AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 235 



to be about two thousand in number, planted in rows, generally twelve feet 

 apart, and in some cases twenty feet apart, and in the rows eight feet from 

 each other, the spaces between being used for various crops, grown as near 

 the trees as the plow and other tools can be run. These trees contain a 

 larger amount of pears than any other dwarf pear trees we have ever seen, 

 many rows averaging from one to two hundred pears per Iree. These are 

 many of the choicest kinds, and the whole crop, as stated, was sold last 

 year at eight dollars per hundred, and the year before at twelve dollars and 

 a half per hundred. Eight hundred of these trees are young, and there- 

 fore are suffered to bear only five pears each, the rest having been removed. 



The stock of the farm consists of two pair of coach horses, one farm 

 horse, four mules, three short horned cows, one short horned heifer, one 

 pair of oxen, and several pure Suffolk pigs. 



The tools of the farm are its greatest curiosity- They consist of a few 

 plows of the best kinds, Mapes & Gibbs' digging machine, Mapes' lifting 

 subsoil plow, Knox's horse hoe, horse weeding machines of various widths, 

 potato diggers, and many special tools for the manipulation of special 

 crops. The farm is all under-drained and subsoil plowed. The digging 

 machine, at a single operation, manipulates the soil to a depth of twelve 

 inches, as thoroughly as if it had been sieved. This machine taking the 

 place for surface preparation, of the plow, the cultivator, the harrow, the 

 roller, and the rake leaving the surface in fine garden tilth. The potato 

 and corn crops on this farm are cultivated flat, without hilling, and alto- 

 gether by the use of the lifting subsoil plow, the weeder, and the horse 

 hoe. The row crops cultivated as follows : The original preparation of 

 the soil includes, thorough subsoiling as well as deep surface plowing ; 

 corn, parsnips, and other seeds for row crops are sown with a machine 

 drill, so that the rows are straight, and equi-distant from each other ; as 

 soon as they show themselves above ground a one-horse lifting subsoiler is 

 run half way between the rows ; this lifts the soil but one inch at the bot- 

 tom of the line of travel, and much less at the surface of the soil, suffering 

 it to fall back to its original position, leaving the plants thoroughly cul- 

 tivated thereby, with a looser soil than any plowing arising frpm a surface 

 plow, and to a depth of twelve inches, instead of the ordinary hoe depth. 

 As fcoon as the ground is settled, the one-horse weeder is run between the 

 rows ; this shaves two inches of the surface soil and carries it over a comb, 

 which permits the soil to fall back finely divided while the weeds are left on 

 the surface to be wilted by tlic sun. These two implements, with a single 

 mule and a boy, keep the entire farm thoroughly cultivated during the 

 spring and summer months, and free from weeds ; they do the work of 

 forty men with hoes, and with the assistance of these and other tools the 

 whole farm is worked by seven hands. 



The bark of all the trees on the place is perfectly clean, and this effect 

 is produced by the use of the tree wash, which has been so often described 

 by Prof. Mapes, made by dissolving one pound of caustic soda in one gal- 

 lon of water. This is applied to the purface of the trees, destroying all 



