44 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



average in the neighborhood. This owner died in 1820, leav- 

 ing the farm to five daughters, who were forthwith assigned 

 eight acres each. Then commenced the most reckless and 

 abominable system of tillage that ever disgraced a farming 

 community. These girls were dependent for their support 

 entirely on the income from their inheritance. Therefore 

 each rented or leased her share to the highest bidder during 

 the term of her unmarried life. Practically they were not 

 in favor of early marriages, consequently some of the leases 

 had a long time to run. No stock was kept on the farm : 

 every foot of arable land was put under cultivation ; and 

 this continued for a long series of years, until the crops were 

 not worth harvesting. Every ounce of plant-food had been 

 extracted from the soil, and even the weeds refused to grow, 

 although the ground was literally filled with seed. 



The walls were down, so that the cattle could roam from 

 field to field without obstruction ; and a flourishing hedge- 

 row, from six to eight feet wide, was a pretty sure indi- 

 cation of the neighborhood of the old foundations. The 

 small stones not suitable for building had never been re- 

 moved from the land, but from time to time had been thrown 

 into heaps containing about one ton each ; and around these 

 bushes had been encouraged to grow as a sort of guide to 

 the scythe and the ploughman. The old barn being un- 

 occupied, and having survived its usefulness, succumbed to 

 the blasts, and fell to the ground. The old house, that had 

 faced the storms of more than one hundred winters, had 

 never been repaired, if we except the roof, which was com- 

 paratively tight. Pigeons had free access to the attics ; and 

 the swallows had their holes in the eaves. 



Such was the condition of Weeping Elm Farm in 1844, 

 when it came into my possession. And when I look back 

 to that time, and take into account the impoverished condi- 

 tion of the soil, the want of suitable buildings, the limited 

 state of my finances, which precluded the possibility of mak- 

 ing the needed improvements, and, above all, my total igno- 

 rance of almost all the principles that underlie successful 

 agriculture, I am surprised at the enthusiasm with which I 

 commenced farming on my own hook. 



And what is still more remarkable, when viewed from my 

 present stand-point, is, that I should continue to work early 



