60 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



[Statement of Mr. L. E. Hill.] 



The farm which I enter for the society's premium, situate:! 

 in the north part of North Brookfield, came into my pos- 

 session by inheritance in 1859, and is known as the Witt 

 Farm, and contains one hundred and twenty acres, eight of 

 which are in wood, fortj-five in grass, fiftj^-five in pasture, 

 and twelve unproductive, eight of which are reclaimable, the 

 balance is hopeless. Within three years past I have dug a 

 well, and laid an aqueduct from it to house and barn, seventy- 

 seven rods ; and have nine j)laces where I draw water, of 

 which there is an unfailing supply, at a total cost of twenty- 

 five dollars, besides material and labor from farm. I have 

 put in sixty rods of blind drain filled with small stone ; 

 built sixty-five rods of stone wall; reclaimed five acres of 

 wholly unproductive land (making it equal to my best, and 

 superior to most of my land), mostl}' upland, bordering a 

 swamp of eight acres, from which the wood was taken a 

 few years before I came into possession of the farm, for the 

 thorough draining of which I have dug eighty rods of drain, 

 and ploughed and taken out the stumps of an acre and a 

 half of it: twenty-five rods more will complete the drain, 

 when the whole will be ready for the plough, and will be 

 equal to the reclaimed swamp of seven acres west of my 

 house. I changed the drain of the barn-cellar from the south 

 (where there was little or no chance to utilize the drainage) 

 to the north end, by digging to the amount of two hundred 

 loads of earth, giving me a large extent of land to spread it 

 over at will, — the most valuable improvement I have made, 

 cost considered (which was less than nothing), getting my 

 absorbents for cellar for three years. I built a granary four- 

 teen by sixteen feet, ten-foot post, at a cost of fifty dollars, 

 cash out. 



Within three years I have raised seventeen heifer calves. 

 My dairy consists of nine cows, five three-year-olds, and 

 one two-3^ear-old half-blood heifer, the others grade Ayr- 

 shires, having one or more calves each month of the year. 

 From Nov. 1 to May 1 I sold milk and butter to the 

 amount of four hundred dollars : the rest of the year I 

 have sold milk, cream, and butter, four hundred and fifty 



