382 



crops. Thus, for example, the land being turned over to the 

 depth of six or eight inches, corn is planted ; the next year this 

 same ground is not ploughed again, but merely harrowed and 

 sown with wheat or rye, or some small grain, and laid down to 

 grass. The saving of the labor of one ploughing is something ; 

 but the chief advantage in this case is in not disturbing the veg- 

 etable matter buried by the complete inversion of the sward, 

 until it is thoroughly decomposed, and in a condition to go to 

 the nourishment of the growing plants. On the farm of R. 

 Morss, in Groton, I saw the advantages of this mode of cultiva- 

 tion strongly exemplified, where, in one case, in the same field, 

 grass had been sown after only one ploughing — the second crop, 

 wheat, having been cultivated by only splitting the hills of 

 the Indian corn, and giving the ground a thorough harrowing ; 

 and in the other part of the field, two hoed crops had been ta- 

 ken before the land was laid down to grass, and the land plough- 

 ed deep without regard to breaking and bringing up the sward 

 before it was thoroughly rotted. On the former ground the 

 crop of grass was a third heavier than on th.e latter. 



XIV. Fruits and Orchards. — Middlesex county is distin- 

 guished for the abundance and excellence of its fruit, embrac- 

 ing many varieties. I had intended to have gone at large into 

 the cultivation of the fruits and garden vegetables with which 

 the market is supplied from this county, but it would too much 

 extend my report. 



One of the largest products of small fruits is that of strawber- 

 ries. These are cultivated in great perfection and with corres- 

 ponding profit. In one case, I Iiave known an individual to sell 

 six hundred dollars' worth from an acre in a single season ; and 

 in another case, from a little more than an acre, another farmer 

 to sell 3000 quart-boxes, averaging, after commissions of sale 

 were deducted, 25| cents per box, or, in the whole, 765 dollars. 

 These are cultivated in wide drills, on narrow beds. In the 

 autumn, they are covered with straw, sea-weed, or fresh-mead- 

 ow hay ; in the spring this is raked off, and good manure is 



