244 THABTSACTIONS OF THE 



himself to any one crop. It may succeed one year and fail the 

 next. Wheat sometimes fails over whole regions. When a 

 farmer gets confined to one crop it is diflBcult to get ont of ity 

 even after it does fail. 



Mr. Field — I do not advocate com as a specialty, though it is 

 a crop that will always sell — you cannot overstock the market 

 with corn. Tomatoes will sometimes bring $600 an acre, but 

 that is not certain. 



Mr. A. Bergen — Every farmer should always grow corn, even 

 where other things are fruitful. 



Prof. Mapes — I believe that potatoes are more profitable than 

 corn. The high price is kept up by our immense number of 

 immigrants. If 200,000 immigrants are landed here this year, 

 they will require 200,000 bushels of potatoes at least; and that 

 sort of extra annual demand upon this crop will always keep it 

 at a high figure, as compared with other products of the farm. 

 Besides, I raise one kind of potatoes, the Mammoth nutmegs, 

 which I sell for seed at two dollars a bushel. 



Prof. Mapes — I must say, if my whole place was covered with 

 the richest crop of corn, it would not pay me what I now get. 



The Chairman — I have lately been in Egypt, where our Indian 

 corn does not die the first year — it shoots out a great quantity of 

 forage the second year. Wheat grows largely on the plains of 

 Thebes. It is cut with hooks, with teeth like the teeth of a saw. 

 They are very rude implements, and the work ot harvesting 

 progresses slowly. 



Dr. Smith — What we hear of the farming and gardening about 

 us, makes me think it a very profitable business. 



John G. Bergen — As the sole crop of a year, I think the potato 

 the most profitable. One must use all his skill and capital in it, 

 yet it does not always turn out profitable. It is much safer to 

 divide crops. The county of Seneca once grew large and valu- 

 able crops of wheat. The weevil came among them, and the 

 wheat farmers almost pinched with poverty before they turned 

 their farms to oats and other crops. Some farmers succeed with 

 some speciality crop. My neighbors, on Long Island, near the 



