20 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



Adam, the father of our race, was a husbandman ; and history, 

 both ancient and modern, furnishes us with a long catalogue of 

 glorious names, among them heroes, statesmen and poets, who 

 were also farmers. The noblest of them all, and the dearest 

 to our hearts, was the farmer of Mount Vernon — our own 

 Washington. Who can ask a nobler precedent ? 



Respectfully submitted by 



Jos. A. Reed, Chairman. 



Statement of Harvey Dodge. 



The farm which I offer for the Worcester County Agricultu- 

 ral Society's premium is located in the north-east part of Sutton, 

 one-half mile from the Sutton station, on the Providence and 

 Worcester Railroad, and an equal distance south from the Black- 

 stone River as it passes at that place. Its situation is about 

 two hundred feet higher than the bed of the river, and has a 

 gradual descent to the north of an inch to the foot. 



An accomplished surveyor and draughtsman was employed to 

 make a survey of all my home lots by point and compass, and 

 draw a plan of them on a map, solely for my own use and 

 accommodation ; so that by reference to this map I am able to 

 speak with confidence, both in reference to the quantity of 

 land each lot contains and to the distances and degrees of rise 

 and fall. I mention this fact of survey, as I shall have occasion 

 to refer to it frequently in this statement, as I have had in all 

 my operations on the farm. 



An accurate field survey is what no farmer should delay for 

 a single year. It shows him at a glance how much he has in 

 wood, in waste, in tillage, in pasture, and in mowing, and ena- 

 bles him the more readily to determine what he is able to plant 

 to corn, potatoes, vegetables, as well as other grains aud 

 grasses, by the quantity of manure he may have in his barn 

 cellar; besides, it will pay for itself each year, principal and 

 interest, in laying out the work necessary to be done on the 

 farm. 



This firm has been in the occupancy of the family, on my 

 mother's side, for more than a hundred years. In 181G, at the 



