20 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



soil it had the curse of entail upon it. But as it was much 

 run down when he took it, he succeeded in getting a lease from 

 his landlord for thirty-five years, for .£150 per annum. 



To make the farm more profitable, he had himself expended 

 during the eight years, more or less, while he had occupied it, 

 £3,000 more, so that calling his investment five per cent., his 

 rent would be .£300, or -$1,500 our money per annum, which 

 does not include loss or betterments at the end of his lease. 

 His farm was divided as follows : to wit, twenty-five acres were 

 growing hops, with old woollen rags for manure ; forty acres 

 wheat, crop about thirty-five bushels to the acre ; thirty acres 

 woodland, on which he could only cut underwood, to be ap- 

 praised at the end of lease ; fifty-five acres meadow or hay land 

 and pasturage. The cattle which he raised were Shorthorns, of 

 which you see more both in England and Ireland than of other 

 breeds ; his horses were the heavy Flanders, or Belgian breed, 

 which he used on his farm almost exclusively ; his sheep were 

 a cross of Leicester and Cotswolds, yielding a fleece from 

 eleven to thirteen pounds ; though he regarded the South 

 Downs, with a fleece of only six to seven pounds, best for light 

 soils, like much of his. In manures and composts there was 

 nothing he did not resort to. His crop of grass was excellent. 

 In his haystacks, for he had no barns except for his cattle, 

 1 noticed that he would first put a layer of wheat or oat straw, 

 then of hay, which was cut down and fed out together to his 

 stock. 



Without wearying you with more details, what do you think 

 was the income of this one hundred and fifty acres, not so good 

 by nature as the Wilder farm, not three miles from where we are 

 sitting ? X400, or $2,000 per year, over and above rent, exorbi- 

 tant taxes, interest and cost of carrying it on, while the whole 

 secret of success was system, industry of his family and making 

 everything tell. Mr. Brown, in the after part of the day, was 

 too busy to go with me to Tunbridge Wells, five miles, and sent 

 his daughter with the carriage. In closing, I can only wish that 

 the farmers of this society could have been there instead of 

 myself. 



Massachusetts, with so small a territory, only 7,000 square 

 miles, demands of her sons the cultivation of every acre ; every 

 facility, too, for a full development of all her resources ; the 



