74 ON ROOT CROPS. 



ALLEN PUTNAM'S STATExMENT. 



To the Committee on the Cultivation of Root Crops : 



Gentle:mkn — The land measured by Mr. Brown? 

 whose certificate accompanies this communication, was, 

 I am told, planted to corn in 1839. How it was then 

 manured I do not know; but the former occupants of 

 my place were generally far from being lavish in their 

 enriching applications. In 1840 it was sow^ed to grain 

 and grass-seed^ probably without manure. In the 

 spring of 1841, when I began my operations upon the 

 place, I found that the grass-seed had failed, and I was 

 obliged to plough up; and, having no manure, to sow 

 again to grain and grass-seed. The early growth of the 

 grain was far from vigorous, and a hail-storm that pass- 

 ed over us, or rather came down upon us, June 30th, so 

 completely demolished the crop, that at the time of cut- 

 ting I obtained only a single cart load, say half a ton, 

 from three acres. After cutting the grain, I ploughed a 

 small piece, probably three rods by five, on which I put, 

 in drills, strong ox manure and poudrette, and sowed to 

 flat or English turnips. The crop was very small — 

 scarcely worth the harvesting. Hoping to have my 

 grass survive and give me some hay, I top-dressed the 

 remainder of the three acres, in the course of the last 

 winter and spring, with soil into which salt ley, the 

 waste ley of soapboilers, had been run. This dressing 

 probably cost me, when spread out upon the /a/2^,. about 

 one dollar per load, and I spread at the rate of about 

 ten loads per acre. But this did not save or create 

 grass enough to give promise of a crop worth mowing. 

 I concluded to take up half an acre of it, (including the 

 small piece where I had turnips the preceding autumn,) 

 and put it to ruta bagas. This soil is a loam, hardly to 

 be called either sandy or clayey, either light or heavy. 

 It is of middling quality. I ploughed up this land, 

 which had a little clover growing upon it, June 6th. On 

 the following day I applied my manure, spreading it 

 upon the furrows. 



Having found in 1841, that crushed bone, salt ley 



