110 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



FAEMS. 



ESSEX. 



Statement of Mr. Francis H. Apjpleton. 



My farm consists of one hundred and sixty-two acres, 

 forty-four acres being cultivatable, and the remainder wood, 

 pasture, marsh and waste land, which latter includes the laud 

 on which my buildings, &c., stand. 



The larger part of it, including all the land which I call 

 cultivatable, I bought March 17, 1869, the remaining part I 

 have purchased within the past year. 



When I bought the farm, the forty-four acres which I men- 

 tioned were in an almost worthless condition for farming pur- 

 poses ; twenty-nine acres of it were mostly covered with tough 

 moss and old corn-hills, with a growth of young pine starting 

 upon it, and useless, broken-down stone walls crossing it, 

 many of which have been removed ; the greater part of these 

 twenty-nine acres had not been ploughed for upwards of 

 seventy years ; the remaining fifteen acres had, here and there, 

 old oak-stumps and the like, from each of which a thriving 

 growth of bushes was springing up ; also numerous heaps of 

 stones scattered about, and a portion of it was dotted over 

 with the stumps of cherry-trees, and crossed by tumbling- 

 down old fences. The first year after taking possession, I 

 left the better-looking portion of these fifteen acres to cut for 

 hay, and ploughed up and planted as much of the remainder 

 as I thought I could manure. 



This first year I planted two acres of roots, one of oats to 

 cut green, a little corn-fodder and half an acre of kitchen- 

 garden, and could secure only a scanty amount of manure for 

 them, and harvested five tons of hay, mostly composed of 

 white-weed. This was the yield of the farm in 1869. 



