178 APPENDIX. [March, 



for near a century. In the spring of that year, 1837, the sward was 

 turned over flat, the plough running deep and bringing to the top from 

 one to two inches of subsoil, which had never before been disturbed, 

 and by never cross ploughing, this fresh earth was kept at the surface. 

 The field was then rolled and harrowed, and twenty loads of compost 

 manure spread to the acre, harrowed again, and planted with corn. 

 I put in the drills which had been marked out for the corn, twenty 

 bushels of lime and plaster of Paris. I had a pretty good crop of corn, 

 seventy bushels to the acre. In the cultivation of the corn, not a foot 

 of the sward was suffered to be turned back or disturbed. In the 

 spring of 1838, the field was made smooth by the use of the cultivator 

 and harrow, and two bushels of Black Sea wheat, prepared as in the 

 previous year, three pecks of herds grass, and one bushel of red top 

 seed sowed to the acre. I then spread on fifty bushels of slacked lime 

 to the acre, and the whole was harrowed and rolled. The straw was 

 large and clean. In consequence of heavy rains followed by strong 

 winds, about the time of filling, it lodged in some places, and the pro- 

 duce was in some measure thereby lessened. It gave me, however, over 

 twenty bushels to the acre of well filled grain. 



In 1839, I sowed a field of eight acres, which until 1838 had been 

 pastured for twenty-five years. The soil, an exceedingly thin and 

 light one, with gravelly bottom, yielding hardly herbage enough to 

 form a sward. Thin as this soil was, in the spring of 1838 I had it 

 ploughed from four to six inches deep, turning it over as flat as the 

 nature of the ground would admit. So much of the gravelly and ap- 

 parently unproductive material was brought to the surface, that it gave 

 the field a very unpromising aspect. After ploughing, it was rolled 

 and harrowed, about twenty loads of manure from my hog-pens put on 

 each acre, and planted with corn, which was cultivated without break- 

 ing up the sward. I had forty bushels of corn to the acre. A small 

 crop, but considering the very poor quality of the soil, it was as great 

 as might reasonably have been expected. The method of cultivating 

 this field was more with a view to future operations than for the imme- 

 diate crop. In the spring of 1839, I broke up the corn-stubble, and 

 loosened the surface with the cultivator and harrow, spread one hun- 

 dred bushels to the acre of barilla ashes, fifty per cent, of which was 

 lime, sowed two bushels of the same kind of wheat to the acre, having 

 previously steeped it fourteen hours in a strong pickle, and rolled it in 

 lime. Intending the field for pasture, I sowed a large quantity of all 

 he kinds of grass seed that could be procured, and finished with the 



