SECRETARY'S REPORT. 123 



carelessly. If there was that care and attention given to farming as is 



required in other business, we should see a vast improvement in the farms 



throuf!;houfc the State. 



C. B. Sumner, Appleton. 



'O^ 



" The greatest defects are shallow plowing, and little of that, and gross 

 negligence in regard to increasing the quantity and quality of manure." 



D. No YES, Norway. 



" "Want of system is the first great defect in our agriculture, and we never 

 can succeed profitably until we adopt some regular system, and then carry it 

 out. Some farmers are so situated that sheep husbandry would be the most 

 profitable ; others would do better to devote themselves to raising neat stock, 

 their farms being better suited to that purpose than for tillage ; others, again, 

 from the nature of the soil, would do better to devote their acres to the culti- 

 vation of cereal grains ; but we find almost every one pursuing a course of 

 mixed up husbandry, doing a little of every thing, and complaining when they 

 get it done, that there is no profit in fiirming. 



I agree with them, that there is but a very small margin for profit, as farm- 

 ing is at present carried on, and while the present system, or rather want of 

 system, prevails, I see no chance for much greater profits. How to bring 

 about a change and the adoption of such a system as is best calculated to 

 result in profitable agriculture, I leave to wiser heads than mine." 



W. H. Powers. 



" There are many defects in the cultivation of the soil in our vicinity. 

 Farmers do not plow deep enough ; they go over too much ground, conse- 

 quently their manure is thinly spread, and being shallow plowed, it dries up, 

 doing but little good. Many let their manure lie exposed to all weathers ; 

 also, one of the most valuable manures that the farmer might have is often 

 entirely lost. I refer to night-soil. Instead of having a suitable place for 

 the reception of it, and saving all the liquids by absorbents, — such as muck, 

 loam or saw-dust — it is almost invariably thrown away, and then we send to 

 New York for some of theirs, which is not worth one-half as much as that they 

 throw away every day. Much might be said upon this subject, but as your 

 thousand correspondents are better able to talk upon this matter, I will leave 



it to them." 



G. H. Andrews, Monmouth. 



" The principal defects in the agriculture of this vicinity are : plowing and 

 tilling too much land, sowing too many oats, farms too large for the amount 

 of labor bestowed upon them, and not a sufficient quantity of manure. In 

 my opinion, one-half of the land that is now plowed, well manured and prop- 

 erly cultivated, would aiford more profit to the owners than they now receive 

 from the whole. Let every fiirmer in this State, who can obtain it, deposit 

 in his barn and hog-yards, at least once a year, as many cords of swamp muck 



