8 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



three hired men and a boy through the season. The market- 

 ing is done by himself. 



The visit of the committee to Indian Hill Farm, in West 

 Newbury, gave them the greatest pleasure. I am happy here 

 to introduce an interesting letter from Dr. Loring, of Salem, 

 who favored the committee with his company on their visit to 

 tliis celebrated farm, so full and explicit as to make any altera- 

 tion entirely unneceEsary. 



Salem, October, 22, 1855. 



Dear Sir : — I trust my long delay has not induced you to 

 suppose that I have forgotten the very agreeable and interest- 

 ing day we spent at Indian Hill Farm, in September, or that I 

 had relinquished all idea of fulfilling the promise made you 

 at that time, to lay before you a record of our observations. I 

 should have been more prompt, had I not labored under the 

 necessity of obtaining certain important facts, which have 

 reached me only this very morning. 



I think you will agree with me that Indian Hill Farm is one 

 of the most beaiitifully located spots in Essex County ; and 

 that, in addition to its charming landscapes, it possesses a 

 variety of soil and agricultural resource rarely met with in the 

 same extent of territory. It has an additional interest, too, in 

 the fact, that Major Poore, the present proprietor, occupies the 

 acres of his fathers, possessed by them from the earliest settle- 

 ment of the country, and made ricli by time in the traditions 

 of his family. Few estates in this country have more objects 

 of interest. The house, built as we were told, according to the 

 architecture of the ancestral mansion in England, carries you 

 back to the days of the lordly halls of barons, when tower and 

 turret had an important and serious signification. The curi- 

 osities which have been collected by Major Poore tell of a busy 

 and stormy world, whose murmur alone can reach that quiet 

 spot. The elm tree in front of the door, planted by Rufus 

 King in the early days of liis patriotic service, brings before 

 you a crowd of interesting scenes, from times whose every 

 event was replete with the deepest interest. The whole place, 

 with its relics of the Province House, its antique printing-press, 

 its armor from Malta, its sword of the revolution, its horse-shoes 



