IMPROVEMENT OF FARMS. 51 



FARMS. 

 MIDDLESEX NORTH. 



[Statement of Henry Emery of Lowell.] 



The farm which I offer for premium consists of a hun- 

 dred and twenty-six acres, and came into my possession in 

 June of 1873, too late to cultivate that year. It was origi- 

 nally known as the " Cox Place," of forty-three acres, and 

 the " Butterfield-Varnum Farm," of eighty-three acres ; the 

 first-named place being a fine slope of pasturing-land to the 

 south, crossed by numerous walls, and bearing some decayed 

 apple-trees. The other portion is west of this, and divided 

 by the county road. This farm had not been cultivated for 

 twenty-five years, being used for a cow-pasture, and could 

 not support more than six cows at that. It was nearly cov- 

 ered with a growth of pines, birches, and alders, and one-sixth 

 of it could not be traversed by man or beast, so thick was 

 the brush underlined with mud and water. A stream of 

 water starting from the west side, coupled with a water-shed 

 of three hundred acres of land, made it formidable at certain 

 seasons of the year. This brook, which is being carried 

 through the farm in an under-drain, and emptying into the 

 Merrimack River, will hereafter be shown as the first work 

 towards making this land available. 



I viewed this land many times during the summer of 1873 

 to mature the cheapest and best plan for bringing it to a 

 proper state of cultivation. I had before me the fact that it 

 would not pay more than the taxes in its then present con- 

 dition. In the fall of 1873 I commenced on the " Cox Place," 

 first to put in a twelve-inch plank drain, beginning at the 

 Merrimack River, running along the brook through the " Cox 

 Place," to the west side of the county road to the Varnum 

 land. The drain was sunk from four to seven feet in the 

 earth. The same season I turned over three acres of sod 



