FARMS. 105 



which I set out on a piece of ground elevated about one hun- 

 dred and fifty feet above the meadow bottom, prepared for the 

 purpose and fenced. They lived and grew well, and now look 

 well, notwithstanding the drought of this year, and will com- 

 mence bearing probably next year ; they were selected to raise 

 peaches for the market, many of them being late varieties to 

 supply our market after the Southern peaches have been ex- 

 hausted. I keep six cows and sell the milk and calves for 

 about $300 yearly. Also, fifty hens to lay eggs for the market, 

 finding them more profitable than swine, especially as I sell my 

 milk. 



I have this autumn constructed a dam across the brook flow- 

 ing through my farm, of sufficient width for a road, to pass 

 over it with my team, which road I very much need to have ac- 

 cess to my field lying contiguous to the brook, for the purpose 

 of hauling stones for a fence to enclose the field and to trans- 

 port manure from my barn to the field, and crops the other way. 

 My intention is to flow my meadow bottom (containing five or 

 six acres) above said dam, admirably adapted for a cranberry 

 meadow, till the grass roots and bushes are killed out, which 

 will take one or two years, and then draw down the water into 

 its natural channel, and smooth the meadow and set it out to 

 cranberries of the most approved varieties. 



I have aimed to make such improvements as will in a few 

 years be much more lucrative that at present. 



My reclaimed swamp has produced two excellent crops of 

 corn, last year and this, with comparatively little manure, and I 

 think is susceptible of producing many more crops with very 

 little labor, as it is well drained, and has a deep vegetable 

 mould, that will wear like the prairies of the West, and whicli 

 was, when I commenced, a desolate wilderness. 



My wood lot furnishes me with fuel and lumber by its annual 

 growth, sufficient for our consumption and use ; and I occa- 

 sionally sell some. 



I have one and three-fourths acres of wheat on the ground, 

 and two acres of rye ; and have sold this fall to the butcher one 

 beef creature, and I have three more fattening which will be 

 ready soon for the shambles. 



My earnings off the farm go a good way to pay my hired help 

 on it. Cyrus Kilburn. 



14* 



