RURAL NEW ENGLAND. 121 



"Yes, I was a farmer's son, although niv father did not own a 

 farm but carried one on for twenty-nine years, and he was a good 

 farmer. I worked with him for seven years, or from the time I was 

 fourteen to twenty-one years of age, and then I was married and 

 came to my native place and acted as farm manager for a man for 

 nineteen years and we saved our money and bought this farm com- 

 prising 61x^0 acres of good tillage land. ^Mien I bought it the 

 farm was completely run down, one field of seventeen acres cut only 

 three loads of hay the first season; last season we harvested 52 tons 

 on sixteen acres of the same field and cut more than twenty tons of 

 Japan Barn Yard millet on the other acre. It took a lot of labor 

 and fertilizing material to get the place started, but we now have it 

 in a high state of cultivation cutting three tons of hay to the acre 

 for the first crop and one to two tons for a second crop. The first 

 year that I had the place, we wintered 12 head of stock and 2 horses 

 and for the past ten years we have wintered 55 head of stock and 

 12 horses and sell $500 worth of hay per year. The barn was in 

 good condition when I bought the place, but we had to shingle it 

 the first year and it took 125,000 shingles to do it. The house was 

 old and we made a mistake that we did not tear it down and build 

 a new one for we spent S2000 on it in repairs and building on an ell, 

 but we have a very comfortable home heated by steam and have 

 all of the modern improvements. I paid $9000 for the farm and it 

 is now assessed for $18,500. I have one thirty-six acre lot that is 

 assessed for $285 per acre. The farm is well located in the village 

 within one mile of a large mill and we have a fine view of the river 

 also cities and towns in the distance. 



"I attribute my success first to having a most excellent wife, she 

 is a good manager and a fine housekeeper; second, to paying strict 

 attention to business and by having good health and not afraid of 

 work. I plan my work so as to keep the help employed to good 

 advantage and I buy at wholesale prices, and I mean to study the 

 market and get a good fair price for a first-class animal or article 

 that I have to sell, and by making all the milk that I can every day 

 in the year, thus having an income every day. 



"I keep the best cows that I can raise or buy and I grow all kinds 

 of green forage crops to feed them on during the groAving season, 

 or from May to December. I do not feed any dry fodder to my 



