76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



instead of ten to fifteen per cent, of the possible arable land of the 

 farm, fifty per cent, at lowest, and thence on, governed bj' circum- 

 stances, up to sixt\', sevent}, eighty, ninety, or even one hundred 

 per cent, of such land, always including clover as one of the rota- 

 tion crops. In order to secure the materials of fertility I would 

 feed well bred early maturity animals on home grown and purchased 

 foods, rich in the elements of plant food. I would use large 

 amounts of purchased chemicals ; give thorough tillage ; adopt a 

 system of rotation of crops, and substitute machiner}^ for hand labor 

 so far as practicable. This policy will multipl}' the gross revenue 

 of our farms from three to five times or from an average of $500 or 

 $600, as is now realized by many farmers in Maine to from $1500 

 to $2500. 



The gross revenue of an acre of hoed or gi-ain crop may vary 

 from $4:0 for a grain crop to $75 for a hoed crop, per acre. As it 

 now stands in Maine, an acre of grass will average one ton, worth 

 on average for all qualities, seasons and localities, say $10 per ton. 

 The average profit of a hoed or grain crop may })e made to double 

 the gross receipts of an acre of grass. The point is made that 

 large crops on large areas is vetoed in the want of plant food. 

 For 1879, England had of its 32,102,000 acres of field and pas- 

 ture land, only 14,427,000 acres to permanent pasture and grass, or 

 45 per cent, of total; 8,876,000 were in grain, wheat being the 

 principal grain crop, selling in Liverpool for but little more than in 

 central Maine, 3,477,000 in green crops, 812,000 bare fallow, and 

 4,434,000 in clover and rotation crops. France and other continental 

 countries had a large proportion of tillage, in one case amounting to 

 69 per cent, of total arable land. Multitudes of English farms of 

 from 200 to 500 acres sell from $10,000 to $25,000 in products 

 annually. I w^ould not cop}' English practice but simply draw 

 inspiration from it. If the change proposed can be carried to suc- 

 cess it will make a complete revolution in the standing of New Eng- 

 land farming, and in the social position of the farmer. 



Principles in Farming. 



The system of farming mostly pursued at present, is perhaps, 

 considering the soil and situation of New England, coupled with 

 the information at the command of the masses, the most rational 

 that could l)c devised for the conditions that have existed. Thanks 

 to the combined work of modern investigators enough is now known 



