late, occupies the attention of most cultivators residing near our large cities. And as the wealth of our county increases, the number of elegant residences ornamented by landscape gardening, and surrounded by fields subjected to expensive culture increases also. Meanwhile the farms which were once managed by husbandmen, who took pride in their working oxen, and dairy herd-in their ample fields of corn and grass and potatoes—in their orchards bending beneath the weight of fruit and who sent beef, and hay, and pork, and butter and cheese, and apples and cider to the market, are fewer than they once were, and are not, in many instances, conducted with the industry and skill of former times. While this change in the condition of agriculture has been going on, agricultural emulation and rivalry have declined, and the business of horticulture has become more prominent.

The importance of encouraging this modern system of farming should not be lost sight of. The devotion of lands, in small parcels, to special crops, is especially necessary, where a large portion of the population is occupied in mechanical and manufacturing operations—and own no land, raise no vegetables and fruit for their own consumption, and should find a well-supplied market. Vegetables and small fruits are produced in such limited quantities that they are a luxury, beyond the reach of many of the laboring classes. This state of things should no longer exist. And we urge upon all owners of land special attention to those crops which are required in the markets of our manufacturing and commercial towns. We trust,

moreover, that the competition among small farms devoted to this object, will increase, and that committees will, hereafter, be called upon to examine and report upon numerous entries of this description.

The only farm entered for premium this year is the estate of Dr. E. G. Kelley, of Newburyport. The careful management and cultivation of this tract of land, (about sixteen acres,) were a source of great gratification to the committee, as an illustration of the ample reward which a skillful cultivator of

trees and fruits will receive, even in a few years, and of the advantage to be derived from proper preparation of the soil, and from the destruction of weeds, and the appropriate use of fertilizers.

The following statement of Dr. Kelley gives a clear and admirable account of the processes to which we have referred:

STATEMENT OF E. G. KELLEY.

In presenting a farm for premium the following are the printed conditions:-"For the best conducted and most im"proved farm, taking into view the entire management and "cultivation, including lands, buildings, fences, orchards, crops, "stock, and all other appendages, with statements in detail, "relating thereto."

Our management and cultivation of lands has been to underdrain about six acres with tiles, transported chiefly from Albany, N. Y., and laid more than three feet deep on an average to surface drain five acres not admitting of tile draining: to subsoil two acres, twenty-two inches deep: to trench three feet deep, four acres in all, at different times as labor could be spared from other work; and for some years the trenching was being done nearly all winter.

Hundreds of loads of clay have been moved to divers places, and thousands of loads of sand and yellow loam have been carted on to, and mixed with, clayey soil, or used for top dressing, or for levelling and grading. The land thus worked has been so much improved as to produce almost anything in perfection adapted to the climate.

Cultivation on this place having been decidedly bad for more than half a century, a change was of course made. Your Committee well know how a farm runs to waste and weeds when conducted by others than the owner. The previous proprietor died in 1806, leaving the use of the estate for the support and maintenance of a daughter, who at length died in

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1852, when we purchased it. A more dilapidated, neglected,
and exhausted Sahara could not well be found.

To give minute details of every renovating process could
not have been intended by the requisitions. We will, there-
fore, only cite a few operations. Weeds were exterminated
in time by not allowing any to mature. Grass was cut early
for the best hay, particularly if it contained "white weed,"
which being propagated by seed was thus yearly lessened.
Dog grass," and other noxious perennials were completely
eradicated from arable portions by thorough digging up and
securing their roots. All annual weeds were uniformly rak-
ed up, but were never saved for manure. We were conse-
quently soon troubled by succession, only from seeds wafted
from the premises of our otherwise good neighbors, or depos-
ited by the numerous birds. Moreover, we seldom used any
manure besides wood ashes-the best nutriment, by the way,
for all vegetation, and free from weed seeds.

Tilling the soil was early, frequent, superficial or deep, according to circumstances. Trenched or drained and subsoiled land can be worked quite early in the spring, and does not require to be often repeated during the season, and vice versa. Continual growth and successful crops, notwithstanding drought, are also sure and gratifying, as well as the annual saving of labor. Properly prepared soil, planted, and free from weeds, receives, therefore, but little subsequent stirring, and that chiefly for hilling. We plant potatoes, corn, etc., in drill rows, the former six or eight inches apart in the furrows, and at the usual time of hoeing form the continuous hill row, and turn back the same soil in the fall, with the plough, thus obtaining more produce with given land and labor.

Of the buildings-the house was not made by modern hands, but in 1776; is fifty feet square, with white oak frame, high studded, and filled in with bricks, and having been modernized inside and out, is now faultless. We built a barn same size, the most economical form and most convenient for interior arrangements. The ample cellar is a substitute for out

houses, and we would build another barn, or even larger, if necessary, to contain all carts, implements, etc., too often left unhoused, or more or less exposed to the weather in sheds.

We removed at once all division fences, and have only the boundary line fenced. Some 300 feet of this has stone posts set five feet in the gravel ground. Another, 400 feet, has large stones on the surface of clayey soil, ten feet apart, with one and a half inch iron posts sulphured in to drilled holes; and these, together with the rails and slats, rise and fall with the freezing and thawing clay. This novel and useful fence, and that of the stone posts, give great satisfaction. A live fence of the honey locust is also being tried. Other fences are of the usual varieties.

An old apple orchard has been rejuvenated by draining, trimming and grafting. Several trees grafted with the Hubbardston Nonsuch bore so profusely as to destroy their vitality. We have forty varieties, many of them on paradise stocks, which gives a smaller tree, but larger fruit. Many pear trees are also in this orchard.

The exclusive pear orchard is well drained and trenched, with horn piths thrown in from one to three feet below the surface, as a permanent phosphate manure. We have 75 varieties of the fruit comprising the kinds we think most worthy of cultivation. Each year, however, we think more of standards and less of dwarfs. The former, particularly of the Lawrence, do as well in grass ground as the apple tree.

Crops have not as yet been raised to sell, with the exception of hay, which, on the prepared land, is fourfold compared with former cuttings. Crops for domestic use are growncorn and carrots for horses, turnips and beets for cows. are in abundance and indispensable.

All

Stock generally consists of a pair of horses and two cows. The latter have been "soiled during the summers for three years, and the practice is quite satisfactory. They are contented, thrifty, give more and better milk.

"Other appendages" with us must be trees, hedges, ponds

and glass houses. Of the former there is a supply, and evergreens predominating, they have naturally given the name to the place. So numerous are they that they protect each other and all about them. As screens to secure and perfect fruits, they are of great service, unless the source of too much dampness. It is incredible to an unobserver of the facts, how perceptibly masses of trees affect temperature and moisture. Where land is plenty and cheap it is singular that groves and screens are not oftener planted.

Where trees are trimmed to hedges, they become ornamental divisions, or borders, are easily cared for, and add much to the value of any place. We have hedges of the Norway spruce, hemlock, arbor vitæ, holly, weigelia, honey locust, and cornus sanguinea.

Artificial ponds, like hedges, on a place called a farm, may be viewed by some as superfluities. To others they are a great source of pleasure, and not unprofitable. We long since discarded the dunghill fowl as too troublesome, and find water fowls more remunerative in themselves, while they decoy valuable wild game instead of hawks. The question has also been settled by cultivators of fish, that an acre of water surface may be made to pay better than an acre of land merely. Glass houses also compensate, except to the exclusively utilitarian, whose income is only in dollars and cents. We have been many years building three of these, thereby obviating much extra labor, and at the same time have some of the most scientific and convenient structures in the country, unsurpassed for the purposes intended. We thus have employment for self and family the year round, and with only one man for help, quite enough of a good thing-care.

It might be deemed presumption to present a farm of sixteen acres to the consideration of your Committee, had not one of only fifteen been offered and accepted last year. It is, however, on the idea of "ten acres enough," "a small farm well tilled," and the like, that it is undoubtedly justified.

Our profit and excellence, if any, have not been in the