FARMS. 1 



above described. It is a farm of one hundred and fifteen acres, 

 and situated upon the summit and sides of a beautiful swell, 

 overlooking Salem harbor and the bay, with a large part of 

 Essex County, and in sight of Wachusett if not Monadnoc 

 mountains. The orcharding is splendid — from 500 to 600 trees, 

 and mostly well fruited. This is a milk farm to a great extent, 

 having twenty-three cows. The other stock consists of six 

 oxen, three horses, and one bull. Mr. Dodge has owned and 

 occupied this farm since 1840, although, singularly enough, it 

 has changed owners five times within twenty years. It stands 

 the present owner at $7,500, and apparently needs but few re- 

 pairs. The stone walls are a sight worth many miles of travel 

 to see. They stand six feet high in the clear. , They are 

 founded, too, upon rocks, being ditch-wall, and are built of stone 

 so massive and with such finish, that a man may go with a loaded 

 wheelbarrow upon the top, round entire fields. 



Mr. Dodge has half an acre in squashes, which attracted 

 much attention on account of the crop which was, like many 

 others this year, more than large. We speak of it to say that 

 it was manured with one part night soil to three of meadow 

 mud. On inquiring for Mr. D.'s method of treating the yel- 

 low squash bug, he informed us he does not kill or suffer the 

 bug to be killed ; not, however, out of any special regard to 

 the insect, but because in killing, you almost always injure 

 the vine itself, — that is, the tender and vital part of it, — by 

 pinching. That same tender part, however, will bear the appli- 

 cation of quicklime, which is more than the yellow bug can 

 bear. There could not have been less than seven tons of 

 squashes, it was thought by some present, upon the half acre. 



Mr. D. has about four acres in corn, and the committee, or 

 some of them, judged that the yield would be about eighty bush- 

 els of shelled corn to the acre. No guano or other concen- 

 trated manure has been used, but some ashes ; the quantity 

 could not be ascertained in the hurry of tlie day. 



Mr. Dodge has about one-fourth of an acre in riita bagas of 

 sterling growth ; one-third of an acre in cucumbers, and one 

 and a half acre in corn fodder. Tliis nol)le farm has forty 

 acres of ploughed land, and is suijijected, like the two l>oforc 

 described farms, to the cleanest rultvre. Mr. Dodge keeps 



