54 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



This stimulates production, and it is wonderful to see the 

 rocky lands and the swamps that have been brought 

 under cultivation to meet the increased demand for farm 

 crops. 



Uncle Philip is a farmer of the old school, but keeps up 

 with the times better than a good many young men. He 

 used to take the old New-England Farmer forty years 

 ago, and got a good many ideas from Fessenden and 

 others, who sought to improve farming in those days. 

 You can see where those ideas have been bearing fruit on 

 his farm ever since. He reclaimed a swamp by ditching, 

 bogging, and covering with gravel, thirty years ago, and 

 it bears near three tons of hay to the acre now. 



He has found that it pays to clear up rocky fields, so 

 rocky that most lazy men get discouraged. He has 

 worked up these rocks into heavy stone walls, with a 

 handsome face, and well capped. He finds these cleared 

 rocky lands just the spot for orchards, and some of the 

 finest trees he has are upon these reclaimed pastures. It 

 is astonishing to see what a sight of work a man can do in 

 a life-time, and what a beautiful homestead he can make 

 of rough barren acres. 



He has a nice garden full of fine vegetables, which are 

 now in their glory. Up in one corner there is a lot of bee 

 hives, full of music and honey, setting the owner a good 

 example in the way of industry, and rewarding him for 

 his care with a bountiful supply of well-filled comb. All 

 around the wall he has fruit trees and grape vines, which 

 are now loaded with fruit. 



I found a lot of your Sugar Cane up here, and indeed 

 I have seen it all through the State where I have traveled. 

 One farmer, who had a large lot, was going to run it 

 through his cider mill to crush the canes, and thought it 

 would answer all the purpose of a sugar-mill. Uncle 

 Philip was trying his for soiling, and found it to work 

 first-rate. He sowed sweet corn along side of it, both 



