192 BARNSTABLE SOCIETY. 



was when he purchased it, twenty-seven years ago. The soil 

 was then exhausted, and most of it was thrown out to commons. 

 The soil is generally light and sandy, and he has renovated it 

 by carting and ploughing in sea-weed, and by making compost 

 manures in his barn-yard. The principal material used by him, 

 is sea-weed. 



Simeon Higgins, of Orleans, has also greatly improved his 

 lands. He has made nineteen acres very productive, which, a 

 few years ago, were barren, and of little value. 



The largest farms visited by the committee, were those of 

 Lewis Doane and Beriah Doane, situated in the east part of 

 Orleans. Lewis Doane's farm contains about one hundred and 

 thirty acres of arable land. The soil is naturally good, and 

 easily cultivated. He has clay, loam and sandy soils. His aver- 

 age annual crops, for several years, have been 500 bushels of 

 corn, 250 bushels of rye, wheat and barley, besides potatoes, 

 carrots, &c. He pastures from 25 to 30 head of cattle, 50 

 sheep, and 3 horses. The hay which he cuts is consumed on 

 the farm, and he depends mainly on sea-weed for manuring his 

 lands. Beriah Doane's farm contains about two hundred and 

 thirty acres of arable land. The soil is mostly clay, and grav- 

 elly, and is naturally rich and productive. He pastures about 

 30 head of cattle, 50 sheep, and 4 horses, and raises annually 

 an average crop of 750 bushels of grain. 



Charles Sears, of Yarmouth, paid $ 350 for his farm, adjoin- 

 ing his homestead, in 1832, and it was then thought he paid its 

 full value. It contains about thirty acres, and its annual pro- 

 ductions, at that time, were, pasturage for two cows, and twenty- 

 five bushels of grain. Now, the same land produces annually, 

 pasturage for three cows, ten tons of English hay, two hundred 

 bushels of grain, and one hundred bushels of potatoes, and other 

 vegetables. Most of his land is sandy; a small portion, sandy 

 loam and peat. On a part of the peat land which he has re- 

 claimed, he cut, this year, at the first mowing, hay at the rate 

 of four tons per acre. He has a field of four acres planted with 

 corn, which will yield at least forty bushels to the acre. Mr. 

 Sears, besides the manure from his stables, composts two or 

 three hundred loads of manure annually from sea-weed, marsh, 

 and fresh pond mud, and other substances. 



