A Farm of Six Acres.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 285, 28 July 1888, Page 5

A Farm of Six Acres.

Sojii; people think that six acres are too small a quantity to be honoured with the name of " farm," but a correspondent of the Massachusetts Ploughman, in describing the homestead of Horace Eaton Quincy, in that state, whether it is righb or wrong to call it a "farm," shows what Mr Eaton does on six acres — things that w ould certainly astonish most of the holders of large farms. He keeps four and sometimes live cows, two horses, a number of hogs, and a large lot of poultry. He does not raise enough hay to carry him through the year, but as he soils his milch cows in the summer and raises roots and ensilage for them in winter, he has very little provender to buy, and the quality of his butter is such as to bring him 2s 6d a pound the whole year round, the richness of his milk, too, telling the care taken and the quality of his cows. Fnub is his specialty, he sending some ot the finesb specimens to the Boston market, as well as takinc a number of prize; at the exhibition ot the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. He raises strawberries in great variety and ships numbers of his plants to various parts of the country. He practices severe pruning of his vines and a rigid thinning of his fruit trees, believing it is the only way to obtain the most supeiior fruit. His land is low, but thoroughly under drained, every inch of it being made to count. His barn is a model one, and supplied with all the modern conveniences. He keeps one man the whole year round, and another man during the working season. About one acre of this estate is occupied with buildings among which stands one of the most elegant houses in the town suburbs of Quincy, in front of whicti there is neither hedge, wall, nor fence to mar the view. Here is a merchant farmer, doing a million or more of business in Boston, and yet he can find time every day to go out to his little farm, reaching there by 6 o'clock in the evening, between which time and the starting of the 7 30 a.m. train for Boston the next morning he directs all the operations on the farm, raises better crops than any of his neighbours, besides supplying his table with the choicest vegetables and sending waggon loads to the city markets.