184 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The first of May, 1855, I came to the farm with mj family, 

 and passed six months. During that period, I added to my 

 stock three cows, one yoke of oxen, one farm horse, twenty-one 

 swine, some of wliich were fattened and sold. I purchase 

 implements as fast as they were required, until I found my 

 farm amply supplied, having no occasion to trouble my neigh- 

 bors by borrowing. During this period, I added to my farm 

 sixty acres, consisting of woodland, pasturage and mowing. 

 It now consists of eighty-three acres. 



I also built a long range of substantial stone wall, four fee 

 high, and trenched below frost. I also built an avenue to my 

 house, leading from the road, across a pond, in which I had 

 constructed a flume, partly of wood, the balance stone. Having 

 a large supply of water at the head, which is constantly supplied 

 from boiling springs, induced me to put in a hydraulic ram, and 

 convey the water to my buildings, which has proved invaluable; 

 yielding an abundance, saving much labor, and enabling me to 

 have the same facilities for bathing and water closets, as the 

 Cochituate does the residents in Boston, besides all other pur- 

 poses for which the element is needed. 



During this period, I planted several acres of the cereal crops, 

 using only one ton of Mexican guano, which proved to be of 

 little value, and some ashes, which I made from sods and brush, 

 which were scraped together for the better improvement of the 

 farm, and wintered the stock before enumerated. 



In October, I sowed from three to three and one-half acres of 

 winter rye, and two or more of winter wheat, from Avhich I had 

 a fair yield. Had these crops been put in at the usual season of 

 the year, they would have been large, particularly the wheat, 

 but circumstances would not admit of getting the seed in earlier. 

 The ground for wheat was prepared with barn manure and 

 slacked lime, during the summer. The seed, before sowing, 

 was immersed in strong brine, all foreign substances skimmed 

 off, and then shaded over in a trough, adding slacked lime, until 

 the seed separated, and every kernel was encased, and better 

 grain I never have seen. 



After spending the winter in the city, the first of May found 

 me again upon the farm, and I found my stock, of every kind 

 had not been idle. The barnyard and cellar were full of manure, - 

 and with my experience of the past season, I had something to 



