ON THE CULTIVATION OF CROPS. 69 



I am accustomed to allow the stalks or stover of a 

 field that gives fifty bushels of com, to be worth as much 

 as one ton of English hay. The ton of hay I value at 

 $12; my stover then is worth $16. My corn, allowing 

 liberally for shrinkage, (for most corn after it is put 

 away in bins will shrink near ten per cent), I put at six- 

 ty bushels, and call it worth to me 75 cts. The credit 

 side will stand thus: 



60 bushels of corn, at 75 cts., $45 00. Dr. 65 76. 



Stover, - - - 16 00. 



$61 00. 



Balance against the crop, ^4 76 



In this estimate I have made no charge of interest for 

 the land. Neither have I given credit for the benefit 

 the manure may be to future crops, nor for any extra la- 

 bor in tillage for making the surface smooth, and laying 

 the land down. 



Though my figures bring the crop in debt to me, this 

 is not the worst of my farming. Have others fared 

 much better this year ? 



My manure has been peculiar; my mode of cultivation 

 different from what I have been accustomed to, (rending 

 the roots of the corn, and stirring as much of the ground 

 as possible, up to about the first of July, and after that 

 only scratching the surface), and my mode of curing dif- 

 ferent from what is usual. The corn is sound and good; 

 the stover is very good, and the crop, considering the con- 

 dition of the land in the spring, larger than I could rea- 

 sonably expect. Some of the neighbors had the kind- 

 ness to encourage me by saying that it was of no use to 

 plant corn there, for it would not come to anything. For 

 this, however, there was no sufficient reason. The land 

 naturally is of middling quality, but was badly bound out. 



ALLEN PUTNAM. 



Hamilton, Sept. 27, 1842. 



I hereby certify that on the 9th of September T meas- 



