FARMS. 9 



from Arabia, its bits from Mexico, its collection of autographs 

 gathered from the most valuable sources, its rich agricultural 

 library, forms an object of attraction to the scholar, the man of 

 taste, and the farmer. 



Of the practical operations on the farm, I can furnish you an 

 account received mainly from Major Poore himself. He de- 

 clines giving any statement of his crops, on the ground that he 

 is but serving a practical apprenticeship in agriculture. It is 

 two years since he commenced taking charge of the farm, with 

 a determination not to engage blindly in " fancy farming," but 

 to experiment cautiously upon the most profitable manner of 

 keeping land in a high state of cultivation. In showing the 

 farm to the committee, you will remember, he disclaimed all 

 credit for himself, as the improvements were projected and 

 generally carried on by his father, Benjamin Poore, Esq., one 

 of the early members of our society. Although engaged in 

 mercantile pursuits, which allowed him to pass, but a few 

 months of each year at Indian Hill, Mr. Poore was enthusias- 

 tically devoted to the care of his homestead. A record of his 

 labors is contained in a detailed journal, kept under his direc- 

 tion, of all the work done on the farm from 1818, to his departs 

 ure for California in 1850. This journal, which is continued 

 by the present proprietor, embraces a vast amount of practical 

 agricultural information, and illustrates the value of system on 

 a farm. In its account of ditching, blasting rocks, deep plough- 

 ing and building, with the importation of cattle and seeds, we 

 can trace the gradual improvement of what, in 1818, was an 

 ordinary tract of land, with a fence around a swampy portion 

 of it to prevent the cattle from getting mired. At first, these 

 improvements were looked upon with prejudice, and in 1828, a 

 committee of the Essex County Agricultural Society simply 

 alluded to it last among the six farms entered. The under- 

 draining, and the rotation of crops, introduced by a Scotch 

 manager, met with no favor. " While it remains uncertain," 

 says the report, " whether the innovations that have been intro- 

 duced upon Yankee husbandry, are not experiments made for 

 display, unmindful of the cost, rather than experiments that 

 will remunerate themselves, your committee feel it to be their 

 duty to liesitate in approving of the same." 



Mr. Poore, as his farm journals show, was not discouraged, 



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