86 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



15. I have no brush pasture to clear. 



16. I have kept from twelve to twenty head of cattle in the 

 winter, sending them into the country in summer. Breeds, 

 mostly native, some Devon. 



17. Always keep oxen to do my heavy work. It depends 

 upon the land to be cultivated, which is the most economical. 

 If very stony, I should prefer oxen — if not, horses. I am not 

 fully decided which would be the most economical on my farm. 



18. Always keep swine, but do not raise them — am not 

 particular about the breed, if they are well formed, and will 

 work well. I think there is a decided profit in the manure 

 they make. 



19. If a man does not cultivate garden vegetables in the field, 

 so as to have a good variety, I consider a garden essential. 



20. Stone walls and ditches. 



21. My principal fruit is apples, of which there are about six 

 acres of young trees, most of them just commencing to bear. I 

 have a few pears, currants, raspberries, etc., for family use. 



22. Apple trees should be set from thirty to thirty-three feet 

 apart, at least. I plant standard pear trees twenty-five feet 

 apart. When young trees are set, great care should be taken 

 to have them set the right depth, and to have the holes suffi- 

 ciently large, cutting oif from one-third to one-half of the last 

 year's growth, to correspond with the roots that have been cut. 

 An orchard sliould never be in grass more than two years at a 

 time ; if it is, the fruit becomes small and unfair, and the trees 

 lose their thriftiness. I have no particular crop for an orchard, 

 but cultivate most any of the field crops, as the case may be. 

 The only insect that has troubled my fruit trees to any great 

 extent, is the catcrpiller, wliich I destroy by taking them from 

 the tree, as soon as hatched, with my hand. 



23. Some of the improvements made, have been repairs on 

 buildings ; removing stone walls and foundations of walls, and 

 building anew, to inclose unfenced lots and improve the shape 

 of others and add to the general appearance of the farm ; setting 

 out shade and fruit trees, where they were needed ; draining 

 and reclaiming wet land, and draining upland. 



24. Only in my head. 



25. The amount received for my princij)al crops, for the last 

 three years, was as follows : — 



