186 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



plank, five feet high, let into grooves, so as to take out easy. 

 The troughs, set half in and out with swing doors, so that the 

 hogs cannot trample while feeding, nor waste food — besides, the 

 troughs are always kept clean, being raised upon a platform two 

 and a half feet. 



Out of a building upon the farm, I constructed an ice-house, 

 which holds fifty tons. The ice is taken from my pond at very 

 small cost, giving a supply for all purposes, of that, now, almost 

 indispensable luxury. An open shed, forty feet long, will soon 

 be finished, facing the barnyard ; also, upon the other side of 

 the yard, a pen for poultry in connection with a house for the 

 same, of which I have about two hundred. 



I have added to my stock this year a pair of carriage horses, 

 one cow, four sheep, (cossets,) and hope to raise my own lambs 

 for the table next year. My swine number upwards of forty, 

 young and old. Have sold some pigs, and intend to slaughter 

 ten fattened hogs this fall and winter. 



Soon as time will permit I shall continue enclosing my farm 

 with stone wall, a part of which has already been done. 



The expenditures this year upon barn and out-buildings, not 

 far from 83,500. The cost of the ram $2Q ; pipe-laying and 

 plumbing, 8175. My farm is bounded upon three roads ; there- 

 fore, I am not much troubled with division fence. 



It is now stocked with five cows, one yoke of oxen, five calves, 

 four horses, four sheep, and forty swine. My poultry consists 

 of turkeys, hens and chickens of the old barnyard stamp, which 

 I think the best breed for eating. 



Thus have I given, in as brief a manner as the subject would 

 admit, the information desired. If it will be of any service to 

 you as the committee of the agricultural society of Norfolk 

 county, you arc at liberty to use it ; and although of little worth, 

 still if I can do any thing that will inspire new vigor, and cause 

 to be rejuvenated the old neglected farms in Massachusetts, then 

 I shall feel amply rewarded for what little I have done or may 

 hereafter do in the service of the cause of agriculture. 



