NORFOLK SOCIETY. 389 



at a distance. About one-half of this is used as a top-dressing 

 upon mowing land, in November, spread from the cart, and 

 the rest is used in manuring grain, roots, and vegetables. 



Both horses and oxen are used. The oxen, by advance in 

 value, more than pay for their keeping, and being changed an- 

 nually, leave their labor as net profit. Milk is furnished for 

 the Boston market from October to May. The rest of the 

 time, young calves are bought at Brighton and fattened for 

 market, there being at this season no demand for milk for 

 market. From ten to twenty swine are kept, and when none 

 but the best kinds are raised, they are found to be profitable ; 

 they are fed with corn on the cob, apples and vegetables, and 

 their drink is meal, or shorts an.d water. Barnyard fowls are 

 the most profitable stock kept on the farm ; forty or fifty of 

 them, in eggs and chickens, pay one dollar each, net profit, 

 yearly. Sufficient help is employed to attend to everything 

 at the right time, and proceed with improvements. None but 

 the most approved tools are bought, and none are borrowed. 

 Fruit trees have been set out, which produce sufficient fruit to 

 supply the family with various kinds, and have a surplus for 

 market. Most of the hay is raked with Delano's Independent 

 horserake, which I consider to be the rake, after a trial of 

 several. The threshing is performed by horse power. 



Dover, Nov. 5, 1852. 



PLOUGHING. 



Double Teams. 



The whole number of double teams entered for the plough- 

 ing match, was ten ; and the performance of all of them was 

 very creditable. The ground selected was smooth land, with 

 a firm sward, and was turned with great exactness in most 

 cases, some of the teams ploughing nine inches in depth. The 

 average time was thirty-five minutes, each land containing one- 

 eighth of an acre. 



The operations of the plough are greatly modified by cir- 

 cumstances, — the condition and quality of the land, the season 



