Which, at 25 bushels, the average per acre, would be thirty-six and four-fifth cents for producing a bushel of wheat in Michigan.

Mr. Bartlett raised an average of 251 bushels of wheat for 8 successive years, at an average cost of 342 cents per bushel.

From the preceding statements, it would appear that the cost of producing a bushel of wheat is 66 per cent. more in New Hampshire than in the fertile and easily cultivated soil of the State of Michigan.

In 1848, we sowed 2,000 pounds of guano, mixed with one-half ton of plaster, on a 15-acre field of corn, which had been under cultivation for 70 years; and which, owing to excessive cropping, produced only a half crop of clover the previous year. The mixture was sown broadcast immediately after planting the corn. After the corn was from three to four inches high, it was harrowed, and soon after the cultivator was passed between the rows. When the corn was from eight to twelve inches high, it was ploughed about three inches deep, and the surface containing the guano thrown in towards the rows. The yield was about 50 bushels to the acre. The following spring this field was sown with oats; and, although the outcrop this year was short in the straw, and light in general, the yield of this field was over 40 bushels per acre. The straw was much longer than any we noticed in the neighborhood during that season. While growing, this field of oats had a remarkably striped appearance, which was visible at a considerable distance from the field. Although the oats were even in length all over the field, the parts which had been occupied by the rows of corn were of a much darker green than the parts between the rows; proving conclusively that the effect of the guano was not all exhausted in the first year upon the corn, but that it contributed largely to the production of a fair yield of oats. When ploughed for corn, about one half of said field was subsoiled with Prouty & Mears's subsoil plough. No difference, however, could be noticed between the part which had been subsoiled and the part which had not received that extra work-neither in the corn nor the oat crop, nor in the wheat crop which followed.

The cost of the guano and plaster, and the cost of preparing and applying it, was $4 45 per acre. The gain of the guano alone could not have been less than 300 per cent.

The average crop of corn of the better farmers is about 60 bushels in favorable seasons.

The cost of producing a bushel of grain varies much, as well as the number of bushels produced on an acre, and depends on the quality of the soil, as well as a judicious application of manure and cultivation. On the whole, we put the average cost of producing a bushel of corn at 35 cents per bushel, and the average number of bushels produced at 36 bushels per acre. The average yield of oats we estimate at 28 bushels

per acre.

Oats are believed by some to be very exhausting to the soil. This opinion, we think, is in a measure owing to the looseness of the soil after a crop of oats; which, on soils naturally friable, causes wheat sown after oats to freeze out, or winter-kill. As wheat generally follows a crop of oats, a coat of barn-yard manure ought always to intervene between the oat and wheat crop. Land treated in this way seldom fails of producing a good crop of wheat, and will, if properly managed, increase the fertility of the soil.

The improvement of the breeds of horses and neat cattle has been much neglected. Some superior breeds of cattle have been attended to; but as a proper system of crossing and improving has not been attended to, they have generally degenerated. The recent organization of our State agricultural exhibition at Harrisburg has done much to attract the attention of farmers to this subject, and will no doubt excite them to action. What we have stated in relation to neat cattle will also apply to sheep and hogs.

The cultivation of fruit is receiving increased attention; but is yet, by many, too much neglected. In the townships of Union and Menno, in this county, extensive orchards abound, containing most of the better varieties of apple trees. Cherries and plums are here, also, tolerably plenty. Pears and peaches are more scarce.

I find no difficulty in preserving the peach tree. My method is to keep the trees well mulched, and to apply boiling water to the roots, near the trunk, in the month of April. Before the water is applied, the soil should be removed from about the roots, near the trunk of the tree; and, if any worms have penetrated into the wood, they ought to be laid low by a sharp knife. By mulching, we mean the placing of straw or any other substance around the tree, in sufficient thickness to rot the sod, and to keep the ground moist in dry weather. In no case, however, ought anything of the kind to be permitted in the winter, or in time of snow, as the mice will harbor in it and peel the trees. It should always be applied in the spring, and removed before the first snow in the fall.

Respectfully, yours,

SHEM ZOOK '

SWATARA FALLS, NEAR MIDDLETOWN, DAUPHIN Co., Pa. SIR: Having been favored with a copy of your Circular, soliciting information relative to agricultural crops, modes of farming, &c., &c., I cheerfully comply so far as my experience and knowledge of the various points belonging to rural affairs will enable me to do so. Before I proceed, however, to answer the points set forth in your Circular, permit me to make a few general remarks on this important subject, confining myself entirely to my own county. In this county the practical farmer has long since accomplished all that can be accomplished without the aid of science. Inhabited for years by an industrious German population, the experience of the father handed down to the son by tradition, the cultivation of the soil has been brought to great perfection; but not until within a few years has the aid of science been sought and studied by our farmers generally; and great improvements have already been made in the productiveness of the soil, as well as in the saving of labor and expense in its cultivation. Within this year a State agricultural society has been formed, with an auxiliary county society in this and many of the other counties of the State. The State society had a fair at Harrisburg, in this county, which far exceeded the most sanguine expectations of its friends. This has given our farmers a new and powerful impulse; and the time is at hand when, by the aid of science, and the experience and industry of our farmers, agriculture in this county will be brought to its highest degree of perfection.

Wheat is extensively cultivated in this section. Guano has been used in the production of this crop, but only within the last few years, in small quantities, by way of experiment. It has not been sufficiently tried to test its value fully, but promises to answer very well. When two crops of wheat are raised in succession on the same ground, the ground being dressed with stable-manure for the first crop, and the guano sowed on broadcast, 300 pounds per acre, and harrowed or drilled in with the wheat in the second crop, in this way, the product of the second crop of wheat will be materially increased. It should be harrowed in immediately when sown, or its value will be much diminished by the escape of ammonia. I think to mix and sow a small quantity of plaster with it would be an advantage in preventing the ammonia from escaping. The average product of wheat per acre is 30 bushels, though 45 and 50 are frequently raised. Time of seeding, from the 1st of September to the 1st of October; of harvesting, from the 4th to the 15th of July. Wheat is never harvested here before it is fully ripe. Some experiments have been made by cutting when in the doughy state; but, as far as I know, this mode has not been approved of. No pains are taken in the preparation of seed, except to have it clean from everything but good, sound, plump wheat grains, which is readily accomplished with the excellent winnowing mills in use here. The quantity sowed per acre, when drilled in, is 1 bushel; when sown broadcast, two bushels. We plough twice for wheat; and all good farmers prefer ploughing as deep as they can without turning up the subsoil. The average depth is about eight inches. The average yield of wheat per acre is rapidly on the increase here. I have no doubt in ten years hence it will reach 40 bushels per acre. Our system of rotation in crops is, first: when the land has lain in sod 2 or 3 years, we turn down for corn, followed with oats or tobacco; then manure with stable manure, and follow with wheat, sometimes with two successive crops; and sometimes the first is a wheat crop followed with rye, then timothy and red clover; and very frequently the first crop of wheat is followed with grass. This is the most certain way to bring good grass. Sometimes a crop of clover is turned down for wheat. This was much practised before lime was used; but since, the crop is generally taken off before the sod is turned down. This produces a good crop of wheat, but is apt to generate blue grass. The Hessian fly has not troubled us much for some time. The only remedy we know of is late sowing. Weevil, good farmers are not much troubled with here. If a barn is full, clean it out well of chaff or short straw, such as gathers in the mow if not cleansed every year. Stack your grain out one year, so as to leave the barn empty during one winter; then keep clean as above, and you will have no trouble with weevil. The leaves of box-elder, thrown among the grain when housed, will check them considerably. Our old farmers say, to put a flock of sheep in a mow that is full of weevil every night for several months, when the mow is previously cleaned as above, will destroy them effectually. Average price of wheat at our nearest market in 1851, 75 cents per bushel.

Corn is, next to wheat, the principal crop here. Guano is not used in its production, except that, within a few years, a little has been used by way of experiment. There is no doubt but, if properly applied, it will materially increase the product of the crop; but those who have tried are unanimous in the opinion that the same per cent. of increase can be

effected with lime and plaster at a much less expense. The average product per acre is 50 bushels; but from 80 to 100 are frequently raised. The yield per acre is increasing rapidly. Our system of culture is so identically the same as that given in your Report for 1850, from the pen. of Jacob B. Garber, of Columbia, Pa., that it is unnecessary for me to give you any more here but a reference to his, found on page 415. Ground and cooked is much the best method of feeding corn to cattle and hogs; if fed to horses, ground and mixed with cut hay is the most economical; for cattle, I prefer it ground with the cob; for hogs, ground without the cob. We have not more than half an average crop of corn this season, owing to the drought. We had no rain to soak the ground from July to November. Average price at our nearest market, 60 cents per bushel. Oats are much cultivated, and are considered exhausting to land. Quantity of seed sown per acre, 2 bushels; average product per acre, 50 bushels; average price, 35 cents.

Barley and Rye not much cultivated. Peas and Beans not cultivated as a renovating crop.

Neat Cattle.-Not many are raised for sale in the county. Mules not raised. Horses.—Not enough raised to supply the demand for them in our own county. They are not considered profitable to raise.

Hogs.-The Berkshire and Chester county are much preferred here; but our stock needs improving very much.

Sheep. There are some kept for fattening; but wool growing is not considered profitable here. Tobacco is considerably cultivated, and, at present prices, is very profitable. Guano is used with great advantage on this crop, producing a very rapid growth; which is very desirable in a crop that is exposed to so many injuries by worms, and consequently requires great attention. We sow broadcast before planting, and harrow in. It is generally grown in rotation with wheat, oats, corn, and grass, always following corn; and if grown in this way, I am certain it is no more exhausting to the land than corn, and much less so than oats. I have frequently had part of a field in tobacco, and part in oats, both followed with wheat and grass. Both the latter crops were perceptibly better on the tobacco than on the oat-ground, the whole field being situated exactly alike in other respects. The soil, a sandy loam, or river bottom. Average product per acre, 1,000 pounds. Price, from 10 to 12 cents per pound at nearest market.

Potatoes, (Irish.)-Not very extensively cultivated; but every farmer cultivates some; seldom, however, many more than he wants for his own At least, our county produces few, if any, more than are needed to supply its own population. The long red, or rowan, are decidedly the most prolific, but the mercer and pink eye are preferred for table use.

use.

Manures.-The best way of preserving stable-manure from waste is to keep it under roof, and throw plaster over it once a week. The plaster prevents the ammonia from escaping.

Plaster is used extensively here, and is annually, about the beginning of May, sown broadcast on the grass at the rate of from 80 to 100 pounds per acre. It is also used by nearly every farmer on the young corn when about two inches high, applied by hand, from 100 to 150 pounds per acre. Some few persons, after steeping their seed-corn in copperas water or saltpetre, throw plaster over it until it is dry by mixing. This is commonly called rolling in plaster. This plan is much esteemed by some few farmers; but the former application is more generally practised.

Lime is much used here, and its use is annually on the increase, and it will no doubt continue to be the principal fertilizer in this section of country for years to come. We have the limestone and coal in abundance in our county, and consequently no fertilizer brought from abroad can ever exceed it in cheapness; it is now sold at 6 and 7 cents per bushel (all over the county) at the kiln, ready to put on the land, and by canal shipped for an additional cent per bushel within a mile or two of the farm where it is to be used. So powerful is its effect on poor soil, if properly applied, that on many farms in this county where it has been used, the value of the land has been increased 200 per cent. with less than 100 bushels per acre. It is applied to the soil in various ways; but the most common, and, I think, decidedly the best way, is to spread it, when slacked, over corn ground, after it is ploughed, and before preparing it for planting. It is also frequently put on ground with stable manure when preparing it for wheat, and some farmers spread it on sod. This I do not think an economical way, it being too much exposed to the action of the atmosphere. The quantity used varies from 30 to 100 bushels per acre, and I have known persons put on 200 bushels per acre; if the soil contains plenty of vegetable matter, or if plenty of stable manure is put on with it, this quantity will do no harm; but if the soil is deficient in vegetable matter, so large a quantity will destroy vegetation entirely for some years. If any regard is paid to economy, this is not the proper quantity. Lime being disposed to work down in the soil, the subsoil must be very close if it does not get below the reach of the roots of the plants before they can take it all up, if so large a quantity is put on at a time. On limestone, slate, or gravel, and clay loam, 100 bushels per acre, repeated every eight years, is the proper quantity; on red shale and sand, 50 bushels per acre, repeated every four years. It will take at least eight years to exhaust the soil of 100 bushels of lime per acre by our system of rotation in crops; and if the subsoil is of a porous nature, such as in redshale soil, it will not retain it that long within reach of the roots of the plants.

Grasses. The only kinds cultivated are timothy and red clover; 4 quarts of each sow per acre when sown together, and 6 quarts of timothy and 8 quarts of clover per acre when sown separate. Average yield per acre, 3 tons. Average price of hay: clover, $8 per ton; timothy, $10 per ton. There is now no ground kept expressly for meadows here; all must take its turn in the rotation of crops.

Very respectfully, yours, &c.,

Hon. THOMAS EWBANK,

Commissioner of Patents.

DAVID MUMMA, JR.

EAST BRANDYWINE, CHESTER Co., PENNSYLVANIA,

11th month, 24th, 1851.

SIR: Having received a Circular from the Patent Office, containing important queries in relation to agriculture, and feeling, as I do, the most lively interest in those matters, I regret that my want of leisure will prevent me from making more than a few hasty remarks.