PLYMOUTH SOCIETY. 119 



Mr. Litteljohn states, that the land on which his crop of corn 

 grew, was almost a barren waste, the acre not having pro- 

 duced more than one dollar's worth of herbage in a year, for 

 the last five years. He spread on the acre, last spring, 55 loads 

 of good compost manure of 30 cubic feet, and mixed it well 

 with the soil. The corn was planted with great exactness, and 

 about half a pint of ashes, plaster, and night soil, put in each 

 hill. The corn was hoed the first time the 26th of June ; the 

 harrow had passed through it about two weeks before. The 

 cultivator was used before hoeing. The soil, Mr. L. states, 

 was worked in every instance in its hottest and driest state, 

 excepting the cultivating, which was done as soon as light in 

 the morning, to turn in a heavy dew. This acre produced less 

 corn, by some twenty bushels, than any other acre for which 

 premium was claimed ; but in view of the character of the soil, 

 the committee think the experiment meritorious, and hope 

 many, possessed of exhausted fields, will be stimulated by the 

 example of Mr. Litteljohn. 



Mr. Manley prepared his land for a crop of onions, by spread- 

 ing 13 loads of manure, chiefly from hog yard, and 14 bushels 

 of ashes on fifty rods. The surface soil only stirred with the 

 plough. Seed sown 16th of April. Fifteen days' work per- 

 formed in weeding and tending ; whole expense estimated at 

 $38. 



The statements of Messrs. Hill and Pratt show a judicious 

 preparation of their fields for the production of potatoes. They 

 probably would have had good success in a favorable season. 

 A part of Mr. Hill's crop decayed before digging ; this appeared 

 not to be so in Mr. Pratt's field ; whether the difference is to be 

 accounted for in the character of the soils, which were man- 

 ifestly unlike, or by the circumstance of the application of 

 plaster on Mr. P's field, we cannot determine. We have sup- 

 posed plaster a good preventive of disease ; but recent com- 

 munications on the subject seem to prove its inefficacy in several 

 instances, and represent the malady in potatoes as beyond the 

 reach of any remedial means within the present limits of our 

 knowledge. 



