108 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



twenty-five feet, with a cellar and open shed beneath it. My 

 crops arc so much increased that I am now putting up a new 

 barn, forty by sixty feet, and eighteen feet posts, with a cellar 

 underneath. I found about eleven acres, out of the sixteen in 

 the front field, under the plough. I have kept the same in 

 cultivation through the three summers, manuring it thoroughly, 

 in order to get it into suitable condition to lay down to grass. 

 I have sowed two acres of it this fall, with rye and grass seed, 

 after a crop of oats, cut green and cured for fodder. I have 

 now upon the rest of the field, three acres in Indian corn, two 

 in carrots, about six in onions, about half an acre in marrow 

 squashes, and perhaps an eighth of an acre in a strawberry bed, 

 set out this spring. During the last two years, I have planted 

 about two hundred young apple trees of the best varieties, and 

 trimmed out, cleaned and grafted all the old ones. Out of all 

 the trees I have set out, I have lost but two or three. They 

 are all growing fast and well. I think this field now .produces 

 fully one-half more than when I commenced with it. 



I have used stable manure, night-soil composted with meadow 

 muck, shell lime, and small quantities of guano and DeBurg's 

 phosphate. The land had never been ploughed deeper than 

 four or five inches. I have gradually increased the depth to 

 ten or twelve inches. I have deepened the cultivation as fast 

 as I thought to be prudent, making considerable use latterly of 

 the Michigan double plough. Last year I used about one hun- 

 "dred and twenty cords of manure, and about twenty cords more 

 this past spring. 



In the back field, I broke up last year two acres and a half, 

 which I manured with a night-soil compost, and laid down to 

 grass. Last fall I also broke up another acre, which I manured 

 with shell lime, one cord stable manure to three cords shell 

 lime, and laid down also to grass. This spring I broke up two 

 acres more of the old grass land, manured with stable manure, 

 three cords per acre, and planted with potatoes. I also cleared 

 three-quarters of an acre of the wood land, of the birch bushes 

 and other growth, manured it with three cords stable manure, 

 and planted with potatoes. I also cleared another acre of bushes 

 and under-brush, leaving a handsome growth of young trees 

 standing. 



I have opened drains through the piece of low land before 



