SECRETARY'S REPORT. ^9 



ensued from disease, and it was estimated by several persons, that 

 for ten years past, not over a quarter of the crop had ever been lost 

 from the rot in any locality. Turnips to the amount of five hundred 

 bushels to the acre, are grown with no labor beyond brushing in the 

 seed on new land, and perhaps a little thinning out, no hoeing or 

 weeding being bestowed. Much larger crops can be grown with 

 additional labor and care. Carrots are highly esteemed, the crop, 

 with fair treatment, varying from six hundred to twelve hundred 

 bushels per acre. I learned of one crop of eight hundred and sixty- 

 eight bushels, by actual measure, to the acre, where the rust had 

 materially checked the growth. As in other sections of our State, 

 root crops receive far less attention than they deserve. 



Grass. No better district for hay, grazing and dairying, can be 

 found in New England, than here. Indeed, I have never seen bet- 

 ter in Orange county, New York, nor any where else — and should 

 a person accustomed to much richer pastures than are usual in 

 New England or New York, tramp over some of these, with red 

 clover well up to the knees, and a dense mat of honeysuckle 

 under foot, (the pastures tolerably well stocked too,) he could 

 scarcely fail to deem it a country of rare excellence for grazing and 

 dairying. Nor can I conceive sufficient reason, why Aroostook but- 

 ter* and cheese, may not be profitably exported to large extent, 

 and by the application of proper skill in manufacturing, be made to 

 rival that of Orange county, and command as good a price. 

 Whether it can or not, one thing is sure, a good name must first be 

 established, for the little butter which Maine has sent abroad, has 

 by no means an enviable reputation in Boston market, let the qual- 

 ity of some which is eaten at home, be what it may. As for cheese, 

 Maine now buys hundreds of thousands of pounds annually, and so 

 our farmers might command a suflScient market for a good article at 

 home, for a long time to come. 



The propensity to take off" successive crops of grain, until the 

 yield seriously diminishes, is so great, that little land is sown to 

 grass until its fertility is very sensibly impaired; hence the low 



* If my information be not at fault, a scant supply even for home consumption,. 

 has been produced hitherto. One gentleman assured me that for the public house, 

 at number eleven, he had purchased in New Brunswick, butter by the half ton or 

 more, at a time. 



