172 QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



The land added to the farm at sundry times within the last fivei 

 or six years, was, in the general, in as bad a condition in many 

 respects, as the worst of that already described ; indeed, it could 

 furnish material for a more repulsive picture than any that haa 

 been drawn yet ; but as most of you have repeatedly seen it initflfl 

 original state, I need not trouble you with a description. To show 

 its condition now, I need only remind you, that two years ac^o I 

 obtained a premium for raising upwards of four hundred bushelsi 

 of Mercer potatoes to the acre, on this land ; and that on the suc- 

 ceeding year, from the same potatoe land I took upwards of fiftyi 

 bushels of wheat to the acre, without any additional manure.; 

 Also, that last year I submitted a field of some seven acres of corn, 

 on -.mother portion of this land, which yielded at the rate of 20O 

 bushels of ears, equal to 100 bushels of shelled corn, to the acre.* 

 My reports on the condition of these fields, and the aforesaid 

 crops, are in possession of the Society. The corn land was 

 this year with potatoes and oats. The potatoes, four acres, yiel 

 ed over 200 bushels to the acre ; the oats were very good — it i 

 now laid dov/n with wheat and orchard grass. This sketch, witbl 

 your own personal observations, will afford you some idea of what 

 i had to contend with, and what I have accomplished in the way 

 of improving land, and the present condition of my farm. i k 



From the difficulty and expense in procuring manure from the| 

 city, and after three or four years experience in that mode of supi 

 ply, I gave it up, and adopted the plan of making a supply on th« i 

 place, by an increr.sed stock of cattle j from which I have derived k 

 my sole supply ever since, with the exception of light dressings oi 

 lime and gypsum, and a small lot of stable manure which I wa; 

 tempted to purchase a few weeks since at auction, and which 

 can dispense with, should I meet a purchaser before its removal ii 



the spring. The keeping and breeding fine stock had in ib 

 strong claims upon my judgment, as well as nfiy taste ; as I couh 

 never think a farm was what it should be, unless it could exhibi 

 fine cattle, as well as an improved culture. To maintain this stock 

 and bring my land to a high state of cultivation, by the most effi 

 cient and economical practice, has been a leading object; and ti 

 accomplish this, required no ordinary management on such a farm 

 The stock in cattle has ranged for years, from forty to fifty head 

 in addition to the necessary horses, with a large stock of swini 

 for breeding and fattening ; and these I have fed from the produo 

 of the farm, except the purchase occasionally of some straw, an( 

 supplies of mill-feed for the horses and swine, and some meadov ;i 

 hay for the cattle, selling frequently its equivalent in timothy ii 

 During the same period, I have sold hundreds of bushels of ryci ell 

 some wheat, and on an average, four hundred bushels of potatoe| i^i 

 annually, w'ith some three to four hundred bushels of carrots, be 



