70 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



liquid condition, require the daily admixing of large quantities 

 of chaff, muck, soil or peat, to act as absorbents ; and the 

 amount of active plant aliment thus secured, is surprising to 

 those who treat their manures in the ordinary wasteful manner. 



The Committee in the examination of Mr. Webster's farm, 

 were highly pleased with the results of his labors. It was 

 evident, however, that the work of renovation was but partially 

 completed. The element of time must enter into all under- 

 takings for the improvement of lands, and a few years more 

 are required to place the farm in a condition to meet the 

 society's requirements as a premium farm. There is much to 

 be done in connection with lands immediately around the farm 

 buildings. In the march of improvement, the fences, gates, 

 drive-ways, &c., have not been reached. These will doubtless 

 soon receive attention at the hands of the industrious and 

 persevering owner, and the Committee cherish expectations that 

 the time is not far distant when it will be a model farm, and 

 entitled to the society's highest premium. 



In view of the energy and intelligent industry displayed by 

 Mr. Webster, resulting in so many farm improvements, the 

 Committee award a gratuity of thirty dollars. 

 For the Committee, 



James R. Nichols. 



Statement of Richard Webster, 

 The farm I enter for a premium, I bought in 1859, for 

 $1,950, and it contains about forty acres. Fourteen of this 

 was called field land ; the remainder bush pasture, with alders, 

 birches, &c., and about one hundred cords of oak, pine, and 

 maple wood standing, and would pasture three head of cattle ; 

 and I wintered the first year I was on the farm — 1860 — one 

 cow and horse, by buying about a ton of hay. Around all of 

 the walls in the fields, was a margin of bushes from three 

 to fifteen feet wide, being sprouts from oak, ash, cherry, and 

 other stumps, which I had to dig out by the roots ; and by many 

 of the walls loads of stone had been dumped for the sake of 

 convenience. In one field I hauled off over thirty cords ; in 

 other fields were a large lot of boulders, and I blasted about 

 three hundred, around many of which were bunches of bushes 

 growing. In one of my best mowing fields of four acres, I cut 



