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which we have since removed or mostly covered, leaving but about 

 five acres in the lot fit for cultivation, and that had been mowed 

 and fed until it produced but a very small crop. The remaining 

 twenty-two acres were swamp and pasture land, the latter being 

 mostly covered with bushes. We came on to the place in 1837, 

 young and inexperienced in farming, and owing for our farm 

 1^2,000. But we went to work with a will and courage that have 

 never failed us. We had not the means to make improvements, 

 excepting as we dug them out inch by inch from a hard and rug- 

 ged soil. But after a long pull of fifteen years we paid for our 

 farm. Since then our object has been more to improve it than to 

 lay up money, and it gives us great pleasure to find that we have 

 so far succeeded as to attract the notice of the Committee of the 

 Norfolk Agricultural Society on Farms, and to induce them to 

 visit our place the present season. 



This year we had about six acres under cultivation and about 

 twelve in mowing, including about two in swamp. Our usual 

 stock is five cows and two horses, which are kept on the produce 

 of the farm, exclusive of that which is sold. This year avc have 

 been very unfortunate with our co"\vs by injuries, reducing the 

 quantity of our milk very much. We estimate the loss, by com- 

 paring with other years, at nearly the value of one cow, as we 

 had but four during the winter, when we usually made about two- 

 thirds of the yearly quantity of our milk, the injury referred to 

 reducing the quantity this summer and fall. Our practice is to 

 give each of our cows, at milking time, two quarts of shorts or 

 cob-meal, through the year. Having but a small lot for pastur- 

 age, they require something more to keep them along, and we 

 think that it pays well in the additional quantity of milk and the 

 better condition of the stock. 



We profess to know but httle of the science of farming, and, 

 consequently, can practise but little ; but diligence and economy 

 Ave have been obliged to practice to bring about what little we 

 have. Most of the labor on our farm since we commenced has 

 been done by ourselves, besides doing considerable for our neigh- 

 bors with teams and otherwise. This is the first season that we 

 have hired a man through the summer and fall. But our work 

 for others has more than paid for our hired help. 



For a few years we have been trying to go a little into vegeta- 

 ble culture, but as most of our manure has to be carted from the 

 city, seven miles, and our produce carried there to sell, it makes 

 slow work and small profit in comparison with that which is car- 

 ried on nearer the city and on a larger scale. We have not gone 

 as largely into it as many do, or as we might, by buying more 

 niamu'c and hiring more helji, being content to do what we can in 

 a small, snug way, within ourselves. 



