104 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



farm. The good acres have to carry on the poor ones. Now if 

 men will expend their manure and hibor upon those portions of 

 their farms which because they had strength enough to produce 

 tolerably well of themselves, have received no artificial aid, or 

 have been neglected from other causes, they will do a wise 

 thing. Many old fields cultivated for generations, will be 

 abandoned. Many persons who cultivate at a loss now, or are 

 just able to make both ends meet, l)ecausc they are fortunate in 

 tlie possession of sufficient good laud to make up the deficiencies 

 of the bad, will find to their astonishment, that they have got 

 money in their pockets at the year's end. If it costs as much 

 to feed a horse as he will earn, he is worthless ; an ox is 

 worthless, if it will cost as much to fatten him as the butcher 

 will give for his carcass ; a debt is worthless when the expense 

 of collection will exceed the amount of it ; and so is a piece of 

 land worthless for the purposes of cultivation when a crop 

 cannot be obtained from it except at an expense equivalent or 

 more than equivalent to its value. 



Mr. Raymond's statement, appended to this report, exhibit- 

 ing what he has done and his mode of keeping accounts, is 

 recommended to the careful reading of every farmer, who has 

 not a good system of his own. 



For the committee, 



T. E. Payson. 



Statement of Samuel Raymond. 



The farm I offer for premium is situated in North Andover. 

 It lies in nearly a square body ; contains about fifty-five acres; 

 was purchased by me on the 11th of November, 1850, and was 

 at that time divided as follows, say : two and one-fourth acres 

 in tillage, seventeen and three-fourths upland mowing, thirteen 

 in pasture, seven in peat or bog meadow, and fifteen in wood. 

 Tiie soil on the three first named is, what I suppose is called a 

 clay loam, of good uniform quality and depth, resting upon a 

 pan of very hard clay-gravel. From the time of my pui'chase 

 to the present, I have kept daily accounts of the cost of all crops, 

 improvements, &c., connected with the farm, with such altera- 

 tions and additions from time to time, as seemed to me ncces- 



