78 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Cider, $0 00 



Produce sold, . . . . . 97 44 



Labor done off the farm, self and team, . 205 50 

 Improvements, Draining and Ditching, &c, 



growth on young Trees, . . . 233 00—82,319 24 



Balance in favor of Farm, $1,614 99 



NORFOLK. 



From the Report of the Committee on Farms. 



The subject of farm improvement, particularly by drainage, 

 has been brought to our minds with great force. We have 

 noticed, in some instances, large tracts of land in a compara- 

 tively worthless state for want of thorough drainage, which are 

 evidently susceptible of great improvement, and might be 

 rendered valuable and productive, without any large outlay of 

 expense or labor. We have observed other tracts, incumbered 

 and disfigured with needless walls, or with heaps of useless 

 stones gathered from tillage grounds, which would help at once 

 to enrich and beautify the farm, if these walls and heaps of 

 stones were buried out of sight, or if, better still, they were 

 used in constructing drains that are plainly needed there. 

 And, on the other hand, we have been gratified with a view of 

 once waste, swamp or bog lands converted into smooth, fertile, 

 and highly remunerative tillage or mowing fields. We have 

 seen a farm, once crowded with division walls, — literally cum- 

 bering the ground, and constructed only for the purpose of 

 disposing of superabundant rocks and stones, — now presenting 

 a wide, unbroken surface of tillage and mowing land. The 

 land being springy, and much of it sloping from surrounding 

 hills, large portions have been thoroughly drained, by opening 

 ditches of great depth and width, into which an almost incred- 

 ible quantity of rocks and stones have been judiciously laid, 

 and then the excavated soil replaced. And, although the labor 

 required has been hard and at times disheartening, yet the 

 result will, beyond question, be remunerative, in the returns of 

 a much larger superficial capacity, and higher temperature of 

 the soil. The improvement will, also, be a permanent memorial 



