FARMS. 27 



Statement of Moses Stebbins. 



The farm which I enter for premium contains forty-one acres, 

 situated near the Connecticut River, in South Deerfield. When 

 I came in possession, in 1831, ten acres of it consisted of a 

 poor, worn out, buckwheat field. In 1838 I resolved to have a 

 better farm. I hauled on clay, at the rate of fifty loads per 

 acre. Then I spread twentj^-five loads of manure to the acre, 

 sowed two liundred pounds of plaster, ploughed all in together, 

 planted corn, and obtained a fair crop. At the outset I tried 

 but three acres, by way of experiment, and after witnessing 

 the result, I continued until I had treated the ten acres alike. 

 After corn, I planted oats, and stocked down to clover. 



By use of clay and manure, I have made all my land as good 

 as the best, and increased my pastures one hundred per cent, 

 in quantity and quality of feed. I have practised ploughing 

 deep, and do so now, but in a different way from my former 

 practice. I now plough in manure four or five inches deep ; 

 then subsoil as deep as I can run a subsoil plough. I prefer 

 this to running deep, in order to turn up the subsoil. I com- 

 monly plant my land two years in succession; thereby mixing 

 soil and manure, and pulverizing the soil for grass. Instead of 

 oats I raise barley, which I deem far more profitable to the 

 farmer. Where we made one hundred loads of manure in 1838, 

 we now make three hundred and fifty loads. I haul from 

 seventy-five to one hundred loads of earth into my barn and 

 hog yards, annually, to absorb the liquid manures, which I con- 

 ider as valuable as the solid. I think much of hogs for the 

 manufacture of compost manure. I have used salt with good 

 results, on both grass and wheat. For old worn out pastures, 

 I recommend the free use of plaster, and for fruit trees, I apply 

 salt and lime, freely, and wash often with white lye. 



My farm has been divided, the present year, as follows : 

 twenty- three acres of mowing ; thirteen acres in corn and po- 

 tatoes ; three in barley, and two in wheat. My stock consists 

 of three pairs of oxen ; three steers, three years old ; five cows ; 

 seven two years old ; three yearlings ; one hundred and fifty 

 sheep and twenty-five hogs. 



