10 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



gery. I have removed some unsightly elevations to fill up hol- 

 lows equally unsightly, to the amount of not less than two 

 thousand loads; have ploughed for the first time all the swales 

 and other lands never before ploughed ; and have enclosed the 

 farm with a substantial picket fence, with a stone underpinning. 

 I have set about one thousand fruit, besides some hundreds 

 of forest trees, buckthorn and arbor vitse hedges, shrubbery, 

 <fcc. : and all within four years from last spring, the time 

 I commenced my farming operations. I have also ingrafted 

 about fifty large apple trees, out of one hundred that had 

 ceased bearing, which give a very fair return this year, i On 

 what was considered the poorest land, I raised last year one hun- 

 dred and six bushels of shelled corn to the acre, for which 

 I obtained a premium. I have for the last two years raised 

 not less than three hundred bushels of shelled corn, and expect 

 as much this year, although an unfavorable season. I have 

 purchased thirty acres of land, which in part has been, and the 

 whole is intended for, a pasture, adjoining my farm, and a small 

 wood lot at a little distance ; but I have confined all my opera- 

 tions to about thirty acres of the first purchase, from which 

 I have cut about all my hay, say fifty-five to sixty tons. I hope 

 to have about six hundred bushels of carrots this year, about the 

 quantity I have had for several years before this on the same 

 piece of land, together with wheat, oats, corn, potatoes, &c. 

 I do not, by any means, think my farm in a high state of culti- 

 vation, as it could profitably be made to produce one-third more 

 than at present. 



In 1852 I stall fed eleven thousand pounds of beef, and one 

 ton of pork; in 1853, six thousand pounds of beef, and three 

 thousand six hundred of pork ; and have fed out all the hay and 

 grain, thus far, that had been raised on the place. I hired a 

 pasture in the town, for which I paid seventy dollars per year, 

 this year and last. It may probably be asked how I procured 

 manure to renovate my farm in so short a time. The first two 

 years I purchased about twenty cords, at four dollars per cord, 

 which I intermixed with muck, (of which I purchased an acre 

 near by,) and of which I have used live or six hundred loads 

 within four years, which, together with what I have been enabled 

 to make in all ways, has amounted to a great deal each year. 



