10 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



but continued the same system, and entered the farm again in 

 1844, "uiien the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agricul- 

 ture oflered premiums for the best cultivated farms. Eleven 

 farms were at that time entered, and the first premium of two 

 hundred dollars was awarded to Indian Hill Farm, with an 

 additional gratuity of fifty dollars for experiments in draining. 

 Long articles from Isaac Hill, John S. Skinner, Henry Colman, 

 and Joseph Breck, in the agricultural journals of the day, 

 endorse the high terms of praise awarded to Mr. Poore, by Mr. 

 Phinney, in his report, as the farm " long noted for its durable 

 and well contrived structures, and for the systematic culture of 

 its grounds." The swamp of 1818 was then thoroughly drained, 

 and produced a heavy burthen of English hay — a remunera- 

 tive experiment. 



Indian Hill Farm contains one hundred and twenty-one and 

 three-fourths acres, with over two hundred acres of out-land 

 pasture, woodland, and salt marsh. The entire homestead is 

 imder cultivation, with the exception of eight acres, on the 

 steep sides of the hill, covered with thrifty young forest trees. 

 This thriving plantation which received a gratuity of thirty dol- 

 lars from the Essex Society in 1848, now contains upwards of 

 four thousand trees — black and red oak, walnut, scotch fir, and 

 locust. The locusts were planted to furnish shade, and they 

 now keep the farm well supplied with posts and small wood. 

 Care is taken to keep the oaks and walnuts well thinned out, 

 and cattle are carefully excluded. It is thought that the locust 

 posts make this plantation remunerative at the present time, 

 while the thousands of young fir trees springing up from the 

 seed in the rich forest mould, will add to their present profits, 

 and the steady growth of the oaks and walnuts promises an 

 abundant supply of timber at no very distant date. 



In addition to these plantations I noticed a beautiful avenue 

 of chestnuts, a curious specimen of ground ash engrafted upon 

 the mountain ash, and some valuable fruit trees. 



The soil of the farm appears to be, on the highlands, a yellow 

 gravelly loam resting on a clay pan — the meadows, alluvial 

 deposit also resting on clay. The land for the last thirty years 

 has always been ploughed deep, and cultivated in ridges, ex- 

 cepting when planted with Indian corn, in which case the 

 ground is left flat. On the upland, a rotation of potatoes, corn 



