FARMS. 31 



40 bushels of barley, $30 00 



Corn and corn fodder, . . . 50 00 

 Milk sold and calves fattened while the cows 



were at pasture, from June 1 to Nov. 1, 190 00 



I have gone more into detail in my present statement than I 

 at first designed, more especially in relation to my orcharding, 

 undcr-drainagc, sinking of stones, and described the materials 

 which are used for my compost heap, and still I feel that I 

 have not done justice to cither. 



Under-drainage and irrigation, or the free use of the sub- 

 soils for the compost heap in preference to the surface soils, 

 are, to a very great extent, practices almost entirely new in 

 our county. I think your committee will bear me testimony 

 when I say that this deepening of my soil promises to do all 

 that I have claimed for it. My crops of hay as well as vege- 

 tables have been increased within the last five years full fifty 

 per cent., and have been trebled within the last ten years ; 

 while the cost of producing, by way of labor, is not so much 

 as for smaller crops. Hay can now be made for one-half the 

 cost per ton before the fields were cleared of stone. A crop 

 of sixty bushels of corn to the acre requires no more hand 

 labor now than twenty-five bushels did formerly. Seven hun- 

 dred bushels of carrots per acre are quite as easily produced 

 as three hundred. The only difference is in harvesting; and 

 this is all overcome by the use of better machinery, which can 

 only be worked on land comparatively free from stones. The 

 horse rake, the horse hoe, the mowing machine, the onion hoe, 

 all of which are at this time too well known among the farm- 

 ers of "Worcester county to need any mention from me, were 

 all unknown a dozen years ago. These dumb machines have 

 done more by way of suggestion in cleaning our fields of rocks 

 than all other arguments put together. Who has ever used 

 the horse rake on stony ground and did not resolve to take 

 them out before his hay harvest came round again ? 



So with orcharding ; the farmer cannot afford to buy trees 

 of second quality, and give them no other attention than to 

 place them in a shallow soil, and depend on a few bushels of 

 compost placed only close to the foot, or washing the trunk 



