146 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



crops, but returned very little to benefit the soil. For two years 

 I did but little to the land, being otherwise engaged. 



In 1849, 1 commenced farming for myself, with one pair of 

 horses, valued at 1115, and six cows, valued at $210. There 

 was a small barn on the land, but no other buildings, and no 

 fruit. I commenced by setting some seven acres to fruit trees, 

 mostly apples of choice varieties, placing them forty feet apart. 

 In 1849, I built a house, and the year succeeding I moved my 

 barn, remodeled, and made such additions to it as to enable me 

 to keep my cows in the basement, a cellar being dug in the rear 

 of them so as to receive the manure, from which I make, annu- 

 ally, some four hundred loads of compost, worth $400, by putting 

 earth in a trench, daily, in the rear of the cows, thus absorbing 

 the urine, and making a very valuable manure, which I recom- 

 mend to farmers for trial, in preference to guano. 



My stock numbers at present twenty-two head, cows and heif- 

 ers, one bull and a pair of horses, all at present valued at $1,900. 

 My land produces sufficient to keep this stock, with the excep- 

 tion of $75 paid for pasturage, and $200 for grain. The sale 

 of milk and vegetables being my principal business, I turn my 

 attention to the raising of those crops which produce the most 

 and yield me the best return, such as grass, clover, green corn fod- 

 der for soiling, roots, carrots, sugar beet, mangold wurzel, and 

 English turnips, having of the latter some fifteen varieties, sent 

 me from the Patent Office by our representative. Should any 

 of these last prove worthy of cultivation, the farming commu- 

 nity shall have the benefit. 



My principal grain is corn, of which I had four acres this 

 season, on my oldest turf-land, manured with twenty-five two- 

 horse loads per acre, ploughed nine inches deep, with plaster 

 and ashes in the hill, then rolled and harrowed thoroughly, and 

 marked oft' in rows three feet and three inches apart, each way. 

 The corn was planted during the last week in May, and after- 

 wards hoed twice, the ground throvigh this process being kept 

 perfectly level. One week from the last hoeing, I sowed the 

 field with grass seed, harrowing it in each way, with a haiTow 

 made for the purpose. I find by experience, that I obtain larger 

 crops of grass by seeding in this way, than I do by stocking down 

 after the corn is ripe. I cut this season three tons and a half to 

 tlie acre, seeded in this manner. The yield on this land the 



