APPENDIX. 115 



Strip of land was ploughed and the seed sown immediately upon the fur- 

 row and then harrowed in. Then another strip of land was ploughed, 

 and so on until the whole was completed. One bushel per acre was 

 sowed as usual. The seed was originally obtained from a farmer in 

 this vicinity, and I suppose is similar to that which is generally used. 

 We have never prepared our seed in any manner, but have directed 

 our attention solely to the preparation of the land ; and to this we 

 attribute our success. Owing to the unusual severity of the winter, 

 the crop was considerably winter killed ; but recovered very soon in 

 the spring, excepting in the niidfuirows. There, as the land lies very 

 level, the water settled and so completely destroyed the rye that they 

 continued bare the whole season. This would of course cause some 

 diminution in the crop ; perhaps a bushel or two. The rye was reaped 

 at the usual season, and, as the weather was favorable, immediately 

 put into the barn. The land contained one acre and thirteen rods 

 and yielded forty sit bushels and three pecks. A remarkahhj fine 

 sample. 



In entering a claim for your premium, I would ask your attention 

 particularly to the process of cultivation. It is, I believe, entirely 

 new ; and capable of general application. 



Sowing the seed immediately after the plough we consider very 

 advantageous to the crop. The soil being then moist, causes the seed 

 to spring immediately, and gives a forwardness and vigor to the plants 

 which they ever after retain. 



The process of ploughing in three crops of weeds before the seed is 

 sown very much enriches the soil. It would be altogether unneces- 

 sary to attempt to refute the notion, that by such a process nothing 

 more is applied to the soil, than was before derived from it. If one 

 could not discover by the light which Chemistry has shed upon the 

 subject of agriculture, sufficient reasons for the contrary conclusion, 

 observation, one would think, would be sufficient to convince any in- 

 telligent man of the fact. 



And here I would suggest that I do not consider the experiment as 

 we have conducted it, quite complete. To render it more so, in the first 

 place, in ploughing in the weeds, I would not turn a furrow after the 

 dew had evaporated I have no doubt but that a large portion of that 

 fertilizing quality in the soil, which (during the summer months) is 

 continually e?^aled from the earth, is by the dew brought again within 

 our reach, and it would be wise to avail ourselves of the opportunity 

 of again burying it in the soil. And in the second place, I would by 



