ON GRAIN CROPS. 103 



MIXED CROP. 



The statement of P. P. Pillsbury, of Andover, of a Mixed 

 Crop of corn and beans, although it did not come exactly 

 within the list of premiums referred to this Committee, was 

 deemed of sufficient importance to merit their attention, and 

 worthy a gratuity from the Society. Mixed crops have not 

 received that attention from farmers of this county which they 

 probably deserve. The mixed crop of corn and potatoes, for 

 which an unclaimed premium has been offered, certainly 

 promises to reward well the experimenter. The potato rot, 

 instead of discouraging the trial, seems to us to offer addition- 

 al inducements to crop our lands in this manner. At the price 

 which potatoes now command, should they not rot, the acre 

 would with certainty prove much more productive of income 

 than it would if planted with corn alone. And if they should 

 rot, the cultivator would not lose his labour as when he cul- 

 tivates potatoes, which rot alone ; for the corn would not be 

 injured, but most probably benefitted by the manure bequeath- 

 ed it by its dying partner in occupancy. 



By planting, as Washington did, the corn eight feet by two, 

 and the potatoes in the same manner in alternate rows, it will 

 be perceived that the same number of hills is obtained of each 

 as would be of corn or potatoes alone, when planted four feet 

 apart each way. That more manure would be required or 

 profitably used for the double, than for the single crop, is 

 doubtless true ; and that the soil is composed of elements, 

 some of which are consumed much less by the one vegetable 

 than by the other, is also a well established fact in agricultur- 

 al philosophy. Hence we infer, that a mixed crop can be ob- 

 tained in one year from the acre of land, of greater value than 

 a crop of either of the plants alone, but at the expense of 

 greater exhaustion of fertility of course. Farmers have long 

 been in the habit of raising mixed crops of some of the fol- 

 lowing vegetables : Indian corn, pumpkins, beans, turnips, 

 &c., without so noting the gain or loss thereby, as to afford 

 any important information to themselves or others, in regard to 

 the utility of such management. It is certainly very desira- 

 ble these experiments should be so managed as to establish the 



