152 



Model Farm. — Slock impoi^led hy the Mass. Ag. Soc'y. Vol. X. 



Robert Brysoii's 3Iodel Farm. 



Within a j'ear or two, an Agricultural Society has 

 been funned in Cumberland County, with its central] 

 point at Carlisle. We insert the following from thy 

 Report of the Committee on Farms, acknowledging 

 that we have read it with much interest.— Ed. 



It is with feelings of great pleasure that 

 we cordially unite in the expression of the 

 opinion that the farm of Mr. Robert Bryson, 

 and the condition of it — its cultivation, and 

 the principles of it — afford a most gratifying- 

 example of the rich product which is made 

 by energy, industry and skill. The farm 

 consists of two hundred and fifty-seven acres 

 of land, most of which is cleared, leaving 

 only trees enough for shade. As you ap- 

 proach the farm you are at once struck with 

 tlie cleanliness of field and fence-row, which 

 indicates that nothing grows there but what 

 is planted. A large stone mansion exhibits 

 the comforts of a profitable farm, and a no 

 less capacious barn shows that tliere must 

 be a place for grain, for there is much here 

 to be stored away. A particular description 

 of this barn may be useful to the Society; it 

 is in size ninety-eight feet six inches, by 

 fifty-four feet, which includes a seven feet 

 overshot, and thirty-four feet high to the 

 square. It is built in the side of a bank, 

 and has two sets of barn fioors, one above 

 the other — the first having an elevation of 

 about eight feet, and the second is used as 

 a threshing floor, from which the grain as it 

 is threshed passes down into the first floor, 

 where it is cleansed ; the stables are below 

 the whole. There is an advantage gained 

 b}' this arrangement, in tliis, that you can 

 get out any quantity of grain witliout being 

 hindered by the accumulation of it upon the 

 floor; and there can be no better illustration 

 of this advantage than the ftict, that Mr. 

 Bryson's whole crop was threshed, cleaned, 

 and ready for market, on the 25th of July of 

 this year. With the peculiar capacity and 

 arrangement of his barn, this was effected 

 without any waste of straw, or throwing 

 more into the barn yard than would be rea- 

 dily converted into manure; it was all 

 stowed away in his capacious barn, ready to 

 be used during the succeeding winter, as 

 occasion will require; — the quantity of wlieat 

 was nineteen hundred and ninety-five bush- 

 els, which grew upon eighty acres of land — 

 equal to twenty-five bushels to the acre; five 

 acres of barley were also threshed, and pro- 

 duced two hundred and fifty bushels; forty 

 tons of hay were made, well cured and stored 

 away; the produce often acres of oats, which 

 your committee supposed would yield 270 

 bushels, were also here ; the corn was yet 

 upon the ground, and it was the subject of 



particular examination, and the conclusion 

 to which we came with regard to it was, 

 that it would yield about fifty-five bushels to 

 the acre; — notwithstanding this season has 

 not been as favourable as usual, we have 

 not seen in any year so large a crop of corn 

 which was as good as this; thirty bushels of 

 clover seed were also made. This is a lime- 

 stone farm, and the manure used upon it is 

 principa,lly lime. The stock which we found 

 jhere, were eighty head of steers, twenty 

 ; milch cows and young cattle, one hundred 

 jhogs, fifteen sheep, six horses, and three 

 iyoke of oxen. The eighty head of steers 

 [were in a course of preparation for the 

 j market, and had been fed since the corn had 

 j passed the wasting ear state, by cutting it 

 joff and feeding it to them in the bulk — the 

 I cattle and hogs thus fed together, exhibited 

 this system as a profitable one; scarcely two 

 acres had yet been consumed, and the cattle 

 jwere almost ready for the market. One 

 jwould suppose that a farm' like this would 

 occupy all the attention of its owner, but 

 jnot so with Mr. Bryson — on his farm three 

 I kilns v;ere constantly employed burning 

 lime, producing about 2000 bushels a week, 

 hauled from the kiln as fast as it was burned 

 jto enrich the lands of the surrounding coun- 

 try. Mr. Bryson employs upon his farm 

 about thirty hands, who are engaged in the 

 tilling of the farm, and the burning and 

 jhauling of lime; the labour of these men is 

 directed by Mr. Bryson in person, and with 

 ja system and economy of time which seem 

 to be peculiar. At sunrise every man knows 

 from the mouth of his employer what is his 

 business for the day. 



Stock imported by the Massachusetts 

 Agricultural Society. 



We learn from a late number of the New 

 England Farmer^ that the ship Chaos ar- 

 rived s.i Boston in the early part of the 

 Tenth month, in twenty-nine days from 

 Liverpool, with the stock purchased for the 

 State Agricultural Society, by Alexander 

 Beckett, who was sent out to make a selec- 

 tion of the best animals that could be ob- 

 tained, of the North Devon and Ayrshire 

 breeds. " The passage," says the Farmer, 

 "was rather rough, but every arrangement 

 was made for the safety and comfort of the 

 animals, that could be devised, and notwith- 

 standing the unfavourable influences of a 

 sea voyage, they came out in fine order, most 

 of them fat enough for the shambles. 



" They consist of four Ayrshire cows and 

 one bull, and four North Devon cows and 

 one bull, and a fine calf, which w^as dropped 

 by one of the North Devon cows on the pas- 



