130 MIDDLESEX SOCIETY. 



beds, favorably located, with which I have mixed an equal quan- 

 tity of compost, making two hundred loads of rich top-dressing 

 yearly ; this T have spread in early autumn, upon my mowing 

 land, drawing the harrow over the same once or twice, to dis- 

 sever the grass roots and assist the sod to vegetate with new 

 vigor. In this way, without any additional grass seed, my 

 mowing grounds have preserved and even increased their fer- 

 tility. 



To increase the quantity of manure on my farm, I have 

 taken horses to board during the winter ; I have thus kept, on 

 an average, twenty horses a year for the last ten years ; to sus- 

 tain this operation, I have purchased twenty tons of hay per 

 year, but have received no profit by the process, above the value 

 of the manure. I have also taken heifer calves, from one to six 

 weeks old, and kept them for twenty-five dollars a head, until 

 they could be returned with a calf by their side. I have thus 

 raised and returned eight cows per year, for the last six years. 



To renovate a piece of swale land, containing one and a half 

 acres, I enclosed it with a suitable fence, and in May, 1849, put 

 upon it twenty swine, thinking that they, with the implements 

 which nature had given them, might pulverize a soil too wet to 

 be cultivated by the usual process. In this I was not mistaken ; 

 the long nosed ploughmen turned up and turned over the 

 ground with strict fidelity. The hogs remained in the enclo- 

 sure seventy days, when they were removed. The land was 

 harrowed, and stones, sufficient to make sixteen rods of wall, 

 were removed from it ; it was then ditched and sowed with red- 

 top and herds grass seed, and in the spring with clover ; the 

 crop of hay from it this year was good, but promises to be 

 much better in future. The first cost of the swine was seventy 

 six dollars. While in the enclosure, they were fed with one 

 bushel of dry corn a day, at a cost of forty-two dollars ; after- 

 wards, till they were disposed of, the expense of supporting 

 them was $25 88, making the whole expense of the animals 

 and their keeping, $143 88. They were sold for $152 62, 

 leaving a net gain of $8 74. 



Since I have owned my farm, I have built upon it 420 rods 

 of stone wall, grafted all my native apple trees, and set out 



