118 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



and deciduous trees, many of them having been raised and 

 grown on this farm. 



In cultivating this farm, mj leading idea has been to improve 

 the "Character and texture of the soil, and make the main staple 

 of the place — fruit. 



Already three hundred and seventy-five young apple trees 

 have been planted, two-thirds being Baldwins, which commenced 

 bearing a little this year. Two hundred and ten are set out 

 in one orcliard and one hundred and sixty-six in another ; the 

 rows in the former one alternating with peach trees, for which 

 the soil and the location of tlie farm, between such large bodies 

 of water, seem admirably adapted. 



The pear orchard consists of one hundred standards of various 

 profitable kinds — discarding all but a very few sorts. I have 

 many dwarfs which are not considered. 



The peach orchards contain about three hundred trees, mostly 

 small — one hundred being set out only last spring, and compar- 

 atively few of the remainder are in full bearing. It is my 

 intention to add six hundred trees in the spring. 



Setting out my orchards and ornamental trees has occupied 

 my close attention for some time ; yet the essential improve- 

 ments in the farm buildings, fences, and in the general manage- 

 ment of the place, have not been overlooked. 



Great attention is paid to making manure and to have not 

 only bulk but quality. None is made in the yards. The barn, 

 sixty by forty, has a high, spacious cellar under the whole, 

 closed in on all sides with doors opening into the yards where 

 sheep are chiefly kept in winter. The cattle are tied up every 

 night in the year, and the manure, with that of the horses, 

 falling into the cellar below, is composted, mixed and worked 

 over by swine. Fine pond sand is kept under the horses, loam 

 under the cattle, and a quantity of soil is weekly thrown into 

 the hog-stye. 



My stock usually consists of three horses, four cows, one 

 yoke of oxen, and several young cattle, besides calves, with a 

 flock of about twenty sheep. The neat stock is what is com- 

 monly caUcd "Native," but properly a mixture of Ayrshire, 

 Aldernoy, and Devon. The laborers employed arc chiefly Por- 

 tugese, [)f(icuicd in New Bedford as they ari'ive from the Western 

 Islands. I take them often without their knowing any thing of 



