78 ONFARMS. 



mers of the county have, with a very few exceptions, been un- 

 willing to present their farms, Avitli their mode of management, 

 to the notice of the Society. This is to be regretted, inasmuch 

 as the Society is thereby deprived of presenting, through their 

 transactions, the method pursued by the best farmers in con- 

 ducting their farms. Daring the last seven years, not an ap- 

 plicant for the premiums of the Society, on F;r-n^s, has been 

 found. Agriculture, lying at the foundation of ail successful 

 industry, should by this, and every other means, receive all 

 the light which its most devoted friends may be able to shed 

 upon it. 



Daring the current year, three farms have been offered for 

 the inspection of your Committee, by Messrs. Daniel P, King, 

 of Danvers, Christopher Hov/, of Methuen, Jonas Holt, of An- 

 dover. 



The farms of these gentlemen were visited in July and Sep- 

 tember. 



The farm of Mr. King consists of one hundred and fifty 

 acres, exclusive of his woodlands. Much of the soil of his cul- 

 tivated grounds is a gravelly loam, the other portion is peat 

 meadow, several acres of which have been reclaimed and made 

 valuable. During the past unusually warm and dry summer, 

 Mr. King has been able to grow very handsome crops of Indian 

 corn, hay, &c., upon gravelly loam, inclining to be dry, by the 

 use of compost manure, the basis of which was peat mud. 



Mr. King considers a compost made of three or four parts of 

 peat, to one part of stable manure, v/ell mixed and fermented 

 in the heap, to be better for gravelly or sandy loams, than the 

 same quantity of stable manure. The good condition of his 

 crops during the dryest part of the season, was evidence of the 

 value of this compost for such lands. Indeed, so highly does 

 he value peat for this purpose, that he assured us he could not 

 farm without it. Peat, as a valuable ingredient in the forma- 

 tion of compost manure, has, hitherto, been much neglected by 

 the farmers of this country. In Scotland, a pamphlet was 

 published some time since, by the late Lord Meadowbanks, 

 calling the attention of the Scotch farmers to peat as the basis 

 for compost ; three parts of peat to be used to one of barn yard 



