55 



By ten cords of wood, 



Sixty bushels ashes at 10 cents, 

 Ten bushels turnips at 25 cents. 

 Six bushels buckwheat at 95 cents, 

 Four bushels peas in pod, 

 One and one-halt* tons hay standing, 

 By balance charged lands, 



I\ S. — The ditches were made at 25 rents per rod. 



3d do John Hale of Tyringham, 5 00 



STATEMENT OF JOHN HALE. 



The piece of land that I entered for improvement was, in 1865, a 

 swamp covered with stumps and brush. I commenced by cutting a ditch 

 through one side of it, and in '65 removed most of the stumps and brush, 

 and hoed into the muck potatoes on a part of it, from which I have har- 

 vested a good crop. 



In the fall of '66, I worked a few days in getting out stumps, &c, but 

 the season was so wet that I did not do as much as I wished to. In '67, I 

 ploughed if with a heavy plough and two yoke of cattle, and this season I 

 dragged it thoroughly and sowed buckwheat, and got a fair crop, and my 

 land is now ready for the grass ^v(\. Then I think my laud will be worth 

 $100 per acre, which was of little consequence before 1 commenced im- 

 proving if. I have expended about $50 per acre, for which my crops would 

 credit some $12. 



I). 15. Fexx, 



r Chairman. 



\V . \\ . HOLLEXHECK, 



J 



ORCHARDS SET IX 1865, AND REPORTED OX IN 1868. 



Five entries were made. One the committee ascertained was set in 1864 ; 

 another contained a tew scattering trees, apples, pears and plums spring- 

 ing up all over a large field. A third with fifty trees, mostly in good con- 

 dition when first examined, were found on final examination, short in number 

 with a stinted growth, and not in the opinion of your committee entitled to a 

 premium. The only orchards shown your committee worthy of premium, 

 were those of Patrick Burns of Stockbridge, and J. P.Kilbourne of Great 

 Darrington. Burns has one hundred aud fifty trees, not a t r ee missing set 

 in a gravelly loam soil (a hop yard), situated on the southern slope of a 

 hill, a most beautiful and promising place for one in the decline of years to 

 seek shelter in their shade, and pluck and eat as good, if not better ap- 

 ples than Eden e ? er produced. The trees were set in the soil without any 

 manure or compost, and one man dug the holes as fast as two could set the 

 trees. Beautiful specimens of apples were exhibited to the committee and 



