CROPS. 87 



STATEMENT OF GEORGE DICKINSON. 



The piece of land on which this crop of corn was raised, is first- 

 rate alluvial meadow, in Hadley, and contains, according to the sur- 

 veyor's report, four acres and ninety-eight rods. For seven years 

 previous to the spring of 1852, three acres of it were mown, and two 

 crops were produced, nearly every year without manure. The re- 

 mainder was planted with broom-corn, four years previous to the 

 spring of 1852. The land was plowed about the first of May, 1852, 

 manured in the hill, and planted with broom-corn. The yield was 

 about eight hundred pounds to the acre. I plowed, the second week 

 in May, spread forty-eight loads of manure, harrowed it in, and 

 planted, the last of the month, in hills about three feet by three feet 

 four inches. I cultivated with a horse, hoed three times, and cut 

 over again in August. The crop was cut and stacked, the third week 

 in September, and husked in October. The yield was five hundred 

 and one baskets — nineteen quarts to the basket — weighing thirty- 

 three pounds each, and amounting to two hundred ninety-five bushels 

 and 12-32ds, at fifly-six pounds to the bushel. I would here state, 

 that the crows hooked, as it was thought, about a quarter of an acre. 



VALUE OF CKOr. 



295 bushels, at 80 cents, .... $236.00 



Corn fodder, by estimate, .... 27.00 



-$263.00 



EXPENSES. 



Interest on land, at |200 per acre, . . . $54.00 

 48 loads of manure, at $1.25, .... 62.00 



Labor, 77.50 



-$193.50 



Net profit on 4 acres, 98 rods, . . . $09,50 



George Dickinson. 

 Hadley, Nov. 24, 1853. 



WHEAT CROPS. 

 STATEMENT OF WASHINGTON MILLER. 



I off'cr for premium a crop of wheat, raised on one acre, in Sun- 

 derland. From this acre I took a fine crop of potatoes, last fall. 

 The year previous, the land was a piece of old meadow. I harrowed 

 and manured in the hill, putting a small shovelful of compost, and a 

 handful of lime and ashes in each hill. About the middle of Sep- 

 tember, I plowed and sowed a bushel and a half of pure seed wheat, 

 selected from the largest heads in the bundles of my previous crops. 



