429 



Have you done anything to improve your pasture lands ? 



No ; I suppose 1 ought to. I tried one hundred weight of 

 plaster spread upon a part of it, and the effects were visible as 

 far as the land could be seen ; but then after that, plaster rose 

 half a dollar on a ton, and I thought I would not get any more. 

 Then the huckleberry bashes and the sweet fern, and the brakes 

 and alders have come in so, that I cannot keep as much stock 

 as I could formerly. 



Have you attempted any improvement upon your bog mea-, 

 dows ? 



No ; sometimes I have thought I would. My neighbor J. 

 B. has redeemed eight or ten acres, and now gets two tons and 

 a half of hay to the acre, herds-grass and clover and red-top of 

 the best quality, where formerly he got scarcely any thing ; but 

 then it cost him at least twenty or twenty-five dollars an acre 

 to drain and manure it ; and he will have to top-dress it at least 

 once in five years or it will never hold out. Then, too, he has 

 put on at least half a bushel or more of grass-seed to the acre ; 

 and grass-seed which I used to buy for twelve cents a pound, 

 or two dollars and a half per bushel, is now twenty cents a 

 pound, and herds-grass three dollars per bushel. Then, too, 

 labor is so high, I cannot afford to hire. 



Have you plenty of manure ? 



No ; that is a great want. I have a bog-hole where 1 sup- 

 pose I could get two hundred loads a year, but then 1 should 

 have to go more than a mile for it, and it is wet work. I have 

 not any of the advantages which the farmers have who live 

 within six or seven miles of Boston, and can go in and buy a 

 load of good dung whenever they want. 



Do you know what these farmers have to pay for manure in 

 Boston ? 



Why, yes! I have been told they have to give sometimes 

 three to five dollars a cord at the stables. Sometimes our tav- 

 ern-keeper sells a iew loads, but he 'asks five dollars a cord. 

 Have you a barn cellar ? 

 No ; I have often thought it would be a very good thing, 



