FARMS 



95 



NATHANIEL HARTWELL'S STATEMENT. 



FARM. 



To the Committee on farms : 



Gentlemen : — In pursuance of the plan which you 

 aid down for my guidance, I proceed to give you a 

 )rief history of my past career, and present success as 

 .n agriculturist. My farm is situated in the northerly 

 )art of Shirley, is naturally a cold, damp and exceed- 

 ngly rocky soil, yet highly productive when brought 

 mder a proper state of cultivation. I made my 

 )riginal purchase in the autumn of 1834, and entered 

 ipon its improvement in the spring of 1835, being then 

 twenty-four years of age. My first purchase consisted 

 of thirty-eight acres, originally divided into mowing, 

 pasturing, and wood land ; but from long neglect, the 

 mowing lands were overrun with brushwood, with the 

 exception of about two acres, which bore a coarse grass 

 entirely unfit to convert into marketable ha}^ All the 

 fodder that I could get from the farm the first year was 

 insufficient to winter one cow. In 1840, I added six 

 acres to my farm, which was considered of very little 

 value at the time, but which has become excellent 

 tillage soil under careful cultivation. In 1851 I com- 

 pleted my land domain, by the addition of twenty-five 

 acres, making in all sixty-nine acres. When I pur- 

 chased my farm there were the remnants of a house and 

 barn upon the premises, but both so much dilapidated by 

 time and neglect, as to be totally unfit for use. The 

 first summer of my residence on the farm, was devoted 

 to rebuilding my house, which exhausted all my 

 finances, which left the entire cost of my land purchase 

 a debt upon my sh|plders. I have made several 



