FARMS. 69 



The kiiul in Salem is divided into one hundred and ten acres 

 of cleared and cultivated fielding, thirty-eight acres of salt 

 mar;^h, producing black grass, two acres of fresh meadow, and 

 the balance of pasturing. 



The surface is uneven — the pastures occupying considerable 

 elevations of syenite and greenstone, mostly covered with not 

 a deep soil, of a rich, warm quality, interspersed with a few 

 small, swampy spots ; — the cultivated land consisting of deep 

 beds of clay, extending from low salt marshes to the foot of 

 abrupt ledges, and running some distance inland between them, 

 usually along the sides of Iresh water courses, which rise in the 

 pastures ; and the salt marsh being composed of peat, lying 

 upon tenacious clay. The level of the field, which is mostly 

 not many feet above high-water mark, is diversified by two or 

 three gravelly knolls, rising to the height of about thirty feet, 

 and occupying nearly seven acres of land. 



The soil under cultivation is, therefore, mostly strong clayey 

 loam, with a heavy clay subsoil. The gravelly knolls to which 

 I have referred, furnish, from one to five feet below their sur- 

 face, beds of the finest beach sand. The farm is abundantly 

 supplied with deposits of muck. It is Avell watered, both by 

 brooks and small ponds. The natural growth of wood is the 

 red cedar in the pastures ; the walnut, red oak, elm, swamp 

 maple, and a few pines, both hard and soft, growing upon the 

 lower lands. 



When I took possession of the farm, five years ago, I found 

 it in a somewhat dilapidated condition. The buildings were 

 out of repair, the orchards were decayed, and the fields were, 

 most of them, under poor cultivation. The year previous, the 

 crop of hay was about 150 tons of English and salt hay ; 100 

 bushels of corn, 55 bushels of barley, 650 bushels of carrots 

 and mangel wurzels, about 90 bushels of potatoes, 175 barrels 

 of apples, and a lew bushels of rye. The stock on the farm 

 consisted of 46 cows, 12 yearling heifers, 2 hogs, 3 horses, 

 4 oxen and 1 bull. The drainage of the farm had been, for 

 years, wholly surface drainage, ditches varying in depth from 

 one to three feet, and beds laid up with the plough. All the 

 clayey land on the farm was drained in this manner. 



The labor which has been done on the farm, under my direc- 

 tion, has been devoted to thorough drainage, the restoring of 



