ON FARMS. 93 



with a hcJ;j;e5 or live fence, extending for a considerable distance on 

 either side. 



His homestead farm consists of 127 acres. Fitty-two acres of 

 mowing, tillage and orcharding, the remainder pasture, with the ex- 

 ception of a few acres of wood land. He has two barns, one thirty 

 by forty feet, used exclusively for storage of hay ; and one eighty- 

 four by forty, with a cellar under the whole, both of which he usually 

 fills every jeav with English hay, of which he sells from forty to sixty 

 tons per year. lu his large barn is kept his stock, and in the cellar 

 his swine, Avorking over and mixing the manure. He has experi- 

 mented to some extent with raw and cooked food, for fattening swine, 

 and is of opinion that it may pay the cost for cooking roots, but will 

 not for grain or meal. The produce of his orchard the present year, 

 of great scarcity, was 120 barrels of winter fruit, picked from the 

 trees. There is of field land a proportion well adapted to the growth 

 of corn and grain, of which the committee saw fine crops growing. 

 He has given more attention of late to the production of hay, which 

 in his opinion gives him a better profit with less labor. Much of his 

 field land is well adapted to grass ; a proportion of it being reclaimed 

 meadow, which does not admit, or require the plough, as it is kept 

 highly productive by occasional top dressing. Other portions are 

 moist, but admit of ploughing at dry seasons of the year, which he 

 usually does once in about six years, as soon as the crop uf hay is oft". 

 He then carts on about twenty loads of compost manure to the acre, 

 harrows and rolls smoothly, and sows Timothy and Red Top seed, 

 which never fail of a full crop the next season. He is in favor of 

 sowing grass seed in autumn, rather than in the spring, with grain 

 on dry land. 



His pasture is on a high, smooth swell of land, where the commit- 

 tee had a fine opportunity of witnessing the good effects of gypsum 

 as a fertilizer. Comparing his land where gypsum was apphed, with 

 other land adjoining, of apparent hke quality, where gypsum had not 

 been used, the difference was truly surprising. Although the season 

 was dry, there was a luxuriant growth of wiiite clover, covering the 

 ground where gypsum had been used. His method of applying is, to 

 sow early in the spring, from one and an half bushels to two bushels 

 per acre every year. There were in this pasture about twenty head 

 ■ of beef cattle, the looks of which satisfied the committee that the 

 feed was as nutritious as handsome. Mr. How composts most of his 



