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Our exhibition of 1879 needs no special comment and our 

 reflections lead us to take a few notes in the interest of general 

 agriculture. 



A small farm located on the borders of the Duxbury Railroad 

 Station, on the South Shore, deserves special mention. Its 

 enterprising proprietor, broken down by over work at his trade 

 some thirty years ago, conceived the idea of reclaiming a 

 swamp, so dense that tlie hunter or engineer would very likely 

 vary his course east or west. The cost per acre was forty-four 

 dollars. A small plot was first broken, made smooth and put 

 into grass. The crop from two and one fourth acres was sold 

 for two hundred dollars, which enabled him to complete the 

 purchase of five and one half acres. His main dependence 

 for fertilizers was kelp, four miles away. Vegetables were 

 grown with vfiryiug success, until the whole lot had been 

 broken and cleared, when cranberries and hay were made a 

 specialty. Since 1865 this lot has done much to sustain the 

 family. We now come down to the products for the year 

 1878-9 : The hay for 1879 amounts to three hundred and 

 ninety-one dollars. Cranberries from one and one fourth 

 acres, twenty-one barrels, sold for one hundred and thirty-five 

 dollars. Strawberries, twenty dollars. Cabbages, thirty dol- 

 lars. Cost of preparing land for cranberries and setting vines, 

 seven hundred dollars. More vines set the present season 

 make the prospective crop one hundred and forty barrels. 

 Our readers can estimate the value of this land at present 

 for themselves. Land was made on the border of the 

 cranberry plot by putting the turf on and mixing with 

 sand, and the crop of hay secured without ploughing. This 

 covering composts the old surface, and deep soil is secured 

 while making the cranberry plantation near by. Seeing is 

 believing. We think that all lovers of farming would be well 

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