56 STATEMENT OF CYRUS KILBURN. 



per acre, whicli is cured by cutting up as soon as the ears are well 

 glazed, and stooked, and put in the barn as soon as it is cured 

 enough to keep, although it may mold some, which I consider no 

 detriment to it, thereby being more tender and palatable for the 

 cattle. 



My orchard yields a good supply of apples, pears and peaches, 

 for home consumption, and have a surplus which is sold yearly for 

 about $75.00. 



In the spring of 1869, I procured 200 peach trees, which I set 

 out on a piece of ground elevated about 150 feet above the 

 meadow bottom, prepared for the purpose and fenced. They lived 

 and grew well, and now look well, notwithstanding the drought of 

 this year, and will commence bearing probably next year ; they 

 were selected to raise peaches for the market, many of them being 

 late varieties to supply our market after the Southern peaches 

 have been exhausted. I keep six cows and sell the milk and 

 calves for about $300 yearly. Also, 50 hens to lay eggs for the 

 market, finding them more profitable than swine, especially as I 

 sell my milk. 



I have this autumn constructed a dam across the brook flowing 

 through my farm of sufficient width, for a road, to pass over it 

 with my team, which road I very much need to have access to 

 my field lying contiguous to the brook, for the purpose of hauling 

 stones for a fence to enclose the field and to transport manure from 

 my barn to the field, and crops the other way. My intention is to 

 flow my meadow bottom above said dam, (containing five or six 

 acres), admirably adapted for a cranberry meadow till the grass 

 roots and bushes are killed out, which will take one or two years, 

 and then draw down the water into its natural channel, and smooth 

 the meadow and set it out to cranberries of the most approved 

 varieties ; and then I can shut off an early frost, which is the bane 

 of the cranberry culture, and as there is but little fall in the 

 meadow, by shutting down the gate at night, will flow out the 

 water among the vines and save them, and as soon as the 

 weather moderates, raise the gate, and all will be well ; without 

 which resort the cranberry culture is very precarious ; as a light 

 early frost will ruin the crop. 



I suppose, gentlemen, that by this time, you will begin to think 

 that my farming operations are not very lucrative ; but I have 

 aimed to make such improvements that it will in a few years be 

 much more so than at present. 



