94 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



than half a century, a change was of course made. Your Com- 

 mittee well know how a farm runs to waste and weeds when 

 conducted by others than the owner. The previous proprietor 

 died in 1806, leaving the use of the estate for the support and 

 maintenance of a daughter, who at length died in 1852, when 

 we purchased it. A more dilapidated, neglected and exhausted 

 Sahara could not well be found. 



To give minute details of every renovating process could not 

 have been intended by the requisitions. We will therefore only 

 cite a few operations. Weeds were exterminated in time by not 

 allowing any to mature. Grass was cut early for the best hay, 

 particularly if it contained " white weed," which, being propa- 

 gated by seed, was thus yearly lessened. " Dog grass " and 

 other noxious perennials were completely eradicated from arable 

 portions by thorough digging up and securing their roots. All 

 annual weeds were uniformly raked up, but were never saved 

 for manure. We were consequently soon troubled by succes- 

 sion only from seeds wafted from the premises of our otherwise 

 good neighbors, or deposited by the numerous birds. Moreover, 

 we seldom used any manure besides wood ashes — the best nutri- 

 ment, by the way, for all vegetation, and free from weed-seeds. 



Tilling the soil was early, frequent, superficial or deep, ac- 

 cording to circumstances. Trenched or drained and subsoiled 

 land can be worked quite early in the spring, and does not re- 

 quire to be often repeated during the season, and vice versa. 

 Continual growth and successful crops, notwithstanding drought, 

 are also sure and gratifying, as well as the annual saving of 

 labor. Properly prepared soil, planted, and free from weeds, 

 receives, therefore, but little subsequent stirring, and that chiefly 

 for hilling. We plant potatoes, corn, &c., in drill-rows, the 

 former six or eight inches apart in the furrows, and at the usual 

 time of hoeing form the continuous hill row, and turn back the 

 same soil in the fall with the plough, thus obtaining more prod- 

 uce with given land and labor. 



Of the buildings : the house — not built by modern hands but 

 in 1776 — is fifty feet square, with white oak frame, high-stud- 

 ded, and filled in with bricks, and having been modernized 

 inside and out, is now faultless. We built a barn same size, 

 the most economical form, and most convenient for interior ar- 

 rangements. The ample cellar is a substitute for out-houses ; 



