ESSEX SOCIETY. 27 



dred and two baskets of good corn, and the crops of grass have 

 been fair. I have since followed this plan with better success, 

 when I have used more and better compost. 



I have this year let five acres of meadow and three pasture 

 lots. I have top dressed my reclaimed meadows with a com-, 

 post of loam and warm manure, and have further extended my 

 experiments in reclaiming meadows. I have attempted some 

 improvements on bushy and mossy pastures, which now promise 

 well ; on these, I have sown winter and multicole rye with some 

 spurry and common grass seed. 



If I have raised no large crops, the expense and labor have 

 been moderate, and I have the satisfaction of thinking that my 

 farm is in an improving condition. 



Danvers, Nov. 4, 1845. 



Jonas Holt's Statement. 



I keep a hired man seven months, pay him thirteen dollars 

 per month. I keep one yoke of oxen, one horse, five cows, and 

 have four young cattle. 



I compost all my manure, mixing the manure from the horse 

 stable, the cow yard and the hog pen altogether, carry the ma- 

 nure out into the field from these several places in the fall, heap 

 it up and cover the heap with meadow muck or loam. In the 

 spring, I take what manure is made by the cattle and horse, 

 carry it out into the field, and mix it with the heap drawn out 

 in the fall. Where it is not too rough, I spread my manure 

 broadcast, but where the land is very rough and stony, I put it 

 in the hill ; but I prefer the broadcast system where it is prac- 

 ticable. 



I have dug, probably, about one hundred loads of muck, this 

 summer, to lie and freeze for next year's use. I have dug fifty 

 rods of ditch in the pasture (since you last visited my farm), 

 thirty-six inches wide at the top, eighteen inches deep, and 

 twelve inches at the bottom ; and have ploughed seven acres of 

 my bush pasture, sowed four acres with rye for feed, two bush- 

 els of rye to the acre ; the remaining three acres I intend to 

 sow with oats in the spring for feed, in order to test the compar- 



