FARMS. 41 



trust I shall be excused if, instead of including five years, I 

 commence still farther back, say fifteen years, when the build- 

 ings were all new, the ground comparatively bare of trees, and 

 a considerable debt was incurred. 



My main object at that time was to clear off the debt. The 

 shortest way to effect this was adopted — viz., selling the prod- 

 uce,, hay and grain, keeping as little stock as possible, and 

 giving my labor to others, either in the way of days' works, or 

 by taking land to till on shares, so that I could raise corn for 

 market without furnishing manure. 



The matter of the debt being disposed of in the course of eight 

 or ten years, some improvement being made at the same time 

 about the buildings in the way of painting, fencing, and setting 

 fruit and ornamental trees, a little land added, the farm stocked, 

 and farming implements purchased, I began to turn my atten- 

 tion to the improvement of the farm, my object being not 

 so much to make the land rich as to get the surface smooth 

 and into a fit state for comfortable culture. The result, ex- 

 cept with the sandy land, is entirely satisfactory to myself; and 

 I presume to flatter myself that your committee would ac- 

 knowledge no small improvement had they seen the ground 

 eight years ago. Others are ready to testify to the facts, 

 though I say it not boastingly. 



In commencing this general improvement, my plan was to take 

 a portion yearly of the ten acres of sandy land and a portion 

 of the sixteen acres of low ground, and so to manage, by drain- 

 ing, ploughing, manuring and seeding, as not only to make it 

 pay in the way of crops, but to improve the value and appear- 

 ance of the whole in a series of years. 



Upon the sandy hill I prepared large heaps of muck from the 

 low ground, mixed with manure, sometimes ploughing in this 

 compost, sometimes harrowing it in without any perceptible 

 difference in the result, sometimes planting Indian corn, some- 

 times broom corn, and some years white beans, each followed 

 with rye and clover seed. For want of sufficient manure made 

 upon the farm to carry out the experiment faithfully, I have 

 been obliged to rob other fields of their portion of manure, or 

 purchase it a mile distant. The crops, I think, have not paid 

 for the labor and manure ; the clover, if perchance it germi* 



