FARMS. 95 



In concluding their remarks on Mv. Hnnnewell's place, the 

 committee tender their thanks to him for his coui'tesies, and to 

 his superintendents, Messrs. Hollis and Harris, for kind atten- 

 tions. 



Sanford Howard. 



PLYMOUTH. 



Supplement to Report on Farms. 



In accordance with a promise made in my last year's report, 

 I have spent what time I have had at my disposal in visiting 

 different parts of the county, for the purpose of becoming more 

 intimately acquainted with its agricultural interests, in order 

 to report any generally useful information that might be derived 

 from an examination of the best farms in the various districts 

 of our county. 



I must confess that a limited acquaintance with the soil of 

 Plymouth had impressed me very unfavorably as to its capaci- 

 ties for agricultural purposes ; but a larger information has 

 modified this opinion very considerably. It is curious to observe 

 that the poorest portions of our county have been under culti- 

 vation for two hundred years, and the richest are still in a state 

 of nature. Poor land is most easily cleared of its trees and 

 underbrush, and the first settlers choose those portions Avhich 

 can be soonest made available ; and where our fathers, a century 

 or more ago, made their hasty homes, we still continue to 

 struggle to live, leaving the almost inexhaustible soil of our 

 swamps and low-lands to be redeemed by the greater skill and 

 larger hitelligence of the future. 



Among the efforts to reclaim swamp land, that of Mr. Robert 

 Perkins, of Bridgewater, seems more deserving of notice than 

 any I have observed during the last year. He has cleared 

 about three acres, which, in the early part of last summer, were 

 covered with large trees and close underbrush. Now the land 

 seems as if it may have been cultivated for years, so thoroughly 

 is every stone, stump, and root removed. So far as clearing off 

 the timber is concerned, no swamp could cost more per acre 

 than this. The draining, however, Avas easily accomplished. 

 I am sorry that I cannot give the exact expense — about a hun- 



