FAKMS. 97 



and agricultural resource rarely met with in the same extent of 

 territory. It has an additional interest, too, in the fact that Major 

 Poore, the present proprietor, occupies the acres of his fathers, 

 possessed by them from the earliest settlement of the country, and 

 made rich by time in the traditions of his family. Few estates in 

 this country have more objects of interest. The house, built 

 as we were told, according to the architecture of the ancestral man- 

 sion in England, carries you back to the days of the lordly halls of 

 barons, when tower and turret had an important and serious signi- 

 fication. The curiosities which have been collected by Major Poore 

 tell of a busy and stormy world, whose murmur alone can reach 

 that quiet spot. The elm tree in front of the door, planted by 

 Rufus King in the early days of his patriotic service, brings before 

 you a crowd of interesting scenes, from times whose every event 

 was replete with the deepest interest. The whole place, with 

 its relics of the Province House, its antique printing press, its ar- 

 mor from Malta, its sword of the revolution, its horse-shoes from 

 Arabia, its bits from Mexico, its collection of autographs gathered 

 from the most valuable sources, its rich agricultural library, forms 

 an object of attraction to the scholar, the man of taste, and the 

 farmer. 



Of the jDractical operations on the farm, I can furnish you an 

 account received mainly from Major Poore himself. He declines 

 giving any statement of his crops, on the ground that he is but 

 serving a practical apprenticeship in agriculture. It is two years 

 since he commenced taking charge of the farm, with a determina- 

 tion not to engage blindly in "fancy farming,*' but to experiment 

 cautiously upon the most profitable manner of keeping land in a 

 bight state of cultivation. In showing the farm to the committee, 

 you will remember, he disclaimed all credit for himself, as the im- 

 provements were projected and generally carried on by his father, 

 Benjamin Poore, Esq., one of the early members of our society. 

 Although engaged in mercantile pursuits, which allowed him to pass 

 but a few months of each year at Indian Hill, Mr. Poore was en- 

 thusiastically devoted to the care of his homestead. A record of 

 his labors is contained in a detailed journal,^ kept under his direc- 

 tion, of all the work done on the farm fiom 1818 to his departure 

 for Cahfornia in 1850. This journal, which is continued by the 



