10 REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 



The only farm entered for our examination was that of 

 Mr. Abel F. Adams of Fitchburg. We award him the first 

 premium of $15.00. Now, suppose we make no further re- 

 mark. Mr. Adams gets the $15.00 and that is all there is 

 to it, except that the fact becomes public, and people know 

 where a premium farm is, which they can visit if they please. 

 The difficulty however is that scarcely anybody pleases. 

 Mr Adams in this dilemma, volunteers a statement which ac- 

 companies this report. Although well enough, as far as it 

 goes, it gives but a faint idea of what he has done and is 

 doing, as it appeared to us. A great many statements read- 

 ing as well as that might be made of farms all about us, not 

 one of which would deserve a premium, and therefore we 

 feel that something additional should be said to make the 

 case a little clearer. 



We may safely say that with Mr. Adams farming has been 

 one-sided and up-hill business. One-sided, because on a hun- 

 dred-acre farm his buildings are placed at the extreme end 

 of its longest diameter. Up-hill, for the reason that although 

 compact, its altitude varies, as near as we could judge, about 

 200 feet. The greatest variation is across its shortest 

 diameter. His system of roads is such that these natural 

 obstacles of elevation are in part overcome. They run 

 lengthwise of the farm in nearly parallel lines, so that most 

 of his roadway has but small grade to overcome. The 

 greater part of the whole area has a northeasterly slope 

 and its clean and well kept surface affords the writer, on an 

 opposite rise, a perpetual feast for the eye. The surface is 

 divided into fields of four to six acres or more by substantial 

 stone walls, which must have required in the aggregate a very 

 great amount of labor in their construction. We believe 

 that very many interior walls on our farms might be dis- 

 pensed with at a profit. In Mr. Adams' mode of farming 

 they are perhaps necessary, as all portions of his farm are 

 used alternately for tillage, mowing and pasture. His walls 

 were all built of the stones lying on and in the soil and that 



