REPORTS. 



No. I. OF COMMITTEE ON FARMS. 



The Committee on Farms, regret that they are comp( 3lled to 

 report that no claims for the Premiums offered on the " IV lanage- 

 ment of Farms" were entered the present season. The ;y hope 

 that this is to be ascribed to the unfavorable prospects of the 

 season, rather than to an indifference in the Farmers of " Essex 

 to the important objects contemplated by the Society, ia offering 

 these liberal Premiums. 



To this Committee was also referred the subject of Irrigation 

 of Lands. Only one claim was entered for experiment! i in Irri- 

 gation, — by Mr. Ebenezer Jenkins, of Andover South Parish. 

 Your Committee visited his farm on the 25th of July last, and 

 witnessed the result of his experiment. Mr. Jenkins, by erecting 

 a -cheap dam in an adjoining pasture, and by diggirig a small 

 trench for about thirty rods, has taken the water from a brook 

 and so conducted it as to irrigate about an acre of dr'y gravelly 

 upland and about half an acre of meadow land adjoiining. In 

 consequence of this, he believes that he has obtaiaed nearly 

 double the quantity of Hay which the land formerly produced. 

 Your Committee estimated the Hay taken from the :acre of up- 

 land, to be about 2700 lbs. The grass standing on the meadow, 

 was very good. He states the expense of the experiment in- 

 cluding ^10 paid for the use of the water for ten years, to be 

 ^30. By altering his trench, he can convey the water over 

 another acre of land, and intends doing so the next season. 

 Your Committee did not consider the experiment sufficiently 



