142 MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 



The original farm, thirty years ago, consisted of seventy-five 

 acres, valued at about $1500 ; the buildings were mere shells, 

 without clapboards or paint ; stock, two oxen, three cows, and 

 one horse. 



West Acton, September 7, 1849. 



J. D. Fiske's Statement. 



My farm contains fifty acres. It came into my possession in 

 1842. There were no buildings upon the place at the time. I 

 built my house in 1842, and my barn hi 1843. My barn is 

 forty by fifty feet, with a cellar under the whole. Being en- 

 gaged, most of the time, during those years, about my build- 

 ings, I did not make much improvement upon rny farm, which 

 was then in an unproductive state, not yielding more than ten 

 tons of hay, including the meadow. At that time, I kept two 

 cows and a horse in the summer, and three cows and one yoke 

 of oxen in the winter. Very little fruit of any kind grew upon 

 the place. In 1845, 1 commenced with one acre of low peat land, 

 which was then covered with a growth of wood, consisting of 

 maple and birch. The wood was cut ofi", and the whole piece 

 was turned over by means of a sharp bog hoe. It was planted 

 with potatoes, the first year. The crop was one hundred and 

 fifty bushels, which I sold, at that time, for forty cents per 

 bushel. One man turned this piece over, in nine and a half 

 days. This man I paid $105, for a year. In the three follow- 

 ing years, I proceeded to subdue six acres more, taking two 

 acres per year, in the same way ; the average yield, per acre, 

 being one hundred and fifty bushels, which I sold at a price 

 averaging from ninety-five cents to one dollar per bushel. 



Most of this land is now laid to grass, and yielded, the pres- 

 ent year, I should judge, about two tons to the acre. In addi- 

 tion to this, I have one acre which formerly produced nothing 

 but bushes, and coarse, wild grass, which I have treated as fol- 

 lows, after digging a ditch through the centre, I proceeded to 

 pare off the bogs, and otherwise make the surface as level as 

 possible. I then carted on gravel, thrown out of my barn eel- 



