130 ON FARMS. 



twenty-two cows, one bull and one pair of oxen. My Haver- 

 hill pasture is fed by my dry cows and oxen, when not want- 

 ed for work on the farm. I sow plaster in April and alternate- 

 ly on one half of my home pasture at the rate of two hun- 

 dred pounds per acre. This has improved the quality, and in- 

 creased the quantity of feed full one third. 



I have now, Nov. 15, on the farm, thirty-four cow*s, one 

 bull, six oxen and two horses. I shall reduce my oxen, one 

 yoke, and add sixteen to my present stock of cows, making 

 fifty-five head of cattle, and two horses, which I think I have 

 ample fodder to winter from the product of the farm, with nine 

 tons of salt hay, bought for five dollars per ton, delivered on 

 the river bank. Twenty dry cows, of my stock, will be kept 

 on the island, to consume the hay and fodder raised there, and 

 to be sold the next spring. All my stock kept at home are 

 stabled every night in the year, and a good part of the day in 

 winter. The manure in the barn cellar is mixed with loam 

 or soil, twice or three times a week, in about equal quantities. 

 Of swine, I have one breeding sow, five years old, kept in the 

 cellar under the horse barn, and three of her spring litter kept 

 in a piggery in the rear of the house, which I am fattening 

 for family use. They are half blood Suffolk, and I have re- 

 alized eighty-four dollars for pigs of this sow, sold at eight 

 weeks of age and under, in one year. 



Of manure, I have made the last year four hundred and 

 eighty-five cart loads, besides seventy-five cords drawn from 

 Haverhill. This manure has been applied to various crops and 

 as top dressing as before specified. In August, I spread eighty 

 loads of compost on my low land, as soon as the first crop of 

 hay "was taken off", and since Oct. 13, I have spread on other 

 mowing land, forty-four loads of compost, and thirty-three 

 cords of stable manure from Haverhill. The result of my ex- 

 perience, is, that stable manure applied as a top dressing to 

 grass land, in November, is more beneficial and permanent in 

 its effects upon the succeeding crops, than the same would be 

 composted and spread in spring, taking into the account the 

 labor and expense in composting the same. I have now on 

 hand, about two hundred loads of manure, made in my barn 



