44 THE MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY 



contributed to the official publication of the society an 

 account of his method and success in cultivating a 

 hedge fence of American thorn on his farm in the town 

 of Quincy. It was four-fifths of a mile long and in five 

 years had attained a height of five feet, and was dense 

 enough to prevent the passage of cattle. The experi- 

 ment, he said, was designed to show what would be 

 practicable and economical in those parts of the State 

 where there is a scarcity of stone for building walls. 

 This scarcity is, of course, no part of the fame of the 

 town of Quincy. His next important experiment was, 

 however, intended for local instruction in the first in- 

 stance, though by publishing the result in the society's 

 Journal in 1816, the instruction became general, and 

 has ever since been followed by the farmers of the 

 State. He had observed, he said, "a universal pre- 

 judice" among farmers against the cultivation of 

 carrots for winter feed of cattle. This aversion was 

 based upon the amount of labor found necessary in 

 raising a small quantity of carrots for culinary pur- 

 poses in a garden bed. Being, as it would appear, 

 something of a "book farmer" — for he disclaims any 

 originality in the method — he prepared and ridged, 

 substantially as the work is now done, two tracts of 

 31/4 acres each, keeping exact record of labor and other 

 cost. The result was a yield of 2,562 bushels of roots 

 on the two lots at a cost, including allowance for rent 

 of land, of $322. Allowing a value for 16 tons of 

 carrot tops, as fodder, he figured the cost of the roots 

 at eleven cents per bushel. He adds that the farmers 

 of his vicinity had taken up the practice and admitted 

 that the labor is not greater than in raising potatoes 

 and the feed better for cattle. 



For a number of years after the practice of import- 

 ing Merino sheep was begun the society's publications 



