100 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



making them, I have taken more than ninety rods of heavy 

 walls, besides an unknown quantity of stones gathered imme- 

 diately from the fields. 



The digging of these drains has cost from one to three 

 dollars per rod. Of the expense of filling in and covering, I 

 have kept no exact account. I have no doubt that tile-drain- 

 ing would be cheaper on many farms, but when I commenced 

 the work, there were over twelve hundred rods of heavy walls 

 on my farm. The cultivated land was divided into seventeen 

 lots, of from one to three acres each. So I think I may charge 

 a large share of the cost of draining to the removal of useless — 

 worse than useless — walls. Were all the walls removed which 

 really are not needed, it would add more than an acre of 

 arable land to my farm. For I consider that a wall occupies, 

 or overshadows about five feet of land through its whole 

 length, and more than that in the corners of the lot. 



There is a cellar under my barn, — thirty-six feet by fifty-eight, 

 — dug in 1848, at which time I might date the most of my 

 improvements. 



1 now keep from six to ten cows, one yoke of oxen, two 

 horses and six hogs, and make from two hundred and fifty to 

 three hundred loads of manure annually, which is all worked 

 over by the hogs. I do not think the raising of pork, on any 

 large scale, would be profitable, were it not for the manure 

 which is made. 



I have tried special fertilizers to some extent, but without 

 much benefit, — except wood ashes, of which I have used large 

 quantities. They have cost eight cents per bushel at the 

 beach, and were drawn eight miles. But since other farmers, 

 living nearer, have discovered their value, the price has 

 advanced, so that I cannot now afford to use them. I believe 

 farmers in this part of the county can make their own manure 

 cheaper than they can buy it. 



My cattle are all stabled during the night through the year. 

 In the season when fed with green crops, of which I raise a 

 large supply, they arc stabled nearly three-fourths of the time.' 

 The cows are milked at half past five every afternoon, and 

 at about the same time every morning through the year. 

 Pursuing this course, I must, of course, use a large quantity 

 of absorbing material in the hog pens, and cart out manure 



