F AKM S. 63 



ground comparatively bare of trees, and a consideraLlo debt was in- 

 curred. 



iMymain object at tliat time, was to clear off the debt. The sliort- 

 est way to effect this was adopted, viz; selling -the produce, hay and 

 grain, keeping as little stock as possible, and giving my labor to oth- 

 ers, either in the way of day's works or by taking land to till on 

 shares, so that I could raise corn for market without furnishing ma- 

 nure. 



The matter of the debt being disposed of in the course of eight or 

 ten years, some improvement being made at the same time about the 

 buildings, in the way of painting, fencing, and setting fruit and orna- 

 mental trees, a little land added, the farm stocked and farming imple- 

 ments purchased; 1 began to turn my attention to the improvement 

 of the farm, my object being not so much to make the land rich, as to 

 get the surface smooth and into a fit state for coviforiahle culture. 

 The result, except with the sandy land, is entirely satisfactory to my- 

 self, and I presume to flatter myself, that your committee would 

 acknowledge no small improvement, had they seen the ground eight 

 years ago. Others are ready to testify to the facts, though I say it 

 not boastingly. 



In commencing this general improvement, my j^lan was to take a 

 portion yearly of the ten acres of sandy land, and a portion of the 

 sixteen acres of low ground, and so to manage by draining, ploughing, 

 manuring and seeding, as to not only make it pay in the way of crops, 

 but to improve the value and the appearance of the whole, in a series 

 of years. 



Upon the sandy hill I prepared large heaps of muck from the low 

 ground, mixed with manure ; sometimes ploughing in this compost, 

 sometimes harrowing it in without any percej)tible difference in the 

 result ; sometimes planting Indian corn, sometimes broom, corn, and 

 some years Vt'hite beans ; each followed with rye and clover seed. 

 For want of sufficient manure made upon the farm to carry out the 

 experiment faithfully, I have been. obliged to rob other fields of their 

 portion of manure, or purchase it a mile distant. The crops I think 

 have not paid for the labor and manure ; the clover, if perchance it 

 germinates, rarely survives the first summer's sun and then gives 

 place to a luxuriant growth of sorrel, and the soil is as poor as M'hen 

 I commenced. Thus I consider my experiment with the sandy hill a 

 failure, so far as the permanent improvement of the soil is concerned, 

 and I must look to others for instruction in the matter, for with me 

 it has been, in more than one sense of the word, an tip hill business. 

 In the use of the low ground, as I have said, the result has been 

 satisfactory. I have made it a point to have the land before plough- 

 ing, thoroughly drained, making deep drains to cut off the springs, 

 and covering them, when the quaritity of water was not too great to 

 be carried off readily. These covered drains are made by laying two 

 large rails at the bottom of the ditch, one on each side, far enough 

 apart to allow a water course between them, and a third in the 

 middle, resting upon the two and keeping them apart. Another may 



