WORCESTER SOCIETY. 157 



at farmers' meetings, agricultural journals are more generally- 

 read, and there has grown up an intellectual activity, among 

 those connected with the cultivation of the soil, giving a high- 

 er tone to agricultural writings, which will lead, as high mental 

 efforts always have done, in all other arts, to a more rapid ad- 

 vancement of the art of culture, and to a more general applica- 

 tion of improved methods of fertilizing the soil. Much of this 

 is due to past officers and the members of this society, and we 

 trust they will long continue to stimulate the rural population 

 of the country, and diffuse among them the elements of practi- 

 cal and scientific knowledge, and their application to agricul 

 ture. 



John Brooks, Chairman. 



Harvey Dodged Statement. 



The first lot of land that I offer for the society's premium, 

 contains by measurement two and three-quarter acres nine and 

 a half rods, and, until August, 1849, was enclosed on all sides 

 by an old dilapidated stone wall, w^hich had been thrown up 

 from time to time with small stones from the adjoining lots, 

 as the object had been rather to get rid of the small stones 

 than to build a convenient wall. 



At the time I commenced operations this wall occupied six 

 feet of land as its foundation, and had become so poor that it 

 was not sufficient to prevent cattle from walking over it. 



To do justice to myself in describing the method I took in 

 reforming this and the other lots adjoining, I shall be obliged 

 to speak of the location of my farm as well as the quality of 

 its soils to some extent. 



My farm, on which this reformed upland is situated, is in 

 the north-easterly part of Sutton, one-half mile south of the 

 valley of the Blackstone River, and the same distance from the 

 Providence and Worcester Railroad at that place. 



My farm is what we term in Worcester county hill land, and 

 is situated about 200 feet above the bed of the Blackstone 

 River, where it passes the Sutton Railroad station. 



My buildings are situated near the centre of the farm, con- 

 taining one hundred acres. 



Last March I employed an accomplished surveyor and 



