1840.] SENATE~No 36. 49 



REPORT 



CULTURE OF WHEAT 



IN MASSACHUSETTS, 1838. 



The Senate, by their order of 20 March, 1839, having re- 

 quired of tlie Commissioner of Agricultural Survey, an exami- 

 nation of all the ^vheat returns made to the Government, with 

 a view to obtain ihe bounty of ered by the law of 1838, and with 

 reference to any improvements which the culture of wheat in 

 the Commonwealth may admit of, the Commissioner has de- 

 voted much time to that subject; and herewith respectfully 

 submits his report — in the preceding analysis of the returns of 

 all the towns, and in the subjoined general remarks on the 

 whole subject. 



The number of individual claimants, whose returns have 

 been examined, have exceeded three thousand six hundred. 

 The amount of bushels of wheat, upon which a bounty has 

 been paid, is more than one hundred and eight thousand. The 

 sum paid for this object by the State in the first year of the 

 law, is $9,280 14 cts. 



The objects of the law, proposing a bounty upon the raising 

 of wheat in the Commonwealth, it is presumed, were two fold ; 

 the first, to ascertain the capacities of the State to produce this 

 crop ; the second, to learn the common modes of cultivating 

 it, that if possible they might thence determine the best mode. 

 It was therefore required, that claimants should report not only 

 the number of bushels raised, but also the extent of land sown ; 

 7 



