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smaller farms of the county, where the chief agricultural inter- 

 est lies, for the premium of the society. It is regretted that 

 the space occupied by this report and the statement, prevent an 

 entire publication of their contributions. With these introduc- 

 tory remarks I present the statement of Dr. Loring. 



DAVID CHOATE, Chairman. 



GEO. B. LORING'S STATEMENT. 



To the Committee on Farms : — 



The farm ■which I enter for premium is situated in Salem, 

 and is known as the Pickman Farm. It contains four hundred 

 and twenty-eight acres, lying in a body in the south-easterly 

 part of the city. It came into my possession April 1st, 1857 ; 

 since which time I have added to it about seventy acres of pas- 

 ture-laud, lying in the towns of Boxford and Middleton, and 

 known as Bald Hill. 



Tlie land in Salem is divided into one hundred and ten acres 

 of cleared and cultivated fielding, thirty-eight acres of salt, 

 marsh, producing black grass, two acres of fresh meadow, and 

 the balance of pasturing. 



The surface is uneven — the pastures occupying considerable 

 elevations of syenite and greenstone, mostly covered with not 

 a deep soil of a rich warm quality, interspersed with a few 

 small swampy spots ; — the cultivated land consisting of deep 

 beds of clay, extending from low salt marshes to the foot of 

 abrupt ledges, and running some distance inland between them, 

 usually along the sides of fresh water courses, which rise in 

 the pastures ; and the salt marsh being composed of peat lying 

 upon tenacious clay. The level of the field, which is mostly 



