70 



farm management, and the best method of arranghig a farm 

 with reference to economy and profit. There may be many 

 causes for this ; and tlie members of the Society may be 

 deterred from a strife for one of our most liberal and significant 

 premiums by the trouble and care and time which it involves. 

 Still the fact exists, and we are under special obligations, there- 

 fore, to the one exhibitor of this year, Mr. Francis H. Appleton 

 of West Peabody, who has conferred a great favor on the 

 farming community and this Society by a careful, elaborate 

 and interesting statement with regard to his own farm, and 

 whose courtesy and hospitality will long be remembei-ed by 

 those of the Committee who enjoyed it. 



MR. FRANCIS H. APPLETON'S STATE^IENT. 



Mv farm consists of one hundred and sixty-two acres, forty- 

 four acres being cultivatable, and the remainder wood, pasture, 

 marsh and waste land, which latter includes the land on 

 which my buildings, etc., stand. 



The larger part of it, including all the land which I call 

 cultivatable, I bought March IT, 1869 ; the remaining part I 

 have purchased within the past year. 



When I bought the farm, the forty-four acres, which I men- 

 tioned, were in an almost worthless condition for farming 

 purposes ; twenty-nine acres of it were mostly covered with 

 tough moss and old corn-hills, with a growth of young pine 

 starting upon it, and useless, broken-down stonewalls crossing 

 it, many of which have been removed ; the greater part of 

 these twenty-nine acres had not been plowed for upwards of 

 seventy years ; the remaining fifteen acres had, here and there, 

 old oak stumps and the like, from each of which a thriving 

 growlli of bushes was springing up, also numerous heaps of 

 stones scattered about, and a portion of it was dotted over with 

 the stumps of cherry trees, and crossed l)y tuml)ling down old 

 fences. The first year after taking possession, I left the better 

 looking portion of these fii^cen acres to cut for hay, and 

 plowed up and planted as much of the remainder as I thought 

 1 could manure. 



