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the present time. The first four years' work, as will be seen 

 by my expenses, was done at a loss, but since then there has 

 been some iiriprovement. My losses have been partly on ex- 

 periments, of which patent manures have formed a prominent 

 part, as I have tried all the different kinds which I heard re- 

 commended, from Pacific guano down to poudrette, which I 

 found expensive experimenting, though it may be profitable in 

 the end. In experimenting on crops I found out some things 

 that did not correspond with views I heard expressed by those 

 who claimed to be posted in farming, and very different from 

 what I had myself supposed. To convince some of this, I 

 have planted crops side by side in the different ways. I have 

 labored under a great inconvenience sometimes in help, as it 

 was a hard task to get the sleight-of-hand way of doing work 

 as practised in some parts of Maine and New Hampshire, out 

 of their heads. Some think it profitable to half hoe, half ma- 

 nure, and half do work generally, but I do not. I think it 

 more profitable to take care of one acre well than to have two 

 acres half taken care of. I have been over all of the farm 

 thoroughly, taking out stone, under-draining, etc., excepting 

 about twelve acres of pasture, which I intend to improve as 

 fast as I can, taking up some each year. I have under 

 cultivation about eleven acres this year, and cut from the bal- 

 ance of the field land (estimating 525 feet for a ton in bays,) 

 some over thirty tons of hay, and have fed three horses with 

 hay since June 26th. In expenses of farm, is reckoned taxes, 

 interest, depreciation of stock, wear of tools, board of help, 

 blacksmith's and other bills ; and in income from the farm all 

 crops, milk, labor done from farm by help, mowing, etc. I 

 have set out 450 pear trees at a cost of $420, and 280 apple 

 trees costing $75, and in 1865 built a barn at a cost of about 

 $3000 00, in which the saving of manure alone has paid the 

 interest of it since it was built. In 1860 all I sold and harv- 

 ested as sho~;n by the farm account taken Jan. 1st, 1861, a- 

 mounted to $873 31, and expenses aside from building, were 

 $464 25. My crops were mostly corn, potatoes and grain.— 

 14 



