FARMS. 27 



In our visits to tho farmers, we everywhere meet a cordial 

 welcome, and receive abundant information of the details of 

 their operations. Everywhere we found gratifying evidences of 

 the benefits conferred upon the agriculture of the county by this 

 Society. We are convinced that a powerful impulse has been 

 given to the labors of the farmer, by the information it imparts, 

 by the spirit it diffuses, and by the annual fair, which brings 

 together the yeomanry of the county to compare notes, and to 

 exhibit the results of the year's work. Although the produc- 

 tions of the farm have not this season reached their usual amount 

 per acre, yet, in consequence of the cultivation of a larger num- 

 ber of acres, the total value of agricultural produce is probaljly 

 as large as ever. It would gratify us to go into details upon 

 several topics included in tliis report ; but we should find it dif- 

 ficult to make such discriminations as would be satisfactory to 

 our numerous friends, unless we protracted this notice to an un- 

 reasonable length. We have seen much to encourage the efforts 

 of those who would bring farming into the best repute, as an 

 exact science and a profitable employment. 



In the course of their observations, the attention cf the com- 

 mittee was directed to a fine bed of carrots, on the grounds of 

 the Hon. Marshall P. Wilder, of Dorchester, some notice of 

 which we deem worthy of record in the Transactions of the 

 Society. 



These carrots were in rows — with alternate rows of nursery 

 pear trees intervening — at the distance of four feet apart. Half 

 of them were of the White Belgian variety, and half of the 

 Orange Red. The whole space occupied by the trees and the 

 roots was 8,200 sqmire feet of ground. The soil had been en- 

 tirely exhausted by the previous use of it ; and, in order to re- 

 store it to the highest tilth, was dressed, last fall, with 800 lbs. 

 guano and six cords of stable manure. It was then ploughed 

 deeply six times, and again /oz<r times in the spring. The trees, of 

 which there are 3,600, had made vigorous growtli ; and of the 

 carrots there have been harvested 180 bushels, weighing, on the 

 public scales, 9,000 lbs. This is equal to 956 bushels, or more 

 than twenty-one tons to the acre. Had the carrots been sown 

 in the usual manner — in rows two feet apart — the yield would 

 have been more than forty tons per acre ; and at the present 



