186 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



was estimated at from eighteen to twenty tons, and the second 

 crop from ten to twelve tons. The two crops making about 

 three tons to the acre. He commenced his operation in the 

 autumn of 1853. He first cut the small bushes, (as it was 

 mostly covered with them,) then ploughed it with a large team, 

 and the next spring (1854) he planted it with potatoes. His 

 crop was 1,060 bushels, of superior quality. He planted it 

 again the next year, (1855,) and his crop was 1,670 bushels. 

 He sold them at a good price, which he thinks well paid for the 

 expense of cultivation. In 1856 it was sowed with grain and 

 hay seed, but the grain crop was rather light. He used on the 

 land the two years that he planted it from three to four cords of 

 manure to the acre, which was ploughed in. He also used 

 plaster and salt mixed together, put in the hills ; salt hay he also 

 put in the hill, as he was accustomed to do, and in 1855 he paid 

 from fourteen to fifteen dollars per ton, and considered it a good 

 investment. Upon being asked by the committee whether fresh 

 meadow hay and salt would not answer the same purpose, he 

 replied, that not being able to procure a sufficient quantity of 

 salt hay, he, from necessity, purchased fresh meadow hay and 

 salt, but the result was decidedly in favor of the salt bay. He 

 also used ashes on part of the field, which had a very marked 

 effect on the grass. 



Large quantities of stones have been removed, part of which 

 have been used to inclose the field with stone wall ; others have 

 been hauled to Haverhill village by the returning teams, while 

 hauling manure, (a distance of nearly four miles,) and sold for 

 a large price, which contributed largely toward paying for the 

 manure. He has in the same field fifteen acres planted the 

 present season, mostly with potatoes, but as to the amount of 

 crop the committee have not been informed. He has also 

 ploughed about ten acres to plant next season. 



On another part of the same tract of land the committee 

 were shown an experiment of the use of plaster on old pasture 

 land, where the committee were informed that it had not been 

 plouglied for about seventy years. It was then let out upon 

 shares by the neighboring minister who occupied it, to one of 

 his parishioners, and it was sowed with rye. The plaster had a 

 •wonderful effect ; where it was soAved the ground was completely 

 covered with white clover, while the adjoining land produced 



