56 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



bly the greatest obstacle to improvement; as from our attempt 

 to grasp the whole range of agriculture, and in some cases, per- 

 haps, horticulture, the mind is too much distracted to give suf- 

 ficient thought, and the labor too much diversified and pressing 

 to be devoted in as full a manner as it should be, to any parti- 

 cular branch. With education adapted to agricultural pursuits, 

 and with farms not too large for the mental and physical pow- 

 ers, we do not believe there is any occupation so desirable for 

 its certainty, healthful ness, and success, to the majority of our 

 young men, as agriculture. 



JOS I AH LITTLE, Chairman. 



William F. Porter^ s Statement. 



The farm offered for the society's premium, I purchased Oc- 

 tober 9th, 1849, and moved on the same, March 11th, 1850. It 

 is situated in Bradford, and formerly was well known as the 

 Elwell, but more recently, the Silsbee farm. The county road 

 from Haverhill to Newburyport and Salem, passes through the 

 farm. It contains one hundred and forty-seven acres, divided 

 as follows : forty-three and one half acres of pasture, lying 

 southwest of the road ; forty-three and one half acres of mow- 

 ing and tillage, northeasterly of the road, and upon which the 

 principal part of the buildings stand ; also, an island of sixty 

 acres, in Merrimac river, the distance across the water from the 

 mowing and tillage land, being twenty rods. In May last I 

 purchased seventeen acres of pasture, adjoining the first named 

 lot ; also, sixty-five acres of pasture land, situated in the east 

 parish of Haverhill, making in all two hundred and twenty-nine 

 acres. 



The first named pasture, which is a hill very elevated above 

 the surrounding land, consists of a black gravelly loam, with a 

 subsoil of gravel, intermixed with clay, and at a former period 

 a large portion of it was cultivated. The mowing and tillage 

 land is somewhat uneven, and about twenty acres consist of a 

 black moist loam, from eight to twenty inches deep, with more 

 or less slate stones intermixed, and resting upon a hard pan of 

 gravel and clay. About half of the remainder is too low for 



