5g BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



lands arc said to produce •without fertilization. Had I time, I should bs- 

 happy to give you my views, at length, upon the folly of leaving a home in 

 New England, surrounded with the comforts and conveniences, aye, the 

 luxuries and Olessings of New England life, for a hovel in the west, with it3 

 fever and ague, its reptiles, and malaria. Suffice it to say, that Nature ba& 

 not been so partial as to bestow all her blessings upon a single spot. 1 

 can truly say, after traveling somewhat extensively in different States, New 

 England, ' with all thy foults I love thee still.' " 



J. W. Ambrose, Wells. 



" Little is known of the science of agriculture, or, in other words, of restor- 

 ing the partially exhausted elements of the soil. It might be better in a 

 pecuniary, if not in a moral point of view, for a man to leave such lands, and 

 settle on others, whose fertility has not been impaired. It is, however, diffi- 

 cult for every farmer, however disadvantageous his situation, to emigrate 

 ■when he pleases. As it respects exhausting them still further, some of them 

 cannot be much more exhausted than they now are, and if the occupant 

 cannot manage to make them better, they will neither pay for cropping or 

 exhausting any farther, nor afford him the means of emigrating. However 

 hard the case, we must do the best we can while we have them in charge.'' 



J. Adams, West Newfield. 



" I have long thought that as cheap as new lands are in this country, if a 

 man wished to see how much money he could accumulate in a given time, 

 ■without regard to the interests of posterity, or the welfare of his country, he 

 could do it by cropping his land, and selling his produce, till he runs out his 

 land, then purchase new land and go through the same operation again ; but 



■would be very shiv to recommeud that plan, and loould not have it under- 

 stood that I consider it a judicious course." 



Augustus Spkague, Greene. 



" By all means stay at home and reclaim the lands now exhausted. I mean 

 by staying at home, that every farmer should abandon the airy castles, and 

 golden visions, that come floating on every breeze, from distant climes, and go 

 to work in earnest on his land ; neither sit in fashionable saloons nor stand at 

 the corners of the streets crying "hard times and short crops.'" There are 

 now, in this vicinity, hundreds of acres of land, that are tilled and don't pay 

 for tilling. The course pursued is to skim the top of the ground with a plow, 

 which is called plowing, then spread what little dressing is at hand upon the 

 surface, there to remain and dry up, and waste away ; putting the seed into 

 the ground pell-mell, without much care or thought, and let nature have the 

 care of the crops in preference to the hand of men. Such Airming pays poorly, 

 and such people don't reclaim exhausted lands. To remedy these defects, I 

 ■would, with all sober earnestness, recommeud that the time that is now spent 



