86 



TRAXSACTIONS. 



was nearly a total failure. So lifeless was the soil, after turning it 

 with the plow, that neither sunshine, rain, nor good cultivation, 

 seemed to pulverize it, or to render it capable of sustaining a poor 

 crop. Two methods of procedure suggested themselves to my mind ; 

 either to manure liberally and continue to cultivate, or to stock it 

 down to pasture for a few years. The latter course I adopted. I 

 sowed it with rye and stocked it down. The seed took remarkably 

 well, and, judging from the appearance of the pasture from year to 

 year, I thought it gave unmistakable signs of improvement. Last 

 spring, I concluded to make one more trial. About the first of May, 

 I commenced plowing it from six to seven inches deep ; and, to my 

 surprise, I found a thick, rich, heavy turf. On working this, it pul- 

 verized immediately after coming in contact with the atmosphere. I 

 harrowed the land twice, manured in the hill, at the rate of eight 

 loads to the acre, using a compost, one-half from the barnyard, the 

 other half from the slaughter-house. I hoed three times, and ashed 

 one-half of the field after the first hoeing. The corn was cut and 

 stacked, about the middle of September, and husked, the last of Oc- 

 tober. The yield was one hundred and twenty-five bushels of ears, 

 equal to sixty-two and one-half bushels of shelled corn. The whole 

 field yielded three hundred and seventy-one bushels of ears. I think 

 there was a loss of from five to eight bushels per acre, in consequence 

 of an east wind, about the last of July, which prostrated it flat upon 

 the ground. 



VALUE OF CROP. 



