No. 6. Report of the Barnstable County JlgricuHural Society. 



183 



entirely sound, and in which no disease has 

 appeared for several generations. By taking 

 this precaution, growers may rely upon hav- 

 ing trees, that with ordinary care, will live 

 and bear fruit for many years, and in time 

 eradicate this evil. That the disease, how- 

 ever it may have originated, has not its ori- 

 gin in either the soil or the climate of this 

 latitude, is pretty evident. Natural trees 

 can now be found in great numbers, of many 

 years growth, alongside fences and other 

 neglecfed situations, perfectly sound, and 

 likely to remain so. These are the trees to 

 propagate from ; and although the fruit is 

 generally of an inferior quality, yet a culti- 

 vation of a few years will render it of supe- 

 rior flavor. — Farmer and Mechanic. 



Report of the Barnstable County Agri- 

 cultural Society. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FARMS. 



In the performance of their duties, the 

 committee have travelled nearly from one 

 extreme of the county to the other, to ex 

 amine into the present condition of its agri 

 culture, and note the improvements which 

 have been adopted in the management of 

 farms, and in the cultivation of particular 

 crops. Though the inhabitants of the county 

 are, as a whole, a commercial people, the 

 committee observed in all the towns the 

 evidences of an increased interest in rural 

 employments. The old system of planting 

 exhausting crops for successive years, and 

 till the diminished products do not repay 

 the labours of the husbandman, now finds 

 few advocates among the observing and the 

 intelligent. Very few now plant more land 

 than they can manure and lay down to grass 

 in better condition than it was when broken 

 up. More attention is paid to the collecting 

 of materials and the making of compost ma 

 nures; to the kinds of crops which are to 

 succeed each other; to the reclaiming of 

 swamps and boggy lands and meadows ; and 

 to the cultivation of trees and shrubbery for 

 use and ornament. The effects of these 

 improvements are visible in all our towns, 

 in the appearance of the pastures and mea- 

 dows; of the crops; of tlie enclosures, and 

 of tlie grounds about the buildings. 



The attention of the people has been gen- 

 erally directed to the utility of planting forest 

 trees on the sandy beaches and commons in 

 this county. Forest trees improve the soil 

 on which they grow, and are a source of 

 profit for timber and fuel ; but their greatest 

 use is the protection which they afford to 

 the cultivated fields against the winds from 

 the ocean, which stint and blast vegetation 

 exposed to their unbroken violence. 



The high price of corn last year induced 

 the farmers in this county to extend its cul- 

 tivation, and more land was planted with 

 corn than in any one year for a long time 

 past, probably more than was ever planted. 

 The crop is not so good as last year. Many 

 complain that the ears are not well filled; 

 but on rich, well manured and well culti- 

 vated lands the yield proves abundant. The 

 potatoe crop is alt^ost a total faiture. The 

 rot prevails in all the towns, and the com- 

 mittee have scarcely met with one who did 

 not complain of his loss. Nearly all the in- 

 stances in which potatoes have not suffered 

 by the disease, are where dry sea weed was 

 used for a manure. Little fruit has been 

 raised this year. The trees liave suffered 

 from the depredatioRs of worms and insects, 

 some of which have been unknown in this 

 county till within a few years. 



The committee cannot, in this report, re- 

 fer to all who have made "valuable and eco- 

 nomical improvements in the cultivation apd 

 management of their farms and appendages." 

 The following, among others, the committee 

 conceive to be deserving of particular no- 

 tice. 



Thomas Lathrop, Esq., has accomplished 

 a task which men of "ordinary enterprise 

 and industry would have considered imprac- 

 ticable or visionary. He has rendered fields, 

 taken up in the low lands, among the barren 

 sands of Provincetown, fertile in the pro- 

 duction of corn, grass and vegetables. 



John Doane, Esq., of Orleans, has by skil- 

 ful management, rendered his farm five 

 times as productive of grain and grass, as it 

 was when he purchased it twenty-seven 

 years ago. The soil was then exhausted, 

 and most of it was thrown out to commons. 

 The soil is generally light and sandy, and 

 he has renovated it by carting and plough- 

 ing in sea weed, and by making ctimpost 

 manures in his barn-yard. The principal 

 material used by him is sea weed. 



Mr. Simeon Higgins, of Orleans, has also 

 greatly improved his lands. He has made 

 nineteen acres very productive, which a few 

 years ago were barren and of little value. 

 These changes he has effected by stable ma- 

 nures and composts. 



The largest farms visited by the commit- 

 tee were those of Mr. Lewis Doane and Mr, 

 Beriah Doane, situate in the east part of 

 Orleans. 



Mr. Lewis Doane's farm contains about 

 130 acres of arable land. The soil is natu- 

 rally good and easily cultivated. He has 

 clay, loam and sandy soils. His average 

 annual crops for several years have been 

 .500 bushels of corn, and 2-50 of rye, wheat, 

 and barley, besides potatoes, carrots, &c.. 



