64 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



I have now, Nov. 15, on the farm, thirty-four cows, one bull, 

 six oxen and two horses. I shall reduce my oxen, one yoke, 

 and add sixteen to my present stock of cows, making fifty-five 

 head of cattle, and two horses, which 1 think I have ample 

 fodder to winter from the product of the farm, with nine tons 

 of salt hay, bought for five dollars per ton, delivered on the 

 river bank. Twenty dry cows, of my stock, will be kept on 

 the island, to consume the hay and fodder raised there, and to 

 be sold the next spring. All my stock kept at home are stabled 

 every night in the year, and a good part of the day in winter. 

 The manure in the barn cellar is mixed with loam or soil, twice 

 or three times a week in about equal quantities. Of swine, I 

 have one breeding sow, five years old, kept in the cellar under 

 the horse barn, and three of her spring litter kept in a piggery 

 in the rear of the house, which 1 am fattening for family use. 

 They are half blood Suffolk, and I have realized eighty-four 

 dollars for pigs of this sow, sold at eight weeks of age and 

 under, in one year. 



Of manure, I have made the last year four hundred and 

 eighty-five cart loads besides seventy-five cords drawn from 

 Haverhill. This manure has been applied to various crops and 

 as top dressing, as before specified. In August, I spread eighty 

 loads of compost on my low land, as soon as the first crop of 

 hay was taken off", and since Oct. 13, I have spread on other 

 mowing land, forty-four loads of compost, and thirty-three cords 

 of stable manure from Haverhill. The result of my experi- 

 ence, is, that stable manure applied as a top dressing to grass 

 land in November, is more beneficial and permanent in its 

 eflfects upon the succeeding crops, than the same would be 

 composted and spread in spring, taking into the account the 

 labor and expense in composting the same. I have now on 

 hand, about two hundred loads of manure, made in my barn 

 cellar, and twenty cords of stable manure, which I think, with 

 what I shall make from my stock in future, will enable me to 

 keep the farm in a gradual state of improvement, without pur- 

 chasing any more manure. 



The seven acres on the island, where wood was cut, was cov- 

 ered with a heavy crop of wild grass, brush and sprouts, fiorn the 



