FARMS. 93 



and ten strong oxen, I came off victor over shrub oaks, grey 

 birches and other attendant brush, and with a strong harrow, 

 smoothed the surface, gathering large quantities of roots and 

 stones. I then planted the lot with potatoes, and the following 

 year with barley and grass seed, with good results. 



16. 1 winter from twenty-five to thirty liead of cattle and two 

 horses. I have some full blood Ayrshires, and a number of 

 grade stock. I prefer the Ayrshire to fill the milk cans. 



17. I use horses mostly for ray farm work, and for farm 

 purposes consider them the cheapest and best ; but, if I have 

 an old brush pasture to plough, or an old bog-meadow to 

 subdue, prefer oxen. 



18. I seldom raise swine, considering it cheaper to buy when 

 part grown ; if there is any profit in keeping them, "it is in 

 making manure for the barn-cellar. I keep no distinct breeds. 



19. I think that every one should have a good garden and 

 take care of it, and raise a good supply of all kinds of vegetables 

 for his family ; beyond this, I do not think it is profitable for 

 persons so far from a good market as Concord. 



20. Where stones are plenty, I think they are the cheapest 

 and best, especially for division fences ; but where we wish to 

 remove them often, I prefer holed posts and rails of good size, 

 three or four rails high. 



21. Apples, pears, grapes, strawberries, currants and rasp- 

 berries ; I have about four hundred apple and sixty pear trees. 



22. I set my apple trees thirty feet apart, and my pear trees 

 twenty feet each way ; many of them are standard stock'. I 

 have one and one-fourth acres of an asparagus bed that is set 

 with apple trees, sumptuously fed by the dressing that the 

 asparagus receives from year to year ; some trees among hoed 

 crops, where they are liberally manured, and others in different 

 locations. I purpose from week to week, as the fruit falls, to 

 gather it, in order to destroy all the worms I can. 



23. One improvement is the care and management of my 

 orchard — pruning and other attendant requirements, and setting 

 varieties of pears. Another is the addition of four acres of low, 

 worthless bog-meadow — filling it with blind drains ; also, the 

 addition of tile drains to other parts of the farm ; also, an addi- 

 tion of twenty acres of pasture, thirteen acres of which was 

 mostly filled with shrub oak and grey birch, now a great benefit 



