ON FARMS, 121 



should be, to any particular branch. With education adapted 

 to agricultural pursuits, and with farms not too large for the 

 mental and physical powers, we do not believe there is any 

 occupation, so desirable for its certainty, healthfulness, and 

 success, to the majority of our young men, as agriculture. 

 For the Committee, JOSIAH LITTLE. 



Dec. 1, 185L 



WILLIAM F. PORTER'S STATEMENT. 



The farm offered for the Society's premium I purchased 

 Oct. 9th, 1849, and moved on to the same March 11th, 1850. 

 It is situated in Bradford, and formerly was well known as the 

 Elwell, but more recently, the Silsbee farm. The county road 

 from Haverhill to Newburyport and Salem, passes through the 

 farm. It contains one hundred and forty-seven acres, divided 

 as follows : forty-three and one half acres of pasture, lying 

 south west of the road ; forty-three and one half acres of mow- 

 ing and tillage, north easterly of the road, and upon which 

 the principal part of the buildings stand ; also, an island of 

 sixty acres, in Merrimac river, the distance across the water 

 from the mowing and tillage land, being twenty rods. In May 

 last I purchased seventeen acres of pasture, adjoining the first 

 named lot, also, sixty-five acres of pasture land situated in the 

 east parish of Haverhill, making in all two hundred and twen- 

 ty-nine acres. 



The first named pasture, which is a hill very elevated 

 above the surrounding land, consists of a black gravelly loam, 

 with a sub-soil of gravel intermixed with clay, and at a form- 

 er period a large portion of it was cultivated. The mowing 

 and tillage land is somewhat uneven, and about twenty acres 

 consist of a black moist loam, from eight to twenty inches 

 deep, with more or less slate stones intermixed, and resting up- 

 on a hard pan of gravel and clay. About half of the remainder 

 is too low for cultivation, and was cleared of bushes and alders 

 fifteen years since, by Mr. Silsbee. This soil is from one to 

 16 



