FARMS. 121 



every measure that he believed would promote the public good. 

 For many years past, he has taken an agricultural paper, and 

 always read it with much interest, and has derived from it 

 many valuable hints in the management of his farm. He is a 

 member of the County Agricultural Society, and has several 

 times taken premiums for his cows and his butter, the only 

 objects he has offered for premiums. He says he takes a pre- 

 mium for his butter with more satisfaction than for any thing 

 else, because in this case, his wife shares the credit with him. 



Neighbor Wiseman has continued to thrive to the present 

 day. He is now fifty-six years old. It is about thirty years 

 since he purchased his farm of thirty acres. He has at present, 

 a hundred and twenty acres, some thirty of which are wood- 

 land. The rest is pasture, meadow and tillage. 



His house is in good repair. He has painted it three times, 

 and a few years ago fitted it with blinds and put it in thorough 

 repair. His barn we have already described. This he has 

 lately clapboarded and painted, and fitted a ventilator to the 

 top, rather to be in fashion, than because he considers it of any 

 real value. His barn cellar, he has learned by experience, is 

 the place that requires more labor and attention than any other 

 on his farm, and he says no other labor pays so well. His 

 meadow furnishes material for composting in the cellar, and he 

 keeps a year's stock always thrown out, that it may be pulver- 

 ized by the frost, and get well dried the next summer, before 

 carting it to the yard and cellar. He says one load of well 

 dried muck is worth two of heavy wet muck, for it will absorb 

 twice as much liquid from the stable, and besides is much 

 easier to handle. He has constructed a reservoir at a short 

 distance from the rear of his house, into which the soap-suds 

 and the sink drain are conducted. This he keeps well sup- 

 plied with dried muck, and covers it with plank. He cleans it 

 out twice a year, and strews over it a quantity of plaster, and 

 says he finds it an excellent manure for his garden, and es- 

 pecially for his fruit trees, of which he has now quite a variety. 

 He has never purchased any imported or artificial fertilizers, 

 except occasionally a little plaster, which he first procured as a 

 means of preserving his vines from the ravages of the bugs. 

 He finds this useful in the cultivation of potatoes, as it pre- 

 serves them from the worms. When he puts a small handful 



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