FARMS. 181 



Statement of S. D. Bradford. 



The farm, which once belonged to my father, and Avhich I 

 inherited at his decease in 1825, was purchased by him in 1789, 

 and consisted of tliirty acres, a part of which was woodland, 

 and all in a very rough and uncultivated condition. A great 

 part of it was so covered by stones, and even by large rocks, that 

 had any one made the attempt to sow seed upon it, very little 

 would have fallen upon the soil or produced any return. In 

 1795 an addition was made to the farm by the purchase of 

 twenty acres more, called " Abbott's pasture," which remains 

 to-day in nearly the same state as when it was bought, sixty- 

 one years ago, and is used for the pasturing of cattle. 



In 1854, I purchased another farm adjoining the paternal 

 estate, containing about one hundred acres, of which about 

 thirty acres consist of woodland, and what is called swamp, 

 containing large deposits of muck, now so much used in com- 

 posting manure. My whole farm, therefore, consists, at pres- 

 ent, of about one hundred and fifty acres. Its length is 1,756 

 paces l)y GOO paces broad, and is all together, and very compact. 



The land mown over this year was about seventy acres. I 

 put into the barns one hundred and thirty-eight loads of hay, 

 most of which v^as of the very first quality, besides eight to ten 

 tons of rye straw and several loads of rowen. I suppose the 

 loads to average about a ton, but it is possible they were less. 

 Some were double loads, drawn by oxen, and some packed, on 

 what is called " the hay rigging," drawn by one horse only. I 

 have gathered corn from about six acres, of the kind called 

 " Pembroke," and have two acres of carrots, which I hope may 

 yield from thirty to forty tons of that useful vegetable. 



I have sent to Mr. Wilder an account of the field of winter 

 rye which attracted so much attention the day the committee 

 and gentlemen favored me with a visit, and was not a little 

 surprised when I received an account of the weight of the 

 straw. The reapers remarked in the field, " that they had 

 never seen any thing equal to it, even in the old country." 



You are so familiar with the nature of the soil in West Rox- 

 bury, and so much at home upon all the subjects of agricul- 

 ture, that I doubt my ability of saying any thing more, which 

 is not known to you already. No one can doubt the fertility of 



