70 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



the orchards, the cultivation of grass, grain and root crops, the 

 breeding of cattle, horses, hogs and poultry, and the sale of 

 milk. 



Drainage. — Into considerable of my heavy land I have intro- 

 duced thorough drainage with tiles. In a former report upon 

 this subject, I laid before the society the plans, method and cost 

 of draining five and one-half acres of vei'y stiff and unmanageable 

 clay, liable to be flooded, and always cold. Since that time I 

 have drained other pieces of land in a similar manner, and to 

 my entire satisfaction. The crops upon the piece referred to 

 first have been largely increased. From fifteen hundred pounds 

 of hay to the acre, grown, too, upon a field divided by a wide, 

 deep, inconvenient ditch, and arranged in high beds separated by 

 deep furrows, I have increased the yield to valuable corn, root, 

 grain and grass crops, raised upon a smooth and even surface. 

 Last year I raised, upon this field, ninety bushels of corn upon 

 one acre, fifty bushels of barley to the acre on four and three- 

 eightlis acres, and a fair crop of potatoes on the remaining 

 eighth surrounding the corn. This year the field was divided 

 into four and three-eighths acres of grass, and one and one- 

 eighth acres of mangel wurtzel ; the grass yielded seventeen 

 and one-half tons of the first crop, and nine and one-half tons 

 of the second crop — making in all twenty-seven tons of liay, 

 or six tons to the acre; and the acre and one-eighth of mangolds 

 yielded sixteen hundred bushels. Having entered these crops 

 for premium, I have given a more explicit statement with 

 regard to them elsewhere. Other fields have been brought into 

 similarly even and fertile condition by thorough drainage. 



Orchards. — The orchards occupy about twenty acres. The 

 trees are fifty years old, and were many of them imported 

 grafted fruit. The Pickman Pippin, a very valuable cooking 

 apj)le, was introduced upon the farm by Col. Pickman, in the 

 year 1810, having been sent to him from England. The rest of 

 the trees are Baldwins, Hubbardstons, Pearmains, Spit/.enburgs, 

 Danvers Sweets, Liscoms, and Roxbuiy Russets. The trees 

 have long since passed their prime; and, when I took them? 

 were suffering much from neglect. A system of root-pruning 

 — practiced by digging around the tree, at the distance of five 

 or six feet, a ditch two feet deep, cutting off about half the 

 roots, and filling the ditch with a compost of muck and lime — 



