ESSEX SOCIETY. 63 



one peck of herds grass, and one bushel of northern red-top per 

 acre ; harrowed and rolled in same manner as the lot in 1850. 

 In September following, I sowed ten acres of winter rye, and 

 two thirds of an acre of winter wheat ; five acres of the rye, 

 and the wheat on a clover lay, and the remainder on sward 

 land, and on land where my corn fodder was raised this season ; 

 the last five acres were manured, at the rate of fifteen loads of 

 compost per acre. 



When I came upon the farm, there were sixty old apple 

 trees, one half of which had been grafted five years ; forty-five 

 old peach trees, eighteen pear, twelve plum, and eight cherry 

 trees ; also two hundred and fifty apple trees, and eight 

 hundred peach trees were set in 1846. Last spring I set one 

 hundred apple, sixty pear, and fifty cherry trees. My young trees 

 embrace many of the best and most celebrated varieties. All my 

 peach trees, and one hundred and seventy of my small apple trees, 

 are in land seeded to grass the year before my purchase. These 

 trees I dig around monthly, from April to October, two to three 

 feet distant from the trunk, and apply two shovels full of 

 leached ashes to each tree in June, and wash the apple trees 

 with strong soap suds. All my trees are upon land of a simi- 

 lar character, a deep, moist and warm soil, and those in the 

 grass land which is highly manured have made as much growth 

 as those in the tillage, and I think will compare favorably with 

 any in the county. I think that my peach trees have done 

 better in grass land than they would in tillage, for they make 

 as much growth of wood as will ripen well, and I have not seen 

 a twig winter-killed since I have been on the place. 



I kept last winter, from the produce of the farm, and fifty- 

 two hundred pounds of rowen bought in the spring, twenty 

 eight cows, one bull, six oxen and two horses. I have kept in 

 my home pasture of sixty acres, on an average for five months 

 ending Oct. 20th, (since which I have fed my mowing land) 

 iwenty-two cows, one bull and one pair of oxen. My Haver- 

 hill pasture is fed by my dry cows and oxen, when not wanted 

 for work on the farm. I sow plaster in April and alternately 

 on one half of my home pasture at the rate of two hundred 

 pounds per acre. This has improved the quality, and increased 

 the quantity of feed full one third. 



