ESSEX SOCIETY. 67 



cultivation, and was cleared of bushes and alders fifteen years 

 since. This soil is from one to three feet deep, inclining to a 

 peaty nature, and having a similar subsoil to the above. The 

 soil of the rest is a sandy loam, with a subsoil not very dissim- 

 lar, and borders upon the river. The soil of tlie island is a 

 sandy loam, and in digging a well, I find the subsoil very sim- 

 ilar, for twenty feet. Two thirds of the surface of the island 

 is elevated about twenty feet above the bed of the river, and 

 more than half the time for the last forty years, has been im- 

 proved for raising corn, rye, and oats. The other third is ten 

 or twelve feet lower, and about seventeen acres is now covered 

 vvith a variety of wood, consisting of yellow birch, grey oak, 

 elm, bass, maple and walnut. The wood upon the remaining 

 seven acres ^vas cut off in 1846, and most of this lot, with the 

 preceding, is usually overflowed with water, in the spring fresh- 

 ets. The soil of the pasture in Haverhill, is a gravelly loam, of 

 a reddish cast. The subsoil I have not examined. It is said 

 to be the highest elevation in the county, with one or two ex- 

 ceptions. 



Last year I took down the old barn on the farm, and sold the 

 building used for a granary, both of which were ill adapted for 

 the purposes intended, and built a new barn, seventy-five by 

 forty feet, and twenty-six feet post. This barn is situated on 

 the side hill, about one hundred feet northeast of the dwelling 

 house, and has two driveways through the centre lengthwise, 

 twelve feet wide. The upper driveway is thirteen feet above 

 the lower, and is conveniently entered by means of a platform, 

 or bridge, twenty feet in length, and supported at the lower end 

 by a breast wall, ten feet high, the side hill being excavated to 

 a level with the lower floor to aflford a convenient entrance to 

 the barn yard and lower floor, which is used for feeding the 

 stock in the leanto, it being on a level with said floor, and for 

 unloading muck or loam through scuttles into the cellar be- 

 neath. The hay and fodder are all unloaded from the upper 

 driveway or floor, into bays on either side, both of which are 

 seventy-five feet long by fourteen wide. One is twenty-six 

 feet deep and the other eighteen ; the leanto being under the 

 last, fourteen feet wide, and running the entire length of the 

 8 



