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STATEMENT OF FRANCIS H. APPLETON. 



1 send ill this statement of ray experience in raising Indian 

 Corn during the season of 1878, as il seems to me quite in- 

 teresting, be^^ond being an accumulation of carefully made- 

 up facts. As distances from barn, and other circumstances, 

 vary in different fields, so must my figures vary from others 

 of a similar kind. 



I have taken much pains to keep an account in my diary 

 of the time expended in the fields, from which my figures are 

 taken. Both these crops were raised on worn-out sod land, 

 upon which almost no grass could be cut in 1877. The 

 one with stable manure makes by far the worst showing, 

 even after deducting the cost of one-half of the manure, as 

 being in the land and still good for next year's crops. In 

 the case of the Stockbridge fertilizer crop, it will be seen that 

 more fertilizer was applied than is generally recommended ; 

 anckthe question arises whether any of it still remains in the 

 land for the next crop, or whether the extra quantity has 

 been washed down too deep in the land to be available ma- 

 nure, on account of its greater solubility than stable manure. 

 In my figures I have made no deduction for the value of any 

 fertilizer that may remain in the land for next year's crop. 



Had six bags only of the fertilizer been, used (the general 

 amount recommended by Bowker & Co., the makers,) with 

 the same result, which would, theoretically, have been possi- 

 ble, and I given credit for the extra three bags, the cost would 

 have been 19.4 cents for a bushel of corn on cob. The corn 

 I used for seed, was the eight rowed variety. 



In harrowing, cultivating and hilling, some saving could 

 be made by employing an intelligent boy to drive, or ride the 

 horses ; and in the second cultivating, and the hilling, one 

 careful man with a good horse would be all that is needed, the 

 corn being high enough to perfectly mark the track for the 

 horse. I also sec in the "American Aoriculturist " that 

 three cents a bushel is the price to be paid for husking, which 

 would decrease that charge one-half, where it could be done. 



