is fatal. These enemies are 

 cold and wet weather. Last year we had them both in 

 the early part of the season, and the consequence was, an 

 almost total failure of the crop on cold lands. This sea- 



