ON FARMS. 57 



ESSEX. 



From the Report of the Committee. 



Your Committee have had but one application to examine 

 farms, entered for premium, and this was visited but once (in 

 July) during the year. This farm (if it may be called such) 

 is situated in the western part of Haverhill, and belongs to 

 Mr. Rufus Goodwin, and consists of about ten acres, nearly 

 all of which is under cultivation. In addition to the statement 

 of Mr. Goodwin, which is presented herewith, your Com- 

 mittee desire to say that, in awarding to him the society's 

 second premium of $20, it is not given because of any results 

 attained of a magnitude corresponding with such as have 

 been reached by many farmers in the county, but because his 

 work indicates the possession of a desirable faith in soil cul- 

 tivation as a remunerative pursuit, and because he has shown, 

 in a comparatively small way, what may be accomplished by 

 intelligent industry, patience, and perseverance in the pur- 

 suits of husbandry. Mr. Goodwin is a machinist by trade, 

 and leaving the shop where he was employed at high wages, 

 in 1872, he entered upon the work of clearing his ten acres 

 of land of bushes and rocks, and bringing it into good tilth. 

 The results of his labors for three years abundantly proved 

 that it is safe for mechanics and others engaged in industrial 

 labors to throw down their shop tools and take up the " shovel 

 and the hoe" on the land. He has proved that "ten acres is 

 enough " to support a good-sized family, and leave something 

 in the bank each year for " wet days " in life. He has turned 

 his rocky land into what may be called a garden, or what 

 promises to be a garden after a few years more of labor are 

 bestowed upon it. In accomplishing this result, great good 

 is done, inasmuch as it encourages others, who have small 

 means, to turn in the direction of the land for support. If 

 it is proved that five, six or eight hundred dollars a year can 

 be realized from the cultivation of a small homestead in 

 Massachusetts, in Essex County, it surely must attract atten- 

 tion, and lead to the rapid taking up of the tens of thousands 

 of acres of cheap but good lands, which are now entirely 



