WORCESTER COUNTY SOCIETY. 67 



Carrot Crop. 



The committeej having been notified that Harvey Dodge, of 

 Sutton, and Wilham S. Lincohi, of Worcester, had made entries 

 for the Society's premiums, soon after visited the lands of those 

 gentlemen, that they might form some opinion of the crop from 

 the appearance of the respective fields. They first viewed the 

 land of Mr. Dodge. The carrot tops gave evidence of a very 

 vigorous growth, which well covered the ground, which was 

 free from weeds, and gave evidence of good cultivation. There 

 was an apparent difference in the two parts of the field, and 

 his statement of his crop gives 266 bushels to one fourth of an 

 acre, and 195 ^4 bushels to the other quarter of an acre. In re- 

 lation to the young orchard, mentioned in Mr. Dodge's state- 

 ment, the committee viewed the trees with much pleasure; 

 their appearance was that of a choice collection of trees, which 

 had been carefully taken from the nursery, and well set out, 

 and the growth on them, for the past season, had been great. 

 How far the carrot crop had been affected by these trees, is not 

 known to the committee ; it was, undoubtedly, in some degree, 

 lessened thereby. 



The committee availed themselves of the opportunity of look- 

 ing over Mr. Dodge's farm, on which they found he was making 

 much improvement. His land is naturally quite moist, with a 

 clayey, compact sub-soil. During the past season, he has been 

 engaged in making deep ditches, and filling the bottom of them 

 with stones ; thereby making a double improvement, in dis- 

 posing of the surface stone, an obstruction to cultivation, of 

 which he has many, and of underdraining his land. From 

 some of these drains, a stream of water was running, which was 

 occasionally used in irrigating the land on the side-hill below, 

 to very great advantage. 



In the course of the last autumn, Mr. Dodge had dug a cellar 

 under a part of his barn, where a barn had stood for more than 

 seventy years. At a depth of over five feet from the surface of 

 the ground, nitre could be readily discovered upon the side of 

 the remaining earth, furnishing conclusive evidence that ma- 



