102 FIRESIDE SCIENCE. 



brought into fair tilth by the use of special agents, 

 it would serve as an important fact in the history 

 of our agricultural industry ; and further, if it could 

 be done at a cost which would prove it to be prac- 

 ticable and remunerative, certainly great service 

 wotild be conferred upon our farming interests. 



The " Lakeside " farm, of about one hundred 

 acres, which I purchased seven years since, was 

 not what might be considered a worthless or barren 

 tract ; for some portions of it, a quarter of a century 

 ago, were probably in fair condition, producing 

 crops of hay and grain corresponding with those 

 grown by the farmers of that period. For a long 

 time, however, it had been in the hands of those 

 who treated it with neglect, and the best fields had 

 hardly been turned over with a plough, or cheered 

 with a dressing of manure, for a score of years. It 

 had therefore become in a great measure exhausted, 

 and the thin grasses were suffering for aliment. 

 The number of acre's not devoted to wood and pas- 

 turing was about twenty-five ; of this, nearly one 

 half was a low, boggy meadow, upon which water 

 was allowed to rest until it was removed by evapo- 

 ration late in the spring. The remainder consisted 

 of a series of elevations or hills of considerable alti- 

 tude, dry and silicious upon the tops, but moist at 

 the bases from retained water and from springs. 

 The soil of the different fields afforded quite a vari- 



