114 



to be flooded, and always cold. Since that time I have drained 

 other pieces of land in a similar manner, and to my entire sat- 

 isfaction. The crops upon the piece referred to first have been 

 largely increased. From fifteen hundred pounds of hay to the 

 acre, grown, too,' upon a field divided by a wide, deep, incon- 

 venient ditch, and arranged in high beds separated by deep 

 furrows, I have increased the yield to valuable corn, root, grain 

 and grass crops, raised upon a smooth and even surface. Last 

 year I raised, upon this field, ninety bushels of corn upon one 

 acre, fifty bushels of barley to the acre on four and three- 

 eighths acres, and a fair crop of potatoes on the remaining 

 eighth surrounding the corn. This year the field was divided 

 into four and three-eigh£hs acres of grass, and one and one- 

 eighth acres of mangel wurzel ; the grass yielded seventeen 

 and one-half tons of the first crop, and nine and one-half tons 

 of the the second crop — making in all twenty-seven tons of 

 hay, or six tons to the acre ; and the acre and one-eighth of 

 mangels yielded sixteen hundred bushels. Having entered 

 these crops for premium, I have given a more explicit state- 

 ment with regard to them elsewhere. Other fields have been 

 brought into similarly even and fertile condition by thorough 

 drainage. 



OKCHAEDS. 



The orchards occupy about twenty acres. The trees are fifty 

 years old, and were many of them imported grafted fruit. 

 The Pickman Pippin, a very valuable cooking apple, was in- 

 troduced upon the farm by Col. Pickman, in the year 1810, 

 having been sent to him from England. The rest of the trees 

 are Baldwins, Hubbardstons, Pearmains, Spitzenburgs, Danvers 

 Sweets, Liscoms and Roxbury Russets. The trees have long 

 since passed their prime ; and when I took them were sufiering 

 much from neglect. A system of root-pruning — practiced by 

 digging around the tree, at the distance or five or six feet, a 

 ditch two feet deep, cutting off about half the roots, and filling 

 the ditch with a compost of muck and lime — has brought the 



