126 



Amount brought up |26 96 



Dr., one-half expense, as above $15 97 



334 lbs. Darlmg's Fertilizer 7 52— $23 49 



Profits on Darling's $ 3 47 



ESSAY. 

 CI.EARING A NEW ENGLAND FARM OF BOULDERS, 



BY JAMES J. H. GREGORY. 



Boulders are the large stones, weighing from a few pounds 

 to many tons each. They were more or less rounded in the 

 course of their transportation from their parent ledges in the 

 Northwest, long before man was created, as geologists tell us ; 

 such stones as we find on nearly all the farms of New England 

 that are not along river courses and of alluvial formation, 

 These are the stones that have given New Enofland her net- 

 work of stone fences, and which, when they abound on the 

 surface, are considered in the popular judgment as indicating 

 soil of good natural capacity. 



When on or near the surface, every farmer finds that they 

 interfere seriously with the cultivation and harvesting of his 

 crops. They are in the path of all horse work ; they are the 

 nuclei around Avhich gather bushes in the mowing and weeds 

 in the tillage ; they consecrate a large area around them to 

 waste, where the plough never enters, and stones and general 

 refuse accumulate ; they are unsightly to the eye, and in the 

 judgment of him who would buy, hold a first mortgage on the 

 premises; and, finally, in the same proportion as agriculture 

 progresses, all these objections grow in emphasis. 



Shall the boulders be removed? The hard-worked, prac- 

 tical New England farmer replies by a counter question, 

 "will it pay?" If a man has any leisure, of course it will 

 always pay to invest his time in improvements ; but if clear- 



