SATISFACTORY FARM-CROPS. 63 



tinning the main drain, cutting off pines, birclies, and alders, 

 getting about forty-five cords of wood, burning and clearing 

 away the underbrush, putting in a large amount of two-inch 

 tile laterals, and thoroughly draining seven of the twenty- 

 two acres. It was ready for the plough the first of October, 

 and, commencing on Monday to work with four oxen and 

 two horses, I found, after an hoiu-'s work, that my team was 

 too weak. On Tuesday I bought a heavy pair of oxen at 

 Brighton ; tried again on Wednesday, and still found my 

 team deficient in strength. I procured another pair, making 

 the team eight oxen and two horses, the last investment in 

 oxen proving the best. After ploughing this piece, and turn- 

 ing large clumps of roots, I confess that I felt sick to look at 

 the future ; and had not winter set in soon, and relieved me 

 for a few months, it would have been a hard task to have 

 continued it. This year I have sixteen of the twenty-two 

 acres under cultivation to corn, cabbage, squash, and pota- 

 toes, which you saw in part at your first visit in June, and 

 all at the September view. 



I have this year, in all, under cultivation, about forty 

 acres, divided as follows : fifteen acres of yellow corn, one 

 acre and a quarter of sweet corn, eleven acres and a half of 

 potatoes, four acres and a half of rye, one acre of squash, 

 one-half acre of pease, three-fourths acre of mangels, three 

 acres and a quarter of cabbage, three-fourths acre of parsnips 

 and tomatoes, one-fourth acre of beets, three-fourths acre 

 of turnips : all 'these, except the potatoes and squash, are 

 looking well, and will be more than an average crop. I have 

 cut seventy-three tons of first quality hay, allowing six hun- 

 dred cubic feet per ton, and shall have twelve tons second 

 crop. I think that the products of this year will pay all 

 expenses and improvements, which have been considerable, 

 and, besides, leave me a small dividend. 



The amount of under-draining on the hundred and twenty- 

 six acres laid since 1873 is as follows : 1,638 feet of twelve- 

 inch plank drain, 870 feet of eight-inch plank drain, 1,130 

 feet of six-inch plank drain, 1,136 feet of four-inch tile drain, 

 1,398 feet of three-inch tile drain, 9,002 feet of two-inch tile 

 drain. 



The amount spent in improvements and cultivation up to 

 April 1, 1878, would exceed the amount received for produce 



