34 ESSEX SOCIETY. 



The amount of fuel obtained from the stumps, I calculate, was 

 •worth to me all the expense of pulling them out, which, deduct 

 175 from 325, leaves 150, or $15 per acre. I certainly think 

 the crop of hay last year more than balanced the account be- 

 tween me and the swamp. 



I will cheerfully explain the method I used, in pulling the 

 stumps, to any one wishing to try the experiment. 



Woodside Farm, Lynn, Sept. 14, 1846. 



On Turning in Crops as a Manure. 



A gentleman in this county has, for a period of fifteen or 

 twenty years, nearly every season turned in crops upon fields of 

 different sizes and different soils, mostly, however, of a loose 

 and sandy character, and with a result which encourages him 

 still to continue the practice. For about ten years, he kept his 

 garden, containing a quarter of an acre, by this method, in a 

 rich and productive state, with the addition of about a cord and 

 a half of manure yearly. He had the weeds covered over at 

 hoeing when this could be done ; but when this was inconveni- 

 ent, they were carried, with the small trimmings of the trees, 

 grape and other vines, the foliage of vegetables and other things 

 of like character, to a place devoted to that use, put into a pile 

 and earth thrown over them, where they were suffered to re- 

 main till they were suitable for use, which was after the harvest 

 in autumn, or the ensuing spring. During this period, two crops 

 were taken from most of the garden ; and, what most gardeners 

 will know how to appreciate, the soil, while it grew more pro- 

 ductive, still retained in degree the freshness of virgin earth, 

 and gave to the vegetables that peculiar freshness and lively 

 taste admired by all, but not always attainable from lands long 

 cultivated. 



He has also brought a field of one acre or more into a pro- 

 ductive state, almost exclusively by ploughing in crops, which, 

 when he commenced, was about as thoroughly exhausted by 

 continual cropping, as one can well conceive. The method pur- 

 sued has been to cultivate two crops — one to be taken off, the 



