16 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



in at seasons when I don't want them at large. The cost of this 

 string of buildings is about $1,000. 



My house is not yet completed, and is larger than is necessary 

 for a farm-house ; yet that part which is required for farm use 

 is very convenient, and not expensive for the times, the lower 

 floor having kitchen, dining-room and men's sleeping room, with 

 ample closets in each room, and water in kitchen. 



Salem, October, 1866. 



IMPEOYEMBNT OF PASTUKES. 



PLYMOUTH. 



From the Report of the Supervisor. 



Charles A. Keith, of "West Bridgewatcr, having commenced 

 and carried through, to a reasonably satisfactory result, an 

 experiment under this offer, is entitled to the first premium, of 

 $12. Mr. Keith says in his statement : 



" The pasture land entered for your premium is in two lots. 

 Lot No. 1 is in North Bridgewatcr, and contains ten acres. It 

 had not been ploughed for about sixty years, and was covered 

 with sweet fern, moss and huckleberry bushes. In August, 

 1861, we broke up about one-third of it and sowed to rye, 

 spreading over it three hundred and thirty pounds of Peruvian 

 guano. We harvested from it thirty bushels of good grain. In 

 1862 we ploughed another third of the lot and sowed it to rye, 

 without any fertilizer. The crop was hardly worth harvesting. 

 The following year we turned in the stubble and sowed again to 

 rye, putting on one hundred and fifty bushels of leached ashes. 

 The crop this year was thirty-six bushels. The last part of the 

 lot we ploughed in 18(54 and sowed to rye, putting on one hun- 

 dred and eighty bushels, leached ashes. The yield of grain was 

 twenty-nine bushels. In March of each year we sowed clover 

 and fine-top seed. It now, I should judge, produces three times 

 as much feed as it did before it was broken up. 



" The second lot is in West Bridgewatcr, and contains three 

 and one-half acres. In the spring of 1863 we ploughed about 

 one-third of the lot and planted potatoes, manuring two-thirds 



