FARMS. 185 



do with, and could really begin the business of farming. The 

 flume before noticed, enables me to draw down the pond, in 

 which is deposited a rich, vegetable substance known as muck. 

 I took out fifty cords. Two good hands, with wheelbarrows, 

 will take out six cords a day. It having had the action of the 

 winter, I mixed it thoroughly with one ton of Peruvian guano. 

 On land thus prepared, I planted eight acres of corn — difierent 

 varieties ; Canada, King Philip, eight-rowed, and Webster, ma- 

 nuring in the hill about four acres of potatoes — different varie- 

 ties, one acre of white beans, one-half acre of carrots, besides 

 the usual quantity of sweet corn, garden vegetables, pole beans, 

 etc., say one and a half acres, and my neighbors were aston- 

 ished at the result of the muck and guano. The cost of the 

 two ingredients when prepared, was estimated at $3.50 per 

 cord. 



In addition to the crops, I sowed about four acres of barley 

 and two of oats, which gave me good crops ; this ground was 

 manured from the barnyard ; all my crops are upon sward land, 

 broken up this spring. 



My fruit trees, wliich consist mostly of grafted apples, have 

 received my personal attention. Last year they were much 

 injured by caterpillars. I have conquered them this year, — 

 scarcely a tree having a nest upon it, and bearing more or less 

 fruit. I dug around them, transplanted some, scraped all that 

 were worth preserving, took up those that were not, and washed 

 them twice with oil-soap suds. 



Upon my farm are about seven acres of meadow, which I 

 ditched through the centre, four feet in width and three feet 

 deep, preparatory to reclaiming them. In my stone wall, where 

 required, I have erected gates, instead of bars, as they are more 

 secure and save labor. I am now constructing a cement drain 

 from the house to the barn cellar, through which can be con- 

 veyed all the drainage of sinks and water-closets. Finding that 

 my old barn was too small, I have added two wings, one for a 

 stable, 2;3 by 36, the other 36 by 36, with two good leantoes, 

 which together make a building 87 by 36, with paved and cement- 

 ed cellar under the whole, divided into pens for hogs, with drive 

 way from end to end ; also a cemented cellar for roots, iinder a 

 building which adjoins the barn, in which will also be set ket- 

 tles for boiling food for the swine. My pens are made of spruce 



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