spread on, grass seed sown, the bush harrow used to cover the seed and smooth down the land, and nothing more will be required but to run over a heavy roller in April or May. Two acres of this land were treated to a pound of improved turnip seed to the acre at the same time the grass seed was sown. The turnip seed sprang up rapidly, and now promises to pay for manure, ploughing, and re-seeding. The young grass looks promising for a crop next year.

Four heavy-working oxen and three horses have been kept for doing the work on the farm; though about one-half the horse power has been used for carting ashes and soap for a small soap establishment belonging to the farm and rented out, and the waste ashes are taken for rent and horse hire. Milk is sold, calves fattened or raised, to the amount of about three hundred dollars a year. Young cattle, mostly of the North Devon breed, have been bred to some extent, and sold for breeding purposes. Cattle have, to some extent, been bought in the fall to consume my surplus vegetables, such as would not sell readily for table use, and others have been sold for beef during winter. One man has been constantly employed on the farm for the last five years. I hire him by the year, and last year paid him one dollar per day, he finding his board and lodging. Two other hands are employed for seven months in the year, costing from five shillings to a dollar per day, in most cases boarding themselves. My mowing the past season was let out to be cut by the acre. The price paid was seventy-five cents per acre, and it was done to my entire satisfaction. The mowers found themselves.

Cheap tenements are furnished for the laborers on the farm, convenient to the buildings occupied by myself, and no farm laborer has boarded in my family except a chore boy who has been with me several years. Formerly we furnished board. and lodging for the farm help; but, all things considered, we find it more comfortable, if not as profitable, to furnish cheap tenements conveniently located, and let the men board themselves.

I will give the expenses and income of my farm the present year; and as your rules require me to make this return on or before the first of November, I shall be obliged to estimate

some of the late crops that have not yet been harvested; although in these cases, such as carrots, turnips, and cabbages, a square rod has been measured, and pretty correct estimates thus made, and included in the account below.

Farm account, Dr., 1854:

To interest on its present value,

Blacksmith's bill,

Leached ashes and other fertilizers,

Lumber and carpenter's work in repairing build

ings and wear and tear of tools, and interest

$400 00

25.00

125 00

75 00

. $312

150

Other labor by the job, day, week, and month, 212

The farm is credited, October, 1854:—

674 00

By 900 bushels of onions, 400 of which were sold on the lot for 75 cents, the balance were

150 bushels of French turnips,.

500 bushels of carrots, (three-fourths of an acre,)

50 00

125 00

12 50

500 (estimated) bushels of flat turnips, at 17 cents,

20 barrels of winter apples, 15 bushels of
quinces, and 12 bushels of peaches,

140 barrels of late potatoes, at 50 cents,,
Early apples, at $10,.

35 (estimated) tons of hay, same quality, worth

15 bushels of rye,.

15 00

40 bushels of barley,

Corn and corn fodder,

Milk sold and calves fattened while the cows

$30 00 50 00

were at pasture, from June 1 to Nov. 1, 190 00

I have gone more into detail in my present statement than I at first designed, more especially in relation to my orcharding, under-drainage, sinking of stones, and described the materials which are used for my compost heap, and still I feel that I have not done justice to either.

Under-drainage and irrigation, or the free use of the subsoils for the compost heap in preference to the surface soils, are, to a very great extent, practices almost entirely new in our county. I think your committee will bear me testimony when I say that this deepening of my soil promises to do all that I have claimed for it. My crops of hay as well as vegetables have been increased within the last five years full fifty per cent., and have been trebled within the last ten years; while the cost of producing, by way of labor, is not so much as for smaller crops. Hay can now be made for one-half the cost per ton before the fields were cleared of stone. A crop of sixty bushels of corn to the acre requires no more hand labor now than twenty-five bushels did formerly. Seven hundred bushels of carrots per acre are quite as easily produced as three hundred. The only difference is in harvesting; and this is all overcome by the use of better machinery, which can only be worked on land comparatively free from stones. The horse rake, the horse hoe, the mowing machine, the onion hoe, all of which are at this time too well known among the farmers of Worcester county to need any mention from me, were all unknown a dozen years ago. These dumb machines have done more by way of suggestion in cleaning our fields of rocks than all other arguments put together. Who has ever used the horse rake on stony ground and did not resolve to take them out before his hay harvest came round again?

So with orcharding; the farmer cannot afford to buy trees of second quality, and give them no other attention than to place them in a shallow soil, and depend on a few bushels of compost placed only close to the foot, or washing the trunk

occasionally. Such culture will not produce fruit fit for home, or profitable for a foreign market. To produce profitable fruit on our soils the land must be well located; a gradual descent to the north, east, or west is to be preferred; good judgment is required in preparing the land and selecting the kinds of fruit that are most profitable. In ploughing my onion ground the past week, my attention was called by the ploughman to the fact of the ground being filled with apple roots and fibres, although he was then in the centre of two rows, full sixteen feet from either tree. These trees had been set but seven years, and it would be fair to suppose that they take their nourishment now from all parts of the field. If so, why put the compost near the but only, as recommended by some? This field has grown onions two years; and the land not having been ploughed deep last year, the weeds had taken the liberty to come nearer the surface than I wish them to grow.

The committee will see that I have made no account of beef, pork, and poultry, and this is produced, as well as milk, during the winter, from the grain, &c., which has been spoken of. Neither has mention been made of labor to the amount of about a hundred dollars, which has been expended for permanent improvements. Two thousand barrels of vinegar have been put in the market, and as much more cider for the same use has been manufactured the present fall. On the other hand, my personal services have not been reckoned into the amount.

I will mention, as I should have done before, that I have been growing about the same crops, onions excepted, for from three to five years, with an increased amount each year.

SUTTON, November 1, 1854.

WORCESTER WEST.

From the Report of the Committee.

The encouragement of agriculture we believe to be the first subject that should engage the attention of our agricultural association. There lies the foundation of all our improvement, and there we see and feel the greatest and best influence.

The most humble farmer feels its benefit in the observation and communication of such facts to the public as relate to improvements, to experiments, and their results. One farmer is prompted by the example and success of another; and so on through a town more interest is manifested, as is evident from general appearances, and the old superstitious notions of following in the footprints of their ancestors are thrown off.

The committee have been called to visit but one farm during the past year, and that of the second grade for which the society offer premiums, owned by J. Addison Merriam, of Barre. We would gladly refer the whole subject matter of this case to the statement of Mr. Merriam which accompanies this report, if in so doing we could feel our duty fully discharged. But something further seems to be required. The committee, on visiting this farm, had their attention directed to the improvements upon a few acres which appeared to be such as to do great credit to the owner, and will go down to posterity as a reward for his labors.

There was a doubt in the minds of the committee whether or not it was good policy for a farmer to cultivate and improve a few acres of his farm at the expense and neglect of the many. Their conclusion was that it was an error that we see too often, but hope the time is not distant when we shall see a change in this respect. The man who improves his whole farm is the one who ranks with the first class of farmers. We should be glad to see more attention given by every farmer to those expedients that dignify and adorn agriculture, so that it should appear to the passer by, when he looks upon the neat combination of shades and flowers, that a man lives there who is something above a mere drudge and sloven-one, indeed, who has taste and a cultivated mind.

A description of the farm to which the committee award the premium of eight dollars, together with a statement of its products, is given by Mr. Merriam, and is herewith submitted. JOSIAH WHITE, Chairman.