156 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Statement of H. 31. Sessions. 



The farm entered, is owned jointly by my father and myself, 

 and contains one hundred and twenty-five acres, divided as fol- 

 lows : thirty acres of woodland, fifty-three pasturage, nineteen 

 under cultivation the present year, twenty-three mowing, includ- 

 ing five acres set for orchard ground. It is located in South 

 Wilbraham, on the eastern slope of the mica-slate range of hills, 

 tliat bound the Connecticut Valley on the east, ten miles from 

 the river. « 



The soil of the western portion is composed largely of red 

 sandstone and hornblende slate, mixed with mica-slate. Gneis 

 predominates in the eastern part of the farms, from which large 

 quantities can be quarried for building purposes. The central 

 portion comprises a deep valley, through which a stream passes 

 from north to south. A portion of this valley is tillage land, 

 free from stone. About twenty acres are a stony, swampy 

 pasture of but little value in its present state. This swamp we 

 design to reclaim. One hundred and forty-seven rods of 

 ditches were dug in the fall of 1855, and during the present 

 year, one hundred and three rods have been dug, two feet wide 

 and three feet deep, fifty rods of the same being nearly filled 

 with small stones and covered with sods, for underdrains. 

 Most of the remainder is designed to be deepened and filled in 

 the same way. Three acres of land have been cleared of stone, 

 twenty rods of rail fence and fifteen rods of wall have been laid, 

 and stone enough drawn for twenty more. One and a half 

 acres have been set with apple trees, two rods apart each way, 

 and an old orchard filled up ; making in all, seventy-five trees of 

 grafted fruit of my own raising. 



My inventory of stock on the first of November, was as fol- 

 lows : Twenty-three horned cattle, grade Devons, ' three full 

 bloods, mostly young; two horses and four colts, two of which 

 are Black Hawk Morgans ; also, five swine. 



The past season, I have raised two hundred bushels of corn 

 from four acres, though injured by drought. An old pasture, 

 not ploughed for twenty years, was broken up in May, one hun- 

 dred loads of manure harrowed in, ashes and plaster dropped 

 in the hills, and hoed twice. This fall, the land was sown with 

 rye. Also, one hundred and fifty bushels of potatoes on two 



