No. 133.] 63 



Newburgh, Dec. 20, 1852. 



GEXTLEIilKN : 



The eiglitecn acres of wLeat in Newburgh, Orange county, 

 whicli the agricultural committee of the American Institute, 

 awarded me the premium on, was cultivated as follows : 



The soil was loam and gravel, and had been an old pasture 

 lot. It had been manured, plowed, the Sod inverted, and plant- 

 ed witli corn ; the following spring sowed with oats, (without 

 manure.) and in the fall was manured with 23 loads of compost 

 to the acre, composed of barn manure, leached ashes, oflals, and 

 different kinds of rubbish, which was turned over once, before 

 carr}ingon the fields j and when ammonia was discovered, it 

 was strewed over with common salt and plaster of Paris; after 

 plowing, it was sowed with 20 bushels of quick lime per acre, 

 carefully slacked, and well harrowed, (the same quantity was 

 sown on the corn crop,) it was theu sowed with 2| bushels of 

 Genesee white short chaff wheat, to the acre, and thickly seeded 

 down with timothy, and finished by rolling. It was all sown 

 by the 3d of September. The produce was 35 bushels to the 

 acre, and weighed 61| lbs., whiclrwas half a pound less than 

 our general average ; the season being remarkably dry may ac- 

 count fur it. Three acres of the above, was in a separate field; 

 the cultivation was the same, with the exception, that in October, 

 it had a light top dressing of ashes, from the burning of weeds, 

 brush, kc. ; and in April, we sowed 150 lbs. of nitrate of potash 

 on one-half, and 150 lbs. nitrate of soda on the other, as an ex- 

 periment. The wheat grew remarkably tall and tine ; could not 

 discover any difference between the different salts, and i>roduced 

 42^ bushels to the acre, weighing 02 lbs. I was therefore amply 

 paid for the expense of nitrates, but as the three acres were not 

 seeded, it may not be considered strictly a fair trial. 



It may be proper to add, that we plow deep, say 10 inches, the 

 mould board of our plows are three inches deeper than the ordi- 

 nary plows; it takes three horses, or two yoke of cattle to plow 

 with them, to their full depth. Our harrows correspond with 

 the plows. We are not alarmed at turning up the sub -soil, as we 



