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SIDNEY ARNOLD'S STATEMENT.

Oats." The field which produced this crop, contains a little over two acres, had been pastured with sheep from 1838 up to 1850; no manure ever having been applied on the field, except the droppings of the sheep, and in the spring of 1850, one load of coarse unfermented manure. Soil, a sandy loam, resting on a subsoil of like description, with the addition of a small portion of clay. The field was broken up in the spring of 1850, and planted with corn, potatoes, pumpkins and squashes. The entire crop that year was nearly destroyed by worms; but the ground was kept well cultivated and free of weeds through the season. Depth of plowing that season, eight inches, not plowed in the fall. Plowed for the present crop once, in the spring of 1851, just before sowing, which was quite early, or about as soon as the frost was out of the ground, depth of plowing this year six inches. Amount of seed used, five bushels to the acre, of the variety called the barley or potato oat. The crop was harvested on the 26th of August, while the straw was partially green; stacked in the field till it was cured, and then housed. Thrashed with a machine, and measured in a half bushel. Produce from one acre, 117 bushels by measure, weighing 351 lbs. to the bushel.

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Officers, 1852.-Jonathan Battey, Keeseville, President; ten Vice-Presidents; Anderson Keese, Secretary, Keeseville; Willets Keese, Treasurer, Peru.

Agricultural College and Experimental Farm.-The following resolution adopted January 6, 1852:

Resolved, That we, as an Agricultural Society, are decidedly in favor of the establishment of an Agricultural College and Experimental Farm by the Legislature of this State, believing that the agricultural interests of the State demand it.

The Annual Meeting was more numerously attended than usual, and the proceedings of a spirited order, evincing a degree of interest in the society and its objects, highly encouraging. The annual address by the President was ordered published.

Report of J. Battey, President of the Society, in answer to a circular issued by the President of the New-York State Agricultural Society, bearing date October 29, 1851, and calling on the Presidents of the County Agricultural Societies for answers to certain questions regarding the agricultural products, &c., of their respective counties, for the year 1851.

1st. "What is the chief product of your county?" The crop yielding the greatest annual income is hay.

2d. "Its increase or decrease this year?" The average yield per acre this season exceeds that of last year by about 50 per cent., and is probably 25 per cent greater than the ordinary average per acre through a series of years.

3d. "The number of acres (about) occupied in its cultivation; [Ag. Trans., 1852.]

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the quantity and quality produced? The amount of land mowed in Clinton county this year is about 50,000 acres, and the amount of hay produced cannot fall short of 75,000 tons, or 1 tons per acre on an average. In quality, the hay grown in this county is not surpassed. Nearly all the hay produced in Clinton county is grown upon upland meadows, which are frequently broken up, manured and tilled two or three years, and again seeded down in grass, and which are never allowed to remain in sward after the cultivated grasses have run out. The grasses most cultivated for hay are Timothy and Clover These are usually mixed in sowing the seed in the proportion of two or three parts of the former to one of the latter.

It is estimated that not less than 30,000 tons of hay are annually required for the supply of our manufacturing villages, and for the teams employed in the manufacture of iron and lumber in the county. And our farmers, tempted by the comparatively high price usually paid for hay, have for years been draining their farms of the elements of fertility, at the rate of 30,000 tons a year, for which the cash equivalent brought back in the farmer's pocket, makes no adequate amends to the impoverished soil. Experience is said to be a dear school, yet some will learn in no other. But the tide is beginning to turn, and many of our farmers, once in the habit of selling the greater part of their hay, have now wisely resolved that the manures produced upon their farms, shall no longer go to mingle their gases with the fumes of burning cinders, or to "waste their sweetness on the desert air," around the woodman's hovel!

The price of hay in this county, in seasons of ordinary crops, varies from $7 to $10 per ton, of 2,000 lbs., at the barn. Very rarely it has been sold immediately after haying as low as $5 or $6 per ton. But more often the price has exceeded $10, than fallen below $7. In seasons when the crop is unusually light, and, generally, as often as once in four or five years, farmers have realized from $12 to $15 per ton for a considerable portion of their crop. The average price for the last ten years, delivered at the nearest

villages, has been about $9 per ton. The price at present paid is $8, or, at the barn, $7. Thirty thousand tons of hay sold at $7, amounts in value to the sum of $210,000. The remaining 50,000 tons, at $4 per ton, which is here considered a low estimate of its value for feeding out on the farm, amounts to $200,000 more, ma-, king the aggregate value of the hay crop this year $410,000.

4. "The condition generally of other important crops?" Corn. The corn crop is here one of the most important, being the farmer's main dependence for fattening his pork, and for various other farm uses where coarse grain is required. There is not usually so much value sold for cash, of this as of other grain crops; consequently there is more of it retained upon the farm, and if the farmer does not realize, in the meat and other forms into which it is converted, so large an immediate return in dollars and cents, the balance is fully made up, through the manure heap, in future crops. The quantity of land planted in corn this year may be stated at 8,000 acres ; and the amount produced, at 240,000 bushels. The yield this year was light, being on an averave only 30 bushels to the acre. The growth was pretty good, but the crop was materially injured by an early frost. The varieties most planted are the common eight rowed yellow, and the Dutton.

The practice of hilling corn at the last hoeing has now gone into general disuse, and the old fashioned mode of harvesting, by cutting the stalks at the first joint above the ear, suffering the remainder to stand until dead ripe, and then plucking the ears letting the "butts" go to waste in the field, has almost universally given way to the more economical mode of cutting up at the roots as soon as the latest ears are fairly "glazed," and allowing the whole to cure together in the shock.

Potatoes. For a few years past the cultivation of the potatoe has been annually increasing, until it has become, of all the crops. which the Clinton county farmer raises, excepting hay only, the most valuable. The disease called the rot, so prevalent and so destructive in many parts of the country, has this year affected

the crop, but slightly. At one time the disease made its appearance on the top, to an extent sufficient to excite considerable fear for the crop; but from some cause (probably atmospheric,) the disease was suddenly arrested before the tubers had become much affected; and except in a few localities, and to a very limited extent, the crop can hardly be said to have suffered at all.

During the present and the past season immense quantities of potatoes have been bought up and shipped from the ports of this county for the New-York and other markets on the seaboard, at prices, affording to the producer, a very handsome profit on the cost of production. The prices paid and the extent of the demand have induced our farmers to give their attention to the cultivation of this crop, on a scale much larger than heretofore. The number of acres planted in the county this year, is estimated at 8,000, and the amount of produce at 900,000 bushels. A considerable portion of the crop has already been sold, at prices averaging 331 cts. per bushel; and for the balance of the crop the owners can scarcely fail to realize, in the spring, 50 cents or more. At 33 cents pr bushel, the entire crop amounts in value to $300.000.

Wheat. The amount of wheat grown in this county, compared with some other crops, is limited. The amount raised, has not for many years been equal to the demand for home consumption; and large quantities of wheat and flour are annually brought here from the west to supply the deficiency. The number of acres in wheat this year, is estimated at 10,000. Number of bushels, 150,000. The crop was rather light in some places, and unusually heavy in others; on the whole a full medium crop. The varieties of wheat usually raised, are the Pea and the Black Sea. more and better flour; the latter ordinarily yield. Very little winter wheat is sown. has pretty nearly disappeared, and seldom does much injury.

The former makes gives the greatest The wheat midge,

Oats. Of all the grain crops, oats may be regarded as the staple product of the county. For many years it has been rather the main dependence of our farmers for raising money. The manu

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